Relatives of U.S.-based Montagnard exile forced to confess 'wrongdoings' in Vietnam

           
Associated Press

June 02, 2004   

HANOI, Vietnam - Family members of a U.S.-based exile - accused by Vietnam of being a terrorist - were required to participate in public "self-criticism" sessions in the communist country's restive Central Highlands region, an official said Wednesday.

Five relatives of Kok Ksor, including his mother, publicly admitted to "wrongdoings" during a May 26 session before their village of Bon Roai in Gia Lai province, said Nay Hem, a local official.

Ksor, who heads the South Carolina-based Montagnard Foundation, has been accused by Hanoi of organizing several mass uprisings in the Central Highlands, including recent Easter weekend protests that drew an estimated 10,000 ethnic minority villagers.

The village official said the five family members confessed they were directed by Ksor to attend demonstrations and incite other villagers to protest. None of them were detained or arrested, he said.

The protests by the largely Christian ethnic minorities, known as Montagnards, called for religious freedom and the return of ancestral lands confiscated by the government.

Last week, New York-based Human Rights Watch said hundreds of villagers were wounded and many killed during a crackdown on the April 10-11 protests, according to eyewitness accounts. Vietnam has said only two people died.

In Wednesday's state media, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung repeated Vietnam's contention that Ksor and his group "were guilty of terrorist actions in inciting ethnic minorities in (the Central Highlands) to threaten Vietnam's security."

Dung said Ksor had worked with local extremists "to instigate gullible people" to mount large-scale demonstrations to demand an independent state. He called for severe punishment against him.

The Human Rights Watch report detailed a massive government crackdown in the Central Highlands area, with hundreds of Vietnamese security troops on a manhunt for villagers involved in the protests. Montagnards have been forced to hide in village graves or pits in the forest to escape capture, the group said.

No independent observers have been allowed into the area, although Vietnam has escorted journalists and diplomats on tightly monitored trips to the highlands.