INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS AUSTRALIAN SECTION (ASICJ)

REPORT ON VIOLATIONS OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE MONTAGNARD PEOPLES OF THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF VIETNAM
February 2001

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Montagnards of the Central Highlands of Vietnam ("the Montagnards") are a tribal peoples whose traditional way of life, historical struggle for autonomy and alliances with the French colonial government in Vietnam before 1954 and the United States during the Vietnam War ("the War"), have resulted in their being regarded as "moi" or savages and a threat to the internal security of Vietnam. Since the reunification of Vietnam, the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ("SRV") has committed gross abuses of the human rights of the Montagnards. The human rights abuses suffered by the Montagnards include the following:

Summary executions and disappearances.

Arbitrary arrest, interrogations, beatings and torture (including the harassment, arrest and interrogation of Montagnard human rights defenders).

Expropriation of traditional lands without compensation and forcible relocation from traditional lands, often to poor agricultural land without adequate water resources.

Montagnards have been beaten and killed as a consequence of land rights disputes with lowland Vietnamese settlers residing in the Central Highlands, with little protection being offered by SRV authorities.

Montagnard women have been offered money by SRV authorities and other persons to be sterilised, fined for refusing to be sterilised, sterilised without their consent and have suffered injuries and died as a consequence of such sterilisations.

Trafficking of women and children from highland areas to other places within Vietnam and into Cambodia allegedly occurs, for the purpose of forced prostitution.

Prohibitions on, and beatings and torture as a consequence of, Montagnards practising religion.

Forced assimilation and restrictions on access to education, employment and the use of government services.

Restrictions on freedom of movement in certain areas of the Central Highland and theft of property by SRV Government officials and police.

A committee of the Western Australian Branch have compiled this report in association with Mr Kok Ksor, the Executive Director of the Montagnard Foundation Inc. (a United States-based non-government organisation), who is a member of the Jarai Montagnard tribal group and who presently resides in the United States.

II. THE MONTAGNARDS

The Montagnards view themselves as the indigenous peoples of Vietnam and are comprised of over 40 hill tribal groups. The Montagnards are distinct from the hill tribe peoples of the northern mountainous region of Vietnam who are also referred to as "Montagnards". The SRV Government and the international community refer to the Montagnards as Vietnam's ethnic minorities. The Montagnards call themselves Degar peoples.

The Central Highlands are remote mountain areas and include the provinces of Lam Dong, Dak Lak, Gia Lai and Kontum. Montagnards also live in the province of Quang Nam, immediately to the north of Kontum. Prior to the 1950's, the Montagnards lived a traditional existence in the Central Highlands, hunting, fishing and practising swidden agriculture, and each Montagnard tribal group had developed its own distinct form of art, architecture, music and dance.

III. MODERN HISTORY

In 1946, the French colonial government in Vietnam enacted a Federal Ordinance providing that the Central Highlands ceased to be "under the jurisdiction of the commissariat of the Republic of South Annam". The Montagnards viewed this Ordinance as granting them autonomy in the Central Highlands from the national authorities. The French colonial administration subsequently transferred control of the region to the Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai who, in 1951, signed an executive order guaranteeing protection of Montagnard lands and the Montagnards' continued access to political affairs.

Prior to 1954, the Montagnards were allied to the French colonial government in its war against the Viet Minh, the forces of Ho Chi Minh. After 1954, and the division of the country into North and South Vietnam, the government of South Vietnam facilitated the resettlement of thousands of Vietnamese (who occupied the lowland areas of Vietnam) into the Central Highlands. The South Vietnamese government, among other measures, eliminated the Montagnards' tribal courts and forcibly relocated villages from viable farming lands.

In 1957, a peaceful movement called Bajaraka was formed by Montagnards seeking autonomy for their people. In 1958, the government of South Vietnam arrested and imprisoned the movement's leaders. In 1961, the United States began recruiting Montagnards for military service and 40,000 in total were recruited over the duration of the War. The Central Highlands was one of the main battlegrounds of the War. The anthropologist Dr Gerald Hickey estimates that approximately 85% of the Montagnards' villages were destroyed or abandoned and that over 200,000 Montagnards died, as a consequence of the War. Today, approximately 500,000 Montagnards live in the Central Highlands.

