Vietnam Highlands still tense; U.S. warns travelers
HANOI - Tension remained high in Vietnam's central highlands on
Friday, with riot police and soldiers keeping round-the-clock patrols after a
wave of ethnic protests and embassies warned against travel to the area.
While the government said order had been restored in the coffee-growing
provinces of Gia Lai and Daklak, it continued to withhold permission for
foreign journalists to visit them.
Local tourism officials said they had been told not to offer services to
outsiders for at least another week.
Residents said large numbers of police, soldiers and local militia groups had
been deployed in the central highlands since protests by thousands of hill
people erupted last week. The military has also conducted helicopter patrols.
``Police and soldiers are staying on guard around the clock here,'' said a
coffee trader resident in Buon Ma Thuot, capital of Daklak province.
``It seems like there's a hammer poised to fall and nobody knows when the
string holding it is going to break,'' he said, referring to the possibility of
renewed unrest.
On Friday, the U.S. embassy urged U.S. citizens against travel to Gia Lai or
Daklak. Other embassies issued similar warnings.
On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said the
situation was now under control, and did not amount to a crisis. However,
the ministry said local authorities were not ready to receive foreign journalists.
Residents blamed the protests on disputes over land, religion and corruption,
involving encroachment by majority ethnic Vietnamese migrants and heavy
handed attempts to impose the authority of the ruling Communist Party.
Embarrassment For Party Leader
Diplomats have called it communist Vietnam's worst unrest for years and Carl
Thayer of the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, said it was a
serious embarrassment for Communist Party leader Le Kha Phieu.
Phieu's prospects for staying in the job after a key five-year party congress
tentatively scheduled for late March have already been called into question
and ``this couldn't have come at a worst time for him,'' Thayer said.
No deaths have been reported. But state media and local residents said
police were wounded in clashes, and protesters damaged state property, held
some ethnic Vietnamese hostage and beat up officials.
Thanh said 20 people had been arrested in Pleiku, capital of Gia Lai, for
``provocative acts'' and damaging state property.
A coffee trader in Daklak told Reuters he heard reports that a police officer
in one district had his hand cut off by a protester on Wednesday and that
demonstrators captured a commune official, strung him up to a pole by his
hands and beat him.
There has been no direct word from the protesters.
Hundreds Injured, Says U.S.-Based Body
However, the U.S.-based Montagnard Foundation Inc, founded by former
hilltribe guerrillas who fought alongside U.S. forces during the Vietnam War,
said on its Web site that hundreds of demonstrators had been hurt in clashes
with police.
It said about 20,000 people took part in the biggest protest in Pleiku after
two brothers, both Christians, were arrested and beaten by police last week.
It said 20 police officers were wounded when protesters fought back.
State media said two men, arrested for attempting to create ethnic discord,
had been freed. The Foreign Ministry's Thanh accused ``extremists'' of using
religion to fan the protests.
On Friday, a businessman in Pleiku said the situation was calm, adding: ``If
you hadn't heard reports of unrest in Pleiku, you wouldn't notice anything
special these days.''
Relocation and migration of large numbers of lowland Vietnamese to the
highlands to grow coffee has created friction with ethnic groups who have
lived there for generations.
Income from the coffee trade has also dwindled dramatically in recent years
due to a collapse in world prices -- blamed not least on Vietnam massive
increase in production. Coffee is one of Vietnam's key export earners,
bringing in about $485 million last year.
The hill farmers, many of whom belong to illegal Protestant ''house churches,'' have also been harassed by the
communist authorities for their beliefs.
By David Brunnstrom - Reuters - February 9, 2001.
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