A SUPPORTER OF THE MFI AND OF THE TRP HAS HAD HIS THROAT CUT BY THE VIETNAMESE POLICE. WHAT IS THE EU COMMISSION WAITING FOR BEFORE BRINGING TO AN END THE BLOODBATH AND THE ETHICAL, POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION THAT IS GOING ON IN VIETNAM?

A QUESTION PRESENTED TO THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION BY RADICAL PARTY MEPS.

The month of December has been characterised by the intensification of the repression of the indigenousness Montagnard population by the Vietnamese authorities. During the last month in the Central Vietnamese Highlands there have been numerous reported incidents of arrests, torture and maltreatment and even of a summary execution, while many other episodes of violence have without doubt taken place but remain unreported due to the inaccessibility of the Central Vietnamese Highlands to independent sources. This is a result of the imposition of martial law by the Vietnamese government and the severing of telephone links to the outside world, links that the Montagnards had been able to use to communicate with the international community.

Meanwhile at the United Nations Vietnam continues to push for the recognition of Kok Ksor, the President of the Montagnard Foundation and a member of the General Council of the Transnational Radical Party (TRP), as a terrorist and to press for the expulsion of the TRP from the United Nations if it allows Kok Ksor to continue to speak in its name within the Commission for Human Rights at the UN.

The summary execution carried out by the Vietnamese police was of a supporter of the Montagnard Foundation and of the Transnational Radical Party named Nhi (attached is a copy of the parliamentary question presented by Radical Party MEPs to the European Parliament where details of this incident are described), guilty of actively practicing his Christian faith and of providing food to the Montagnard refugees who hide in the jungle on the borders of Vietnam and Cambodia in an attempt to escape arrest and torture by the Vietnamese police and army.

The European Parliament has recently adopted a parliamentary resolution that gravely condemned and denounced the Vietnamese government, in particular for the continuing and growing violation of religious freedoms in regard to the Unified Buddhist Church, Catholics and Protestants. That is despite the Cooperation Agreement signed between the EU and Vietnam, which explicitly foresees the respect of democratic principles as a condition of its application, and which continues to add hundreds of millions of Euro to the revenue of the Government of Hanoi. This has had the effect of "rewarding" the increase in the Vietnamese Government's policies that suppress democratic and civil liberties. This fact is constantly documented by the United Nations and by the most prestigious non-governmental organisations working in the field of the application of human rights. Resolutions adopted by the by the US Congress and by the Foreign Commission of the Italian House of Deputies have also been in harmony with this position.

What are the European Commission and its President Romano Prodi waiting for before putting an end to these violations of their own laws?

Considering that:

• On the 13th December 2003 a group of paramilitary police from the district of Dak Dao surrounded the village of Plei O Dot, under the council of Ia Bang, in the district of Dak Dao, in the province of Gia Lai and arrested two of the villagers, named Nih (41) and So (44), both Christians and supporters of the Montagnard Foundation Inc. (MFI) and of the Transnational Radical Party (TRP);

• Nih was registered with the number 338 and So with the number 373 on the lists of supporters of the MFI and the TRP, lists which are at the disposition of whichever national or international authorities wish to investigate this episode;

• They were both transferred to the prison of the district of Dak Doa and tortured with blows and electrical shocks. Nih refused both to respond to questions and to renounce Christ and Major Tuan, of the Dak Doa police, stabbed him in the chest and then cut his throat;

• On the 15th December 2003, the Vietnamese police returned Nih's body to his family at Plei O Dot, forbidding them to hold a funeral and declaring that they wanted to show the whole village what happens to those who are not friends of the Vietnamese government. It is still not known if the body has yet been buried;

• Nih was a farmer who carried out lay services at his local church; he had always rejected government interference in the affairs of his church. He was murdered because he provided food and assistance to Montagnard refugees hidden in the jungle on the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. Nih left a wife and three children; they too are victims of threats and discrimination.

 Can the commission reveal:

• If it is aware of the facts described and, if not, what follow up has been given to the continued reassurances of attention, without ever arriving at a condemnation or an action against the Vietnamese government, in order that action can be taken to verify and guarantee that those responsible for these atrocities are brought to justice and that the victims of such violence are immediately freed?

•  What it thinks about the fact that the Vietnamese government considers it to be a criminal act to exercise of the political right to subscribe to a NGO with consultative status at the United Nations ECOSOC, such as is the Transnational Radical Party. A party that promotes the respect of human rights by means of non-violent methods?

• If it does not hold it expedient, within the bound of the cooperation agreements, to seek the opening up of and access to the Central Vietnamese Highlands to a European delegation?