During the War, a new Montagnard resistance movement was formed called FULRO, which was based in Cambodia and fought against the South Vietnamese government in an effort to gain autonomy for the Montagnards in the Central Highlands. After 1975, FULRO continued to militarily resist the SRV Government until 1992 when FULRO's last 400 members surrendered to the United Nations in Cambodia.

Until 1992, foreign persons were restricted from entering the Central Highlands. Since then, foreigners, predominantly tourists, have been able to access some parts of the region; some areas though are still restricted. Independent organisations like Human Rights Watch have been unable to enter Vietnam to monitor human rights. Mr Ksor, however, has maintained and established links with Montagnards living in the Central Highlands and much of the information in this report was obtained by Mr Ksor directly from those persons or from Montagnard exiles/refugees presently residing in the United States.

IV. HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES SUFFERED BY THE MONTAGNARDS

After Vietnam's re-unification in 1975, the SRV became and remains a one-party state ruled and controlled by the Communist Party of Vietnam ("CPV"). The military forces of Vietnam are controlled by the CPV and are involved in internal security matters, and "in some remote areas, the military forces are the primary government agency".(1)

Significant human rights problems remain in Vietnam. The SRV authorities have retained "a decidedly anachronistic emphasis on suppressing those groups and individuals that it perceives as a political threat".(2) The ASICJ is of the opinion that the SRV Government views the Montagnards as a threat to the internal security of Vietnam because of these peoples' historical struggle for autonomy and their alliances with foreign powers. It is submitted that the Montagnards as a people have suffered greater human rights violations than any other in Vietnam.

The following is a summary of the human rights abuses which have occurred and continue:

A. Summary Executions, Disappearances, Arbitrary Arrests and Imprisonments

Montagnard exiles/refugees presently residing in the United States have provided Mr Ksor with a list identifying the unprovoked killings of approximately 580 civilian Montagnards in the Central Highlands by SRV soldiers prior to 1997. Mr Ksor has been informed that the following 6 Montagnards were summarily executed in the Central Highlands in 1997 by SRV soldiers:

Siu Huit, while farming near Plei Breng village;
Puih Punh, while fishing near Plei Klah village;
Gonh, in his village of Plei De Droch after being accused of being a member of FULRO; and
Ruih, Amech and Hiur at their village of Plei Thung Ro.

Mr Ksor told the ASICJ that he does not have the exact numbers of Montagnards who have been arrested and imprisoned by SRV authorities. However, the following is a list of 6 Montagnards who have been arrested in the Central Highlands, without apparent cause, and not released:

Hnhot from Plei Jong village, was arrested in 1981 (prison unknown).
Ru from Plei Dok Kong village, was arrested in 1982 (prison unknown).
Ban, Ayui and Blot, all from Plei Bong Phun village, were arrested in 1986 (prison unknown).
Amot from Plei Jrong village was arrested in 1996 and is still being held in a prison at Song Be, in the province of Thanh Hoa (outside of the Central Highlands).

On 19 October 2000, Y-Hong Nie from Buon Cu Po hamlet, in the village of Cu Ewi in Dak Lak province disappeared from his farm after refusing to give over his traditional farmlands to the SRV authorities.

In October 2000, 12 of Mr Ksor's contacts in the Central Highlands were arrested and interrogated by SRV authorities about their involvement with Mr Ksor. On 27 November 2000, Ksor Kroih, a Montagnard human rights defender, was arrested and interrogated by Lt Colonel Pham Van Chan, Major Luu Van and Captain Tung of the SRV military at the police station in Pleiku, Gia Lai province, for his involvement with Mr Ksor.

B. Expropriation of Montagnard Lands

The SRV Government, like the government of the former South Vietnam, has encouraged the resettlement into the Central Highlands of lowland Vietnamese people and SRV authorities have developed the region for coffee, fruit production and mining. Extensive deforestation has also occurred in the Central Highlands.

To allow for Vietnamese settlements and logging operations, the SRV has enacted a policy of "Fixed Field/Fixed Residence" prohibiting the Montagnards from practising their traditional swidden (or slash and burn) farming and preventing them from living in their traditional long houses (in which an extended Montagnard family resides), both of which are defining elements of Montagnard culture. Montagnards have been forced to live in single-family houses. Mr Ksor reports that Montagnards are forcibly removed from their traditional lands and water sources and apportioned poor farming land, while the lowland Vietnamese settlers receive more fertile farming land from SRV authorities.

