Statement by Mr. Kok Ksor to Sub Commission Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights 55th Session in Geneva, August 2003

 
Thank you Mme. President,

My name is Kok Ksor, I am a member of the General Council of the Transnational Radical Party and I speak on its behalf today on the situation of the indigenous Montagnards or Degar Peoples of Vietnam’s Central Highlands that in the hundreds have decided to join the TRP over the last couple of years.

The very existence of the Degar is now neglected and it is virtually impossible to assess the decrease in the number of hill tribes people from the French colonization of Indo China, comprising Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and today after decades of brutal repression between. The Montagnards are a peaceful people, who over the years have struggled to keep their culture alive despite their being at the center of a series of campaigns and policies that are running the risk to cancel their presence, cultures, traditions and customs from the beautiful central highlands of South East Asia.

Madame President, over the last few years, I have been able to participate in a series of meetings of the UN Working Group on Indigenous issues presenting the dramatic situation of the Degar people. I could not participate in last May session in New York, but I have noticed that that exercise is not addressing the core problem of indigenous peoples. Moreover, for its support and assistance the TRP is now facing allegation of cooperation with terrorists at the UN Committee on NGOs!

Over the last couple of years, The Transnational Radical Party - together with other NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International or the Australian branch of the International Commission of Jurists - has been one of the few groups particularly vocal on human rights abuses in non-democratic societies, and has demonstrated particular attention to the problems of the ethnic Montagnards and the abuses we suffer which go beyond the violation of our so-called “indigenous rights”. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented that over 260 Montagnards have been imprisoned and many subjected to electric shock torture.

Not only we have been denied access, ownership and use of our ancestral lands, and have been stripped of our culture and life habits, but over the last couple of years, we have been the target of a violent campaign based on racial discrimination – and in 2001, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a list of concerns in this regard that went unnoticed by the Government of Vietnam or the UN itself, - that has tried to strip the Montagnards also of their fundamental civil and political rights.

Let me also, once again, bring to the attention of the Sub-Commission some of the final observations issued by the UN Human Rights Commission at its July 2002 session. I quote “the Committee regrets the lack of information on the human rights situation in practice, as well as the absence of facts and data on the implementation of the [International] Covenant[on Civil and Political Rights]. As a result, a number of credible and substantiated allegations of violations of Covenant provisions which have been brought to the attention of the Committee could not be addressed effectively and the Committee found it difficult to determine whether individuals in the State party's territory and subject to its jurisdiction fully and effectively enjoy their fundamental rights under the Covenant”. Moreover “the Committee remains concerned at the abundance of information regarding the treatment of the Degar (Montagnard) indicating serious violations of article 7 and 27 of the Covenant. The Committee is concerned at the lack of specific information concerning indigenous peoples, especially the Degar (Montagnard), and about measures taken to ensure that their rights under article 27 to enjoy their cultural traditions, including their religion and language, as well as their agricultural activities, are respected”.

The Central Highlands remain closed.

At the end of June 2003, a delegation of the TRP visited Cambodia to follow the initial phase of the national elections. That delegation comprised two Members of the European Parliament, Mr. Marco Pannella and Mr. Marco Cappato and TRP Representative to the UN, Mr. Marco Perduca. During its presence in Phnom Penh, the delegation met with international organizations, State’s officials as well as leaders of the various political parties participating in last July’s election to talk also of the conditions of the indigenous peoples living in South East Asia. The issue of the Montagnards was discussed at length also with representatives of the local office of UN High Commissioner for Refugees. I am pleased to inform you that, also thanks to the work of the TRP delegation, there is a growing interest in Montagnards-related issues among members of the Cambodian Parliament and I urge you to reach out to that institution to know more on what can be done in concrete.

Distinguished members of the Sub-Commission, as you know the border between Cambodia and Vietnam has been closed after some of our people staged a couple of peaceful demonstrations in February 2001 and the refugee camps in the provinces of Ratanakiri and Mondolkiri were dismantled after only a few weeks of their establishment. The majority of the people hosted in the camps have been welcomed by the U.S. in North and South Carolina, there are still some 35 people that, we understand, over the next few months will be allowed into the United States. However, the situation in neighboring Vietnam has not improved. We have reason to believe that dozens, if not hundreds, of Montagnards are hiding in the Vietnamese jungle hoping to escape persecution and reach Cambodia. Cambodia has ratified the 1951 Convention on Refugees and should abide by that document and provide the necessary shelter to people in danger. On behalf of the TRP I appeal to the Sub-Commission to urge the new Cambodian Government to initiate the domestic implementation of the Convention on refugees and to re-open its border with Vietnam therefore allowing a safety valve to be created for hundreds of people.

Distinguished members of the Sub-Commission, the TRP believes that there is a dire need to verify, officially and also through independent observers, the fact that the Central Highlands remain under a regime of Martial law. People disappear after arrest, some are sentenced to prison after being tortured, while those who try to flee to Cambodia are forcibly deported back by Cambodian police and sold back to Vietnam for bounties.

This is the climate of fear and terror that the Degar people are enduring!

Madame President, the TRP endorses the words of the UN Human Rights Committee and urges the Sub-Commission to “take immediate measures to ensure that the rights of members of indigenous communities are respected.” and that “Non-governmental organizations and other human rights monitors should be granted access to the central highlands”. The TRP also believes that it is of utmost importance to make public the Committee’s observations concerning the second periodic report by the Committee. As you may imagine, the people who live in the central highlands are not fully aware of the existence and work of the United Nations and would find hope in knowing that there are individuals and organizations that are doing whatever they can to raise the issue of the Montagnards.

The life, liberty, welfare and ancestral culture of hundreds of thousands of individuals is at stake here. The international community cannot let hundreds of thousands of people down. Contrarily to what is reported at times in the press and systematically by the Vietnamese government, the Montagnards are not calling for independence, secession or violent struggle against their oppressors, they are calling for the respect of their fundamental rights just as every other human being.

Thank you for you attention