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The Vietnam News

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Cambodian police using electric batons against Montagnard refugees resisting repatriation

Human Rights Watch condemns Cambodian police brutality in forced repatriation of Vietnam’s Montagnard people. There is evidence that Vietnamese police abused repatriated Montagnard refugees.

NEW YORK - The brutality with which Cambodian police forcibly repatriated Montagnard refugees is at the heart of an appeal made by Human Rights Watch (HRW), whose plea joins a chorus of condemnation against the forced repatriation of scores of Montagnard asylum seekers to their native Vietnam. The Montagnards are a predominantly Christian ethnic minority from Vietnam’s highlands. In recent years, many of them have sought refugee in Cambodia to escape Hanoi’s repression. Vietnamese authorities accuse them of secessionism and causing public unrest and have confiscated their lands.

Ninety-four ethnic minority Montagnards were deported last Wednesday after their refugee status claims were rejected. New York-based HRW said that at 6 am dozens of riot police, some armed with assault rifles, entered the facility housing the Montagnards, who sat gripping each others’ arms to avoid being moved. “After the asylum seekers ignored an order to board the buses, the police made no attempt at negotiation. Instead they began to slap, hit and use batons to beat the asylum seekers,” the group said in a statement. “They dragged people out of the facility by their arms, legs and, in several cases, by their hair, and pushed them on to buses. Police beat at least one woman with a baby strapped to her back, and kicked other Montagnards as they were seated.”

Police also used electric prods to inflict shock, the group alleged after receiving eyewitness accounts of the incident, which journalists and human rights monitors were barred from viewing. “There was no excuse for using electric batons or beating unarmed individuals engaged in peaceful civil disobedience,” said Brad Adams, HRW Asia director. HRW called for an independent investigation and punishment for those who authorised or used excessive force, which it said violated a January 2005 pact between the UN’s refugee agency and Cambodian and Vietnamese governments.

This agreement provided that the agency would work with the governments to ”bring back [to Vietnam] in an orderly and safe fashion” and “in conformity with national and international law” those Montagnards who do not agree to either resettle abroad or “voluntarily” return to Vietnam, HRW said. HRW also expressed concern for the safety of those forcibly returned, saying it had documented cases of intimidation, detention and police abuse of Montagnards who had already voluntarily returned. It called on the Vietnamese government to provide the UN refugee agency and other independent monitors with free access to all returned Montagnards.

For years Montagnards have suffered religious persecution. During the Vietnam War, they sided with the United States in an attempt to set up their own autonomous state.

Human Rights Watch - July 26, 2005.


Ninety-four migrants return home to Central Highlands

KON TUM - Ninety-four migrants were repatriated to the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum on Thursday after having illegally crossed the border into Cambodia. Responding to questions by the Vietnam News Agency on the fate of repatriated ethnic minority migrants on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said they would receive support from local authorities to stabilise their lives and re-integrate into their communities. Dung added that ethnic minority people in the Central Highlands who crossed the border illegally into Cambodia did so at the instigation of negative elements.

Viet Nam has been co-operating with Cambodia and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to implement agreements comprised in the Memorandum of Understanding on issues relating to Central Highlands ethnic minority people in Cambodia, Dung said. Based on the spirit of the MOU, on Wednesday at the Moc Bai border gate Viet Nam received 94 migrants back from Cambodia.

The migrants’ cases were considered by UNHCR, and ultimately handed over to Cambodia to be repatriated to Viet Nam. Most of them live in the provinces of Gia Lai and Kon Tum. As with previously repatriated migrants, they will not be punished, discriminated against or brought to court for crossing the border illegally, Dung added. Dung said that Viet Nam’s humanitarian policies on ethnic minority migrants have been acknowledged and supported by UNHCR representatives during visits to the Central Highlands.

Vietnam News Agency - July 23, 2005.