The United Nations Development Programme reported in 1997 that the Fixed Field/Fixed Residence policy of the SRV Government has "not always been favourable for the ethnic people mainly because of the limits on land allocations and land use but also because the planners have ignored the realities of the ethnic minority household economy and the great variety of its farming systems. The resettlement of ethnic people often disrupted their social organisation and their traditional farming systems".(3)

To enforce the "Fixed Field/Fixed Residence" policy, Montagnards who have been caught farming in a traditional manner or on traditional lands have been arrested, imprisoned and/or beaten by SRV authorities. On 6 April 2000, a family of five Montagnards from the village of Dak Ra La in the province of Dak Lak, including a 12 year-old boy and H-tuer, a pregnant woman, were arrested and beaten for farming in a traditional manner. Four of the Montagnards, including the boy, were imprisoned and tortured. They were subsequently released without having to pay a fine. However, in March 2000, two brothers Y-Thuot Buon Krong and Y-Lim Buon Krong were arrested, beaten and imprisoned at Krong Kno for farming their traditional lands. Their village paid a 2,000,000 dong (US$137.45) fine to secure the brothers' release. One brother was permanently crippled as a result of the beatings. It is noted that the official minimum monthly wage for workers employed by foreign investment joint ventures in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in 1999 was 621,000 dong.

Mr Ksor also reports that, in July 2000, SRV authorities in Kontum province bulldozed approximately 150 homes in a Montagnard village and did not re-settle its inhabitants nor compensate them for the loss of their traditional lands. Having been apportioned and forcibly relocated to poor farming land or in some cases, being ejected from their traditional lands without being resettled by the SRV authorities, the Montagnards have been unable to adequately feed themselves and their children and have had inadequate access to water resources. It is reported that "Many citizens in isolated rural areas, especially members of ethnic minorities in the...central highlands...live in extreme poverty".(4) It is noted that 60% of children in mountainous regions in Vietnam suffer from malnutrition.(5)

Mr Ksor has reported to the ASICJ that Montagnards are also being victimised by lowland Vietnamese settlers residing in the Central Highlands, including being beaten and killed in land disputes, with no subsequent action being taken by local SRV authorities against the perpetrators. Tensions between the settlers and Montagnards of the Ede tribe erupted recently into violence on 8 August 2000, as reported in Vietnam's Lao Dong daily newspaper.

C. Human Rights Abuses Against Montagnard Women

Mr Ksor has obtained information from his Central Highlands' contacts that persons, sometimes Montagnards themselves, have offered approximately 100,000 dong (US$7) to Montagnard women in exchange for these women being sterilised. Mr Ksor has received reports that Montagnard women have also been sterilised without giving their informed consent. In one instance, a women was sterilised by a medical provider after giving birth. Of most concern though is a list of names of approximately 900 Montagnard women, and their villages of residence, compiled by Mr Ksor, who have either died or suffered health problems as a result of being sterilised in the Central Highlands.

On 5 November 2000, Mr Scott Johnson, a member of the ASICJ committee, interviewed a Montagnard refugee residing in the United States named Mal Mal, who stated that the SRV Government began promoting sterilisations in the Central Highlands in 1992 and continued doing so until he left Vietnam in 1997. He stated that the Montagnard women in his village were offered 100,000 dong to be surgically sterilised and if these women did not agree to this operation they were forced to attend "education meetings" until they consented to the operation. In addition, Mal Mal said that women were fined if they were not sterilised. Mr Johnson also interviewed a Montagnard woman now residing in the United States named Hngach who said that the local SRV authorities offered money to Montagnard women to be surgically sterilised. She also confirmed Mal Mal's comments that Montagnard women were fined if they did not have this surgery.

The ASICJ believes that foreign donors are involved in the provision of family planning programs in Vietnam. In relation to the Central Highlands, the World Bank Group and the Asian Development Bank both have as family planning project areas, the Central Highlands' provinces of Dak Lak and Lam Dong.

