Below is a press release issued by The Montagnard Foundation:

On Friday the 20th of April 2007 the Montagnard Foundation in conjunction with the Khmer Krom and Hmong peoples will conduct a peaceful demonstration in Washington DC at capital hill and outside the Vietnamese Embassy calling for an end to persecution of their people by the Vietnamese communist government.  The Degar Montagnards, the Khmer Krom and the Hmong peoples have long suffered religious persecution and human rights violations perpetrated by the Vietnamese communist government.

The indigenous Degar Peoples (known under the French colonial term “Montagnard”) have suffered decades of persecution by the Vietnamese communist government, namely; confiscation of their ancestral lands, Christian religious repression, torture, killings and imprisonment. To date over 350 Degar prisoners remain in Vietnamese prisons for standing up for their human rights, for spreading Christianity or for fleeing to Cambodia and many have been subjected to electric shock treatment and torture as well as being withheld food and medical care. The authorities today continue to persecute members of the Christian House Church movement and in many cases have killed prisoners by deliberately beating them causing internal organ damage. Throughout the Central Highlands, the Degar population continues to suffer abuses committed by soldiers and police.

The Montagnard Foundation welcomes all persons who value freedom, democracy and the triumph of the human spirit to attend and join us on Friday 20 April 2007 in showing that repressive and authoritarian governments like Vietnam cannot crush our desire for a better world.   

The demonstration will commence at:  10 AM in front of Vietnamese Embassy and then at the Capitol Hill.