Vietnam has stepped up its repression of Montagnard people in the Central Highlands region in anticipation of worldwide demonstrations to be conducted outside Vietnamese Embassies on September 21, 2002. The demonstrations, organized by the Transnational Radical Party, will protest Vietnam’s ‘war on democracy’ and continuing human rights violations. Word of the demonstrations has reached the Central Highlands, and the Montagnard people are threatened with increasing acts of torture and brutalities by Vietnamese security forces.
The indigenous Montagnard people comprise over 30 tribal groups based in the Central Highlands, and number about 600,000 in total. About 400,000 or more are Christians, with significant numbers of both Protestants and Catholics. During the Vietnam War many Montagnards were recruited to assist United States forces. After the communist victory in 1975, the Vietnamese government began a campaign of revenge against the Montagnards for having joined with the Americans. Today their persecution continues: they are regular victims of forced assimilation and massive human rights violations committed by government forces and agents. Government policies regarding the Montagnards include forced sterilizations, executions, imprisonment, disappearances, torture and forced relocations of whole villages.
Recent reports describe summary executions conducted by Vietnamese soldiers. Thousands of peoples are now missing or hiding in the jungles. The government has sent hundreds of security personnel into the Central Highlands to monitor the activities of the Montagnard people in the area. Civilians are also encouraged to commit acts of brutality against Montagnards. Scores of villagers have been arrested or killed. Bodies believed to be Montagnard victims have recently been found floating on the river close to the Cambodian border.
It is well known that Vietnamese security forces are instructed to execute any Montagnard people found fleeing for the Cambodian border. The intense repression they experience has led large numbers of them to seek sanctuary in Cambodia. Cambodian authorities have deported many of the Montagnard refugees back to Vietnam and many of the returnees have been subsequently detained and tortured by the Vietnamese authorities. Because Vietnam has sealed the area from international scrutiny, there are currently no international monitors in the region.
