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HANOI REPRESSES ITS MINORITIES
04-06-2003
THE KASHMIR TIMES
By Suhas Chakma
In a clear rebuff to the European Parliament
resolution on freedom of expression and religion in Vietnam of 15
May 2003, the People's Court of the Central Daklak province of
Vietnam in a judgement on 27 May 2003 sentenced 15 Ede and Jirai
indigenous peoples from five to 10 years prison plus four years
of house arrest on their release. The European Parliament
expressed concerns at the continuing arrests, harassment and
detentions of indigenous Montagnards. On 26 May 2003, a day prior
to the judgment, the Communist party newspaper, Nhan Dan, in an
editorial denounced the European Parliament resolution. The link
between the Kangaroo court and party mouthpiece is evident.
The People's Court of Daklak province charged the ethnic
minorities of "organizing illegal - migration to Cambodia",
"undermining state and Communist Party policy" and contacting ;
fonner members of the guerrilla group FULRO;Front Unifie de Lutte
des Races Opprimes, who are now living in the United States, to
"sow disunity" among the hill tribes in the Central Highlands.
From 2-6 February 2001, thousands of indigenous peoples held
peaceful demonstrations in Daklak and Gia Lai provinces demanding
political autonomy, freedom to practise Protestant faith and the
return of ancestral lands confiscated for coffee plantations and
settlement of the Kinh majority.
The root causes of the conflicts are sponsored population
transfer of the majority Kinh into the lands of indigenous
Montagnards and repression ranging from denial of religious
freedom to banning of watching foreign TV programmes beamed in by
satellite under a decree of 18 June 2002 -that pervades the
Vietnamese society. The Montagnards who sided with the United
States during Vietnam War are at the receiving end.
The sponsored population transfers of the majority Kinh have
radically transformed the human composition of the highlands
population. According to a World Bank study, by 1997 in a
population of 1.2 million inhabitants in Dak Lak province,
900,000 were migrants, i.e. 75%, and the flow was still
continuing today at an annual rate of 6 to 15%. About 400
families from Ben Tre were sent to the Ea Sup district of Dak Lak
province in April 2003. Another 200 families from Ben Tre were
scheduled to be resettled elsewhere in Dak Lak in May 2003. The
settler families are provided with a house and one hectare of
cultivable land and they plant cashew crops for army-owned farms.
The World Bank further reported, "The poorly educated indigenous
populations, who in the main do not speak Kinh, are poorly placed
to defend themselves and risk not benefiting fully from the
national policy to develop the Highlands. In addition, the
traditional way of , life of the indigenous populations is
gradually being supplanted by the dominant civilisation of the
Kinh, giving rise to dangers of assimilation and
marginalisation."
Repression and military crackdowns have been the only forms of
engagement adopted by Hanoi with regard to the Montagnards.
Consequently, hundreds of indigenous peoples fled to neighbouring
Cambodia. After Vietnam intensified military crackdown after the
February 2001 democratic protests, indigenous peoples primarily
from the Jarai, Pnong, and Ede ethnic groups crossed over to
Cambodia. Most of the fleeing refugees stayed in jungles without
food till the officials of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees rescued them. Despite the intervention of the UNHCR,
Cambodian authorities forcibly repatriated a large number of
Vietnamese refugees. True to communist style, Hanoi offered
bounty for each minority member refouled.
On 19 February 2002, 15 people out of more than 1,000 indigenous
mountain peoples were repatriated under a tripartite agreement
reached between UNHCR, government of Vietnam and government of
Cambodia for voluntary and UN-monitored repatriation. However,
the repatriation was suspended after the United States complained
the UNHCR could not ensure the safety of the returnees and the
authorities in Hanoi refused to allow UNHCR officials to verify
the status of the returnees. On 22 March 2002, the UNHCR pulled
out of a repatriation agreement with Hanoi and Phnom Penh
following several incidents where Hanoi and Phnom Penh
authorities have been accused of mistreating and threatening the
asylum seekers. On 21 March 2002, more than 300 relatives of the
asylum seekers and at least 100 Vietnamese officials were brought
on buses to the refugee camp in northeastern Cambodia to pressure
the asylum seekers to return to Vietnam. About 900 of the
Montagnards were finally given asylum in the United States.
Due to diplomatic pressure from Hanoi, Cambodia has increasingly
become a fortress for the fleeing Montagnard refugees. Following
the crackdown in the Sao village under Madrak district of Dak Lak
province in September 2002, according to Moung Poy, Deputy
Governor of Ratnakiri province of Cambodia, a Vietnamese
delegation consisting of two governors and a military police
chief visited Cambodian officials in the area on 24 September
2002 to urge prevention of any further influx.
During the first week of January 2003, an estimated 50 Pnongs
crossed over to Koh Nheak in the Mondulkiri and Rattanakiri areas
of Cambodia. They were arrested by the Cambodian Police and
handed over to the Vietnamese border police. Around the third
week of January 2003, another group of 30 Pnongs were again
arrested by Cambodian police near Koh Nheak. But the men in the
second group were reportedly beaten up severely by the Cambodian
police, in front of the women and children, before they were
handed over to the Vietnamese border guards. By harking back on
her suffering at the hands of the United States, Vietnam sought
to scuttle any international scrutiny on its human rights record,
including untold atrocities ranging from forcible steralisation
of indigenous Montagnard women to banning praying at house
church, as western propaganda. Yet, atrocities against the
Montagnards can no longer be hidden under the bamboo curtains.
Unless, Vietnam stops the population transfers of the majority
Kinh, the ethnic minorities, who are increasingly becoming a
minority in their own lands, will continue to protest for
survival with their distinct identities. As the authorities in
Hanoi know, repression has never been able to quell down the
quest for freedom.
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