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

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[Year 2001]

Rights group raps Cambodia for alleged expulsion of Vietnamese refugees

PHNOM PENH - Human Rights Watch denounced the Cambodian government Sunday for allegedly expelling Vietnamese refugees who had fled Hanoi's crackdown on ethnic minorities in the central highlands. The New York-based group said at least 89 refugees from indigenous Vietnamese minorities had been forcibly deported from Cambodia in recent weeks, 70 of them in the past 10 days alone.

"These forced returns violate the cardinal rule of international refugee laws," said Rachael Reilly, refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement. "Governments must not send people fleeing persecution back to countries where their lives and liberty could be at risk," she said. The deportations had been carried out by provincial authorities and contradicted earlier assurances by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials that the refugees would not be deported, the lobby said. Human Rights Watch also called on Vietnam to explain the whereabouts of those forced out of Cambodia and allow access by diplomats and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The protest comes just days after the UNHCR praised Cambodia for agreeing to grant temporary asylum to the minorities until conditions in Vietnam improved enough for their voluntary return. Jahanshah Assadi, the UNHCR's regional representative, will end Monday his third visit to Cambodia since scores of fleeing minority Montagnards arrived in Cambodia following a crackdown on unrest by Vietnam in early February.

Some 150 members of Vietnam's Pnong, Radhe and Jarai peoples have been living there in a makeshift camp since they emerged from hiding in the border jungles of eastern Cambodia last week. The UN has granted them "persons of concern" status, but there have been reports of forced repartiations and harassment by local officials. According to local media, another 49 fleeing Montagnards have been found in neighbouring Ratanakiri province. Assadi said the UNHCR was investigating reports many have been forcibly repatriated and was careful not to describe the makeshift centre in Mondulkiri as a refugee camp.

Hun Sen has repeatedly said he will not allow refugee camps to be set up along the border with ally Vietnam. Relations between Phnom Penh and Hanoi were soured last month by Cambodia's decision to allow 24 fleeing hilltribes people to be given asylum in the US. Hun Sen at first ordered they be returned to Vietnam but later bowed to pressure from Washington and the UN. Many Montagnards fought alongside American forces during the Vietnam War and a community of them now live in the US. Cambodia is a signatory to the 1951 UN convention on refugees which obliges Phnom Penh to allow the UNHCR access to asylum seekers and not to block their resettlement should the UN recommend it.

Agence France Presse - May 20, 2001.