[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 55 (Tuesday, April 27, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E656-E657]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EASTER CRACKDOWN ON THE MONTAGNARDS
______
HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH
of new jersey
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, Easter is usually a joyous time
for Christians throughout the world. Unfortunately, that was not the
case this year for many Montagnards Christians, ethnic minorities in
Vietnam's Central Highlands. On Saturday April 10, more than a thousand
ethnic minority Christians assembled in the streets of Buon Ma Thuot to
protest ongoing religious repression and confiscation of tribal lands.
Their peaceful protests were met with brutal force by the Vietnamese
police, who attacked and arrested the protesters and sealed off the
area to foreigners--much like the Chinese Tiananmen Square massacre in
1989.
Numerous reports state that hundreds may be dead with many others
arrested, injured, and or in hiding. This follows years of ongoing
persecution and a brutal crackdown in December of 2001, when the
government also forcibly suppressed mass protests in the region, after
which the Vietnamese government closed hundreds of Christian Churches.
Religious persecution in Vietnam against Catholics, Christians,
members of the Unified Buddhist Church, and members of Vietnam's
indigenous religious groups has been well documented in the State
Department's Country Reports on Human Rights and International
Religious Freedom.
Last year, the Commission on International Religious Freedom
recommended Vietnam should be designated as a Country of Particular
Concern for ``systematic, egregious, and ongoing'' religious freedom
abuses. As if there was any doubt, the Easter crackdown confirms the
fact that Vietnam should be designated as a Country of Particular
Concern for violations in religious freedom. Protections and
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assistance for Montagnard asylum seekers should be provided also be
provided by the Cambodian government and the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees.
Congress will continue to keep up the pressure on the regime in
Hanoi. We will work to pass H. Con. Res. 378, a resolution calling for
the release of Father Nguyen Van Ly, a prominent and outspoken Catholic
priest, that was reported out of the House International Relations
Committee and has nearly 90 cosponsors.
And we will also work to pass H.R. 1587, ``The Vietnam Human Rights
Act,'' which calls for careful monitoring of human rights in Vietnam.
Similar legislation cleared the House 410-1 in the 107th Congress but
stalled in the Senate.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit the following articles by Human
Rights Watch detailing the events of the Easter crackdown, to the
Congressional Record.
The United States and the world cannot turn a blind eye to this
Easter crackdown and continual persecution of Montagnards and religious
groups in Vietnam. We must take a stand.
[Article from Human Rights Watch]
Vietnam: Open Central Highlands to International Observers Reported
Killings of Montagnard Protesters Must Be Investigated Immediately
(New York, April 22, 2004)--Vietnamese security forces
appear to have coordinated with armed men in civilian
clothing to savagely attack Montagnard protesters at more
than a dozen mass demonstrations during Easter weekend, Human
Rights Watch said today.
``The international community must act now and insist that
Vietnam allow independent observers into the highlands to
conduct a thorough and impartial investigation,'' said Dinah
PoKempner, General Counsel for Human Rights Watch. ``We've
received alarming reports that scores of protesters were
wounded during the demonstrations, and that some protesters
were beaten to death.''
Large-scale unrest involving between 10,000 and 30,000
indigenous minority Montagnards occurred in the Central
Highland provinces of Dak Lak, Gia Lai, and Dak Nong on April
10 and 11, according to Vietnam's state media and independent
accounts. Montagnard activists in Vietnam and abroad say that
their movement seeks to peacefully press for religious
freedom and return of ancestral lands in the Central
Highlands. The Vietnamese government has charged that ``anti-
government'' and ``counter-revolutionary'' elements are
inciting the Montagnards to seek a separatist state.
Human Rights Watch has received firsthand reports that
security forces and men in civilian clothing, armed with
metal bars, shovels, clubs with nails attached to them,
machetes, and chains, confronted Montagnard protesters at
more than a dozen locations leading into Buon Ma Thuot, the
capital of Dak Lak province, on the morning of April 10.
According to witnesses, the demonstrators were not armed,
although some defended themselves when attacked by throwing
stones at the police.
In twelve eyewitness accounts obtained by Human Rights
Watch, sources from seven different locations in Dak Lak, Gia
Lai and Dak Nong provinces described seeing Vietnamese
police, and civilians working with the police, beating
protesters. Vietnam's state-controlled media reported that
two protesters were killed--one from rocks thrown by other
protesters and another who was run over by a tractor driven
by Montagnards. While it is impossible to confirm the numbers
of casualties because the government is barring outside
observers from the region, to date Human Rights Watch has
received credible eyewitness accounts that at least ten
Montagnards were killed--one from a gunshot wound to the head
and the others from beatings and hundreds were wounded.
