Has Ou Virak run an online campaign to end the use of ‘Yuon’?

Near the end of 2013, Ou Virak who was Executive Director of Cambodian Center for Human Rights at the time criticized Cambodia’s opposition leader Sam Rainsy over the use of ‘Yuon’ in his political speech. The human rights activist said the opposition’s political speech was a racial discrimination against Vietnamese.

Nine years later, a picture depicting Ou Virak running an online campaign to end the use of the term was spread on social media. After running a reverse-image search, however, it proves the picture was altered.

Social Media Claim

A picture showing former human rights activist Ou Virak who is a former President of Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) holding an online campaign paper demanding the end of the use of the term ‘Yuon’ in political speech. Yuon is referred to as Vietnamese.

Ou Virak is now President of Future Forum – a think tank group in Cambodia – after he left CCHR following his term at the human rights group ended at the end of 2013.

The picture showing Our Virak holding a paper written “Stop the use of Yuon. It is a racial discrimination.” was posted on social media in 2020 and reappeared on Facebook two years later.

Below is a capture of the post published on Facebook on February 9, 2020, and reappeared on social media on the same day two years later.

Facebook Post | Archived Link

Fact Check

Fact Crescendo Cambodia began an investigation by running a reverse-image search which led us to found out the truth as below.

The original photo was published on CCHR’s Facebook page on June 28 in 2013, at the time Ou Virak was still the president of the human rights organization.

The authentical photo shows Ou Virak holding a paper written “FREE YORM BOPHA” – an online campaign demanding the release of land activist Yorm Bopha who had been put in jail for more than 300 days.

Below is a capture of CCHR’s post on its Facebook page with a caption written “Today marks 303 days of Ms. Yorm Bopha’s imprisonment. Mr. Ou Virak, CCHR President, joins the campaign demand the release of Ms. Yorm Bopha.”

CCHR’s Facebook Page | Archived Link

In December 2013, Ou Virak criticized Cambodia’s opposition leader Sam Rainsy who used the term ‘Yuon’ – Vietnamese – in political speeches. The human rights activist called the use of the term a racial discrimination word against Vietnamese.

Below is a capture of an interview with Ou Virak reported by Radio Free Asia on December 18, 2013, in which Virak called the opposition leader to stop using the term in political campaigns.

RFA’s Report | Archived Link

Conclusion

Fact Crescendo Cambodia found the picture posted by a Facebook user as mentioned above is altered. Ou Virak, former President of Cambodian Center for Human Rights, never run a campaign demand the end of the use of the term ‘Yuon’ in political speeches. The original photo shows the rights activist Ou Virak joined an online campaign demanding the release of the land activist Yorm Bopha in 2013.