~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~ The Vietnam News

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[Year 2001]

US calls on Vietnam to allow diplomats into central highlands WASHINGTON - The United States on Friday called on Vietnam to allow its diplomats to visit the strife-torn central highlands, hours after it emerged that the government in Hanoi had warned US envoys to stop interfering in the situation. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement that Americans originally from the central highlands had expressed concern about the safety of their relatives following a spate of ethnic unrest. "The Department of State calls upon the Vietnamese government to permit access to the Central Highlands by US and other diplomatic personnel as well as other independent observers," Boucher said. Reports that Vietnam had told US ambassador Pete Peterson that Washington should steer clear of the issue appeared in Hanoi's official media on Friday. Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Dinh Bin delivered the warning in a meeting with US ambassador Pete Peterson on February 19, the mouthpiece of the state-sponsored Association of Vietnamese Journalists, Nha Bao va Cong Luan (Journalism and Public Opinion), said. Bin "met with the US ambassador in Hanoi and informed him of the situation in the central highlands, asking the United States to end its interference in Vietnam's internal affairs," the paper said in a report headlined: "The Facts about February's Political Rebellion in the Central Highlands." Peterson has taken a keen interest in the unrest which has rocked Vietnam's main coffee growing region which is the home of the Degar people, also known as the Montagnards, who have been campaigning for independence since colonial French forces ceded their lands. The communist authorities' decision to send in the army and close off the region to outsiders sparked human rights criticism which threatened to jeopardise Congressional approval of a landmark trade agreement of which he is a keen supporter. The ambassador requested permission from the communist authorities to visit the region but was refused, a senior US official told reporters in Hanoi this month. Foreign media were finally admitted to the central highlands last week on a tightly escorted tour, but the authorities reneged on repeated undertakings to allow them to talk to protestors. Earlier this month Vietnam began accusing a US-based minority rights group, the Montagnard Foundation Inc. led by US national Ksor Kok, of fomenting the unrest. The foundation denies Vietnam's accusations. Agence France Presse - March 23, 2001.

Vietnam warned US ambassador to keep out of highlands unrest HANOI - Vietnam warned the United States to keep out of a wave of ethnic unrest which swept the mainly Christian indigenous minorities of the central highlands in early February, a weekly newspaper reported Friday. Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Dinh Bin delivered the warning in a meeting with US ambassador Pete Peterson on February 19, the mouthpiece of the state-sponsored Association of Vietnamese Journalists, Nha Bao va Cong Luan (Journalism and Public Opinion), said in a front-page article. Bin "met with the US ambassador in Hanoi and informed him of the situation in the central highlands, asking the United States to end its interference in Vietnam's internal affairs," the paper said in a report headlined: "The Facts about February's Political Rebellion in the Central Highlands." Peterson is known to have taken a keen interest in the unrest which has rocked Vietnam's main coffee growing region. The communist authorities' decision to send in the army and close off the region to outsiders sparked a barrage of human rights criticism which threatened to jeopardise Congressional approval of a landmark trade agreement of which he is a keen supporter. The ambassador requested permission from the communist authorities to visit the region to see events on the ground for himself but was refused, a senior US official told reporters here earlier this month. He also made repeated requests for foreign journalists to be granted access to the region to report independently, the US official said. The overseas media were finally admitted to the central highlands last week on a tightly escorted tour but the authorities reneged on repeated undertakings to allow them to talk to protestors. Earlier this month Vietnam began accusing a US-based minority rights group, the Montagnard Foundation Inc. led by US national Ksor Kok, of fomenting the unrest. But there has so far been no announcement of any official protest to Washington over the group's alleged involvement. The foundation denies Vietnam's accusations. Any overtly political or military action would jeopardise its tax-exempt status in the United States. No reaction to the Nha Bao va Cong Luan report was immediately available from either the US embassy or the Vietnamese foreign ministry. Agence France Presse - March 23, 2001.

Vietnamese minority men fleeing into Cambodia to be sent home PHNOM PENH - Some 24 men believed to be fleeing a Vietnamese government crackdown in the country's central highlands are to be repatriated after crossing the border into remote eastern Cambodia. The men were detained while crossing into Mondulkiri province in two groups on March 17 and 21. "They are now being held for questioning. They are not arrested or in jail. We are awaiting guidelines from the interior ministry," said Colonel Reach Samnang, police commissioner for Mondulkiri. "They have illegally crossed the border and we believe they are fleeing the crackdown in Vietnam and seeking asylum." However, Mondulkiri's first deputy governor Khov Khon Hour told AFP the interior ministry had already decided to hand the men over to Vietnamese authorities. "Based on immigration law, we will hand over these people to the Vietnamese authorities," he said from the provincial capital of Senmonorom. "We are now preparing documents to send them back soon. I have just received those guidelines from the interior ministry." Sources at the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh said the men were members of a movement called FULRO, a French acronym the full name of which translates as the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races. They said the group comprised of four or five ethnic minority tribal groups fighting for an independent state. FULRO fought successive Vietnamese governments from the late 1950s until the early 1990s. Vietnam's communist authorities staged a display of military might in the central highlands on March 17 amid a wave of ethnic unrest, the same day the first group of men crossed into Cambodia. Vietnam has accused emigre groups in the United States of inciting violent protests among the highland's mainly Christian indigenous minorities which have swept the area since early February. Only a minority of the highlanders supported the communists during the war and remnants of the US-backed anti-communist guerrilla group continued to fight on from across the Cambodian border until as recently as 1992. The authorities accuse veterans of that campaign, now given refuge in the United States, of inciting the unrest. The highlands have made impressive economic progress in recent years but this has led to a growing marginalization of the minorities. Large-scale clearance of the province's forests for ethnic Vietnamese settlers to grow cash crops has left the highlanders a minority for the first time, according to the 1999 census. Officials privately say the accusations of foreign plots are a diversion from the underlying reasons behind the protests, which are home-grown. Agence France Presse - March 23, 2001.