The United Nations Population Fund ("UNFPA") is responsible for family planning initiatives in the Quang Nam province - an area in which, as already mentioned, Montagnards live. Mr Scott Johnson and another member of the ASICJ committee Mr Matthew Davey spoke to the UNFPA's Senior External Relations Officer Mr Eric Palstra in July 2000 in Geneva, Switzerland. In response to questioning on sterilisations in Vietnam, Mr Palstra said that the central SRV Government in Hanoi had changed its family planning policies to emphasise improved quality of care and the informed consent of women. However, Mr Palstra acknowledged that it is common in Vietnam for there not to be a "trickle down" effect of centralised policies to provincial and local authorities.

Mr Palstra also said that officially the UNFPA did not support incentive payments being offered to women to be sterilised but that, personally, he supported "compensation" payments being made to women for lost working days as a result of being sterilised. The ASICJ notes that in 1999 a federal law was passed in the United States providing that in order to receive United States foreign aid, recipient countries must have family planning programs that do not violate women's human rights. And this law recognised as one such violation, the offering and/or payment of money to women in exchange for their use of contraceptives or them agreeing to be sterilised.

The extent to which the international aid donors referred to above are involved in the implementation of family planning and other health programs at the ground level in the Central Highlands is not known.

A further women's issue was raised in the United States' State Department report on Human Rights in Vietnam in 1999. This report stated that trafficking of women in Vietnam for the purpose of forced prostitution, both within Vietnam and into Cambodia and China is a serious problem. The State Department reported that "[w]omen and girls are trafficked from southern delta and highlands provinces to Cambodia".(6)
D. Abuses of Freedom of Religion

Since 1975, the SRV authorities in the Central Highlands have prohibited all religious practices, including Christianity and the Montagnards' traditional animist religion. Montagnard exiles/refugees in the United States have provided to Mr Ksor a list of 87 Christian churches that have been closed by force by the SRV authorities and these exiles/refugees report that Montagnards have been harassed, arrested and imprisoned for practising their religion. Mr Ksor has photographs of Montagnard houses that SRV authorities tore down in January 1999 in reprisal for Montagnards participating in Christian activities. Montagnard exiles/refugees also report that Montagnard children are denied education if they or their parents practice Christianity.

The United States' State Department has estimated that in 1999 approximately 200,000 members of ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands were Protestants. The State Department report noted that these groups increasingly practice their religion in house churches (being services held in members' homes) and "the secretive nature of the house churches, particularly among ethnic minorities, has contributed to greater repression against these groups".(7)

Mr Ksor has reported to the ASICJ that on 12 November 2000, SRV government officials arrested and tortured six Montagnards from the village of Al Ba in the province of Gia Lai for practising the Christian faith. These Montagnards include:

R'mah Cot, who was beaten and shocked with electric current.
R'mah Hoc, who was beaten and shocked with electric current by Nguyen Dinh Su, the police chief of Al Ba village.
Siu U, who was beaten and shocked with electric current by Siu Heh, a soldier at Al Ba village.
Siu H'Kep, a Montagnard woman, who was beaten by a soldier at Al Ba village.
Siu H'Pep, a Montagnard woman, was beaten by a soldier at Al Ba village, who also attempted to rape her.

On 2 December 2000, SRV police in the Central Highlands arrested Siu Seo, Siu Ai and Nay Glel, all of whom are Christians from the village of Plei Joning in Gia Lai province, and took them to Phu Thien. Mr Ksor was told by his contacts in the Central Highlands that the SRV police beat the Montagnards and shocked them using electric current. The present condition of these people is unknown. The police officers included Ksor Hleo and Nay Phot.

In addition, Mr Ksor reports that since November 2000, the Montagnards Rahlan Nglo, Rahlan Dijh, Rahlan Bor, R'çom Har, Siu Hueh, Siu Jong, Siu Suenh, Kpa Thi, Kpa Do, Kpa Jung and Kpa Hling have been arrested and taken, and/or summoned repeatedly, to their local police station in Gia Lai province and are being threatened with torture and death unless they stop practising Christianity.

