Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews/Agencies) – On the eve of the Easter holiday faithful gathered to pray for an end to violence and repression of Montagnard inhabitants living in the Vietnamese high plains region.  

However, the peaceful prayer gathering (in Buon Ma Thuot, capital of Daklak Province) held to rally against the government's religious repression and continued confiscation of the tribals' land was brutally broken up Saturday night by local communist authorities.

Hundreds of people were injured and arrested. Human Rights Watch (HRW) representatives say that many of those who had gathered to pray have hid in nearby forests and have sought asylum in neighboring Cambodia.

The fact that the area has been closed off to all foreigners, airline flights cancelled and main roads blocked likely means that a "man-hunt" is underway. Over the weekend an American delegation, which had wanted to invigilate the gathering, was forced by police to go to the nearby province of Binh Phuoc.

Most indigenous Montagnards are Protestant Christians, who for years have suffered the expropriation of their land and religious persecution.  

The government represses them and does not recognize their rights, especially since it views them as a state enemy. During the Vietnam war the Montagnard population, when attempting to create an independent state, lined up in support of the United States  armed forces.  

This is not the first time Protestant tribals have organized demonstrations. In Feb. and March of 2001, once again in the province of Daklak, similar protests were organized but were quelled by the government's repressive measures. Some demonstrators were even killed as a result. Hundreds of others were arrested and then sentenced to 3-10 years in prison. According to HRW, since the 2001 rallies there are still 100 persons in jail.

There is no trace in the Vietnamese press of what happened in Buon Ma Thuot. Meanwhile government sources have said that Saturday night's prayer gathering was organized by "foreign troublemakers".

In the last month around 40 Vietnamese Montagnard tribals have fled to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, where a refugee center exists for their protection the auspices of the United Nations.