Montagnard Foundation Addresses the Italian Parliament

STATEMENT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, ROME, ITALY:

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Firstly, I would like to express my deep appreciation to the Honorable Matteo Mecacci, Member of Parliament, for the invitation to speak here today on behalf of the indigenous Degar people known also as Montagnards.

While our people live in Vietnam’s remote central highlands far away from Rome their future however, is very much affected by the relationship between Europe and the rest of the world.

I come here today to tell you about the Degar people and see if you can make their lives better in Vietnam after decades of ethnic cleansing.

This includes ethnic, political and religious persecution. It also includes corruption and callously implemented transmigration policies and even the murder of our people by Vietnamese authorities. The persecution of Christian House Churches continues today and even as I speak now hundreds of our people languish in Vietnamese prisons. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the US International  Commission for Religious Freedom acknowledge the hundreds of Degar prisoners are being unjustly imprisoned for non violent activities.

A direct quote from Human Rights Watch in January 2008 stated that “a disturbing number of Montagnard prisoners- even those in their thirties  have died shortly after release because of illness attributed to harsh conditions and mistreatment in prison”.

Our people inside Vietnam report that many of the Degar people imprisoned are so badly treated that when they reach near death the  authorities release them so it won’t appear as if they had died while in prison.

We have great fears for one of our Christian women. Her name is Puih Hbat a mother of four children and she was arrested in April 2008 for conducting prayer services in her home village. To this day we do not know if she is dead or alive. We do know however, that  the European Commission has confirmed she was arrested for illegal religious activities.

We also note that Vietnam has essentially confiscated our ancestral land resulting in our people being condemned to a life of poverty  and malnutrition. Vietnam has stolen our lifeblood, as we are indigenous peoples who live primarily by farming. Today state run coffee plantations and whole sale destruction of our forests has transformed our way of life to one of despair.

The situation facing our people is thus one of great sadness and repression.

We note that the Cooperation Agreement stipulated by the European Union and Vietnam in 1996 states in article 1 the so-called democratic clause:
”Respect for human rights and democratic principles is the basis for the cooperation between the Parties and for the provisions of this Agreement,  and it constitutes an essential element of the Agreement.”

However, we believe that Vietnam has made little progress in the way of human rights and the country remains today a one party state with little tolerance for even peaceful criticism.

Today our people are forced to call us from Vietnam in secret, under threat of being arrested, tortured or killed.

The decades of living under the communist government of Vietnam, indicates to us, that Vietnam is racist towards our people and their goal is not to reconcile our peoples, but to annihilate and persecute us.

Vietnam reacts with brutal violence to our legitimate concerns. Vietnam refuses to speak to us as citizens and falsely claims our people who speak out for human rights and religious freedom  are separatists or terrorists. These actions clearly indicate Vietnam is imposing ethnic cleansing or a form of creeping genocide upon us.

We, the indigenous Degar people, cannot stop Vietnam from committing ethnic cleansing and destroying our race and culture. We also cannot bring Vietnam to peacefully speak  to us or resolve the matter with diplomacy and human decency.

Thus our people cry out for help and we respectfully ask you to help us initiate a dialogue so our people can co-exist peacefully in Vietnam with the Vietnamese people.

Our indigenous people desperately need your help to resolve the matter.

On behalf of my Degar people, I wholeheartedly pray that the Almighty God will create a compassionate heart in each and every one of the world leaders so that they will have compassion toward our people.

Thank you for listening to my words and hope that you will do something to help my people.

Rome, November 19, 2009

For Christians, Vietnam war rages

Vietnam’s “hidden” war on Christianity just rumbles along, and on March 13, the communist authorities demolished one of the first Christian churches built in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. While religious persecution is nothing new to Vietnam, the significance of this demolition is particularly symbolic because the church was more than a historical landmark. The large stone Church at Buon Ma Thuot for the last 34 years had been deliberately closed by Vietnam’s security police, and yet, all those years, the church remained a powerful symbol to the local indigenous Christians.

Unfortunately, the church was also an unwelcome reminder for the communists who had murdered a number of Christian missionaries near the grounds in 1968, and a reminder of the very movement the government is trying to eliminate. This movement, so hated by Hanoi, is nothing other than “independent” Christian house churches.

Thus, in the dead of night, with security forces keeping watch, heavy machinery came and brought the historic church toppling down. Word of this spread, and in mourning the loss on May 1, some 90,000 Degar Montagnards from 375 villages stopped everything and prayed for three days and nights. Security forces responded by making dozens of arrests of these tribal Christians, threatening them to cease their religious activities.

This repression against Christians in Vietnam is decades old, and it was in 2004 that the U.S. State Department first added Vietnam to the “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) designation, the official “watch list” of nations that commit serious religious persecution. Potentially, CPC designation involves sanctions being imposed on such countries. However, after negotiations with Hanoi, the CPC designation was removed as the communist authorities “promised” to undertake religious reforms, including stopping forced renunciations of faith, an actual policy directed against tribal Christians.

Today, however, the question remains whether Vietnam ever intended to honor such reforms and whether the State Department conveniently accepted Hanoi’s dubious promises in order to gain trade, military and diplomatic relations. If the State Department did so, it is clear the Degar Montagnards – who were America’s loyal allies during the Vietnam War – have been relegated to little or no importance. U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Michael W. Michalak recently rejected calls by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to put Vietnam back on the CPC watch list. He cited that there was not enough evidence of religious persecution.

Yet we know the European Parliament confirmed a Degar Montagnard woman named “Puih Hbat” was arrested in April 2008 for leading prayer services in her house. Not only did the Europeans confirm that this woman had been sentenced to five years imprisonment for this “crime,” but also that this very information had been given to them by U.S. Embassy officials. “Puih Hbat” is a 42-year-old mother of five children, and her family fears that she may have been killed in custody.

It wouldn’t be the first Degar Montagnard killed by Vietnam’s security forces, and it wouldn’t be the first such killing acknowledged by the State Department. In fact, the State Department has confirmed the killings of Degar Montagnards such as “Y Ngo Adrong” in 2006 and “Y Ben Hdok” in 2008. They also reported that killings of tribal Christians by Vietnam’s security forces on Easter 2004 reached casualty figures at least in “double digit figures.”

If the imprisonment of “Puih Hbat” and the above killings are not evidence of persecution, what then of the hundreds of confirmed Degar Montagnards now rotting in Vietnam’s jails? Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the USCIRF all report that hundreds of Montagnards are currently imprisoned under Vietnam’s authoritarian laws. These laws are vaguely defined as crimes of “undermining state unity,” which, in reality, means the Degar Montagnards were imprisoned for crimes relating to religious freedom and free speech.

The evidence today suggests that not only is religious persecution continuing in Vietnam, but also that Hanoi has merely changed tactics in persecuting Christians. Since being dropped from the CPC designation in 2006, hundreds – if not thousands – of Degar Christians have been arrested, beaten and threatened in what appears a policy to repress the house churches from expanding membership. It is estimated that during the past decade, Protestant congregations have grown 600 percent in Vietnam, a statistic that has greatly alarmed communist officials.

Today, “forced renunciations” have been replaced by control mechanisms – namely, torture, beatings, imprisonment and killings. Instead of forcing Christians to renounce their faith, Vietnamese authorities force Degar Montagnards to join “government- approved” churches, such as the Evangelical Church of Vietnam – South (ECVN-S), where Christians can be watched, controlled and, if need be, arrested and imprisoned like “Puih Hbat.” In other words, “You can be a Christian, but you must be ourChristian. ”

Persecution is nothing new to the Degar Montagnards, and when the Vietnam War ended, the communists unleashed a brutal revenge against them that reads like a blueprint for ethnic cleansing. It started with the execution and imprisonment of their leaders and pastors. The Degar Montagnards were also subjected to forced relocations and driven off their ancestral lands. Today, they have been pushed into a life of poverty, and their once-great forests virtually clear-felled by logging companies. In the words of Human Rights Watch, “The Montagnards have been repressed for decades.”

The Vietnam War saw an estimated 40,000 Degar Montagnards serving with American forces at any one time, and by the end of the conflict, some 200,000 of these people, a quarter of their population, had perished. The late Ed Sprague, former U.S. Special Forces soldier and Foreign Service officer, who served with the Montagnards for seven years, summed up their role stating, “There was a dual love – we loved them and they loved us, and they saved a lot of American lives.”

In Washington today, however, the Degar Montagnards have been conveniently forgotten. The historical role they played in the Vietnam War, their sacrifice and their loyalty to the United States are practically unheard of. Only a few members of Congress have ever raised their issue, and the Obama administration seems about as interested today in hearing about Degar Montagnards as the communists are in Hanoi.

On June 8, the United States and Vietnam held a joint “Political, Security and Defense Dialogue,” and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Greg Delawie stated, “The Obama administration has placed a strong emphasis on engaging with and listening to our partners in the region.”

Of course, there was no mention of America’s former allies, the Degar Montagnards.

Scott Johnson is a lawyer, writer and human rights activist. He co-writes the Powerline.com blog.

(Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/ news/2009/ jun/26/for- christiansvietna m-war-rages- will-obama- aid-ail/ )

Scott Johnson

THE VIETNAMESE CIVILIAN MURDERED DEGAR CHRISTIAN FREE OF CHARGE

We the Degar people, both Christians and non Christians alike, have been experiencing cruelty and hate at the hands of Vietnamese people and government since 1975.  Many Degar people have been murdered and targeted by the Vietnamese civilians, military, and police free of charge.  Why do we say this? We say this because of the many reported senseless criminal acts that we see against the Degar Christians such as that against our Christian Brother Huoi who was murdered by a Ethnic Vietnamese citizen without punishment.  

Huoi was a 23 year old young man from the village of Ploi Adok Kong, district of Dakdoa in the province of Gialai.  On May 17 of 2009, Huoi along with two of his friends, Han and Nun, were standing and talking on the street in front of the house of their friend Nguin.  Adjacent to Nguin’s house, at approximately 20 meters away, was a Vietnamese store owned by a man name Minh. While the three young men were talking, someone from the store came out and gestures and asked them to come over.  Huoi decided to go and see if the Ethnic Vietnamese man needed some help. But as Huoi approached the store, the Vietnamese man suddenly went back inside the store.  By the time Huoi reached the door of the store, the man came out and stabbed Huoi in his stomach with a big knife; killing him right on the spot and then he ran away.  When Huoi’s family and friends heard of what had happened, they came to the store to look for the killer but he was gone.  They then immediately went to the Vietnamese security police who offered them no help.  This situation is a prime example of the Vietnamese government’s unwillingness to uphold the law when violations of the law are committed by Vietnamese citizens against a minority such as the Degar people.  This outright neglect to protect all citizens of Vietnam is deplorable and should not be allowed to continue.  The Vietnamese government has been running on the platform of human rights at the United Nations and no one has called them out on their lies and deceit but they continue to get the international community’s support. 

Our Degar people have experienced many things like this since 1975. The Vietnamese rules and laws seem to only protect ethnic Vietnamese and not all citizens of Vietnam especially the indigenous Degar people. 

