Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The United Nations High commission for refugees has taken 75 Vietnamese Montagnards seeking asylum into its care in Cambodia. UNHCR spokeswoman Deborah Backus says the 75 are at a site in north eastern Ratanakkiri province under the agency's protection.
The Montagnards are a chiefly Christian ethnic minority, native to the highlands of central Vietnam. In recent years, many of the mountain tribes have fled to Cambodia to escape repression from Hanoi, where they are accused of being "a threat to national unity" and provoking "public disorder". For this reason, Hanoi has been pursuing a policy of land expropriation and religious persecution. During the Vietnam war, the Montagnards allied themselves with the United States, in an attempt to create an autonomous state.
Phnom Penh has repeatedly repatriated asylum seekers to Vietnam, where they face police retaliation.
During Holy Week in April 2004, security forces took the lives of ten Montagnards engaged in a peaceful protest in Daklak province, provoking a new exodus.
In January of last year, UNHCR intervened on behalf of the Montagnard people, adjudicating that the refugees could find asylum in a third country or return home. According to the agreement reached between the UN, Vietnam and Cambodia, the UNHCR would collaborate with both governments to ensure an "orderly" and "secure" repatriation in "observance of national and international law" of those refugees who chose neither to seek asylum in a third country, nor to willingly return to their homes. However, human rights organisations are reporting that in order to convince the Montagnards to return home or transfer to another country, the government of Hun Sen employs methods such as electric shock and beatings.
