Tuesday, July 12, 2005
FATE OF MORE THAN 100 MONTAGNARD
REFUGEES AT RISK IN CAMBODIA
URGENT ACTION NEEDED
By Michael
Ireland
SPARTANBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA (ANS) --
An organization dedicated to the preservation of the
Indigenous People of Vietnam’s Central Highlands is urgently calling on
the international community to stop the imminent process of forced
repatriation of more than 100 Montagnard-Degar asylum seekers from
Cambodia to Vietnam.
The Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Montagnard Foundation says the
office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Cambodia
has not granted refugee status to over 100 Montagnards who have fled to
Cambodia for fear of the well-documented repression carried by the
Vietnamese Government towards the Montagnard people after the 2001 and
2004 demonstrations.
The organization says the failure of Montagnards to gain the status of
refugee often depends on the lack of information on their rights
provided to them by UNHCR.
A press release from the Foundation states: "Considering the behavior
of the Vietnamese Government towards Montagnards who have fled to
Cambodia after their return to Vietnam, which has included
intimidation, detention, torture and beatings, their current threat of
forced repatriation, is contrary to the international obligations that
bind Cambodia to the respect of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
"Moreover, the UNHCR is also acting contrary to its practice, having
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Governments of Cambodia
and Vietnam last January, which does not provide the possibility of
independent and effective monitoring of the human rights situation of
the Montagnard people in the Central Highlands of Vietnam."
The current risk of forced repatriations is a direct consequence of
such an ill-conceived Memorandum of Understanding, the Foundation
statement says.
The release says the Montagnard Foundation recommends:
**That all international institutions, donors and foreign embassies of
democratic governments in Cambodia strongly insist that the Cambodian
Government fully respect its international obligations towards the
Montagnard asylum seekers;
**That the forced repatriation of refugees or asylum seekers to Vietnam
where disrespect of basic human rights of the Montagnard people is
constantly violated and where no international and independent
monitoring of the situation is possible -- is unacceptable and will
only result in the collaboration of Vietnamese officials who are
responsible for repressing the Montagnard people;
**That the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees in Cambodia
operates in a transparent way, respecting its own obligations, and
co-operates with other international agencies and entities in Cambodia,
which can assist it, and in particular with the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights that has raised its concern for the
Montagnard refugees numerous times over the last year.
The Montagnard Foundation statement also states the Montagnard asylum
seekers who have expressed the desire to be relocated in a third
country should be allowed to do so, and that the Montagnard asylum
seekers who have not expressed such desire to be relocated should not
be repatriated until an effective and independent monitoring system of
human rights is established in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
Finally the Montagnard Foundation calls on the US Government "to act
vigorously and without hesitation to implement the respect of human,
civil, political, and indigenous rights of the Montagnard people"
following the summit between President Bush and Prime Minister Phan Van
Khai, and request the opening of the Central Highlands of Vietnam to
international monitors.
It says that: "if Vietnam continues to be allowed to repress the
Montagnard people like it has over the last 30 years, and without any
concrete action to protect human rights the political and economic
gains that Vietnam has been increasingly granted by the US Government -
will be gained at the expenses of the Montagnard and Vietnamese people;
The group calls on the new UN High Commissioner for Refugees Mr.
António Guterres, "to urgently and completely review the overall
situation of Montagnard refugees in Cambodia," starting with the
January 2005 Memorandum of Understanding, asking the complete
co-operation of the Cambodian Government for the respect of the 1951
Refugees Convention, and urg(ing) the Government of Vietnam to allow an
unfettered and effective presence of its office in the Central
highlands of Vietnam, together with other international and foreign
agencies and NGOs; at the same time the High Commissioner should
carefully review the way the UNHCR office in Vietnam operates,
considering that it’s reports on the situation in the Central Highlands
of Vietnam do not match the level of persecution repeatedly documented
by many other reliable and independent sources.
Therefore the group calls upon the European Commission "to implement
its co- operation agreements with Cambodia and Vietnam that link the
disbursement of economic aid to the respect of human rights, and to
follow up to the resolutions approved by the European Parliament on the
lack of respect of human rights in Vietnam, and put pressure the
Vietnamese Government to open the Central Highlands of Vietnam to
international monitors."
The Montagnard Foundation concludes that: "Unless urgent action is
taken many more Montagnard Degar People will suffer and die."
MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION, INC.
Dedicated to the preservation of the Indigenous People of Vietnam’s
Central Highlands
P.O. BOX 171114 - SPARTANBURG, SC 29301-0101 USA
Fax: (864) 595-1940 Phone: (864) 576-0698
E-mail: kksor@montagnard-foundation.org
Web site: http://www.montagnard-foundation.org
| ** Michael Ireland is an
international British freelance journalist. A former reporter with a
London newspaper, Michael is the Chief Correspondent for ASSIST News
Service of Garden Grove, CA. Michael immigrated to the United States in
1982 and became a US citizen in Sept., 1995. He is married with two
children. Michael has also been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a
British Christian radio station. |
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