After they had invaded the Central Highlands in 1975, the Hanoi government accused the indigenous Degar people of siding with US forces and South Vietnam.  This is the excuse that the government gives in order for them to have the right in the eyes of the international community to murder our people at will.  During the war, the indigenous Degar people were used by the US extensively because of their loyalty and fearlessness.  But we saw no fruits for our labor.  Instead, while thousands of the Degar people die in a war that has no benefit to them, we continue to suffer because we were allies of the US.  This was South Vietnam’s war with the North.  Why is it that the Degar people continue to suffer and not the South Vietnamese?  Why is the International community more concerned about how the North is treating the former South Vietnamese people than they are with what is happening to the Indigenous Degar people.  The Degar people were the innocent bystanders who were not suppose to be part of the casualties of this war.  Instead, it’s sad to say that North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and the US did not care for the lives of the Degar people.  We are now hated by everyone because we are asking for help.  

The indigenous Degar people did not create the war nor did they know where the war came from or what it was for.  What we do know is that the war was fought on our homeland.  It destroyed our people and our land where we have lived for thousands of years in peace and freedom.  Most of the battles were fought in the Central Highlands not in Hanoi.  As a result, hundreds of thousands of innocent Degar people died because of the war. 

After the war had ended in 1975 many countries around the world gave aid in money to help rebuild and strengthen Vietnam. None of it went to help rebuild the lives of the Degar people.  Vietnam has now become one of the most powerful countries in the world.  They abuse their power by quieting any critics who try to speak out against their unfair treatment of the Indigenous Degar people while others watch as they destroy the Degar race. 

We the Degar indigenous people are helpless in stopping the genocidal policies of the Vietnamese government toward our people but we can pray to our Almighty God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to help us to endure the painful agony of death.  On the contrary, we want to thank and praise our Almighty God for allowing our people to be ignorant, poor and weak so that we cannot harm the one who is hurting us.  

Just like apostle Paul stated in 2Corinthians 12:8-10 three times I pleaded with the Lord to take away from me.  But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

I hope these verses from the Bible will reach the Degar people in the Central Highlands to comfort them in their time of hardship and needs.

Vietnam Demolished Historic Church, Christians Mourn, Pray

The recent demolition of the historic Church, an important symbol of the Christian faith in the central highland regions of Vietnam has prompted Degar ethnic Christians to respond in prayer and cry to God.

Degar Church could do nothing “to fall on their knees, mourn and pray for three days and three nights on May 1-3,” a public statement released by Degar Christian leaders on May 27 by the Montagnard Foundation stated.

“On March 13, 2009, the Vietnamese government demolished the first Degar Church that had ever been built. This historical structure was located at Buon Ale “A” in the city of Buonmathuot in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Degar Christians mourn the loss of this church, which they hold dearly as the origin of Christianity in the central highlands,” the statement said.

As a means of peaceful protest, on May 1, 2009, nearly 90,000 Degar Christians in the Central Highlands and abroad stayed in their homes, not going anywhere for three days and three nights, to mourn for our church because we have failed in protecting our Historical Church at Buon Ale “A”, it added.

Located in Buon Ale “A” in the city of Buonmathuot in the central highlands of Vietnam, the structure was the first Degar church ever built and regarded by the people as the origin of Christianity in the region, a home church and something of a sacred historical site.

It was also meant as a collective act of repentance for failing on their part to protect the historical church and a time of prayer to God, pleading for His forgiveness in the light of their failure and the actions of the government.

Furthermore, the people prayed for their persecutors, that God would touch the hearts of Vietnamese officials so they might repent and bring an end to their persecution of the Degar people, according to Montagnard Foundation, Inc., a ministry led by an ethnic Degar and dedicated to the preservation of the indigenous people group, the statement stated.

Nearly 90,000 Degars from 375 villages and five provinces in the central highlands including around 700 from the Degar Church in Greensboro, North Carolina in the U.S. participated in the time of mourning and prayer.

Christians alleged that the demolition of the historic Degar church in the central highland region of Vietnam “marks the culmination of state persecution of the ethnic group.”

Ethnic repression in the form of the confiscation of ancestral lands – government initiatives which have been compared to Stalin’s purges – illegal logging operations in collaboration with corrupt Cambodian and Laotian officials, assimilation policies with the intention of eliminating the Degar cultural identity and coercive birth-control programmes using threats, fines and financial incentives to force Degar women to get surgically sterilised and systematic attempts to eliminate the Degar religion – the Christian faith – by forcing Degars to renounce their faith in official ceremonies under threat of imprisonment and torture has been reported by websites like that run by Scott Johnson and rights groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Montagnard Foundation.

Among the cases is a Degar Christian by the name of Y-Ngo Adrong who was tortured to death by Vietnamese security forces in 2006 for using a cell phone, according to the U.S. State Department, and a Degar woman, Puih H’Bat, who was arrested on 11 April 2008 and sentenced to five years imprisonment in her home province for leading prayer services at her home, citing “destruction of the unity of the people’s solidarity” – Puih refused to join the government-sanctioned Evangelical Church of Vietnam – reported reliable sources contacted by the E.U. missions in Hanoi.

Degars are an indigenous people of Vietnam’s Central Highlands, they were known by various names including Montagnards (mountaineers) by French, Yards by the Americans, Moi by majority Vietnamese. They number a little over one million in Vietnam, a population of over 70 million people. More than half of Degars are Protestant with Catholic numbers a little over 200,000.

Edmond Chua
Christian Post Correspondent

Ho Chi Minh’s Gift

A legacy of corruption, economic ruin, repression and ethnic cleansing

By Scott Johnson

Ho Chi Minh died in 1969, and on the anniversary of his birth this May the old guard in Hanoi predictably imposed another state celebration in his honor. More than just ‘keeping up appearances,’ the Vietnamese communist regime is fighting to retain ideological justification as today’s “money-making communists” cling to power. Since North Vietnamese forces in Soviet tanks first crashed the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon however, some three decades ago the Vietnamese communist party has done nothing but fail their people …. and fail them in spectacular fashion.Vietnam hosts one of the most corrupt regimes in the world and in 2008 was rated by Transparency International as 121st ‘most corrupt’ amongst 180 nations. Likewise Vietnam is also one of the poorest with the average wage being a few dollars a day. Initially, the post war communists found an easy out, blaming its economic woes on French and American wars but as the years went by, the communist lie became harder to defend. Doi moi (renovation) grew older and the Vietnamese tiger remained asleep in the forest. The communist victory in Vietnam however, was doomed from the outset, predestined to birth a template for economic decay and endemic corruption … and like their brutal human rights record, the failure in Vietnam is nothing less than a self-inflicted wound.

The origins of Vietnam’s problems can be traced to its conception. In the 1950s, Ho Chi Minh and his communist party murdered an estimated 50,000 people in Northern Vietnam. It was called the “Land Reform Program” but the only reform it did was the execution and starvation of tens of thousands of peasants and landowners. Earlier during the 1930s and 1940s, Uncle Ho and his gang eliminated their political opponents in a series of assassinations. Yes, murder, where the communists in mafia-like fashion shot and killed their opposition, thus ending the true Vietnamese nationalist parties, the Quoc Dan Dang and Da Viet.

It is through this use of terror that Uncle Ho and his cohort General Giap came to power forging the Viet Cong’s strategy of “terror.” The deliberate massacre of thousands of Vietnamese civilians in 1968 at the imperial city of Hue or the 1967 butchery of hundreds of tribal Montagnards by flamethrowers in the village in Dak Son would became a testament to Ho Chi Minh’s brutality. After taking over South Vietnam, the communists would further murder at least 80,000 Vietnamese people in Stalinist style re-education camps.

Today the children of Ho follow his legacy by mimicking China, North Korea, Cuba, Burma and Iran by maintaining power through brute force and censorship of the press. In March 2009 Reporters Without Borders declared Vietnam an “enemy of the internet” and all a citizen of Vietnam needs to do today is criticize the regime and security police will come for you with handcuffs.

The brutal repression of Vietnam’s tribal peoples also continues unabated. The U.S. State Department acknowledged killings of Montagnards by security forces and there are today hundreds of Montagnard political and religious prisoners rotting in Vietnamese jails.

The Montagnards of Degar people have in fact been subjected to decades of persecution in a “creeping” form of “ethnic cleansing.” The attack upon these indigenous peoples started in 1975 with the execution and imprisonment of their political and religious leaders. The next phase of attack was aimed at the Montagnards’s lifeblood, where the communists confiscated their ancestral lands to make way for forced migrations of ethnic Vietnamese. The Montagnards today have been driven into poverty and their natural resources, the once great forests of Vietnam have been deforested by companies controlled by the Vietnamese Army.

Religious persecution against Christians continues also and in April 2008 a 42-year-old Montagnard woman named Puih Hbat was arrested for having Christian prayer services in her home. Officials from the U.S. Embassy and the European Commission have investigated her case, yet Puih Hbat has not been heard of since and her family believes she may have been murdered in custody.

Vietnam’s Communist Party deny any such human rights violations, but have tried placating concerns raised by foreign investors. Party Chief Nong Duc Manh stated in 2006 that “Corruption threatens the survival of our regime,” and yet institutionalized corruption continues to plague the country at every level. The problem is, Hanoi hosts a most stubborn regime and unlike its former patron the Soviet Union, never undertook even the most palatable of communist admitted failings such as “de-Stalinization.” Hanoi responded to Krushchev’s denouncement of Stalin’s murderous reign with official idolization, calling Stalin a “marvelously noble ideal communist.” Never mind that Stalin killed millions of his own people.

Today Vietnam’s state press continues espousing paranoia of the threat to their sovereignty by overseas “hostile forces.” Hanoi went so far as to formally accuse the U.S. based Montagnard Foundation with terrorist allegations in the United Nations. While they lost this bogus bid to silence its critics Hanoi continues today to persecute the Montagnards with a vengeance.

In a comical farce, Vietnam’s leading newspaper the Nhan Dan actually ran an article on May 6, 2008 titled, “The Everlasting Vitality of Marxism.” Such diatribes against capitalism seemingly have no effect upon trade delegations from the West who eagerly reap the profits of Vietnam’s cheap labor markets. Yet reform is slow and party rhetoric won’t cure Vietnam’s deeply rooted communist ills. In March 2009, top secret politburo documents uncovered by the Paris based Vietnam Human Rights Committee described Hanoi’s plan to “maintain a climate of permanent fear” so they can “stay in power for another 20 years.”

So goes the strange saga of Vietnam. Communist on the outside, capitalist on the inside and…corrupt all over. It is stranger still, given their hatred of religion that Hanoi dared to promulgate its own religion. Yet they did exactly that in preserving Ho like Lenin for public display and proclaiming his saintly status, by alleging he was celibate! Truth be known Ho had numerous mistresses and the Vietnamese author Duong Thu Huong reports party officials murdered one such mistress named Xuan in 1957 by party officials just to keep the celibate myth alive. Bui Tin, the North Vietnamese Colonel who defected in 1989, also confirmed Ho’s sexual affairs, and lest we forget, communist party general secretary Nong Duc Manh long built his career on claims he was the illegitimate son of Ho Chi Minh!

Ho Chi Minh’s gift to the people of Vietnam however, was not his macabre corpse entombed in the stone monstrosity in Hanoi. His gift was authoritarianism, lies, corruption and repression built on the blood of the Vietnamese people. A gift of creeping ethnic cleansing, that glides across the Vietnamese landscape in a deathly bid to silence an ancient race of tribal people.

While the powers to be no doubt are trying to massage Vietnam out of its slumber, foreign aid and trade deals have yet to shake off Hanoi’s chains of corruption. The regime has entrenched its power and the transition to true democracy is held hostage by Uncle Ho’s ever recalcitrant children, the Vietnamese communist party.

