|
KOK KSOR DECLARES VIETNAMESE COMMUNIST
GOVERNMENT’S HUMAN RIGHTS WHITE PAPER AS “A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO HOODWINK
THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY”: HE STATES “OVER 200 MONTAGNARDS ARE UNJUSTLY
ROTTING IN VIETNAMESE PRISONS.”
|
BACKGROUND: The indigenous Montagnards (Degar) Peoples
have suffered decades of persecution by the communist government of Vietnam
, namely; confiscation of their ancestral lands, torture, killings, unjust
imprisonment and religious repression. In fact in 2004 the US State Department
declared Vietnam to be one of worst violators of religious freedom in
the world. Hundreds of Montagnard Degar People are currently in Vietnam
's prisons and since 2001 thousands more have been subject to arrest and
torture.
Montagnard Foundation President Kok Ksor states:
“Today
in Vietnam over 200 Montagnard, Degar people, are unjustly rotting in
Vietnamese prisons. Their alleged crimes are refusing to renounce Christianity,
fleeing to Cambodia or participating in peaceful demonstrations. The
condition in these prisons is brutal and almost all our people describe
torture and harsh treatment. Recently we received information from inside
Ba Sao prison that guards would chain our people to latrines to hide
them when international inspectors visit the prison. Vietnam has also
been declared one of the worst violators of religious freedom by the
US State Department last year and the Communist government is releasing
all sorts of propaganda in order to cheat its way into the World Trade
Organization. In the recent White Paper (Chapter IV) they falsely called
me a “terrorist” and an organization “promoting
secession”. I fully reject these allegations and state we only seek
human rights and land rights under an indigenous people
framework, as we are members of the UN Working Group
of Indigenous Populations.”
I put this question directly to Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and
Communist Party Chairman Nung Duc Manh: “If you really want to convince
the international community that Vietnam is complying
with human rights then why don't you stop treating our people, the Degar
Montagnards like your worst enemy? If you stop killing, torturing us,
and preventing us from being Christian then we wouldn't protest against
the government.”
The Montagnard Foundation calls on:
The International Community to reject Vietnam's propaganda and
seek real and meaningful change, real freedom and real human rights
for all the people of Vietnam, Montagnard and ethnic Vietnamese, Christian
and Buddhist and make such change a pre-condition to Vietnam gaining
entry into the World Trade Organization.
