400 MONTAGNARDS KILLED. URGENT INTERVENTION
BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IS NEEDED
Transnational Radical Party
URGENT PRESS RELEASE
Rome, April 10, 2004
REPORTS COMING
DIRECTLY FROM VIETNAM TO THE MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION CONFIRM THAT HUNDREDS OF
THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARE CURRENTLY STAGING PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATIONS IN THE FOUR
PROVINCES OF PLEIKU, KONTUM, GIA LAI E DA LAT IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF
VIETNAM.
THE REPRESSION BY
THE VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT HAS ALREADY LED TO THE DEATH OF AROUND 400 MONTAGNARD
IN THE CITY OF BUON MA THOUT AND TO THE DISAPPEREANCES, ARRESTS AND HURTING OF
HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE IN THE OTHER PROVINCES.
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Today in the Central Highlands 150,000 of Degars arrived in the
city of Buon Ma Thuot to stage peaceful
demonstrations to call on the Vietnamese authorities and the international
community for the respect of their fundamental rights. Most of them got out of
the city because many were killed or had their legs and hands broken by the
beatings of the Vietnames soldiers and police. The Vietnamese soldiers,
mixed with police and Vietnamese civilians, beat the people with electric
baton, throwing rocks, shoot with rifles and cut off people heads with knifes.
Around 200 dead bodies still were left in the city and in the coffee plantation.
In the district of Ayunpa the
Montagnards came to town from every direction and were around 100,000 to
demonstrate in the city. When the first people started the demonstrations some
of them got hurt because of beating from the police and soldiers but after a
while the police stopped because there were too many people in the town.
In Plei ku
city we
don’t know how many people came out of their villages to demonstrate because we
lost communication but others were still coming out of their villages and we might
find out the number later.
In Kontum city also it is
not clear how many people participated in the demonstration because the
communication was lost.
In Da Lat city many people
participated in the demonstrations but it is not clear how many of them.
In the city of Phuoc Long 20,000
Montagnards demonstrated and many of them got hurt but it is not known how many
because we lost the communication.
In the district of Cu Jut there were 3,000 people
demonstrating and around 60 of them were arrested and taken away dead because
of beating from the soldiers and Vietnamese civilians.
In the district of Dak Mil 2,500
people participated the demonstration but we don’t how many get hurt because we
lost the communication.
The Transnational Radical Party, after few days from the
commemoration of the genocide in Rwanda, is calling on the Italian Government,
the European Commission, the European Council, the US Department of State, the
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and all the UN Agencies for their
immediate intervention to stop the brutal repression that the Vietnamese
government is perpetrating against the Montagnard people.
Ends
./.