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The Vietnam News

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Cambodian police break up Vietnam refugee protest

PHNOM PENH - Cambodian riot police on Wednesday broke up a protest by ethnic minority asylum seekers against the forced return of over 100 of their people to Vietnam, human rights workers and the United Nations said. Around 30 Montagnards, the mainly Christian tribespeople from Vietnam's Central Highlands, staged a brief demonstration outside offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Phnom Penh.

But their protest against Wednesday morning's repatriation of 101 Montagnards to Vietnam, where human rights workers say they face persecution, was cut short by the arrival of riot police. "Some of them got upset about the return of these people to Vietnam and they got out of the (asylum seekers' holding) center," Inna Gladkova, a UNHCR official. "But police escorted them back to the shelter. They are fine now." Gladkova said the 101 had been sent back to Vietnam after the UNHCR rejected their claims for asylum. Another 541 Montagnards, many of them women and children, are in UNHCR holding centers in Phnom Penh while their claims are processed.

Vietnam's government, accused of rights abuses against the Montagnards who sided with the Americans during the Vietnam War, has given assurances that returnees will not face discrimination. However, human rights workers said the way Cambodian police went about sending them back did not bode well. "They dragged them into the trucks," said Naly Pilorge, director of human rights group LICADHO. She said at least three human rights observers had seen police wielding electric batons to force the Montagnards, including women and children, on board. Phnom Penh police chief Heng Peov denied officers used excessive force. A Reuters television cameraman covering the subsequent protest was forced by police to erase his footage.

Since 2001, well over 1,000 Montagnards have been granted asylum in the United States after fleeing to Cambodia from central Vietnam. However, there have been consistent reports of Cambodian troops rounding up Montagnards and sending them back for a bounty, leading to accusations Phnom Penh is taking direct orders from its larger neighbor not to admit refugees.

By Ek Madra - Reuters - July 20, 2005.


Montagnard asylum-seekers repatriated to Vietnam from Cambodia

A group of 101 indigenous minority people from Vietnam's Central Highlands were repatriated from Cambodia on Wednesday after being screened out as political refugees by the United Nations, a senior police official said. The 101 Montagnards were loaded into two buses that left Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh at 7 a.m., bound for Vietnam, said senior Interior Ministry official Chhay Sinarith, who was in charge of the repatriation.

Chhay Sinarith told Kyodo News that the repatriation was carried on the basis of a tripartite agreement among Cambodia, Vietnam and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, signed last January. Glad Kova Inna, a UNHCR protection officer, said the Cambodian government was justified in repatriating the Montagnards as they had failed to qualify for refugee status, even though some wished not to return home. Chhay Sinarith confirmed that more than a dozen of the returnees had expressed displeasure and even wept after realizing they were due to be repatriated home. U.S. Embassy spokesman David Gainer voiced his government's concern about the latest repatriation, while recognizing "the difficult position of Cambodia in dealing with Montagnards coming from Vietnam."

"We have raised the United States' objection to this repatriation with the senior levels of the Cambodian government. We have also raised our objection with senior Vietnamese officials and urged Vietnam to delay the repatriation in order to give the United States more time to consider other options," Gainer said. As the case proceeds, he said, the United States is now urging Vietnam to allow international monitors to have greater access to Vietnam's Central Highlands to monitor the returnees.

Human Rights Watch says some Montagnard returnees have been harassed by Vietnamese authorities, despite Vietnam's commitment in the tripartite agreement not to punish returnees for what it calls their "illegal" departure from Vietnam. The New York-based advocacy group said in a report last month that according to firsthand accounts, some returnees are placed under police surveillance and house arrest upon return, or are regularly summoned to the police station for questioning about their activities. In addressing concerns for their safety, Chhay Sinarith cited Vietnam's assurances that they can return safely and receive good settlement conditions. The indigenous people in Vietnam's Central Highlands are collectively known as Montagnards, though they include several different ethnic groups, including the Mnong, Ede, Jarai, Koho and Bahnar.

Montagnards who have fled Vietnam say their people are prohibited from gathering in public and suffer restrictions on travel, economic discrimination and lowlander encroachment on their traditional tribal lands. But Vietnam denies the persecution charges and says it will not prosecute, punish or discriminate against those who voluntarily return to Vietnam for their past activities. About 2,000 Montagnards have fled to Cambodia since 2001, and more than 1,000 of them have been granted refugee status and offered residency in the United States and other countries in Europe. Many Montagnards fought alongside U.S. troops during the Vietnam War. Since early this year, 149 Montagnards have already been resettled in the United States, Canada and Finland, another UNHCR official said. There remain 540 Montagnards in Phnom Penh who are being screened by the UNHCR to determine their status, the official said.

Kyodo News - July 20, 2005.