VIETNAMESE AUTHORITIES SHOOT TWO DEGAR MONTAGNARDS

BACKGROUND: The indigenous Degar Peoples (known under the French colonial term “Montagnard”) have suffered decades of persecution by the Vietnamese communist government, namely; confiscation of their ancestral lands, Christian religious repression, torture, killings and imprisonment. To date over 350 Degar prisoners remain in Vietnamese prisons for standing up for their human rights, for spreading Christianity or for fleeing to Cambodia and many have been subjected to electric shock treatment and torture as well as being withheld food and medical care. The authorities continue to persecute members of the Christian House Church movement and in many cases have killed prisoners by deliberately beating them causing internal organ damage. Throughout the Central Highlands, the Degar population suffers abuses committed by soldiers and police. The information below was just received from the tightly controlled central highlands.

 

 

 

VIETNAMESE AUTHORITIES SHOOT TWO MONTAGNARDS: On November 26, 2006 four of our Christian brothers named Y-Pam Ya (age 39), Y-Khac Rocam (age 39), Y-Cin Buonya (age 26) and Y-Somit Knul (age 17) all from the village of Buon Drec, commune Ea Hoa, district Buon Don in Daklak province went to the forest near their village looking for lumber to repair their longhouse and spent the night in the forest camped by Ea Mdrec stream.  At approximately 5:00 AM the following morning of November 27, 2006 six Vietnamese forest rangers found them asleep on the ground and opened fire at them wounding two of them. Y-Pam Ya was shot in his right thigh and Y-Cin Buonya was shot on his right arm. One of the six forest rangers is named “Hoa” but the others are unknown. The rangers then took them to the clinic at Buon Don district but threatened to kill them if they enter the forest again. The rangers made repeated death threats to them stating “it  doesn’t matter who your report this to because we are not afraid of the international community, the United Nations, the United States, or Kok Ksor, because we are the children of Uncle Ho Chi Minh.” Four of our Degar Montagnard brothers here now remain confined (under house arrest) with the charge of destroying the forest.

 

YEARS OF DEFORESTATION BY THE VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT: The ironic and unjust facts concerning this incident however, is that the Vietnamese military has for decades operated logging companies that committed mass deforestation throughout the central highlands. In January 2001 the former director of Vietnam’s Department of Forestry Development, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Lung stated, “Due to unchecked timber exploitation, most of our forests have been depleted, with depletion rates reaching well over 60 percent.” (see: South China Morning Post, Race to Shield Dwindling Forests From Loggers, 2 January 2001. Over the past decades Vietnamese government policies have also resulted in Degar Montagnard villages being forcibly relocated to provide access to logging companies and government run coffee plantations. The indigenous Degar Montagnard people who lived in a natural balance with the environment for thousands of years now have no right to their ancestral lands and resources.  It is a shameful situation given that much of the world today has rewarded Vietnam with economic assistance and turned a blind eye to Vietnam’s abysmal human rights record.

 

THE MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION CALLS ON: 

• Concerned Embassies and the international community to urgently investigate the arrests of these two Degar people to ensure the authorities do not torture and maltreat them.
  


• Concerned Embassies and the international community to pursue a permanent humanitarian presence in the Central Highlands by US, UN and international NGOs and initiate a diplomatic solution to the indigenous Degar land rights issue.
  


• Concerned Embassies and the international community to urgently demand Vietnam release all 350 Degar Prisoners identified in the Human Rights Watch report of 14 June 2006. See: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/14/vietna13542.htm
  


• The International Community, namely Japan, the European Union, the United States and international banking organizations, carefully review their financial aid commitments to Vietnam especially the proposed Triangle development project destined to develop the border regions between Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.