A homeless Vietnamese man carries all he owns with him as he walks along the banks of the Tonle ...

Accession Number P03258.424
Collection type Photograph
Object type Colour - Film original transparency (positive) other
Maker Smith, Heide
Place made Cambodia
Date made 1993
Conflict Period 1990-1999
Cambodia (UNTAC), 1992-1993
Copyright Item copyright: © Australian War Memorial
Creative Commons License This item is licensed under CC BY-NC
Description

A homeless Vietnamese man carries all he owns with him as he walks along the banks of the Tonle Sap River in Phnom Penh. Although the Vietnamese have been established as a minority group in Cambodia for centuries, they have always suffered the distrust and hostility of Cambodians, a sentiment that is often fuelled by Cambodian political rhetoric. Growing resentment, caused by Vietnam's pre colonial control over the country; France's post 1863 actions in bringing in Vietnamese administrators and setting artificial borders; the flow of Vietnamese refugees into Cambodia during the Vietnam War; and Vietnam's 1979 invasion which drove the Khmer Rouge from power, has all contributed to frequent attacks on ethnic Vietnamese. The Khmer Rouge's response to their crushing and rapid defeat in 1979 in particular has been the basis for massacres, a number of which occurred during United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) period, leading to the exodus of thousands of Cambodian Vietnamese.

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