Clashes broke out at more than a dozen locations when
security forces and ethnic Vietnamese in civilian clothes
blocked demonstrators on roadways leading into Buon Ma Thuot,
including Phan Chu Trinh Road northwest of the city; at Ea
Knir Bridge on the road from Ea Kao commune, which lies east
of the city; and at three locations along the road leading to
Krong Pak district town, which lies northeast of the city,
including the Ea Pak and Krong Ana bridges. Particularly hard
hit at Phan Chu Trinh Road were 3,000 protesters from several
villages in Cu Mgar district, northwest of Buon Ma Thuot.
``The security forces were well prepared for the
protesters,'' said PoKempner. ``They had set up ambushes at
key places such as bridges and the main roads into the city,
and assembled people dressed as civilians holding crude
weapons to block the roads and attack the protestors.''
Security officials confiscated and burned hundreds of the
farm tractors and makeshift trailers that many Montagnards
were traveling on, which had been packed with food and
supplies in preparation for several days of protests.
In Gia Lai province, Vietnamese state media reported that
demonstrators from Ayun Pa, Cu Se, Dak Doa, Duc Co and Chu
Prong districts gathered at the provincial administrative
offices in Pleiku provincial town on April 10. on April 11,
Montagnards gathered to demonstrate in numerous communes in
Ayun Pa, Cu Se, and Dak Doa districts of Gia Lai. Human
Rights Watch has received reports of clashes in at least
seventeen locations in Gia Lai, with the fiercest incidents
occurring in Ha Bau, A'Dok and Glar communes of Dak Doa
district and Ia Tiem commune of Cu Se district.
State media reported that the provincial hospital in Pleiku
received fifty-two injured people. The provincial hospital in
Dak Lak reported forty injured people on the night of April
10. Prior to a government-imposed news blackout on hospital
personnel, staff at Pleiku hospital told reporters that they
had received scores of wounded people on Sunday night, many
with deep gashes and head injuries, and that at least two
demonstrators died that night. Many other wounded
demonstrators, fearing arrest, have not gone to the hospitals
despite being in need of medical attention, Human Rights
Watch said.
Witnesses said authorities quickly collected wounded people
and dead bodies from the Phan Chu Trinh area, and that within
days, the blood on the roadway had been washed away.
Human Rights Watch stressed the urgency of an independent
investigation. ``We fear that a huge cover-up operation has
likely already taken place,'' said PoKempner. ``The
Vietnamese government needs to account for the large numbers
of people who never returned to their villages after the
demonstrations and are now feared to be dead or detained at
unknown locations.''
Hundreds of Montagnards have fled their villages and gone
into hiding, Human Rights Watch said. In violation of
Cambodia's obligations under international law, Cambodian
security forces have been instructed to deport any
Montagnards who try to cross the border.
Testimony: The Killings on Phan Chu Trinh Road
A twenty-six year old Ede woman described a deadly incident
she witnessed on Saturday morning, April 10 when several
thousand Montagnard protesters, some riding on their farm
tractors, arrived at Phan Chu Trinh road, an industrial area
of machine shops and welding supply stores on the outskirts
of Buon Ma Thuot. Police had lined up students and ethnic
Vietnamese men in civilian clothing holding metal bars,
shovels, and machetes along the roadway, she said.
``They suddenly rushed at the unarmed crowd, beating the
demonstrators until many were lying in the streets,'' she
said. ``They chased demonstrators who tried to flee,
including children and women.''
She and many other demonstrators fled to the coffee fields
behind the shops lining the roadway, chased by security
forces. She described what happened:
``A thousand people tried to get away from the slaughter by
the police and civilians. They were beating us with metal
bars and sticks. People were bleeding from their throats,
noses, mouths, and eyes. The villagers were crying as they
tried to get away from the slaughter by the police and
civilians. We were running helter-skelter. Those who tried to
hide in the coffee plantation were caught, beaten and killed
on the spot. Police, students, and Vietnamese threw rocks at
us. Many of us were bleeding from being hit on our heads with
rocks. Many people were injured and bleeding. We didn't have
any first-aid for their wounds. They were bleeding from their
throats, noses, mouths, and eyes. A blind woman sitting on
the farm tractor was killed on the road by a dozen Vietnamese
people, including police. They asked her to get down from the
tractor but she could not because she was blind. They rushed
at her and beat her until she fell from the tractor and died.
The police and Vietnamese civilians smashed and stepped on
our food, clothing and blankets we had prepared for a long-
term peaceful demonstration asking for freedom and the end to
harassment of our religion and our Montagnard life.''
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