The
cruelty of the Vietnamese Government after the peaceful demonstrations of
Easter 2004:
Torture victim
gives birth to stillborn and Christian crucified
Urgent investigation by International
community needed
BACKGROUND:
On April 10, 2004 tens of thousands of Christian Montagnards conducted peaceful
demonstrations inside Vietnam’s Central Highlands calling for an end
to years of persecution by the communist government. Vietnamese government
security forces brutally attacked the demonstrators and Human Rights Watch
reported on 28 May 2004, that “Hundreds of demonstrators were wounded
and many were killed on April 10 and 11 on key bridges and roadways leading
into Buon Ma Thuot, the provincial capital of Dak Lak, and in commune centers
in Gia Lai and Lam Dong provinces.”
The stories
of two victims of the “Easter Massacre” are described below. It
is noted this information comes directly from sources inside Vietnam. We ask
the international monitors to specifically go to these villages and investigate
these crimes.
PREGNANT
WOMAN BEATEN AND TORTURED WITH ELECTRIC SHOCKS GIVES BIRTH TO STILLBORN BABY:
H’Loa Nie is from the village of Buon Emap, district of Cu Mgar, Province
of Daklak. She was pregnant when she participated in the peaceful and strictly
nonviolent demonstrations on April 10-11, 2004. She did not believe the Vietnamese
government would be so cruel as to torture a pregnant woman on Easter and
thought because they did not come to fight with the Vietnamese Government
but only to pray to God that she would be safe. The demonstration was done
peacefully intending only to say to the officials that the Montagnard Degar
people want their basic human rights and rights as an indigenous people of
Vietnam respected.
During
the demonstration the police arrested H’Loa Nie and savagely tortured
her with beatings and electric shock torture. She was later released but the
damage was already done. On May 21, 2004 she delivered a stillborn baby boy
who weighed 4 kilograms. This kind of crime is unforgivable and H’Loa
cries today with unbearable pain.
CRUCIFIED,
EXECUTED AND NAILED TO CROSS:
Y-Rung Nie who was born in 1968 was from the village of Buon Kna, district
of Cu Mgar, Province of Daklak. On April 10-11, 2004 Y-Rung Nie participated
in the peaceful demonstration and then went back to his village. He thought
the Vietnamese government would not hurt him but he was wrong. On May 2, 2004
the Vietnamese police from Hanoi went to his house, arrested him, and took
him away. He was executed and this is how the police killed him: because he
is a Christian, they made a cross and nailed him to it. They drove 4 nails
on his feet, 4 nails on his hands, 1 nail on his chest and 2 nails on his
head. Five days later, the police brought a coffin to his family and told
his family that they had killed him because he followed Kok Ksor and the Montagnard
Foundation. The police wanted his family to go collect his dead body at the
nearby coffee plantation. The police threatened Y-Rung Nie’s family
not to tell anyone of this killing or they will come back to their village
and kill them too. On 9th May 2004 Y-Rung Nie’s family went to the coffee
plantation and picked up his corpse brought him back to their village and
buried him. Some of the villagers have reported to us that they also saw the
cross where Y-Rung Nie was crucified in the coffee plantations this information
comes direct from witnesses inside Vietnam.
THE
MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION CALLS ON:
-
The
International community and United Nations Organization takes immediate
action to investigate these specific crimes 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 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”).