Scott Johnson is a lawyer, writer and human rights activist who has focused on issues in South East Asia.

THE VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT AND VIETNAMESE CIVILIANS ARE KILLING DEGAR CHRISTIAN VILLAGERS

For many years now, we have been appealing to the international community for help in improving our relations with the Vietnamese government.  Despite all of our attempts, their hatred towards the Degar people continues to grow.  It seems as though living in harmony with the Indigenous Degar people is not an option to them.  Their selfishness and disregard for human life is appalling.  They have murdered many men, women, and children without any fear of retribution from the international community.  They kill for our land.  They kill because we are different.  They kill for the fun of it.  When will this all stop?  Instead, we are left to mourn for the ones we love without any hope of justice. Our Christian Brother Siu Krot was brutally murdered by both civilians and security police last month in January of 2009 for his farmland.  His family now has no way of supporting themselves.  Who can they turn to during this horrible time?  How can they and the Degar people protect themselves from these forms of aggression?  Does anyone even care that these things are happening?  This is definitely proof that the Vietnamese government and its people hate the indigenous Degar people. They want to destroy them completely in order to gain possession of their ancestral lands.  And, they will continue to kill our people until they are no more.  Despite their actions, the Vietnamese government continues to receive international financial support and investments.

 

In the midst of all our turmoil and pain we continue to stand firm on the word of God.  We do not lose hope for Our Lord Jesus said in the book of John 14:1-3 “Do not let your heart be troubled, trust in God; trust also in Me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.”

Therefore with all my heart, I would like to advise my native Degar people that we all should remember to let go all of our worldly possessions for Jesus Christ has promised Eternal Life with Him in Heaven.  So let us trust him with all the things that befall us for our hope is in Him who died for us.  Maybe this is the time that our Lord Jesus wants to take us back to Himself.  So, let us embrace his will and be prepared to endure whatever it takes.

The story of our Christian brother, Siu Krot, is as the following: 

The Vietnamese civilians and police came to the home of our Christian brother, Siu Krot, in the village of Buon Sup “B” town of Ea Sup, district of Ea Sup in the province of Daklak, several times to ask him to sell his farmland to them but Siu Krot refused.  He could not sell this piece of land to them because it is the only source of food for his family.

On January 7, 2009, our Christian brother, Siu Krot age 65, went to work on his farm not too far from his village early in the morning.  When he got to his farm, a group of Vietnamese civilian and Vietnamese security police were already there waiting for him at his hut.  The other Degar family who was working on their farm close by saw there were around 10 Vietnamese civilians and a couple of Vietnamese security police but they did not bother to go there and ask.

At Siu Krot’s hut this group of Vietnamese asked him again to sell them his farmland but he refused.  They then proceeded to take him away from his farm for about 3 kilometers then they killed him by whacking him with their machete on the back of his head, on his forehead, on his nose, both sides of his cheek and beat him up until he died.  Then they tied a big rock to his corpse and sunk him to the bottom of the river.

In the evening of that day, the Degar family whose farm was adjacent to Siu Krot’s asked his family if they knew what kind of problems they had with the Vietnamese civilians and police.  The family was surprised because they did not have any problem at all except the Vietnamese civilians and police came to their house asking to buy their farmland in the previous days.

The family was waiting for Siu Krot that night but he did not come home.  So, early in the morning of January 8, 2009, his son and family went to the farm to see what had happened to him.  On their way to the farm, when they got to the river, they were stopped by Vietnamese police.  They could see that a doctor was performing an autopsy on the corpse of Siu Krot along the riverbank.  The doctor took all of his intestines, heart, and liver and so on from his body and then he threw them back inside and told his family to take the corpse home and burry it.  We do not understand why they did this? 

The Vietnamese security police confiscated money from an old sick mother that was sent from her son living in the United States

The Vietnamese government is not only confiscating the ancestral lands of the indigenous Degar peoples but they are also confiscating money sent back by Degar refugees in the United States to relatives in the Central Highlands.

On September 20, 2008 our Christian brother, Y-Pliu Nie who is now living in Greensboro, North Carolina as a refugee, sent $350.00 USD back to his sick mother, H’Krek Nie, who is living at the village of Buon Tri “B” commune of Dlie Yang, district of Ea Hleo in the province of Daklak.  His mother had received the $350.00 on September 23, 2008 and she intended to use it to buy some medicine to treat her sickness and to buy some rice for her-self.

At around 4pm on the same day, September 23 of 2008, 3 Vietnamese security police whose names we don’t know and one Vietnamese cadre who is Degar, Y-Il Nie, came to H’Krek Nie’s house and confiscated the $350.00 USD and then took H’Krek Nie to their office at the commune of Dlie Yang and forced her to sign a paper.  But, H’Krek Nie did not know how to write and was therefore unable to sign her name so they took her hand and put her fingerprint on a piece of paper.  She was then sent home without her money.

These criminal acts against the Degar people should not be condoned.  Instead, countries should stop their financial support and hold the Vietnamese government to the human rights laws of indigenous peoples set forth by the United Nations.  And until so, no more financial support of any sort shall be given.  This is what we ask of the international community.  Remember, by aiding Vietnam you are also financing their criminal acts.

source: Montagnard Foundation, Inc

THE LATEST MASS MIGRATION OF VIETNAMESE PEOPLE FROM NORTH INTO THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS

It has been 33 years since the communist Vietnamese invaded the Central Highlands in 1975.  The Vietnamese government still moves its people from the North into Degars’ good farmlands and water sources while at the same time pushing our people away by force.  There is absolutely nothing the Degar people can do to resist.   Without any means to support their families, this eventually pushed many of them into poverty.  We believe that THIS IS NOTHING MORE THAN USING STARVATION AS A WEAPON TO EXTERMINATE THE INDIGENOUS DEGAR PEOPLE’S RACE under the watchful eye of the world.

On the 4th day of August 2008, the Vietnamese government again calls for a mass migration of Vietnamese people from the North into the good farmlands of the Degar people.  It was estimated that approximately 800 families or 4000 people were relocated into the district of Ea Hleo in the province of Dak Lak specifically occupying the water sources.  They strategically spread themselves out along both sides of the water streams.  The people were distributed along six regions as listed below:

1. Along both sides of Mokan Stream – 133 families or 666 people settled here.
2. Along both sides of Hnua Stream – 133 families or 666 people settled here.
3. Along both sides of Jal Stream – 133 families or 666 people settled here.
4. Along both sides of Tang Stream – 133 families or 666 people settled here.
5. Along both sides of Kan Stream – 133 families or 666 people settled here.
6. Along both sides of Um Stream – 135 families or 670 people settled here.

During the migration, these new Vietnamese settlers brought nothing with them not even food.   Therefore, these new settlers began raping and pillaging the farms of the Degar people and finally they forcefully occupied the farms and pushed Degar people away.  Degar farmers tried to stop them but the new Vietnamese settlers raised their hands with guns, sticks, and machetes.

Eventually they took what they wanted and settled wherever they pleased.  The Degar families were left helpless in this situation and had nowhere to turn to.  The Vietnamese government was not an option because they knew that the government had allowed this in the first place and any plea for assistance would be seen as a revolt against the government.

The Degar families were devastated with the amount that was taken from them.  They had little land to begin with to support their families.  Now, with most of their possession taken away, the Degar families are struggling to survive.  In most instances, they are starving and if this situation is allowed to continue, our men, women, and children will be malnourished and die.

Adding insult to injury, the Vietnamese government will then tell the world that our people are dying from diseases and starvation.  Or instead, they will label our people as being lazy and unwilling to find work.  They will then bring this to the attention of the international community and governments so that they can obtain humanitarian aid in terms of food and money. When they do get aid, they would just put it directly into their own pockets and provide aid only to their own Vietnamese people.

Many times in the past, we have tried to send money to the poor Degar families but once the government hears of any money being given to the families they would immediately go and confiscate it.  In other instances, we have asked our own people to get a consensus on which families are in poverty so that we can provide them with some financial aid.  When the government heard about this they arrested, tortured and imprisoned the individuals who were gathering this information for us.  Therefore we are left with our hands tied on how to help our own people.  We can’t allow this to continue to happen but we ourselves cannot stop it.

This is another one of the government’s attempts to decimate the Degar race.  We strongly believe that they will continue to target the Degar people until they accomplish what they want (genocide) or until someone intervenes.  They are also doing this under the umbrella of the United Nations.  By being part of UN, no one questions their human rights policies and violations.  When asked about these allegations, the Vietnamese government would just submit a letter to refute the accusations and all is forgotten.  This to us is an illogical way of approaching things and we therefore ask for an independent investigation.

 source:Montagnard Foundation

Vietnam: MEPs want progress on human rights before cooperation accord is signed

In a resolution on EU-Vietnam relations, Parliament calls for Vietnam to be pressed to observe human rights and various key freedoms before a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the EU is finalised.

According to the resolution, which was adopted by 479 votes to 21 with 4 abstentions, freedom of assembly and of the press as well as internet access are severely restricted in Vietnam, while religious groups and ethnic minorities – such as Catholics, Buddhists and the Montagnard and Khmer minorities – suffer discrimination and persecution.
 
Better implementation of human rights under existing accord needed
 
Looking, firstly, to the current EU-Vietnam cooperation agreement, Parliament stresses that “the human rights dialogue between the European Union and Vietnam must lead to tangible improvements in Vietnam” and “asks the Council and the Commission to reassess cooperation policy with Vietnam, bearing in mind Article 1 of the 1995 Cooperation Agreement, which states that cooperation is based on respect for democratic principles and fundamental rights”.  It calls on the Commission “to establish clear benchmarks for the evaluation of the current development projects in Vietnam in order to ensure their compliance with the human rights and democracy clause”.
 
New agreement not to be finalised until rights violations stop
 
Secondly, MEPs urge the Commission and the Council, in the current negotiations for a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, “to raise with the Vietnamese side the need to stop the current systematic violation of democracy and human rights before the finalisation of the agreement”.
 
In particular, Parliament, which has a consultative role in the conclusion of the new agreement, wants Vietnam to be asked:
 
- to cooperate actively with UN human rights mechanisms, by inviting the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance to visit Vietnam;
 
- to release all people imprisoned or detained for the peaceful expression of political or religious beliefs;
 
- to allow independent religious organisations to freely conduct religious activities without government interference;
 
 - to repeal provisions in Vietnamese law that criminalise dissent and certain religious activities on the basis of imprecisely defined ‘national security’ crimes;
 
- to end the Vietnamese Government’s censorship and control over the domestic media.

DEGAR WOMAN IMPRISONED FOR PREACHING CHRISTIANITY

 source: http://montagnard-foundation.org

URGENT APPEAL:

DEGAR WOMAN IMPRISONED FOR PREACHING CHRISTIANITY
After 5 months in a Vietnamese prison, authorities continue to deny visitation rights to her family, who fears that she has already been killed by security forces

MFI

 From right to left:
Puih H’Woih, her elder mother, Puih H’Bat age 41, and her children, Puih Huil age 7, Puih Dui age 10, Puih H’Huat age 12 and Puih Kui age 19
.

