UN: VIETNAM ATTACKS THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY FOR ITS WORK WITH THE MONTAGNARD PEOPLE

Mr. NGUYEN Quy Binh, the Vietnamese Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, recently presented a formal complaint against the Transnational Radical Party and Mr. Kok Ksor a member of its delegation to the 58th session of the Commission on Human Rights with allegations of terrorism and illegal accreditation. TRP member Mr. Kok Ksor is the President of the Montagnard Foundation (www.montagnard-foundation.org), a group legally incorporated in the United States of America. The Montagnards are the indigenous people of Viet Nam's central Highlands.

Two events provoked the reaction of Viet Nam:
• Mr. Kok Ksor oral address on behalf of the TRP before the Commission plenary on the situation of the Montagnard living in southern Viet Nam (read his statement, listen to the speech);
• a briefing at the Commission where a documentary on the history of the Montagnard was presented to delegates, the press and other NGOs.

The Viet Nam accuses Mr. Kok Ksor of having being recruited by the CIA to fight the regime of Hanoi and labels the Montagnard Foundation a terrorist organization. It is still unclear how the Vietnamese delegation to the UN will follow up to this accusations. The UN Committee on Non-governmental Organizations mandated to proceed on complaints against NGOs will meet in mid-May at the UN Headquarters in New York.

In June 2001, Mr. Olivier Dupuis, MEP, then TRP Secretary General, currently member of TRP Committee of Presidents was arrested in Viet Nam for having offered to escort the deputy representative of the national Buddhist unified church in his reunion with the head of that group living in a another region of Viet Nam. Mr. Dupuis was expelled from the country with another TRP member Mr. Martin Schulthes. To know more visit TRP page on Viet Nam (link).

In May 2000, the Russian Federation lodged a complaint against the TRP before the Committee on NGOs to expel it from the UN system. That request, at the first endorsed by the Committee, was eventually rejected by the ECOSOC with a historic vote won thanks to the support provided by western democracies (link to the special page). In 1995, the TRP was awarded Category general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN.