Letter of Mr. Nguyen Thanh Chau, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam to the United Nations to to Ms. Mihaela Blajan, Chairperson of the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations


PERMANENT MISSION
OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM
O THE UNITED NATIONS

866 United Nations Plaza, 4th Floor, Suite 435
New York, NY 10017
(212) 644-0594 * Fax (212) 644-5732

New York 14 May, 2002


Dear Ms. Mihaela Blajan,

First of all, I would like to congratulate you on election as Chairperson of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations. I trust that, with your vast skills and experience, your vast skills and experience, you will successfully guide the work of the Committee.

I am writing to you to rise with you and the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations our objection over the Transnational Radical Party's accreditation of a representative of the Montagnard Foundation Inc. (MFI), allowing the MFI to be present and speak at the 58th Session of the Commission on Human Rights (Geneva, March-April 2002). Viet Nam's objections are based, inter alia, upon the following:

1. MFI is, in fact, a terrorist group and an arm of a larger terrorist organization abbreviated as FULRO (Le Front Unifie pour la Liberation des Races Opprimees). MFI openly states that MFI President Kok Ksor was sent to the United States by the founder and leader of FULRO, General Y-Bham Enuol
FULRO is an armed organization, created by foreign forces during the war against the Vietnamese people in the 1960s and 1970s. In the enclosed announcement about an MFI "briefing" sponsored by the Transnational Radical Party (TRP) during the 58th Session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, MFI publicly said that they were recruit by the CIA and US army during the war. Since the end of the war in 1975, FURLO, MFI and its members, including Kok Ksor have carried out or supported dangerous, armed terrorist activities causing heavy civilian casualties in Viet Nam.

2. The above-mentioned terrorist and other activities of FULRO and MFI are to serve their declared aim of creating the so-called "an Independent State of Degar" in the Central Highland of Viet Nam, thus undermining the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the State of Viet Nam, a Member of the United Nations. Their incitement and sabotage constitute obstruction of the promotion of harmonious inter-ethnic relations and the cause of social, economic and cultural development for the ethnic Vietnamese people.

The aims and activities of MFI therefore go against the spirit, purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, which are the foundation of any arrangement of consultative relations with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC Resolution 1996/31).

I urge that you and the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations take appropriate measures to prevent MFI, in the name of the Transnational Radical Party, from being accredited to meetings of the Economic and Social Council and any other meeting of the United Nations under. It is immensely deplorable that the Transnational Radical Party has again abused its consultative status with the Economic and Social Council to allow a terrorist group to be present at a meeting of a body of the United Nations. Through you and the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, I demand that the Transnational Radical Party put an immediate end to and explain about this wrongful act. Accreditation to MFI would not only further exacerbate TRP's Problems but also hamper the work of the United Nations.

Please, find also enclosed the communications between the Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to the United Nations Office and Other International Organizations at Geneva and the relevant officials of the United Nations on the above-mentioned issue.

I would like to take this opportunity to extend to you the assurances of my highest consideration.


Nguyen Thanh Chau
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to the United Nations


Encl.: Letter dated 30 April of Ms. Maria Francisca Ize-Charmin
Secretary of the Commission on Human Rights
to Mr. Marco Perduca, Representative to the UN office in Geneva
Transnational Radical Party
Letter of Vietnam's Ambassador, Permanent Representative in Geneva
Addressed to the Chairman of the 58th Session of the CHR