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Kok Ksor's Statement
at United Nations Commission On Humanrights |
Mr. Chairman,
My name is Kok Ksor and I speak on behalf of the
Transnational Radical Party.
In the year 2005 Montagnard refugees continue to be hunted
down by Vietnamese police who pay bounties to Cambodian
police for arresting them. Upon their return to Vietnam many
refugees are subjected to harsh reprisals, torture and
imprisonment.
On 25 January 2005 the Government of Cambodia, Vietnam and
UNHCR signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding over
700 Montagnard asylum seekers currently in Cambodia. Their
fate remains in question and representatives of more than
300 refugees in Phnom Penh have asked the TRP to deliver
this appeal to the UN.
The current Memorandum of Understanding is flawed and
dangerous because it does not contain any explicit
guarantees that Montagnard refugees (or those not deemed
refugees) who are returned to Vietnam will be effectively
protected by the UNHCR.
Any attempt to return Montagnard refugees to Vietnam without
guaranteeing their safety inside Vietnam will fail in the
long term as returned refugees face reprisals. Thus the most
logical solution is a permanent one, namely to ensure that
the Vietnamese government permits international observers as
NGOs, UNHCR and other UN agencies to have free access to the
central highlands where the human rights situation can be
monitored and Montagnard people protected.
Since 2002 the United Nations Human Rights Committee has
requested Vietnam a permanent presence of monitors in the
region but the Vietnamese Government still defies its
international obligations.
Mr. Chairman,
We ask that under no circumstances should the Montagnard
refugees be returned to Vietnam unless international
monitors are granted permanent presence to the region to
guarantee their protection.
Ultimately the Montagnard issue will not be resolved unless
the underlying concerns facing the Montagnards are
addressed, namely religious persecution and the loss of our
ancestral lands in Vietnam. It is imperative to the
Montagnard people that religious freedom, human rights and
land rights are fully and permanently guaranteed to them.
Land rights and self-rule are legitimate rights for our
indigenous people and now our people found itself driven
into poverty while being systematically dispossessed of our
ancestral lands by the Vietnamese authorities. As Mr. Kofi
Annan has recently affirmed, the TRP calls to this
Commission to apply the highest human rights standards in
the fulfillment of its mandate in order to protect the
oppressed people of the world.
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