Vietnam sentences two montagnards to prison for helping border crossers
Two ethnic minority Vietnamese men were sentenced to up to three years in jail for helping others in the restive Central Highlands cross the border illegally into neighboring Cambodia, state-controlled media reported.
Ksor Dar, 47, was sentenced to three years in jail, while Rah Lan Phyui, 29, received two years behind bars in a one-day trial in the Gia Lai province, according to the weekend edition of the Nguoi Lao Dong (Laborer) newspaper.
The two men, belonging to the Jarai ethnic minority group, led a group of six to the Cambodian border, the newspaper said. The group was then taken to a refugee camp.
The men received 900,000 dong, or $59 dlrs, from the people for guiding them, the newspaper said.
Court officials were not available Monday for comment, and it was unclear when the two men were arrested.
Last month, a court in neighboring Daklak province sentenced three men from the Ede ethnic minority group to eight years in jail, also on charges of instigating people to cross the border illegally.
In August, another Jarai ethnic minority man in Gia Lai province was sentenced to nine years in jail on the same charge.
Early last year, thousands of ethnic minority people, mostly Protestants, protested in Gia Lai and Daklak over land grievances and restrictions on their religious faith.
Vietnam's Communist government, shocked by the unprecedented uprising in a country where public protest is rare, sent in thousands of police and army troops to quell the protest.
Many ethnic minority people, collectively called Montagnards, fled into Cambodia following the crackdown. More than 900 have resettled in the United States.
Fourteen Montagnards have been sentenced to prison on charges of organizing last year's unrest.
The government has blamed the U.S.-based Montagnard Foundation - founded by former members of a group of anti-communist fighters allied with the United States during the Vietnam War - for instigating the unrest. But it also acknowledges that ethnic minority groups in the region have some of the highest rates of poverty in the country.
The Associated Press - November 18, 2002
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