Is Puih H’Bat dead? On Wednesday April 9, 2008, at approximately 6:30 pm, four Vietnamese security police came to the house of our Christian sister, Puih H’Bat, in the village of Ploi Bang, Ia Chia commune, Ia Grai district, Gialai province while she was leading 20 Christian believers in prayer services at her home.  The security police demanded that these Christians sign a document agreeing to join the Hoi Thanh Tin Lanh Vietnam (The Evangelical Church of Vietnam), which is the government sanctioned church. The police said if they refused to sign the document, that they would be arrested, tortured and imprisoned.  All Christian believers at the home of Puih H’Bat, however, refused to sign the document.

The next day, on April 10, 2008, at approximately 8:00pm, more security police supported by Vietnamese soldiers came to the village of Ploi Bang and summoned the entire village to report to Ploi Bang Elementary school. The soldiers accused the people of following the Montagnard Foundation and Ksor Kok and worshiping him.  The villagers and believers laughed at this and told the security police that “we do not follow the religion of Ksor Kok or worship him.  He is not god.  We only follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and worship our Almighty God the Father.” The security police continued to threaten the villagers, attempting to coerce them into signing the document joining the official government sanctioned church. When everyone still refused, they dismissed the meeting at approximately 10:00 pm. 

On April 11, 2008, at approximately 4 am in the morning, 8 Vietnamese security police stormed into the house of our Christian sister, Puih H’Bat, and arrested her, put her in a truck and took her to Ia Grai district prison.  The same night, the police also arrested two other Christian brothers, Ksor Sim and Rahlan Don.  During the arrest of Ksor Sim, police sprayed a chemical repellant inside his house forcing the whole family outside, whereupon security police shocked him with electric batons until he collapsed unconscious.  His wife and 16 year-old daughter ran to see if he was alive or dead, and the police then beat and shocked them with electrical batons until they also collapsed unconscious.

Ksor Sim and Rahlan Don have been released from prison because they had agreed to sign a document to follow the government sanctioned church.  

On the left here is a photo of Puih H’Bat’s husband who is now living in the United States as a refugee.   His name is Rahlan Hre, age 43, and he is terribly worried about his wife’s well being and also about how his children will survive without her. Currently, there is no one to take care of the children except for his elderly mother in law.  All of his children have stopped attending school because they are devastated about what is happening to their mother in prison and are afraid that the government will come for them too. 

Puih H’Bat is imprisoned at the criminal prison facility T-20 in Pleiku according to what the Vietnamese security police told her mother.  But what crime has she committed? Is it against the law for a Degar woman to tell other Degar people about Jesus Christ? She was not preaching to the Vietnamese, but only to comfort our indigenous Degar community in order to be able to endure the brutality of the Vietnamese government.

Five months later, the authorities still refuse to allow Puih H’Bat’s family to visit her in prison. It is greatly feared she has already been killed or suffers from serious wounds as a result of being tortured. Why else would the Vietnamese government refuse to allow her family to visit her? The family fears for the worst and despite several appeals by her villagers to the authorities to release her, the authorities have maintained a blackout of information and is silent regarding her condition. They refused to allow anyone to know about her condition or welfare.

The Montagnard Foundation urgently calls on the international community, Embassies, Red Cross, UN, EU, US and concerned agencies to urgently investigate this matter. Please pressure the Vietnamese government to disclose the condition of Puih H’Bat and let her family know if she is alive or dead. Most of all, please pressure the Vietnamese government to immediately release her from prison so she may care for her family.

When they first arrested Puih H’Bat on the 11th of April in 2008, the Vietnamese security police charged her with being a Christian but refusing to join the evangelical church of Vietnam (ECVN). 

This charge seems inconsistent with Vietnamese law, which states that “the citizen shall enjoy freedom of belief and of religion; he can follow any religion or follow none.  All religions are equal before the law.  The places of worship of all faiths and religions are protected by the law.  No one can violate freedom of belief and of religion; nor can anyone misuse beliefs and religions to contravene the law and state policies” (Article 70).

Since this contradiction was brought up, the Vietnamese security police have changed the charges against her. Because they found a partial document of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples in her house, they are now charging her with the crime of possessing a document of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples. Why would this document be considered contraband in the hands of an indigenous Degar Christian?

We, the indigenous Degar people, want to know if the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted  on September 13 2007 by 143 countries around the world included Vietnam, is intended to help indigenous peoples around the world or to trap them. Was this declaration designed simply in order to enable ruthless governments to kill and destroy their indigenous people like the government of Vietnam is doing to the indigenous Degar people?  Should we believe this declaration is intended to help the indigenous peoples around the world to have the same rights as non-indigenous peoples? If so, why would the UN allow a country like Vietnam to imprison an indigenous person simply for possession of this document?

MONTAGNARD REPRESENTATIVE ADDRESSES EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

MONTAGNARD REPRESENTATIVE ADDRESSES EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CALLS ON EUROPEAN UNION TO ENFORCE HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEW ECONOMIC AGREEMENT AND DEMANDS VIETNAM CEASE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF DEGAR MONTAGNARDS

source:Transnational Radical Party

On 25 August 2008 Mr. Kok Ksor, President of the Montagnard Foundation addressed the Sub Committee on Human Rights at the European Parliament in Brussels. The purpose of the Sub Committee was to examine the human rights situation in the context of the Economic Agreement between the EU and; Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Present at this meeting were numerous European Parliamentarians and officials, Human Rights Groups, NGOs and the Vietnamese Ambassador to the EU, Mr. Manh Dzung Nguyen and the Cambodian Ambassador to the EU, Mrs. Saphoeun Sun. The Laotian Ambassador however, failed to attend the meeting.

The current EU/Vietnam economic agreement has the so called democracy and human rights clause which is supposed to promote human rights in these South East Asian countries. Now the EU is now negotiating a new Bilateral Agreement with Vietnam and the crucial issue for the Montagnard Foundation and numerous other speakers at the Sub Committee was the noticeable lack of improvement of human rights and democracy in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Having received generous aid from Europe, Vietnam has in recent years responded by increasing political, ethnic and religious persecution against the Degar Montagnards in brutal ethnic cleansing. Hundreds of political and religious Degar prisoners currently languish in prison and as recently as August 2008 Degar Montagnards have been murdered by security forces. The Montagnard Foundation submitted a detailed report of callous transmigration policies and religious persecution amounting to Ethnic Cleansing against the Degar people by the government of Vietnam.

KOK KSOR, PRESIDENT OF THE MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION STATES:
Our people cry out for help and we respectfully ask the European Union take a proactive lead on this issue so our people can co-exist peacefully in Vietnam with the Vietnamese people. Our indigenous people desperately need your help to resolve the matter.

————————-
See the REPORT

 

European Parliament Hears From Khmer Krom & Montagnard Representatives

Source: UNPO

In the first meeting of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights following the summer recess, representatives from the Khmer Kumpuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) and the Montagnard Foundation Inc. (MFI) have provided the committee with an up-to-date assessment of the human rights situations of minorities in Cambodia and Vietnam.

UNPO joined other observers in a packed committee room to hear KKF and MFI representatives give their evidence alongside counterparts from organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights in China, and Human Rights Watch.

On the subcommittee’s agenda were an exchange of views following the close of the Olympic Games in China, the current human rights situations in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, and lastly the state of human rights in Moldova.

Initial discussions dwelt on the impact the Olympic Games had had on China’s policy towards its citizens. Mrs. Hom, representing Human Rights in China, stated her organization’s belief that political change in China would have to be driven by civil society within the country. This was reiterated by representatives from the European Commission who referred attendees to the case of bloggers driving criticism of the authorities.

Despite these comments, the European Commission stated only its “disappointment” that any improvements in China’s human rights record had not been commensurate with the promises made in the run-up to the Games. In fact, it was felt that the Olympic Games may have put the promotion of Chinese human rights on hold – but that the conclusion of the Games may allow China to put its human rights record “back on track”.

This generous assessment was not shared by Mr. McMillan-Scott, vice-president of the European Parliament. He declared China the “most brutal regime” in the international community and urged the European Parliament to continue to amass evidence on China’s human rights and the international community to maintain its pressure on China.

Attentions then shifted to the respective human rights situations in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Mr. Vien Thach, of the KKF read an appeal (which is contained below) detailing a litany of religious, land right, education, and media curtailments that affected the daily lives of Khmer Krom in Vietnam.

Responses were heard from the ambassadors for Cambodia and Vietnam who respectively expressed their commitment to building political stability within their countries but who, in the opinion of many of those gathered, still had much to do to safeguard the rights of all those living within their states’ borders.

Mr. Kok Ksor, of the MFI, rebuffed claims by the Vietnamese government that it targeted only those who had committed criminal acts, and instead cited a long list of instances where the government had conducted surveillance and confiscations against the Montagnard minority. Using the opportunity to address the subcommittee, Mr. Ksor urged the European Parliament and the institutions of the European Union to take the lead in ensuring Vietnam’s observance of the international human rights instruments to which it is a signatory.

The Subcommittee on Human Rights will next meet in the European Parliament in Brussels at 15h00 on Wednesday 10 September 2008.

Fifteen years old Degar girl attending first year of college

A 15-year-old Degar girl is a freshman at Winthrop University. H’Liana Niehrah of Charleston, South Carolina was graduated from Charleston’s Academic Magnet High School, a prestigious high school in SC. AMHS is ranked among the top 50 best high schools in the USA, and ranked in the Top10 in the following Newsweek report: http://www.newsweek.com/id/39380. It was also awarded the Gold Medal by US News & World Report: http://www.usnews.com/listings/high-schools/south_carolina/academic_magnet_high_school.

Since a young age, H’Liana enjoyed reading picture books and watching educational programs on television. At the age of three, she could read and write well; she excelled during her years in elementary school and skipped three grades. In high school she took AP (Advanced Placement) classes.

H’Liana is too young to vote, drive a car or go to an R-rated movie, but at the age of just 15 she is beginning her classes this fall at Winthrop University along with her 18-year-old sister, Alina. She said she doesn’t really notice the age gap between herself and her 17- and 18-year-old peers — and neither do they.

“People think my sister Alina and I are twin sisters ; I didn’t tell people straightaway that I was 15,” H’ Liana said.
“A lot of people were pretty surprised.”

No known Degar student has ever started the college at this young of an age. H’ Liana will become the youngest Degar college student and the youngest freshman in the history of Winthrop University.

Her oldest brother, who graduated as a high school valedictorian, is a senior at the College of Charleston. Also, H’Liana has a 14-year-old brother who is a high school sophomore at the Charleston County School of the Arts and is majoring in creative writing..

source: Montagnard-Foundation, Inc.

Ethnic Cleansing: Just A Point Of View?

original source: http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/003819.html

Is Vietnam engaged in ethnic cleansing or genocide? Is the answer a matter of point of view, or a matter of who profits? Is the answer, regardless, any less horrible?

I’ve written many times about various elements of the large-scale, purposeful persecution of the native Montagnards by the Vietnamese government, and of their “cousins” the Hmong in Laos. Today, the Montagnard Foundation has pulled together these various elements into a report, “Vietnam’s Blueprint For Ethnic Cleansing.”

The report is being sent

“to relevant bodies of the international community including”:
 US State Department
 US Commission on International Religious Freedom
 Members of US Senate and House of Representatives
 Amnesty International
 Human Rights Watch
 UN High Commissioner on Human Rights
 UN Special Rapporteurs (Indigenous Peoples, Torture, Racism, Religious, etc)
 European Commission
 ASEAN

 

In hopes that the blogosphere will also send the message that anyone cares, I’m sending key excerpts to you. First, a brief definitional discussion may be needed to clarify the dimensions of the case.

