Mr Chair, Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Network makes this intervention to draw the attention of the Sub-Commission about the systematic racial discrimination against indigenous peoples of Vietnam, collectively known as the Montagnards. The discrimination deserves immediate attention and interventions of the United Nations human rights mechanisms.

On 2 July 2004, Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk requested the Royal government of Cambodia to deliver basic humanitarian supplies to the Montagnard refugees who have taken shelter in Mondulkiri and Rattanakiri provinces of Cambodia. The refugees fled after the crackdown on the Montagnards in the Central Highlands provinces of Dak Lak, Gia Lai and Dak Nong in Vietnam during the Easter weekend on 10 April 2004. At least 10 Montagnards were killed, many were injured and dozens were arrested. The government of Vietnam subsequently closed the regions for foreigners and has only allowed guided tours for the diplomats and foreign media. About 250 Montagnard refugees reportedly sought asylum in Cambodia.

Since the violent crackdown of the peaceful and democratic protests on 2-6 February 2001 in the Central Highlands, the flow of the Montagnard refugees have been consistent, indicating continued and systematic repression.

The authorities in Hanoi attempted to subdue the Montagnards through repression and humiliation. On Christmas Day in 2002, a court in Central Daklak province of Vietnam sentenced eight indigenous Ede people, majority of whom are Christians, for organising the demonstrations in Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces in February 2001. Alleged group leader Y Thuon Nie, 30, was sentenced to 10 years in jail, while the other seven men were given eight years each at the one-day trial. They were also given four years of house arrest after their jail terms. They were accused of "organizing illegal migration to Cambodia" and "undermining state and Communist Party policy" and contacting former members of the guerrilla group FULRO, Front Unifie de Lutte des Races Opprimes, to "sow disunity" among the hill tribes in the Central Highlands.

Earlier, on 31 August 2002, around 30 Ede indigenous people were arrested for allegedly planning to hold a protest in the Sao village under Madrak district of Dak Lak province of Central Highlands on 2 September 2002, the Vietnam's National day.

The treatment of the Montagnards refugees by the Cambodian authorities has been deplorable. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia in his report (E/CN.4/2004/105 of 19 December 2003) to the 60th Session of the Commission on Human Rights stated “Montagnard minorities and others from Viet Nam continue to face difficulties in seeking asylum in Cambodia following the collapse of the tripartite agreement and the closure and destruction in April 2002 of a camp operated by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Mondulkiri province. UNHCR continues to be denied free access to this and other border areas to examine the claims of those seeking asylum”.

UNHCR was forced to pullout of a repatriation agreement with Hanoi and Phnom Penh on 22 March 2002 followed several incidents where Hanoi and Phnom Penh authorities have been accused of mistreating Montagnard asylum seekers.

After the withdrawal of the UNHCR, the situation of the Montagnard asylum seekers further deteriorated. The asylum-seekers have had to travel some 600 kilometres over land to reach Phnom Penh to claim asylum, yet, at least 94 others have reportedly managed to reach the Office of the UNHRC in Phnom Penh since late 2003.

However, 50 Pnong indigenous people from Vietnam who sought refuge in Cambodia during the first week of January 2003 were not lucky. They were arrested near Koh Nheak area by the Cambodian police and were forcibly handed over to the Vietnamese border police. Another group of 30 Pnongs were again arrested by Cambodian police near Koh Nheak during the third week of January 2003. But the men in this group were reportedly beaten up severely by the Cambodian police, in front of the women and children, before they were handed over to the Vietnamese border guards. More than 160 Montagnards have been deported back to Vietnam since after the exodus of asylum seekers from 10 April 2004 onwards.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia reported that “people assisting Montagnards have been harassed by local authorities, and reports of forcible returns continue to circulate”. Last week (last week of July 2004), Cambodian Radio Free Asia reporter, Sok Rathavisal, Kevin Doyle of Cambodia Daily and Pen Bunna of human rights group, ADHOC were arrested for trying to locate 17 Montagnard asylum seekers and were charged with human trafficking.

The crisis originates due to the Kinh-isation of the Central Highlands and the violations of the Montagnards' rights over land and natural resources, natural habitat, culture and tradition, and religious freedom. Because of the massive transmigration of the majority Kinhs, ethnic national minorities have been reduced to minorities in their own lands and are on the verge of losing their distinct identity. The resolution of the Montagnard problems requires empowerment of the Montagnards who are impoverished, and drastic changes in the policy of Vietnam to grant autonomy to freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development, to ban implantation of the majority Kinhs in the Central Highlands and to halt development projects such as hydro-electric dams that displaces the indigenous peoples. It is essential that Sub-Commission considers the situation of Montagnards as not having been discussed in the United Commission on Human Rights and takes appropriate measures to bring an end to such gross discrimination.

Delivered on 2 August 2004