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CAMBODIAN AUTHORITIES CONTINUE TO SELL MONTAGNARD REFUGEES TO
VIETNAMESE POLICE FOR BOUNTIES
KOK KSOR’S RELATIVES
REPORT BEING TARGETED AND BEATEN
BACKGROUND: Montagnard refugees flee to Cambodia from Vietnamese
government persecution. 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.” Today the Vietnamese authorities hunt down refugees
to prevent word of human rights abuses reaching the outside world.
ARRESTED
AND SOLD TO VIETNAMESE AUTHORITIES FOR BOUNTIES
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Ksor Krok (half brother
of Kok Ksor) who was born in 1953 from the Bon Tul village commune Ia Broai,
district of Ayun Pa, Gai Lai province was arrested by Cambodian police in
the area of Ban Lung in Rattanakiri province, northern Cambodia and sold
to Vietnam for 150,000,000 Vietnamese Dong on July 20, 2004. He was taken
to the prison facility T-20 in Pleiku, Vietnam where he was tortured. His
family and relatives were not allowed to visit him because the police did
not want them to see his injuries from the severe beatings he received.
He is Ksor Kok’s half brother and was targeted because Ksor Kok is
President of the Montagnard Foundation.
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Ksor Dro, who was
born in 1977 from the village of Plei Croh Ponan, commune Ia Hiao, district
of Ayun Pa, Gia Lai province was arrested and sold back to Vietnam on July
24, 2004. He was also taken to the prison facility in Pleiku where he was
imprisoned and tortured.
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Rcom Dhok, who was
born in 1968 from the village of Bon Rung Ama Rai, commune Ia Rbol, district
of Ayun Pa, Gia Lai province was arrested and sold back to Vietnam on July
24, 2004. He was also taken to the prison facility in Pleiku where he was
imprisoned and tortured.
TESTIMONY
FROM KOK KSOR’S HALF BROTHER (KSOR NI) ABOUT THE BEATING OF HIS MOTHER
BY VIETNAMESE POLICE ON EASTER 2004.
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KSOR NI, the brother
of Kok Ksor spoke on video tape to members of the Montagnard Foundation
from his UNHCR refugee camp in Phnom Penh. He reported that his mother was
beaten and shocked with electric stun guns by Police for participating in
the Easter Prayer Vigil held this year. He stated she was beaten unconscious
and remained so for several hours after being attacked. Ksor H’Ble
is over 80 years old and has been interrogated in the past and even subjected
to physical assaults by Vietnamese police because she refused to denounce
her son and the Montagnard Foundation on Vietnamese television. This video
tape of Ksor Ni describing her beating is available for international authorities
to investigate. Ksor Ni also stated on the video that Vietnamese police
used force to make him denounce his half-brother (Kok Ksor) and the Montagnard
Foundation on Vietnamese television. He also asked the international community
please help his mother and brothers who have been arrested and threatened
by Vietnamese authorities. A Cambodian source who wishes to remain anonymous
advised the Montagnard Foundation that Vietnamese authorities offered him
a reward of $500 to return Ksor Ni to Vietnamese authorities.
THE
MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION CALLS ON:
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The International
community and United Nations Organization takes immediate action to ensure
relatives of Montagnard activists are not targeted for retribution by Vietnamese
authorities.
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The International
community and United Nations Organization takes immediate action to protect
Montagnard refugees and ensure the UNHCR is permitted to operate freely
in Cambodia, that both Cambodia and Vietnam abide by the Refugee Convention,
(as identified by UN Special Envoy Hon. Peter Leupretch) and that the bounties
paid by Hanoi for our fleeing refugees are immediately stopped.
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The International community
and United Nations Organization takes immediate action to investigate imprisonments
of Montagnards and to insist the Vietnamese government release Montagnard
people held in prison for peaceful political activity, for practicing Christianity,
for demanding fair treatment by the Government or for trying to flee to
Cambodia as refugees.
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The International
community and United Nations Organization takes immediate action in getting
human rights monitors access to the central highlands of Vietnam 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).
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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
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