Crackdown against Montagnard Christians Continues Unabated

Montagnard Christians in the Central Highlands of Vietnam report that Vietnamese communist authorities and secret police continue to arrest, torture and harass them in February 2004. For the last 3 years the Vietnamese government has maintained the imposition of martial law and repressive paramilitary operations against Montagnard (Degar) people who reside in two of the four Provinces of Vietnam's central highlands. It is noted that during the latest Christmas crackdown on December 13th 2003 a Montagnard Christian was executed by having his throat cut by the same Police Officer (Major Tuan) http://www.montagnard-foundation.org/SPR_03-1222.htm who is involved in further brutalities listed below (on 11 February 2004). MFI also refers to the 18 December 2003 US State Department International Religious Freedom Report that "the situation remained poor or worsened for many ethnic minority Protestants in the Central Highlands and Northwest Highlands". Further it is noted that Vietnam continues to ignore the United Nations Human Rights Committee's recommendations (UN doc: CCPR/C/SR.2031) that called for Vietnam to allow human rights monitors access into the central highlands. Kok Ksor, President of the Montagnard Foundation states; "Our people report these human rights violations directly from the central highlands with grave risk to themselves and ask the international community to please urgently protect them"

 

Electric Shock Torture after Sweeping Operation:

11 February 2004, Dak Doa District. At approximately 6 am thirteen vehicles of Vietnamese soldiers surrounded seven unarmed Degars [Montagnard] who were hiding north of Bong Lar village about 600 meters from the commune of Ia Bang, Dak Doa district, Gia Lai province. The group tried to flee the soldiers but one named "K'pa Lop" was captured. K'pa Lop was born in 1977. He was a Christian and was also listed as a supporter of the Montagnard Foundation and of an NGO in General Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the United Nations - the "Transnational Radical Party" (TRP). The recorded entry of K'pa Lop is available to national and international institutions that want to investigate the case. K'Pa Lop was from Blo village, commune of Hdok, Dak Dao district, Gia Lai province. The soldiers beat him on the spot with batons and witnesses reported blood coming from his mouth and nose. The soldiers then shocked him with an electric rod until he fell to the ground unconscious. K'Pa Lop was released from prison on February 16, 2004 though suffered medical problems from the beatings.

 

Police Officer named "Hung" subjects 10 Year-old Girl to interrogation - slapping and beating her with his fists:

On 11 February 2004 at approximately 4 am, Vietnamese paramilitary police raided a Montagnard village searching for a Montagnard Christian named "Ksor Biun". Unable to find him they destroyed the house belonging to his wife. The officers knocked down their house because Ksor Biun has been hiding in the jungle trying to flee persecution because he is an active Christian. The officers tore down the doors and eventually brought the whole house to the ground. Unable to find Ksor Biun the officers interrogated the 10 year-old daughter of Ksor Biun "H'Thung". The young girl was trembling and terrified and did not know how to reply. "Hung" a Vietnamese officer knocked the girl down with his fist and slapped her face several times. The girl was reported to be suffering mental and physical trauma from the treatment by the police.

 

Arrested and Beaten

On 11 February 2004 at approximately 6am Vietnamese police arrested a Degar [Montagnard] while he was going to work at his rice field. His name is "Biun" from Bia Tih village, Hdok commune, Dak Doa district, Gia Lai province. He was repeatedly beaten and dragged back to the commune of Hdok, district of Dak Doa. He was last reported being in critical condition from the beating he received. It is noted the officer below named Major Tuan also executed a Montagnard named "Nih' on 13 December 2003 by cutting his throat See: http://www.montagnard-foundation.org/SPR_03-1222.htm. The police involved in the beating are:

1. Cong, police from the district of Dak Doa (Vietnamese)
2. Major Tuan, police officer from Gia Lai Province (Vietnamese)
3. Hung, police from district of Dak Doa (Vietnamese)
4. Chinh, police from district of Dak Doa (Vietnamese)
5. Dong, officer from district of Dak Doa (Vietnamese)
6. Nin, police from Hdok Commune (Degar)
7. Yen, police from Hdok Commune (Degar)
8. Mui, police from Hdok Commune (Degar)
9. Bun, police from Hdok Commune (Degar)
10. Blun, police from Hdok Commune (Degar)
11. Yom, police from Hdok Commune (Degar)
12. Phun, police from Hdok commune (Degar)
13. Ani, police from Hdok Commune (Degar)

 

Squads of Vietnamese police and soldiers occupy Montagnard villages:

Vietnamese police and soldiers imposing martial law are occupying villages attempting to repress Christianity, their demands of fair treatment from the Government and to prevent Montagnards from providing evidence of human rights violations to MFI and the outside world. Villagers report experiencing harassment, intimidation, theft and sexual harassment from the soldiers and police. Below are just some of the villages that are occupied

• Seven soldiers stationed in the Home of Thec at Drong village, commune of Hdok, district of Dak Doa, province of Gia Lai, their leader is Major Riu (Vietnamese).
• Six soldiers with Lt. Colonel Den stationed in the home of Kra of Bia Bre village, commune of Ia Pet, district of Dak Doa, province of Gia Lai.
• Seven soldiers with Lt. Colonel Le Van Ti stationed in the Bongong Commune of Cu Se district, province of Gia Lai and twenty more soldiers stationed in the northern part of Todrah village near Ta Li River in the Bongong Commune.
• Eight soldiers with Major Thuan stationed in Hlu village, Commune of Ia Tiem, district of Cu Se, province of Gia Lai.
" Seven soldiers with Major Dinh stationed at Hiun's house, in O Yo village, commune of Ia Bang, district of Dak Doa, province of Gia Lai.
• Seven soldiers stationed at Hwik's house, in Kueng Grai village, commune of Hbao, district of Dak Doa, province of Gia Lai.