Genocide is a term reserved for wholesale, purposeful, government-organized, technological extermination of an identified group, and is even reserved for specific types as laid out in Geneva Conventions. There’s justifiable discouragement of excessive use of the term as cheapening the scale and suffering of those subjected to it.

Ethnic cleansing is a term for grayer areas of such horrendous efforts, when the effort is not as whole-encompassing, or there’s lack of global opinion agreement that it rises to genocide.

The UN’s General Assembly may have clarified when ethnic cleansing becomes genocide (Resolution 47/121, regarding Bosnia/Herzegovina):

… It [i.e. ethnic cleansing] can only be a form of genocide within the meaning of the [Genocide] Convention, if it corresponds to or falls within one of the categories of acts prohibited by Article II of the Convention. Neither the intent, as a matter of policy, to render an area “ethnically homogeneous”, nor the operations that may be carried out to implement such policy, can as such be designated as genocide: the intent that characterizes genocide is “to destroy, in whole or in part” a particular group, and deportation or displacement of the members of a group, even if effected by force, is not necessarily equivalent to destruction of that group, nor is such destruction an automatic consequence of the displacement. This is not to say that acts described as ‘ethnic cleansing’ may never constitute genocide, if they are such as to be characterized as, for example, ‘deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part’, contrary to Article II, paragraph (c), of the Convention, provided such action is carried out with the necessary specific intent (dolus specialis), that is to say with a view to the destruction of the group, as distinct from its removal from the region. As the ICTY has observed, while ‘there are obvious similarities between a genocidal policy and the policy commonly known as ‘ethnic cleansing’ ‘ (Krstić, IT-98-33-T, Trial Chamber Judgment, 2 August 2001, para. 562), yet ‘[a] clear distinction must be drawn between physical destruction and mere dissolution of a group. The expulsion of a group or part of a group does not in itself suffice for genocide….[European Court of Human Rights, quoting the International Court of Justice, via WikiPedia]

 

I think the Montagnard Foundation is hesitant to use the term genocide, to avoid being caught up in definitional arguments, but what you’ll read below certainly seems to be more than “mere” ethnic cleansing relocation of a group. There’s many specifics, footnoted, and photos.

… Examining the evidence collectively, a blueprint of ethnic cleansing emerges as these human rights violations, including official and spontaneous transmigration policies, large scale deforestation, abuse of family planning methods, religious persecution, land confiscation, torture and extrajudicial killing, have been directed against a specific race of indigenous peoples….The evidence of this persecution comes from various authorities namely the US State Department, the United Nations, US International Commission of Religious Freedom and internationally recognized NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International….

KILLINGS, IMPRISONMENT AND TORTURE
Since the year 2000, thousands of Degar Montagnards have been arrested, in what can be described as a policy of “arrest, torture, threaten and release” by Vietnamese security forces of whose intent is to repress the Degar population. Many Degars however are not released, being sentenced to prison terms and others die from torture and abuse for non violent peaceful activities. In recent years the Vietnamese government has intensified surveillance and paramilitary operations in the Central Highlands with the intent to crush both the spread of house Church Christianity and the Degar population from seeking legitimate redress for human rights abuses. Such arrests involved threats and torture, including beatings designed to deliberately cause death from internal injuries, electric shock torture and outright killings of indigenous Degar people for religious and non-violent political human rights activities….

TRANSMIGRATION, FORCED RELOCATIONS & CONFISCATION OF ANCESTRAL LAND
The Hanoi government had long ago commenced the forced confiscation of Degar ancestral land – the lifeblood of its indigenous peoples and over the preceding decades, forcibly relocated Degar villages to areas of poor farmland and limited health services. Reminiscent of Stalin’s purges, these began as 5-year plans (large-scale internal migration policies) which brought thousands of ethnic Vietnamese from the coast and North Vietnam onto traditional Degar lands. This occurred throughout the 80s and 90s and while no longer called 5-year plans, this spontaneous and government sponsored internal migration continues today in 2008 throughout the Central Highlands. Various authorities including the US State Department acknowledged such(see above). This displacement program is sometimes called “Fixed Field, Fixed Residence” (which also makes the Degar Montagnard’s traditional agricultural practices illegal) has effectively condemned the Degar people to a life of poverty. Vietnam through discrimination and corruption has also been unable to provide any reasonable alternatives to its’ indigenous minorities. The US State Department has also reported that, “longstanding societal discrimination against ethnic minorities remained a problem” while UNICEF had reported that ethnic minority children in Vietnam suffer the worst rates of malnutrition and poverty….

DEFORESTATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION OF ANCESTRAL LAND
The Vietnamese government has long confiscated lands throughout the Central Highlands and developed the region for private and state run coffee plantations, mining and extensive logging operations. Large scale logging operations owned by the military have illegally cut thousands of cubic meters from forest reserves and today in 2008 Vietnam has stretched these activities to neighboring Laos and Cambodia, where in co-operation with these governments (and military)the region has now become a hub of illegal clear fell logging. Indigenous villages throughout the region have for many years been subject to forced relocations to provide access to such logging companies and government run coffee and rubber plantations. The logging operations inside Vietnam resulted in extensive clear fell deforestation that has destroyed the once great forests of the Central Highlands. In 2001 the former director of Vietnam’s Department of Forestry Development, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Lung, stated, “Due to unchecked timber exploitation, most of our forests have been depleted, with depletion rates reaching well over 60 percent….

The governments of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have also jointly embarked on a massive economic development project in the vast region (triangle area) of their countries and have been reportedly called the “Triangle Project”. The plan was officially adopted in agreements reached between the Prime Ministers of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia at their 3rd summit in 2004 and ratified by the three countries on 28 November 2004. The triangle area encompasses over a hundred thousand square miles in the region bordering these three countries and has already resulted in deforestation and the forced removal of indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands. Reports of land confiscations in Vietnam and Cambodia are common. Endemic levels of corruption exist at every level of government in these three countries and environmental exploitation has negatively affected the indigenous peoples throughout the region. Deforestation is continuing at unprecedented levels in Cambodia and Laos as these countries engage in illegal logging, permitting officials at the highest levels of government to reap massive profits from deforestation. It is reported that the governments of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia all co-operate at various levels in these activities and the NGO Global Witness has directly implicated the Cambodian government in these abuses in a detailed 95 page report titled “Cambodia’s Family
Trees”….

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS
Religious repression of Christianity, particular repression against independent house church Protestantism practiced by many Degar people has long been part of Vietnamese government policy. Officially the policy is called “Plan 184″ and was initially exposed by Freedom House in the late 1990s. This policy included repressing Christianity including forcing Degar people to renounce their Christian faith in official ceremonies, under threat of imprisonment and torture and included actual renunciation ceremonies conducted by authorities who using threats of torture and arrest would force Degar Christians to drink rice wine mixed with animal blood. These barbaric procedures were actually documented by the US State Department and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Human Rights Watch also confirmed such…

While the US State Department withdrew the “Countries of Particular Concern” designation (“CPC”) on Vietnam in 2006, good faith on Vietnam’s part was short lived. (CPC designation is an official category reserved for the worst violators of religious freedom). Upon gaining accession to the WTO and winning Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the US, Vietnam however, re-commenced its repressive ways. The resulting crackdown on house church Christians, dissidents and democracy advocates was described as the worst crackdown in decades by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Subsequently the decision to remove Vietnam from the CPC designation has been seen as premature by the US International Commission of Religious Freedom and Human Rights Watch. Religious persecution continues
throughout the Central Highlands of Vietnam today and the Vietnamese authorities are using the pretext of justifying such repression by claiming they are only responding to political or terrorist activities. In reality the Vietnamese authorities are seeking to control religion and very much opposed to independent house churches or any notion of independent religious denominations.

Protestantism however, is not alone in facing repression as such persecution is also perpetrated against ethnic Vietnamese Buddhists and Degar Catholics in Vietnam. This ongoing religious persecution forms one of the major grievances the Degar Montagnards have against the communist government….

STERILIZATIONS, FINES, COERCION & ABUSE OF FAMILY PLANNING
Abuse of family planning programs in Vietnam have long been reported, however, the extent of the abuse or investigations has not been presented to the public. The Vietnamese government has most certainly embarked on a policy of denial and likely cover up of any such abuses. The endemic corruption in Vietnam however, which permeates throughout the entire Vietnamese government suggests that abuse of family planning, namely coercion, fines, monetary incentives and forcible sterilizations are indeed possible if not likely…. later in 2001 the Montagnard Foundation documented over 1000 cases of Degar Montagnard women who were surgically sterilized by the Vietnamese authorities through force, coercion, bribery, threats of fines or imprisonment….

[O]ver the year 2001 – 2002 the Vietnamese army had assisted medical teams to force entire Montagnard villagers at gunpoint to attend propaganda meetings where they were threatened to get surgically sterilized. Young Degar girls also reported they were forced to receive injections that they were told prevents them from getting pregnant….

In the early 1990s the communist authorities conducted sterilizations using an acid chemical “quinicrine,” in pellet form which when inserted into the uterus, the pellet would dissolve and burns the uterus shut. The British Medical journal ‘Lancet’ reported over 31,000 women being sterilized in Vietnam by this method (see: Lancet, 1993, 342, 24 July at page 213-217). It is unknown whether Vietnam still uses this “acid” today….

CONCLUSION: ETHNIC CLEANSING
The Degar people are experiencing persecution today much as the North and South American Indigenous peoples or Australian Aboriginals suffered under European colonialism. Religious persecution, human rights violations and lands rights abuses continue today in the Central Highlands much as they did over the past decades. For the Degar people, they face a troubled future as Vietnam fiercely resists human rights reforms and fights desperately to retain authoritarian control. The international community further appears unable to stem this tide of persecution and seems more interested in economic relations with Vietnam than demanding they undertake human rights reforms. The Degar people are basically being forced to watch their race, their people, their culture and their future being eliminated and the preceding decades of persecution is nothing less than – ethnic cleansing.

Vietnam: Religious Freedom Denied

Buddhists Remain Behind Bars While Vietnam Hosts UN Buddhist Celebration

(New York, May 8, 2008) – As Vietnam prepares to host the United Nations Day of Visak next week, one of the most sacred days for Buddhists, the government should cease the persecution, harassment and imprisonment of Buddhists and other independent religious groups, Human Rights Watch said today. More than 400 people remain behind bars in Vietnam for their peaceful religious or political activities.

As a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other human rights covenants, Vietnam must respect freedom of religious belief and worship.  
 
“It is a travesty that Vietnam has been allowed to host a major international Buddhist celebration while its state policy is political control of every religious organization –Vietnam continues to systematically imprison and persecute independent Buddhists as well as followers of other religions,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “All members of the United Nations must respect freedom of religious belief and worship. Vietnam, now a member of the Security Council, should be exemplary – not among the worst – in this regard.”  
 
Human Rights Watch also urged the United States to reinstate Vietnam on its global blacklist of countries that violate the right to religious freedom.  
 
Repression of Buddhists  
Visak, celebrated by millions of Buddhists each year, commemorates the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha. This year’s Visak celebration, which has been recognized as an international holiday by the UN since 1999, is expected to draw 3,500 delegates from 80 countries to Vietnam for a series of events conducted throughout the country from May 13-17.  
 
