MASS DEMONSTRATION IS GOING TO COME UP ON SATURDAY 10 APRIL IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS AGAINST VIETNAMESE COMMUNISTS’ RELIGIOUS

mass demonstration is going to come up on Saturday 10 April in the Central Highlands against Vietnamese communists’ religious repression

Excerpt from Montagnard Foundation’s Press Release

4.09.2004

ON SATURDAY 10 APRIL 2004 MORE THAN 150,000 MONTAGNARDS WILL BEGIN A NONVIOLENT DEMONSTRATION OF PUBLIC PRAYER IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF VIETNAM, against THE VIETNAMESE GOVERNMENT’S denial of their FREEdom to worship Christ. The Montagnards CALL ON those countries that recognize freedom of religion TO request access to THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS and to monitor the situation, also with satellites, TO PROTECT THEIR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS.

WITHOUT THE DIRECT INTERVENTION OF law abiding states, THE UN, THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION - THE REPRESSION AGAINST THE MONTAGNARDS WILL BE cruel and bloody

These hours leading to the Easter celebration in the Central Highlands of Vietnam - there is taking place a brutal repression of the Christian Montagnard peoples. Starting tomorrow more than 150,000 Montagnards will begin a collective public prayer all over the Central Highlands of Vietnam to call on the international community to establish a monitoring presence in the Central Highlands - AS ALREADY REQUESTED BY THE UN COMMITTE ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN 2002, where for more than three years the repression against the Montagnard people has been without mercy and with no control, with thousands of beatings and torture, hundreds of disappearances in the jungle and arrests, extrajudicial executions, rapes and occupation of land which represents the only means of subsistence for the Montagnard populations.

It has been documented by the US Commission on International Religious freedom, by the US State Department and the European Parliament, that the Vietnamese Government does not allow the free exercise of religious freedom and religious activities of the indigenous Montagnard people have been especially harsh. With the beginning of their prayers the Montagnard will ask the immediate intervention in the region of the international community to protect them from the human, civil and cultural repression that the Vietnamese regime has been carrying out since 1975.

IN PARTICULAR THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY AND THE MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION APPEAL TO THE UN SECRETARY GENERAL, TO THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, TO THE UN COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES, TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THE US STATE DEPARTMENT AND THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND TO THE EU COMMISSIONER FOR EXTERNAL RELATIONS, TO THE HEAD OF GOVERNMENTS AND FOREIGN MINISTERS OF THE EU COUNTRIES - TO ASK THE VIETNAMESE GOVERMENT TO RESPECT THE CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS OF THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE OF JULY 2002 ALLOWING THE PERMANENT AND PERVASIVE ESTABLISHMENT IN THE REGION OF INTERNATIONAL AND INDEPENDENT OFFICES TO MONITOR THE COMPLIANCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

During the current session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteurs on Extrajudicial Executions, on Torture and the Special Representative for human rights defenders have denounced to the Commission the existence of reports related to the killing of some Montagnards also for their support to the Montagnard Foundation and the Transnational Radical Party, in the context of the growing campaign of repression put in place by the Vietnamese Government against the diffusion of the Christian religion and of the peaceful movement to obtain the restitution of lands.

Currently the Vietnamese government has maintained tight security measures over the central highlands trying to prevent word of abuses from reaching the international media and human rights groups. Reports of executions, shootings and rapes have leaked out and while we have received numerous reports of such abuses, we are only able to report on those we have confirmed. The US State Department’s recent Religious Freedom Report of 18 December 2003 also stated, “There were unverifiable reports that between one and seven ethnic minority Protestants died in police custody or died as result of beatings during the period covered by this report.”

The Montagnard Foundation has confirmed Montagnard Christians being executed by lethal injection and literally hundreds of incidents of beatings/torture of Montagnards by Vietnamese authorities. It is highly likely that many more Montagnards have been killed through torture or outright, by summary executions though these reports of executions taking place in the remote jungle areas cannot be confirmed. These reports may explain the numerous reports of disappearances (of Montagnards) and is likely another reason the Vietnamese government refuses international monitors from having access to the region. The US State Department stated in 2004, “There were credible reports that some members of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands and Northwest Highlands who were either arrested or detained did not return to their families.[1][1]

Human Rights Watch has however, confirmed some recent killings noting the quote below from its 21 April 2003 report when soldiers fired on fleeing refugees.

“On March 26, 2003 security police and soldiers shot at a group of Jarai men who had gone into hiding in the Dak Doa district, Gia Lai. Five people escaped, but two men were wounded and taken to the commune center, where one of the men, Suoc later died. When his body was returned to his family, his skull had been severely crushed, apparently from additional beatings by security officers at the commune center. The whereabouts of the other man taken into custody, Hwi (Huy) are unknown. A third Jarai man named Ly was arrested and beaten on March 27, but allowed to return to his village.”[2][2] (See also below at 26 March 2003).