Beaten and tortured for helping Christian refugees:

On 10 February 2004 at approximately 6 am, Vietnamese police surrounded Tot Bioc village in search of "Rahlan Tot" (24 years old) in the district of Cu Se, Gia Lai province. He was wanted because he is a Christian member of the Degar Church and for providing food to the Montagnard refugees who were hiding in the area. The Vietnamese paramilitary police came into his house, bound him up, beat him and dragged him out of his house and threw him in their jeep. As they were driving off, another villager named "Rahlan Go" (22 years old) witnessed the arrest and reached for his cell phone. The police saw him and confiscated the phone from him, and he too was bound up, beaten, thrown in the jeep and taken away to an unknown location. It is still unknown what has happened to these two Degar Montagnards.

 

Arrested for unknown reasons and taken to Prison T -20 in Pleiku:

On 2 February 2004 approximately 7 am, Vietnamese police officers entered the rubber plantation where Montagnard Christian named "Rahlan Ring" (32 years old) worked and arrested him and two other unidentified Montagnards. "Rahlan Ring" was from Tot Bioc village, Cu Se district. The three Montagnards were bound up and taken to the prison facility at T-20 in Pleiku. It is unknown what they have been charged and what their condition is.

 

Beaten unconscious in region under martial law:

On 10 February 2004 a Montagnard woman named "K'pa H'Blang" (age 59) from Kuao village, commune of Ia Bang, Cu Prong district, Gia Lai province was going to her rice field. A local ethnic Vietnamese man named "Manh" had been secretly irrigated water from K'pa H'Blang's rice paddy for his own coffee trees. H'Blang asked the Vietnamese person, "hey why are you stealing the water from my rice paddy, it is drying up and my rice plants will die out, with what shall we live after that?" The Vietnamese man then attacked her and beat her unconscious and threatened to kill her. Kpa H'Blang's husband along with others, who were walking behind her, heard the shouting and when they arrived there they found her lying severely injured on the ground. The attacker ran off and her husband had to carry her home. Because of the current imposition of martial law the Montagnards are not only afraid to go to the police but have been told by authorities that nothing will be done to catch perpetrators who commit crimes against Montagnards.

 

THE MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION RESPECTFULLY ASKS:

• The International community and United Nations Organization takes immediate action to secure protection of these victims and to insist the Vietnamese government release our Montagnard people held in prison for peaceful political activity, for practicing Christianity, demanding fair treatment by the Government or for trying to flee to Cambodia as refugees.

•  The International community and United Nations Organization takes immediate action in getting human rights monitors access to the central highlands as recommended by the UN Human Rights Committee of which Vietnam has continued to ignore. (July 2002 75th session Human Rights Committee Concluding Observations on Vietnam. UN doc: CCPR/C/SR.2031).

• The International community and United Nations Organization takes immediate action to ensure the UNHCR is permitted to operate freely in Cambodia, that both Cambodia and Vietnam abide by the Refugee Convention, (as recently identified by UN Special Envoy Hon. Peter Leupretch) and that the $66 dollar bounties paid by Hanoi for our fleeing refugees are immediately stopped.

• The United Nations Organization and the Countries members of UN sub-committee of NGOs should reject the allegations raised by the Vietnamese government, against Mr. Kok Ksor, the Montagnard Foundation and the Transnational Radical Party (an NGO with Consultative Status to the UN who allowed Mr. Kok Ksor to speak on its behalf at the Commission on Human Rights); the Vietnamese Government in fact, without any serious evidence accuses the Montagnard Foundation of being a terrorist group, and for this reason would like to have the TRP banned from attending the works of the UN. Special notice should be undertaken to review how freedom of expression will be seriously undermined in the UN if such grave allegations would prevail without any serious scrutiny according to international standards of fair trial and the right to defence.

• That international donors and foreign governments seriously review how aid monies are used in Vietnam in order to ensure Vietnam ceases human rights violations and religious repression in Vietnam. (As reported by the Human Rights Watch report of 2 December 2003 entitled "Vietnam: Donors Must Insist On Human Rights Progress").

• That religious organizations around the world, seriously question the Vietnamese government over its continued religious repression of our people as well as persecuted Vietnamese Buddhists, Catholics, Hoa Hao Buddhists, Hmong peoples, Muslim Chams, and other political dissidents in Vietnam.

The Montagnard Foundation notes the latest 2003 US State Department International Religious Freedom report on Vietnam, states that "Despite the Government's restrictions, the number of Protestants continued to grow." and "Protestantism, particularly the house church movement in ethnic minority areas, is the fastest growing religion in the country." The Montagnard Foundation acknowledges this spiritual growth of Christianity and Kok Ksor states, "that the Montagnard Foundation will continue to speak and act in a non-violent and peaceful way for our persecuted brothers and sisters inside Vietnam until Vietnam ceases interference in our religious affairs and stops persecuting our race." Further Kok Ksor states, "Our peoples' only desire is that we may live in peace as indigenous people on our ancestral lands without fear of persecution by the Vietnamese communist government."

 

Unless urgent action is taken to protect our people inside Vietnam's Central Highlands many more Montagnard people are going to suffer and perhaps die.