UNPO - Montagnards: Vietnamese police kill two Degars

Below is an abstract of an article published by the Montagnard Foundation:

ON THE 14th OF APRIL 2008, two Degar (Montagnard) Christians named Y-Song Nie and Y-Huang Nie were returning to their village after having participated in a peaceful protest for the release of their two Christian sisters and one Christian brother, who were arrested earlier on the 9th of April in 2008, at the commune of Ia Ken. On this day the 14th of April 2008 the Vietnamese security police arrested and killed Y-Song Nie and Y-Huang Nie. The security police [then] returned the bodies to their family village and admitted to killing Y-Song Nie and Y-Huang Nie. The security police ordered their families to bury the corpses in one grave and provided them with one coffin for both corpses, one 100Kg bag of rice and one million 1,000,000 dong (Vietnamese currency which is worth about $66.00 USD) for each family. The names and details of the victims are as follows:

Y-Song Nie, age 24 from the village of Buon Pok, commune Ea Ken, district Krong Pac in Daklak province. He was married with children.

Y-Huang Nie, age 23 from the village of Buon Kreh, commune Ea Ken, district Krong Pac in Daklak province. He was married with children.

Please look at the following Vietnamese laws and read about what the Vietnamese government has done to the Degar ancestral homelands and indigenous people. These recent incidents [particularly those of 10 April 2008] testify to the ongoing reprehensible and unlawful actions of the Vietnamese government.

Article 52: All citizens are equal before the law.

Article 71: The citizen shall enjoy inviolability of the person and the protection of the law with regard to his life, health, honor and dignity.
No one can be arrested in the absence of a ruling by the People's Court, a ruling or sanction of the People's Office of Supervision and Control except in case of flagrant offenses. Taking a person into, or holding him in, custody must be done with full observance of the law.
It is strictly forbidden to use all forms of harassment and coercion, torture, violation of his honor and dignity, against a citizen.

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

We ask why the murderers of our people are never brought to justice. It seems that many governments in the world sit idly by sit idly by saying nothing for fear of jeopardizing their country’s business deals with Vietnam. We question why the world continues giving financial aid to Vietnam when such little progress is made in Vietnam and the money is used to murder innocent Degar people?

The Montagnard Foundation:
With a humble heart, we, the indigenous Degar people, would like to ask the international community, especially the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and the rest of the governments in the world, to help stop these injustices in the Central Highlands of Vietnam so that our indigenous people and ethnic Vietnamese can co-exist in peace.