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COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
MR. KOK KSOR, ON BEHALF OF
THE TRP, ADDRESSES THE CHR ON THE VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN, CIVIL AND
POLITICAL RIGHTS OF THE MONTAGNARD
On April 10 Mr. Kok Ksor, member of the
General Council of the Transnational Radical Party (TRP) and President
of the Montagnard Foundation, addressed on behalf of the TRP the
plenary of the Commission on Human Rights to denounce the campaign of
repression which is being carried out by the Government of Vietnam
against the Montagnard (Degar) Indigenous People, since the end of the
Vietnam’s war.
In his statement Mr. Kok Ksor, has highlighted that the Montagnard
Indigenous peoples are suffering a brutal repression of the basic
rights since the establishment of the communist Government in Vietnam
in 1975, and that for this reason the Degar population has been
marginalized and decimated over the decades.
Mr. Kok Ksor has then stated the many international NGOs such as Human
Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented the beginning of
a brutal repression in the Central Highlands against the Montagnard
people over the last couple of years, due to the organization in
February 2001by the Montagnards of massive peaceful demonstrations, to
call on the Vietnamese authorities for the respect of the rights to
their ancestral lands and to religious freedom.
Finally Mr. Kok Ksor has urged the Commission on Human Rights to adopt
the Concluding Observations issued by the Committee on Human Rights at
its July 2002 session, on the respect of civil and political rights in
Vietnam, which recognize the gravity of the disrespect of human rights
for the Montagnard people and which request to the Vietnamese
Government to “take immediate measures to ensure that the rights of
members of indigenous communities are respected.” And that
Non-governmental organizations and other human rights monitors should
be granted access to the central highlands”
While delivering a speech on behalf of the TRP at the 2002 Session of
the CHR, Mr. Kok Ksor was accused by the Vietnamese Government of being
a terrorist, and Hanoi called on the Chairman of the Commission on
Human Rights to prevent Mr. Kok Ksor to address the plenary. Such
request was duly rejected by the Chairman of the Commission, the Polish
Ambassador Mr. Jakubovsky.
Following such attack at the 2002 session of the Commission on Human
Rights, the Vietnamese delegations to the UN in Geneva and in New York,
lodged a formal complaint to sanction the Transnational Radical Party
the UN Committee on NGOs, for the accreditation of Mr. Kok Ksor to the
CHR. Such complaint and process against the TRP is still ongoing at the
UN Committee on NGOs and will be resumed at the UN Headquarters in New
York starting from may 5, 2003.
Read text of Kok Ksor's speech
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