THE VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT CONTINUES TO ORGANIZE
PHONEY VIOLENT DEMONSTRATIONS TO FALSELY CLAIM THAT THE MONTAGNARD PEOPLE ARE
INVOLVED IN "TERRORIST ACTIVITIES" |
Sources
from inside Vietnam reported to us that on September 9, 2004, in the Commune
of Dang Ya, district of Cu Pah, province of Gialai, Vietnamese officials coerced
the Montagnards who have been working for the Government in the Commune, to
organize a phoney violent demonstration by paying them money. This kind of staged
managed demonstrations have been organized repeatedly (see the MFI press release
of August 4, 2004) in the Central Highlands by the Vietnamese Government after
the Peaceful Easter Demonstrations in order to falsely claim to the world that
groups of Montagnard people are engaged in terrorist activities against the
Vietnamese Government. Below is a summary of how the demonstration was first
organized and then held under the tight control of the Vietnamese authorities.
On September
8, 2004 the day before the demonstration, Vietnamese officials instructed two
Montagnards, Amur who is a member of Mother Front at the commune of Dang Ya,
district of Cu Pah, and Amuc who is the chairman of the Ha-Bau commune, district
of Dak Doa, in the province of Gialai, to coerce the Montagnards who have been
working for the government in the commune of Dang Ya to organize a phoney violent
demonstration, by promising them that they will be paid 5,000 Vietnam Dong each.
On September
9, 2004, at 8 am, Vietnamese officials gathered around 50 men and women who
work for the Government in the commune of Dang Ya as police officers, soldiers
and cadres and 7 villagers from the area and instructed them, who were all dressed
as civilians, to demonstrate using sticks and throwing rocks as they were protesting
violently against the Government, by attacking the gate of the communal building
and throwing rocks into the communal office. During the event Government officials
filmed them with a video camera. At around 12:00 O'clock noon, Government officials
from the district of Cu Pah arrived in Dang Ya and at that point the demonstrators
received their reward of 5,000 VND each. After they received their rewards,
the demonstrators went back to their homes.
The allegations of the Vietnamese Government that Montagnard people are involved
in terrorist activities have been denied for a long time by both democratic
Governments and the United Nations months, in particular last July when the
UN ECOSOC formally rejected such allegation. Notwithstanding such firm rejection
by the international community, the Vietnamese Government continues to try to
fool the world with phoney violent demonstrations and not allowing independent
monitors and journalists to freely accede to the region, being scared that the
truth about the mistreatment and repression suffered by the Montagnard people
over the last 30 years would emerge.
THE MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION
CALLS ON:
- The International community
and United Nations Organization takes immediate action to investigate the
specific crimes denounced by the MFI and other International NGOs and to
insist the Vietnamese government release our Montagnard people held in prison
for peaceful political activity, for practicing Christianity or for their
social and political activities, 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 bounties paid by Hanoi for our fleeing
refugees are immediately stopped.
- 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").
UNLESS URGENT INTERNATIONAL ACTION IS TAKEN MANY MORE MONTAGNARDS WILL
SUFFER AND DIE
