safety of predominantly Christian Degar Montagnards returning from Cambodia to Vietnam where they are "detained, interrogated and even tortured."
In a report obtained by BosNewsLife, the US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) claims the Communist government of Vietnam is violating an agreement with the UNHCR. "More than 60 Montagnards have been imprisoned after being forcibly returned from Cambodia, where they were seeking asylum."
Drawing on eyewitness accounts and other sources, the 55-page report ‘No Sanctuary: Ongoing Threats to Indigenous Montagnards in Vietnam’s Central Highlands’ provides "fresh information about ongoing religious and political persecution of Montagnards, or indigenous minority communities, in Vietnam’s Central Highlands," the group said.
One returnee, who had allegedly been beaten and pressured to renounce his Christian faith in police custody, reportedly told Human Rights Watch that the "UN asked about any mistreatment, but I was too afraid to answer. I told them I had not been hit or threatened. I didn’t dare tell them I’d been sent to prison; if I told, [the police] would have beaten me."
HRW Asia Director Brad Adams claimed that the "Vietnamese government continues to persecute Montagnards once they are out of the sight of international observers. The international community should oppose their forced return to the Central Highlands as long as the authorities continue to persecute them."
UNHCR "REVIEW"
HRW said it therefore urged the UNHCR to "review its participation in promoting and facilitating voluntary repatriation, given the disturbing accounts of mistreatment of returnees, as well as weaknesses in UNHCR’s monitoring mechanisms." At the same time Vietnam should allow UNHCR "full and unfettered access" to the Central Highlands and "ensure that there will be no retaliation against those with whom UNHCR meets, or their family members," the group added.
It also called on the US government to keep Vietnam on its list of "Countries of Particular Concern" for religious freedom violations, and urged Cambodia to continue to provide temporary asylum to Montagnards, "in line with its obligations as a signatory to the 1951" Refugee Convention.
In a reaction, an official representing Degar Montagnards in the Central Highlands told BosNewsLife that the Human Rights Watch findings confirms growing frustration over the UN’s perceived unwillingness to act on behalf of the allegedly persecuted minority.
"This report confirms much of what I have seen concerning the UNHCR’s role with the issue," said Scott Johnson, an adviser of the Montagnard Foundation Incorporated (MFI), which represents Christians in the Central Highlands.
BOY TORTURED
"The UNHCR appears to be "glossing" over the brutality committed by Vietnamese authorities.
I personally interviewed a seven year old boy who was brutally tortured by Vietnamese police and this child has a permanent disfigured head wound because he was beaten by Vietnamese police," added Johnson.
"His father was a refugee hiding in the jungles and so the police tortured the little boy. I am absolutely disgusted at the way the UNHCR continually portrays the situation…anyone who trusts the racist Vietnamese government is blind," he said.
He quoted a UNHRC official as saying that the Vietnamese government "only slaps the Montagnards around a bit" when they are returned. "Well, if anyone reads this report, you can see how a Montagnard was beaten and hung upside down for 30 minutes or more," Johnson said. An estimated 350 Degar Montagnards are believed to have been imprisoned since 2001, often for their Christian faith or refusing to join the official, Communist backed church. rights watchers say.
Most have been charged under Vietnam’s Penal Code with vaguely worded national security crimes. These include "undermining the unity policy," "disrupting security" and "causing public disorder". Vietnam’s government has denied human rights abuses, while the UNHCR claims returnees are under "no particular threat or duress," that it has "no serious concerns" and that it does what it can to protect refugees.
DIFFERENT REALITY
In reality however arrests and detentions are ongoing and "Vietnamese officials continue to force Montagnard Christians to sign pledges renouncing their [Christian] religion, despite passage of new regulations last year banning such practices. Authorities in some areas restrict freedom of movement between villages – in particular for religious purposes not authorized by the government – and ban Christian gatherings in many areas unless they are presided over by officially recognized pastors," HRW claimed.
It noted that the Vietnamese government also "persists in criminalizing peaceful dissent, unsanctioned religious activity and efforts to seek sanctuary in Cambodia, by arresting and imprisoning Montagnards who engage in those activities. The most harshly treated are evangelical Christians who belong to independent or unregistered house churches and supporters of a non-violent movement for the protection of, and greater control over, ancestral lands."
Rights groups have linked the reported persecution to claims made by Vietnamese authorities that Degar Montagnards are following a "Western religion" and supported US forces during the Vietnam War. Of the roughly 1-million Degar Montagnard people, close to half are Protestant, while around 200,000 are Catholic, according to estimates. (With BosNewsLife Research, BosNewsLife News Center and reports from Vietnam and the United States).
