UNHCR official says resettlement of Montagnards in Vietnam 'working well'
HANOI - The U.N. refugee agency said Friday that the resettlement of Vietnamese ethnic minorities who fled to Cambodia during unrest was going well and would help resolve a long-standing issue. Vietnam, Cambodia and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees signed an agreement in January 2005 to resolve the fate of about 750 Montagnards -- as the hilltribe people are collectively known -- living under U.N. protection in temporary camps in Vietnam near the border with Cambodia. About 500 were resettled in the United States, while 218 returned to Vietnam voluntarily, or were deported.
UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Erika Feller said she spent two days meeting with returnees in Vietnam's Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.
"I'm confident, based on what I've seen and heard ... that people's protection concerns are being addressed," Feller said at a news conference in Hanoi.
"I come away with feeling that we've put in place a good framework ... to enable people to reintegrate into community and society," she said. "I came away with the feeling that the situation is working well."
Some of the Montagnards told her that they had crossed into Cambodia primarily for economic reasons; others had concerns about land ownership and restrictions on religious practices. Montagnards are mainly Christians, while the majority of Vietnamese are Buddhists.
Early in 2004, about 10,000 Montagnards held mass demonstrations to protest government land encroachment and crackdowns against their Protestant church groups that meet in homes and are illegal in Vietnam. Hanoi sent in military and police to crack down on the protests, triggering an exodus across the border into Cambodia.
Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Phu Binh said the government has tried to address the root causes of the poverty and inequality faced by the ethnic minorities. Some land has been reallocated to Montagnards and attempts have been made to provide them with jobs, he said.
Many Montagnards were U.S. allies during the Vietnam War. A number were resettled in the United States at war's end in 1975.
The Associated Press - April 30, 2006.
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