Bruxelles, 1 February, 2005

Today the Honorable Marco Pannella and Emma Bonino, Members of the European Parliament tabled an urgent Parliamentary question to the European Commission regarding the confirmed violence and abuses suffered by the Christian Montagnards in Vietnam during the Christmas festivities and by refugees forcibly repatriated to Vietnam by Cambodian authorities.

In the Parliamentary question the two MEPs write: “Several sources of information both local and international, confirm the disrespect of UN refugees Convention by the Cambodian authorities as regards the Montagnard asylum seekers coming from Vietnam.”

In particular Human rights Watch, in a report of last January 10, has confirmed several episode of violation of fundamental rights of the Montagnards: on the one hand the Montagnards seeking asylum in Cambodia, are usually obliged to hide in the jungle at the border with Vietnam to escape the forced repatriations carried out by the Cambodian authorities in cooperation with the Vietnamese authorities; on the other, over the last Christmas festivities, dozens of religious leaders and preachers the Central Highlands of Vietnam who wanted to celebrate Christmas have been arrested by the Vietnamese Government.

Finally Hon. Pannella and Bonino requested the European Commission on the one hand, which initiatives will be taken to ensure the respect of international law by the Cambodian Government, allowing UNHCR to reopen immediately of the refugee camps in the regions bordering Vietnam, and on the other whether it will continue to finance through the cooperation agreements the Governments of Cambodia and Vietnam, notwithstanding the clear and frequent violations of their international obligations in the field of human rights.