The theme of this year’s UN Visak Day is “Buddhist Contribution to Building a Just, Democratic and Civil Society.” Yet Vietnam regularly imprisons religious activists who advocate for the government to uphold civil rights and religious freedom and implement democratic reforms.  
 
The Visak celebrations fall one year after Vietnam courts sentenced nine Buddhists to prison terms of two to six years in May 2007 for “causing public disorder” under article 245 of Vietnam’s penal code. Four of the nine were convicted after protesting the imprisonment of Hoa Hao Buddhists in 2006 in Dong Thap province. While Hoa Hao Buddhism is an officially recognized religion in Vietnam, many members strongly resist official pressure to affiliate with the government-appointed committee that oversees Hoa Hao affairs. Two Hoa Hao Buddhists self-immolated in 2005 to protest religious repression and detention of their leaders.  
 
The remaining five sentenced in May 2007 are Theravada Buddhist monks who are members of an ethnic minority group known as Khmer Krom in Soc Trang province. The five were convicted for their participation in a half-day peaceful protest earlier in the year when more than 200 Khmer Krom monks demonstrated for greater religious freedom.  
 
Leaders of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) have been imprisoned or detained under pagoda arrest for many years for appealing for the government to respect human rights and cease its interference in religious affairs. Once the largest organization of Buddhists in southern and central Vietnam, the UBCV has faced increased harassment and repression in the weeks leading up to the UN’s Day of Visak, with government officials reportedly trying to evict UBCV monk Thich Tri Khai from his pagoda in Lam Dong province in late April in order to control it during the Visak celebrations.  
 
Repression of other religious groups  
Authorities harshly suppress most mass public protests, with the most recent crackdown taking place in April 2008 in the Central Highlands against a wave of demonstrations by Montagnard Christians in Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces. The Montagnards – many of whom belong to independent house churches – were calling for release of Montagnard prisoners, land rights, and religious freedom. Police and soldiers forcefully dispersed the protesters and sealed off many villages, particularly in Ayun Pah, Ia Grai and Cu Se districts of Gia Lai, to prevent the demonstrations from spreading further. Dozens of protesters were arrested.  
 
Even members of churches officially recognized by the government are starting to publicly air their grievances. In March 2008, the government-authorized Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam released a rare public appeal calling on the government to cease its discrimination against Christians, stop interfering in the church’s internal affairs, and return confiscated church properties. Earlier this year, hundreds of Roman Catholics – one of the larger officially recognized religions in Vietnam – conducted unprecedented prayer vigils in Hanoi to demand the return of church property confiscated by the government.  
 
US urged to reinstate Vietnam on religious freedom blacklist  
Human Rights Watch joins the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a governmental body created by Congress, in urging the United States to reinstate Vietnam’s designation as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for religious freedom violations. The United States, which designated Vietnam as a CPC in 2004, lifted the designation from Vietnam just days before President George W. Bush’s visit to Hanoi in November 2006.  
 
In a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on May 1, the USCIRF maintained that the State Department’s decision to remove Vietnam from the CPC list in 2004 was premature:  
 
“A commission delegation traveled to Vietnam in October 2007 and found that progress in improving conditions for religious freedom has been very uneven: improvements for some religious communities do not extend to others; progress in one province is not similarly realized in another; national laws are not fully implemented at the local and provincial levels; and there continue to be far too many abuses and restrictions of religious freedom, including the imprisonment of individuals for reasons related to their religious activity or religious freedom advocacy.”  
 
Human Rights Watch called on the Vietnamese government to release people imprisoned for peaceful religious or political activities and end restrictions on independent religious organizations who choose not to affiliate with the officially authorized religious organizations under the control of the government.  
 
“Independent religious groups should be allowed to freely organize and manage themselves, conduct religious activities, and even engage in peaceful public protests,” said Pearson. “Vietnam’s respect for human rights and religious freedom has sharply deteriorated since the US removed it from its blacklist of religious freedom violators and Vietnam’s subsequent acceptance into the World Trade Organization.”

———–

Source:HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

UNITED NATIONS, EUROPEAN UNION AND UNITED STATES STAND IDLY AND PASSIVELY BY AS THE VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT MURDERS INDIGENOUS DEGAR PEOPLE

The Vietnamese security police murdered a Degar Christian by putting a rope around his neck, tying it to their jeep and dragging him around until he died.

On April 28, 2008 the Vietnamese security police used a Degar policeman, Y-Blen Nie, to entrap another Degar. They asked Y-Blen Nie to invite his friend, Y-Ben Hdok, to drink coffee with him at a restaurant close to the police station.  When our Christian brother, Y-Ben Hdok, arrived at a restaurant, eight Vietnamese security police including Y-Blen Nie attacked him, handcuffed him and took him to a quiet and secluded place where they began to beat him. They struck him repeatedly with their police batons and also kicked, punched, and stomped on him until he fell down to the ground unconscious.  They broke the bones in both his upper and lower legs and also his upper and lower arms. Then, these brutal police officers placed a rope around his neck and then tied it to their jeep and dragged him around until he died.  After that, they took his corpse to the hospital and called his family, claiming that Y-Ben Hdok had killed himself. 

His parents and his wife asked the chief police from Daklak province “how could a person break all the bones in his own legs, arms, ribs and then break out all of his own teeth, and crack his skull on both the front and back sides, and then scratch and burn his skin and tear up his own clothes like he had been dragged through the ground in addition to the rope burns around his neck? How can a man kill himself in this way?” The face of the Vietnamese police chief became red and he was furious because he had no answer.  The marks on his body were clearly visible to his wife and parents when they cleaned his body before the burial.  The family also asked the Degar police who was involved in the killing and they were told that the Vietnamese police had put a rope around Y-Ben Hdok’s neck and tied it to their jeep while he was still alive and then dragged him around until he died.  The brutality and hatred of the Vietnamese government is beyond measure.

When the corpse was brought home, the security police arrived to stop the family from taking pictures or producing any evidence. They also prevented relatives and friends from entering the house and viewing the body. Even worse, they tried to stop the family and relatives from crying and mourning and they threatened the family, ordering them not to tell anyone, not even relatives in the US about Y-Ben Hdok’s death.  On the day of the burial, on May 4, 2008, there were around 200 security police who escorted the family to the burial grounds where numerous other security police were also stationed to prevent foreigners from interviewing the family and to prevent villagers from conducting any peaceful demonstrations.

Y-Ben Hdok was born in 1979 in the village of Buon Dung, commune of Cu Ebur, town of Buonmethuot in the province of Daklak.

The Vietnamese security police who were involved in the killing were:

1 – Doan Van Tri, Vietnamese

2 – Bui Quang Thuan, Vietnamese

3 – Pham Duc Can, Vietnamese

4 – Pham Thi Ky, Vietnamese

5 – Y-Rina Mlo, Degar

6 – Y-To Nie, Degar

7 – Y-Blenh Nie, Degar

8 – Y-Lil, Degar

On behalf of the family and relatives of the dead, the Montagnard Foundation urges the International community, especially the UN Human Rights Council, the European Union and the United States set up a delegation to investigate this situation and to make sure that these Vietnamese police officers be brought to justice.

Two Degar children were murdered by 4 Vietnamese villagers and 4 Vietnamese security police from the village of Thon Hai Hung.

On April 15, 2008, while their parents were working on their farm, Y-Thiep Mlo (9 years old) and Y-Bui Nie (8 years old) went to fish on the bank of the Kdrol River which is beside their farm.  4 Vietnamese civilians and 4 Vietnamese security police from the Vietnamese village of Thon Hai Hung were walking along the bank of Kdrol River at this time and saw that the two Degar Children were fishing along the river bank alone.  Without any reason other than sheer racism, these grown men attacked the Degar children, beat them up, drowned them and then placed large rocks on their chest to keep their corpses submerged.  In the evening, when the parents of both children could not find them, they went to the nearby Vietnamese village of Thon Hai Hung and asked the Vietnamese villagers if they had seen their children.  One of the Vietnamese villagers told them that “your children are dead, come with me and I will show you where they died.”  The Vietnamese villager led them to the river bank.  The fathers jumped into the water and found their children on the bottom of the river with large rocks placed upon their chest.  The parents remembered that the 4 Vietnamese civilians and 4 Vietnamese security police had passed by their farm earlier but did not think that these people would actually murder their children.

The parents took their children’s corpses back to their village and buried them on April 18, 2008.  The parents did not report the murder to the police because the Vietnamese government has a history of accusing any Degar who comes to them for help of being separatists and wanting to overthrow the Vietnamese government. Degar victims are commonly sent to prison, tortured and killed whenever they dare to report a crime committed by a Vietnamese person.

In our last press release on 29 April 2008, we listed over 100 children from 2 years old to 12 years old who were sprayed with teargas in their eyes and beaten by the Vietnamese soldiers, police and civilians. We also reported that a 90 year old Degar woman had been sprayed in the eyes with tear gas and then beaten. Today we bring to your attention the brutal murder of a Degar Christian and two 8 and 9 year old boys, who were beaten and drowned.  Vietnam claims that these individuals are criminals, separatists, FULRO forces who want independence and militants who want to overthrow the Vietnamese government. How could any sane person believe this? Yet, most of the civilized governments in the world seem to accept what Vietnam tells them at face value. Was the two year old who was beaten and thrown down an embankment a criminal? What crime did the 90 year old woman commit? Were the two boys who were fishing separatists? Let the world decides if these Degars are victims or separatists.

Degar villagers in the Central Highlands have reported to the Montagnard Foundation, Inc that the Vietnamese security police told them that “the United States government and people are now on our side, to whom are you going to depend on now? Who will protect you? We are going to destroy you all.”  This statement came directly out of the mouth of Vietnamese officials and has really made the Degar people fearful and discouraged. 

And, it also really disappoints the Degar people, if this statement is true, because during the war, our people trusted and believed in the promises of the government of the United States and became very close friends with American soldiers. Many thousands of our people even died to protect Americans.   But now that the Vietnamese government and people have become friends and allies to the United States, the Degar people wonder where that leaves them. The Degar people do have hope that the US government will help the two peoples to live together in peace as one people and one nation. 

But, if the US government goes along with the Vietnamese government’s plan to exterminate our people, then, we can do nothing to protect ourselves. We can only pray that our Almighty God will help us to accept this fate and strengthen us to endure the agony of death.  As the Bible says in the book of 1Peter 4:12-13, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.”

Yes, we the Degar people are disappointed, but we are not angry or upset because we believe that these trials may be a lesson from God, who is teaching us not to put our trust in mankind, but instead to believe in Him, the Almighty God. Therefore, we have to comfort ourselves with the Words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as He said in the book of John 14:3-4 “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” And since death is the only way to enter the kingdom of God maybe this is the time that He wants the Degar people to return to Him so that we will not suffer the brutality of the Vietnamese government anymore.

As we all know, it is very hard for two different societies to live together in harmony.  But now, the Vietnamese government has armed its civilians with homemade weapons and the authority to attack and even kill our people.  Because of this grim partnership, Degar people including children and the elderly are being tortured and murdered at an ever increasing rate. If the world, especially the UN, EU and the United States, do not protect our people, our Degar race will eventually be exterminated completely by the evil the Vietnamese communists and the world will lose one of the finest races of mankind on this planet earth.

 

 SOURCE: Montagnard Foundation, Inc.

