Vietnam is now the world's second largest producer of "Robusta coffee" and most of this crop is grown in a region in Vietnam known as the Central Highlands. This region the Central Highlands - is the mountain region of southern Vietnam and is the ancestral homelands of the Montagnard hill tribes. The coffee grown here may taste good and even sound exotic but we can assure you that the seeds used for this crop in Vietnam are seeds of hate and this coffee must be drunk with plenty of sugar to hide the bitterness. 

Bitter seeds of hate

What bitterness you ask? The bitterness of torture, the bitterness of repression, the bitterness of brutal persecution of a peaceful hill tribe people who are today facing an end to their very existence. This indigenous race of people - the Montagnard hill tribes (or Degar peoples) - one of the oldest races in Asia, are in their death throes as the Vietnamese government continues confiscating their ancestral lands, sterilizing their women, arresting their people and destroying their race.

These seeds of hate were planted 26 years ago when the communists took over South Vietnam. Here in 1975 the North Vietnamese planted these seeds with brutal efficiency. Like Pol Pot the Vietnamese communists began a genocidal revenge against those they deemed inferior to their communist ideology.

The Montagnard hill tribes you see had been allied with the Americans during the Vietnam war. Forty thousand served alongside the US Army. They fought and died for America and became known as loyal comrades to American soldiers. Prior to the Vietnam War however, these hill tribes had suffered for many years as both the North and South Vietnamese governments had persecuted them and tried to occupy their lands. The Montagnard hill tribes with nowhere to turn undertook a last ditch effort and joined with the Americans in the fight against communism. The CIA and US Army recruited them just like the French did in the first Indochina war. But this second Vietnam war ended rather unexpectedly - the Wrong side won..

Fertilized with revenge and genocide

In 1975 the victorious communists were free to conduct a terrible revenge. They began executing Montagnards or sending them to forced labor camps. They outlawed their culture and began confiscating their ancestral lands. Today the Montagnard lands are continually being confiscated for government run coffee plantations, yes - the very coffee that Vietnam exports around the world. For 26 years the communist fertilized these seeds of hate with revenge and genocide. So that is why ingredients in Vietnam's coffee today are bitter, very bitter. We will tell you these ingredients -  just in case you run out of sugar and wonder what that vile bitter taste is.

1. Martial law: In February 2001 the Vietnamese government enacted Martial law in the Central Highlands and began a brutal repression of the hill tribes. Hundreds of Christian Montagnards were beaten, tortured and arrested. Tanks, helicopters and over 16,000 soldiers still occupy the region and cut off all communications.

2. Torture, executions, imprisonments: Security forces followed in the wake of the soldiers and began torturing and arresting hill tribe people. Refugees began fleeing to Cambodia. 

3. Sterilizations: Since the early 1990s - the Vietnamese government began sterilizing Montagnard women - enacting fines, bribes and coercion or forcing them to get sterilized. This dwindling race of people have genocidal  policies aimed at further eliminating their race. 

4. Forced relocations and expropriation of their homelands: Since 1975 the Vietnamese government began the systematic relocation of Montagnard villages in order to plunder their once great forests by logging companies and establish coffee plantations owned by the Vietnamese military..

5. Religious persecutions: Montagnard church leaders are arrested and tortured with electric prods. Some Montagnards disappear after arrest - never to be heard of again. Persecution in Vietnam escalated to new heights of repression in 2001, with mass arrests and beatings.

6. Bounties for Montagnard refugees: Montagnards who flee Vietnam are forced to hide from security forces who hunt them down. The Vietnamese government placed "bounties" on Montagnard heads. In May 2001 the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Refugees International and Amnesty International stepped in to protect these refugees from security forces crossing into Cambodia in order to capture them.

These ingredients are very dangerous for the hill tribe Montagnard or Degar people and they are actually dying from it. We are not sure however, if they are dangerous to others outside Vietnam because these poisonous ingredients are not banned by governments around the world. Yes, unbelievably -  outside of Vietnam you can actually buy this coffee and apparently drink it without ill effects. In fact many countries around the world are buying it and apparently enjoying it. Trade negotiations are being encouraged with Vietnam who produces this coffee - with no apparent regard for these dangerous ingredients. 

We are not sure however, if perhaps those who find these ingredients safe, are just using extra sugar. Maybe the bitterness comes out somewhere else, like some hidden cancer. Perhaps by drinking this coffee or allowing it to be produced - you may only hurt your soul.