Cambodia repatriates first Vietnamese Montagnards under UN agreement
PHNOM PENH - Cambodia has begun repatriating Montagnards from Vietnam back home following a January agreement between the two countries and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the agency said.
Nine Montagnards among the 716 under the care of UNHCR departed from Phnom Penh Friday under the accord, which saw Vietnam promise that the returnees will not be punished, discriminated against or prosecuted, it said in a statement.
Most of the Montagnards, a mainly-Christian hill-tribe group, made arduous treks into Cambodia after a crackdown by authorities in April last year which was sparked by their protests over land rights and religious persecution.
Rights groups said at least 10 people were killed in the demonstrations, while Hanoi put the toll at two and insisted the Montagnards were leaving the communist nation illegally.
Under the agreement thrashed out in Hanoi, the Montagnards may choose whether to resettle in a third country or return home. Cambodia has refused to allow them to stay in the kingdom.
"So far, 297 have chosen resettlement and 43 to return to Vietnam's Central Highlands from where they fled claiming religious persecution and land disputes," spokesman Ron Redmond said on the UNHCR website.
"UNHCR is arranging for the return of a second group of 16 Montagnards, to be followed by another batch of 18."
More than 1,000 Montagnards also fled to Cambodia after security forces put down demonstrations in the Central Highlands in February 2001 against land confiscation and religious persecution.
Many of them were allowed to move to the United States under a resettlement project conducted by the UNHCR.
In January, Human Rights Watch accused Hanoi of carrying out mass arrests, persecution and torture of Montagnard Christians in the region.
Agence France Presse - March 11, 2005.
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