 

 

ANOTHER MASS DEMONSTRATION ERUPTS IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS

A NEW DEMONSTRATION ERUPTS IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS AS THE DEGAR PEOPLE PROTEST THE CONTINUOUS AND BRUTAL PERSECUTION OF THE VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT

 

A peaceful and nonviolent demonstration is currently underway throughout the Central Highlands at this moment, and the Vietnamese authorities are, moreover, continuing to arrest and torture Indigenous Degar demonstrators. Vietnamese soldiers are now blocking roads, making arrests and attacking our people. Degar villagers throughout the Central Highlands report that they are fed up with racism and religious persecution, and that they want their relatives released from prison.

The following details how the demonstration was sparked:

On Wednesday April 9, 2008 at around 6:30 pm, four Vietnamese security police came to the house of our Christian sister, Puih H’Bat, in the village of Ploi Bang and commune of Ia Chia, from the district of Ia Grai in the province of Gialai while she was leading 20 Christian believers in prayer at her home.  The security police demanded that all of the Degar believers sign a document agreeing to join the Hoi Thanh Tin Lanh Vietnam (The Evangelical Church of Vietnam), which is the government sanctioned church. Those refusing to sign this document would be arrested, tortured and imprisoned.  All Christian believers at the home of Puih H’Bat that night refused to sign the document.

The next day, on April 10, 2008, at around 8:00pm in the evening, many more security police supported with Vietnamese soldiers came to the village of Ploi Bang and summoned all the villagers to report to Ploi Bang Elementary school. The soldiers accused the people of following Ksor Kok and worshiping him.  The villagers and believers laughed at this and told the security police that “we do not follow the religion of Ksor Kok or worship him.  He is not god.  We only follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and worship our Almighty God the Father.” The security police continued to threaten and intimidate the villagers, attempting to coerce them into signing the document joining the official government sanctioned church. When everyone refused, they dismissed the meeting at around 10:00PM. 

On the day after that, on April 11, 2008, at around 4:00AM in the morning, 8 Vietnamese security police stormed into the house of our Christian sister, Puih H’Bat, and arrested her. They put her in a truck and took her to the prison facility in the district of Ia Grai.  On that same night, the security police also arrested two other Christian brothers, Ksor Sim and Rahlan Don.  At the arrest of Ksor Sim, police sprayed some kind of dreadful chemical inside his house in order to force the whole family out in the open. Once outside, the security police shocked Ksor Sim with electric batons until he collapsed to the ground.  His wife and 16 year-old daughter ran over to see if he was alive or dead, and the ruthless security police then beat and shocked them with their electrical batons until they also collapsed.

On this same day, April 11, 2008 at around 2:00PM, more than 50 Christian believers from the villages of Ploi Bang, Ploi Beng and Ploi Kom went with their children to the communal office of Ia Chia to demand the release of Puih H’Bat, Ksor Sim and Rahlan Don.  They could not enter the communal office, however, because security police became aggressive and violently pushed them back. When they refused to leave the vicinity, the security police arrested 2 more of our Christian brothers, Ksor Ien and Rahlan Toi, and also imprisoned them at the Ia Grai facility.  The remaining believers still refused to leave and, therefore, security police and soldiers used their men to physically drag villagers back to their homes.  Eventually, all of the Christian Degar believers were forcibly returned to their villages at around 9 pm.

The Degar Christians state that they will not stop asking for their basic human rights and rights as an indigenous people to be respected. Furthermore they will not stop protesting, albeit peacefully and nonviolently. The Degar people know that the situation is urgent because Vietnamese authorities are constantly torturing and brutalizing our Christian brothers and sisters in prison. Currently, Degar believers in other provinces also have begun peaceful protests, demanding that:

1. the Vietnamese government release all Degar prisoners who have been imprisoned from 2001 until the present time, including the 350 identified in the Human Rights Watch Report on the 14^th of June, 2006 and the five Degar Christians described in this press release who were arrested last week

2. the Vietnamese Government cease persecution of Degar Christians and allow them to worship in peace and to govern their own independent churches

3. the Vietnamese Government stop confiscating Degar Ancestral Lands, which are necessary to the survival of our people

The Degar people cry out to the international community to come to our aid. We ask that world leaders exert economic and political pressure on the Vietnamese government in order to coerce them into dealing more humanely with our people. After all, the Degar people only want their rights as citizens of Vietnam.

VIETNAM FORCED DEGAR TO RENOUNCE THEIR FAITH

VIETNAM CONTINUES TO FORCE DEGAR MONTAGNARDS CATHOLIC IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF VIETNAM TO RENOUNCE THEIR FAITH PROPERTY CONFISCATED, TWO CATHOLIC BELIEVERS TORTURED AND IMPRISONED

Last month, in February 2008 A Degar Catholic named Dinh Plok had his home, his farmlands and all his belongings included his motorcycle (Honda Dream) confiscated by the Vietnamese government because he refused to sign a document renouncing his Christian faith.

Dinh Plok is a 44 year old male from the village of Ploi Kuk Tu, in the commune of Ktung, from the district of Kpang in the province of Gialai. He lived on his farm with his family and many of his relatives, who all depended on Dinh Polok’s farm for their sustenance and livelihood.

Dinh Plok was converted to the Catholicism in 2007. Shortly after, his whole family, including those living under his roof as well as many of his wife’s relatives, followed his lead and also converted to Catholicism. They became the most devoted Christians in the village of Ploi Kuk Tu, and so the Vietnamese government became nervous that these people would cause Catholicism to spread. You see, Vietnam desires for villagers to worship Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese Communist Party as their god. This is why they only allow Degar Montagnards to join certain churches, which they control and oversee.

The members of Dinh Plok’s family and his wife’s relatives living with him are listed below.
Dinh Plok’s family: 1. Y Hla, age 36, is his wife, 2. A Klanh, age 18, is his son, 3. A Klinh, age 16, is his son, 4. Y Kloi, age 14, is his daughter, 5. A Kloih, age 12, is his son, 6. Y Klok, age 7, is his daughter, 7. Y Hlanh, age 5, is his daughter, 8. A Hlen, age 1, is his son.
Wife’s relatives: 1. Y Blang, age 38, is a female, 2. A Brung, age 17, is a male 3. Y Bre, age 15, is a female, 4. A Rui, age 13, is a male, 5. Y Ra, age 10, is a female, 6. A Rin, age 7, is a male, 7. Y Nguah, age 25, is a female.

On February 28, 2008, two Vietnamese security officials, Ong Nam and Ong Ar, from the district of Kpang, along with 100 soldiers came and surrounded Dinh Plok’s home and farmlands. The security officials demanded that Dinh Plok and his family sign documents renouncing their Christian faith. However, Dinh Plok and his family all refused to sign the renouncement papers. The security police and soldiers became angry; they violently forced the family out of their home and marched them at gunpoint to a nearby wooded area. Dinh Plok was told that his farm and house now belonged to the government and that if he or any of his family or relatives stepped foot on those lands again, they would be immediately killed.

Dinh Plok and his family have farmed those lands since long before the Vietnamese ever migrated into the country. Farming is the only way they know to survive. How long will a family of this size survive in the woods, especially with young children? Where can they go? If they go home, they will be killed by the security police and there are no other farmlands that they can develop; The Vietnamese government has already confiscated them all. What the security police have done, by taking away their farm, is as bad as murdering Dinh Plok and his family outright. Either way, they will surely die.

In another separate incident, two more Degar Catholic believers were beaten and imprisoned because they refused to sign a document renouncing their faith.

On February 26, 2008, four Vietnamese security police (Thai Ba Chien and Quinh Lua from the commune of Hoa Binh and Dong Hong Trung and Vo Quang Duy from the city of Kontum) went to the village of Ploi Cor, in the commune of Hoa Binh and the province of Kontum to demand two indigenous Degar Catholic believers (A Plit, a 35 year old man, and A Um, a 25 year old man) to sign documents renouncing their Catholic Christian faith.

Since both of our Christian brothers refused to sign these renouncement papers, the security police became enraged. Vietnamese security official, Thai Ba Chien, became so angry that he began to beat our brother, A Plit. Officer Thai Ba Chien struck A Plit on his face four times and then, wearing heavy military boots, he kicked A Plit on his back so hard until our brother collapsed to the ground. Then, the security police handcuffed both Catholic men and took them to the Hoa Binh prison facility, where they continue to be incarcerated. The families of A Plit and A Um are all terribly worried about them because they know what the Vietnamese security police usually do to Degar prisoners.

Therefore, we the Degar community in the United States, earnestly plea to the international community, the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, Catholics and Christians worldwide to urgently advocate for Dinh Plok and his families, A Plit, and A Um. Please convince the Vietnamese government to allow Dinh Plok and his family to return peacefully to their home and also to allow A Plit and A Um to be released from prison and to return safely home to their families. We, the Degar community, thank you and pray that God will bless you for your time and assistance.

We also would like to mention one more thing. The US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, CHRISTOPHER HILL, testified before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the recent hearing on “US – VIETNAM BILAERAL RELATIONS”, that “religious freedom in Vietnam has expanded significantly” and that “Vietnam no longer qualifies as a serious violator of religious freedom,” The policy of forcing Christians to renounce their faith would certainly seem to contradict this statement. We, therefore, beseech Mr. Hill to retract this statement.

Vietnam Delegation Visit Greensboro, North Carolina

TEN DELEGATES FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF VIETNAM‘S CENTRAL HIGHLANDS WAS INVITED TO VISIT GREENSBORO, NC WHERE THE MAJORITY OF DEGAR REFUGEES ARE LIVING

The US State Department invited ten delegates from the government of Vietnam’s Central Highlands to visit the United States and tour Washington, DC, one major Degar resettlements in Greensboro, NC and then San Francisco Bay area.  The delegation visited the city of Greensboro, NC for two days on March 3 – 4, 2008.  The names of the delegates are as follows:

Mr. Cuong Van BUI
Officer, Central Highland Affairs Committee

Mr. Dien LE
Vice Chairman, Central Party Committee of the Kontum Province

Mr. Cu Ngoc LU
Chairman, Dak Lak Province People’s Committee

Mr. Nam Van MAI
Principal Vice Chairman of the Central Highland Affairs Committee

Mr. Nam Hoanh NGUYEN
Deputy Director General, Americas Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Mr. Dung The PHAM
Chairman, Gia Lai province People’s Committee

Mr. Hung Viet TRAN
Chief of Staff, the Central Highland Affairs Committee

Mr. Tam Thanh TRAN
Political Desk Officer, Vietnam – US Division, the Americas Dept., Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Mr. Dung TRINH
Deputy Chief of Staff, the Central Highland Affairs Committee

Mr. Tai Tan VO
Deputy Director, Ethnicity & Religious Affairs Department, Central Highland Affairs Committee

Before the Vietnamese delegation arrived in Greensboro, NC on March 2, 2008, Mr. Kok Ksor was invited to attend the meeting by the Piedmont Triad Council for International Visitors (PTCIV). He was asked to describe how the Degar Montagnard refugees were treated by the US government and to relay Degar concerns over loved ones remaining in Vietnam. Unfortunately, Mr. Ksor was never allowed to deliver his statement at the meeting and was never even told why. Even though Mr. Ksor was not allowed to speak at the meeting, we are still so very thankful to PTCIV because they included his statement in their packages that were handed out to people who attended the meeting.  The statement is as follows:

STATEMENT ON THE OCCASION OF VN DELEGATION VISIT US

Submitted by Kok Ksor to the Piedmont Triad Council for International Visitors in Greensboro, NC March 3, 2008

First, I would like to thank the Piedmont Triad Council for International Visitors, especially Mr. Ralph Cauthen, for making it possible for me to be here today. I would also like to welcome the Vietnamese delegation from Vietnam.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of Degar Montagnard refugees, I would like to express my very deep appreciation and sincere thanks to the US government and American people, especially the local governments and citizens of North Carolina and South Carolina. I appreciate the compassion and generosity you have shown to us by offering our Degar refugees a sanctuary and a home in your beautiful States.