E. General Discrimination Against the Montagnards

The United States' State Department reported that in Vietnam in 1999 "local officials sometimes restricted ethnic minority access to education, employment and mail services".(8)

In 1999, some local authorities in the Central Highlands "required members of ethnic minority groups to obtain permission to travel outside certain highland areas".(9)

Also, the SRV authorities have enacted policies prohibiting and restricting Montagnards from using and practising their own indigenous languages, wearing their traditional clothing, participating in traditional ceremonies and festivals and electing traditional leaders.

In addition, Mr Ksor reports that motorcycles, radios and tape recorders owned by Montagnards have been confiscated by local SRV police in the Central Highlands. He cites as an example that, in November 2000, 7 Honda motorcycles were confiscated by police in several villages throughout the Gia Lai province and in some cases the Montagnards were offered the opportunity to repurchase the motorcycles. The United States' State Department has stated that "reports from the [C]entral [H]ighlands suggest that some local officials have extorted cattle and money from Protestants in those areas..[but] that it is unclear whether their religious affiliation or other factors were the cause of these alleged crimes".(10)

V. MONITORING OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN VIETNAM

The SRV Government has accepted the monitoring and aid presence of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in relation to the return of refugees to Vietnam. It has also permitted visits by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance. However, the SRV Government will not allow a monitoring presence in the Central Highlands by non-government organisations or the United Nations. It is noted that the United States Ambassador to Vietnam, Mr Douglas Petersen was denied access to the Central Highlands in 1997 by the SRV Government.

Mr Ksor recently received a letter from Mr Warwick Morris, of the United Kingdom Embassy in Vietnam, who stated that, "[a] great deal of our work involves urging the Vietnamese Government to abide by their obligations under those [international] treaties, to allow the LIN monitoring missions freedom to do their jobs unhindered....There is much to be done. The difficulties faced by the Montagnard people is one of the issues to be addressed". Mr Morris stated that the United Kingdom intended to raise the issue of the abuses being suffered by the Montagnards at the next European Union meeting to be held in Vietnam.

In addition, Mr Ove Ullerup, of the Danish Embassy in Vietnam, said in a letter to Mr Ksor that, "[l]ack of information is among the biggest difficulties we face when dealing with the human rights situation in Vietnam. The material provided by you...will therefore be read with great interest".

VI. RECOMMENDATIONS

Vietnam is a state party to, among other international instruments, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ("ICCPR") and, as a consequence, the SRV Government has an obligation to promote, respect and protect the rights set out in the ICCPR.

The ASICJ urges the international community, particularly the United Nations and those countries and intergovernmental agencies providing development assistance to Vietnam, to investigate and raise in discussions with the SRV Government, the human rights violations being suffered by the Montagnards as outlined in this Report. The ASICJ also asks that there be investigations into how development assistance to Vietnam is being implemented at the ground level in the Central Highlands, with particular regard to the reports of Montagnard women being sterilised and being injured and dying as a result.

The ASICJ urges those countries and intergovernmental agencies providing development assistance to Vietnam to make the provision of that aid contingent on the SRV Government complying with its international human rights obligations, particularly in relation to the Montagnards.

The ASICJ urges the international community to investigate, and to raise in discussions with the SRV Government, the information set out in this Report that Montagnards are being tortured and beaten by SRV authorities and members of the military in the Central Highlands because of these Montagnards' religious beliefs.

The ASICJ particularly urges the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the Sub-commission on Minorities to investigate the human rights abuses being suffered by the Montagnards as outlined in this Report and to establish a presence in the Central Highlands to monitor the policies and practices of the SRV authorities towards the Montagnards, particularly in view of the reports of Montagnard human rights defenders being arrested and interrogated.

END NOTES

1. 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 25 February 2000 (at p1).
2. Vietnam: The Silencing of Dissent, Human Rights Watch, Vol.12, No1(C), May 2000 (at p1).
"Country Comparisons on Highland Peoples Development Issues - Vietnam", Highlands Peoples Program, Management Team-Regional Workshop, 1997.
See Note 1, (at p2).
"Vietnam" in Human Rights in Developing Countries Yearbook 1997, Stokke, Suhrke, Tostensen, Nordic Rights Publications, (at pp370-371).
See Note 1, (at p21).
See Note 1, (at p12).
See Note 1, (at p23).
See Note 1, (at p18).
See Note 1, (at p16).