Ethnic minorities hiding along Vietnam border
PHNOM PENH - Ethnic minorities fleeing into Cambodia from Vietnam are hiding in dense jungle along the
border, scared to present themselves to Cambodian officials for fear of being sent back to Vietnam, an English-language
newspaper reported Monday.
The hill tribespeople, who clashed in February with Vietnamese communist authorities over land and religious issues in the
Central Highlands, say they need protection, the Cambodia Daily said in a report from the remote border province of
Mondulkiri.
At least 18 Pnong and Radhe hill tribespeople are hiding along the border now, the daily said, citing a former official of a hill
tribe separatist movement known by its French acronym, FULRO, whose members fought alongside U.S. troops during the
Vietnam War.
The hill tribespeople, who are largely Protestant Christians, also supported the U.S. during the war and continue to be viewed
with suspicion by the Vietnamese government.
John Farvolden, the acting director of the Cambodia office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, refused to
comment on the Cambodia Daily report. Khoy Khun Huor, the first deputy governor of Mondulkiri, said police had not
reported any arrivals of people from Vietnam.
The Cambodia Daily said at least 19 hill tribespeople have already been sent back to Vietnam without getting a chance to
request asylum as mandated under a 1951 international refugee convention.
Hanoi has called on the Cambodian government to send all people crossing the border immediately back to Vietnam.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen irked Vietnam by allowing at least 38 of the highlanders to go to the U.S. after they
crossed into Cambodia. The U.S. accepted them for resettlement in North Carolina after the UNHCR granted them refugee
status.
It is unclear how many hill tribespeople from Vietnam have entered Cambodia since the rare unrest in the Central Highlands.
Some of those sent to the U.S. told provincial officials in Mondulkiri that as many as 1,100 people had fled their homes and
may try to cross into Cambodia.
Kay Reibold, the director of the Vietnam Highlands Assistance Project that is helping resettle the refugees in North Carolina,
said she is concerned about the safety of those hill tribespeople entering Cambodia.
"My instincts tell me that there are people who are coming over, or who have been over," Reibold said in a telephone interview
from Raleigh, North Carolina. "They need to have someone safe to talk to, or else it's going to be horrible."
Several hundred hill tribespeople from the Central Highlands were resettled in the U.S. in 1986 and in 1992.
The Associated Press - April 23, 2001.
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