After living in the jungles in Cambodia and Vietnam borders since the crackdown on the ethnic national minorities, commonly known as 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, Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk on 2 July 2004 requested the Royal government of Cambodia to deliver basic humanitarian supplies to the Montagnard refugees who have taken shelter in Mondulkiri and Rattanakiri provinces. King Sihanouk in an earlier statement on 14 April 2004 called on “the Royal government of Cambodia and the United Nations to protect the Montagnards and not to expel, or let be expelled, from Cambodia these unlucky fellows that are seeking shelter in our country.” The Cambodian government, wary of the diplomatic fallout with Hanoi, termed the asylum seekers as “illegal migrants”.

Thirty seven Montagnard asylum seekers with little food, drinking water and medicine have been interviewed by the authorities in Rattanakiri province in June 2004. They corroborated local hill tribes sources that there are about 250 Montagnard refugees who have been hiding in the jungles and are desperate for food. Mr Som Chanseang, Deputy Director of the Cambodia Red Cross’s Rattnakiri Office told The Cambodia Times on 2 July 2004 “It is really difficult to help the Montagnards because the provincial government keeps information about them a secret”. In the meanwhile, Queen Norodom Monineath, Honorary President of the Cambodian Red Cross, urged the agency's President Bun Rany, wife of Prime Minister Hun Sen, to send humanitarian assistance to the asylum seekers.

Fashionable Nonsense: Illegal Immigrants

The decisions of Phnom Penh to allow humanitarian aid to the Montagnard refugees and to open two offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Mondulkiri and Rattanakiri have exposed the Hanoi’s attempt to sweep aside the crisis in the Central Highlands by terming the asylum seekers as “illegal immigrants.” Since the violent crackdown of the peaceful and democratic protests on 2-6 February 2001 in the Central Highlands, the flow of the refugees have been consistent, indicating deteriorating human rights situations.

Hanoi attempted to subdue the ethnic minorities through repression and humiliation. A court in Central Daklak province of Vietnam sentenced eight indigenous Ede people, majority of whom are Christians, on 25 December 2002, the Christmas Day, for organizing 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. 

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.  

Non-governmental organizations reported that at least 10 Montagnards were killed, many were injured and dozens were arrested after the crackdown on 10 April 2004. The Vietnamese government put the toll at two. The government of Vietnam subsequently closed the regions for foreigners and have lately been allowing guided tour of the diplomats and foreign media.

Asylum in a fortress

The treatment of the Montagnards 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 60^th 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”.

On 22 March 2002, UNHCR pulled out of a repatriation agreement with Hanoi and Phnom Penh and offered asylum to about 1,000 ethnic minorities who fled after the peaceful protests in February 2001. The UNHCR decision followed several incidents where Hanoi and Phnom Penh authorities have been accused of mistreating Montagnard asylum seekers. On 21 March 2002, more than 300 relatives of the asylum seekers and at least 100 Vietnamese officials were brought on buses to the refugee camp in northeastern Cambodia to put pressure on the asylum seekers to return to Vietnam.

After the withdrawal of the UNHCR, the situation of the Montagnard asylum seekers further deteriorated. During the first week of January 2003, an estimated 50 Pnong indigenous people from Vietnam sought refuge in Cambodia. However, they were arrested near Koh Nheak in the Mondulkiri and Rattanakiri area by the Cambodian police and were forcibly handed over to the Vietnamese border police. Subsequently, around the third week of January 2003, another group of 30 Pnongs were again arrested by Cambodian police near Koh Nheak. 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.  According to a Cambodian parliamentarian, 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”.

As UNHCR closed its office in Rattanakiri, asylum-seekers have had to travel some 600 kilometres over land to reach Phnom Penh. Despite such difficulties and repression, at least 94 others have reportedly managed to reach the Office of the UNHRC in Phnom Penh since late 2003.

Kinh-isation of the Central Highlands

The grant of refugee status to the 12 Montagnards who managed to reach Thailand via Cambodia by the UNHCR office in Bangkok on 7 July 2004 is welcome. A spokeswoman of the UNHCR in Bangkok further stated that the 12 would soon be sent to a third country. While the grant of refugee status is crucial in the light of the repression they face both in Vietnam and Cambodia, the root causes of the problems of the Montagnards are far from resolved.

The crisis in Central Highland relates to the Montagnards' rights over land and natural resources, natural habitat, culture and tradition, and religious freedom that are under direct assault of the authorities in Hanoi and the majority Kinh transmigrasis. 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 identities. 

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 which displace the indigenous peoples. Vietnam’s has so far adopted a colour-blind approach towards the ongoing crisis in the Central Highlands. Hanoi does not see anything beyond FURLO, and in the post September 11^th period, such nonsense is fashionable.

There are opportunities for international interventions with Hanoi through bilateral aid programmes and multi-lateral assistance programmes of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Union and UN specialised agencies specially for poverty reduction and empowerment of the Montagnards. The authorities in Washington and Brussels need to decide as to whether they are interested to make such interventions or restrict their interventions only to ease the Cambodian borders to assist the fleeing refugees? The fifth Asia-Europe summit to be held in Hanoi in October 2004 provides an opportunity to highlight the plight of the Montagnards.