I also want to extend my thanks to the Lutheran Families, churches, church members, manufacturers, companies and all other friends who have involved themselves in assisting Degar refugees with housing, food, sponsors, education, training, jobs, healthcare and other miscellaneous needs.

We, the Degar refugees and the Degar people in general, can never thank the government of the United States and the people of America enough for their kindness, compassion, generosity and all the assistance that they have offered to our refugees. We pray that our Almighty God will richly bless and protect the United States of America and its people.

I came to the United States in 1974 and, after the fall of South East Asia in 1975, I became one of the first refugees from the Degar Montagnard Tribes of the Central Highlands of South Indochina.  At that time, only a handful of Degar Montagnards were able to manage to escape Vietnam and come to the United States.  In 1986, around 200 Degar refugees came from Thailand and in 1992 around 400 more came from the jungles of Cambodia.

As refugees in the United States, we have received the best treatment from the US government that any group of refugees around the world could ever have hoped to receive. 

And, we have experienced and enjoyed the real and true freedom of this country. In the United States of America, it doesn’t matter what race, color, nationality or country of origin someone claims, we are all free and equal before law. This is very different from Vietnam, where the Degar people have substandard and second-class citizenship.

In the United States,

• We do not fear that some law men will come to our house to arrest and torture us for no reason because in this country, they only arrest people who have committed crimes.
• We can freely travel to wherever we want in the entire country or even abroad as long as we carrying our personal identification cards.
• We can join any church and worship any kind of religion we want. We can even establish our own church or place of worship and no one will punish us for it.
• We can pursue higher education without any discrimination of who we are or what so ever. Our children can claim the same education as every other child in this country.
• We can freely express our thoughts even if we disagree with the government.
• We can freely form an association and get together without any interference from government.
• We can freely have peaceful protests if there is something we want to express. Government officials do not get angry and will sometimes even come out to see what we have to say. This is a demonstration of democracy in this country.
• If we choose, we can become citizens of this country, vote in its elections and support candidates of our choice for city council and other offices, including the President.

The list of privileges and freedoms of living in this country goes on and on and this is what a democratic government is all about; the government is by the people and for the people.

But, even though we, the Degar refugees in the United States, have a very good life here, we are still very concerned about our families and friends who we have left behind in the Central Highlands. 

They have told us almost daily about their sufferings and the difficulties they have endured since 1975 and they have asked us not to forget them but to do something to help them. We are saddened by their hardship and our happiness here in the US only makes us feel guilty because they are suffering so terribly.  Therefore, we are really concerned about their wellbeing.

I also wanted to tell you that the allegations by the Vietnamese government and some of its people – that the Montagnard Foundation and its supporters are terrorists, separatists, rebels, etc, is completely untrue. These are lies and are a pretext to stop the international community from supporting us and to make an agenda of destroying our people.

Most of the Degar people are Christians. Therefore, we do understand that God created all mankind, God loves all mankind, Jesus Christ died for all mankind and God created the planet earth and all things in it for all mankind to enjoy.

We do not hate the Vietnamese people because they are of a different people from us. We see it like this, if we hate those who God loves, it means we are going against God.  If so, we are not the children of our Almighty God.

We want to live in peace and harmony with the Vietnamese. Look at the documents of French officials and the last Vietnamese Emperor, Bao Dai, in 1950.  Emperor Bao Dai wrote that “pursuant to the wishes expressed by the representatives of the Montagnard populations on May 26, 1950 in Kontum, on June 5, 1950 in Pleiku, on June 10, 1950 in Darlac, on June 26, 1950 in Haut-Donnai:” the Degar people’s wishes is to live alongside the Vietnamese people.

This is the legal proof that the Degar people has shown to the international community to establish that our people wanted to live with the Vietnamese people as one people and one nation.  Unfortunately, the Vietnamese government and its people have not shown the Degar Montagnards that they have the same desire. We have seen only policies that appear to reflect hatred and genocide.

All our people want is for the Vietnamese government and its people not to deprive our brothers and sisters of their basic human rights, indigenous peoples’ rights and especially the rights to free use of our ancestral lands.

Besides, Vietnam has become a member state of the United Nations.  It has joined WTO and has gained a seat at the most prestigious agency of the United Nations, the UN Security Council.  It has also ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on September 24, 1982, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on December 24, 1982, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on December 24, 1982 and many other United Nations’ documents. In addition, Vietnam has just voted “yes” to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on September 12, 2007. Do they have any intentions at all of abiding by their agreements?

Also, look at the following:

Vietnam Constitution Chapter Five: Fundamental Rights and Duties of the Citizen

Article 52 states: “All citizens are equal before the law”.

Article 58 paragraph 2 states: “The State protects the citizen’s right of lawful ownership and right of inheritance”.

Article 68 states: “The citizen shall enjoy freedom of movement and of residence within the country; he can freely travel abroad and return home from abroad in accordance with the provisions of the law”.

Article 69 states: “The citizen shall enjoy freedom of opinion and speech, freedom of the press, the right to be informed, and the right to assemble, form associations and hold demonstrations in accordance with the provisions of the law”.

Article 70 paragraph 1 & 2 states: “The citizen shall enjoy freedom of belief and of religion; he can follow any religion or follow none. All religions are equal before the law.

The places of worship of all faiths and religions are protected by the law”.

Article 71 paragraph 1 & 3 states: “The citizen shall enjoy inviolability of the person and the protection of the law with regard to his life, health, honor and dignity.

It is strictly forbidden to use all forms of harassment and coercion, torture, violation of his honor and dignity, against a citizen”.

Article 72 paragraph 1 states: “No one shall be regarded as guilty and be subjected to punishment before the sentence of the Court has acquired full legal effect”.

Article 73 paragraph 3 states: “Safety and secrecy are guaranteed to the citizen correspondence, telephone conversations and telegrams”.

Are these laws genuine or are they only intended for mere appearances?

We pray the Degar people will one day live in a truly free Vietnam where fundamental human rights and indigenous rights of all Vietnam’s citizens are equally respected.

Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you, to express our concerns, and to let us see each other in person, so that we might try to understand each other.

I pray that our Almighty God will make this meeting to be a constructive means for our future relationship.  Thank you and God bless.

Prepared by,

Kok Ksor, President of the Montagnard Foundation, Inc.

Degar Montagnard tortured by Vietnamese authorities

SPARTANBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA (ANS) — Kpa Kloh was a 42-year-old Christian and a Degar from the village of Ploi Ring commune of Hbong district of Cu Se in the province of Gialai, Vietnam.

On October 12, 2004, he was arrested, tortured and then sent to Phu Yen province prison because he was accused of preaching the Good News about our Lord Jesus Christ and because he was accused of attending or being involved in the Easter prayer vigil in April of 2004, says a report from the Montagnard Foundation, which is dedicated to the preservation of the indigenous peoples of central Vietnam.

The Foundation says that after his arrest, the Vietnamese security police repeatedly tortured Kloh.

“They beat him, punching him and kicking him with their military boots. They struck him repeatedly with their batons and constantly shocked all over his body,” the report states.

“It seems as if Vietnam really intended to kill him because seeing that he had not died as of July 8, 2007, they intensified the torture. They beat him on his head with their police batons until blood came out of his ears, nose and mouth and he fell completely unconscious. They tortured him again on December 10, 2007 and again on February 9, 2008.”

Brother Kpa Kloh died the next day, February 10, 2008. Kloh died as a result of the severe and repeated torturing by the Vietnamese security police at the Phu Yen province prison. He leaves behind his wife R’mah H’Ne and six children, the Foundation says.

“Who has the responsibility for justice in Vietnam, the powerful government or the powerless indigenous people?” the e-mail report asks.

The Foundation states that in chapter five of Vietnam’s constitution on the “fundamental rights and duties of the citizen,” article 72 states that “no one shall be regarded as guilty and be subjected to punishment before the sentence of the Court has acquired full legal effect” and that “any person who has been arrested, held in custody, prosecuted, brought to trial in violation of the law shall be entitled to damages for any material harm suffered and his reputation shall be rehabilitated. Anybody who contravenes the law in arresting, holding in custody, prosecuting, bringing to trial another person thereby causing him damage shall be dealt with severely.”

The Foundation asks: “Who does this law apply to? Is this law only valid for the rich and powerful Vietnamese officials and people? What about the poor and powerless indigenous people of Vietnam? Are we not citizens of Vietnam too? Why doesn’t Vietnam allow Montagnards these same rights?”

Moreover, the group says, when the government of Vietnam violates its own rules, what then? Who will punish the Vietnamese government officials who violate this law?

The group asks: “The Vietnamese officials clearly violated the law in this cruel and inhuman act. Will they be held accountable? Who will be responsible for the cruel and inhuman actions committed by the Vietnamese officials?

“How could most of the world governments who are doing business with Vietnam say that the Vietnamese government has improved its human rights record in the Central Highlands?”

The Foundation’s statement concludes by saying: “We, the indigenous Degar people of the Central Highlands of Vietnam, pray that our Almighty God will touch the eyes of the world so that they can see, touch their ears so that they can hear and their hearts so that they will have compassion for our people.

“We pray that the world will sympathize with what our people have been enduring at the hands of the merciless Vietnamese government and help to stop it. In the United States of America, many people are upset when animals are abused. It is a serious crime to harm animals in this country and sometimes people are even sent to prison for cruelty towards animals. We, the indigenous Degar people, are not animals. We are treated far worse. We are human, like everyone else in this world, and we are asking the Vietnamese government to treat us like humans. Is that too much to ask?”

Vietnam accused of religious persecution

By: Nick Mackenzie.

VIETNAMESE officials have denied that religious persecution is taking place in their country, despite being presented with documentary evidence by a Christian human rights group.

The evidence presented by the Jubilee Campaign documented the case of Kpa Kloh, a member of the indigenous Montagnards people of Vietnam’s central highlands, who died last month after allegedly being tortured because of his religious beliefs. The officials told the Jubilee Campaign delegation: “If anyone is punished, it is for his crime, not for religious activity.”

A spokesman for Jubilee Campaign said: “The Vietnamese constitution does guarantee freedom of religion. Some Vietnamese Christians and those of other faith are allowed to worship. This is something the staff member mentioned to the delegates, by commending them for recently registering one church, and for allowing another group to again use their church building.

“Also, as our staff member noted to these officials, the law provides restriction against torture, and restriction against punishing anyone before his trial is completed.

“However, against this backdrop of constitutional provisions and assurance of delegates is a trail of tears — the report of one Montagnard after another who has been brutally tortured for his faith. Many who are tortured die in prison or are released to their families on the brink of death with broken ribs, extensive bruises, internal injuries, and other unspeakable infirmities.”

The spokesman added that other methods are used against religious believers, including the breaking-up of meetings and the forfeiture of animals.

SOURCE: Religious Intelligence