 |
 |
Friday, April 23, 2004 |
Vietnam: Open Central Highlands to International Observers
Reported Killings of Montagnard Protesters Must be Investigated Immediately [Human Rights Watch]
(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 12 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 10 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 17 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 52 injured people. The provincial hospital in Dak Lak reported 40 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 26 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."
Google It!. 2:34:54 PM 
|
|
Bhutanese House Churches Raided After Easter Services
Police warn church members against gathering for worship.
Special to Compass Direct
THIMPHU, Bhutan, April 23 (Compass) -- Three house churches in Sarpang district of southern Bhutan were visited by police on the night of April 11 following their Easter Sunday services. According to a respected Christian leader in Bhutan, the church members were warned to discontinue meeting together for worship. The raids seem to confirm a growing crackdown against Christian activity in Bhutan.
The source, who cannot be named for security reasons, said police swooped down on three homes in Gelephu subdivision of Sarpang district after Sunday services. Most of the church members had already left when the police arrived. Police questioned the few remaining believers and asked for the names of others who had attended the meetings.
No arrests were made. However the three pastors and one elder were asked to report daily at 9 a.m. to the administrative office of Gelephu subdivision.
Officials also reprimanded the homeowners and warned them not to allow their homes to be used as worship facilities. Aside from this warning, they took no further legal action.
According to the source, police told the believers that their meetings were an expression of support for international Christian organizations which had been labeled as “terrorist” groups by the Bhutanese government.
Officially, the Christian faith does not exist in Bhutan, and it is illegal for Christians to gather for public worship.
Bhutanese authorities say it is possible to celebrate mass in private homes. However, a report from the Catholic news agency Zenit in January 2004 showed that Catholics are also facing greater repression in Bhutan.
Until the end of the 1990s, priests who emigrated from neighboring India and Nepal could celebrate mass in public. However from the year 2000 onwards, Bhutan outlawed “public non-Buddhist religious services, and imprisoned those who violate the law,” according to Indian Bishop Stephen Lepcha, whose diocese includes Bhutan.
Bishop Lepcha said he believed the crackdown was a response to Protestant pastors who were preaching the gospel and gaining converts. He claimed that Catholic priests were not trying to proselytize but simply wanted to attend to the needs of Christians.
Bhutan is still recovering from a wave of violence that erupted in December 2003. A second source who works in Bhutan told Compass that severe fighting broke out just before Christmas between the Royal Bhutan Army and the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), a group of Indian separatists who had occupied the eastern districts of Bhutan.
The Bhutanese government asked the rebels to evacuate the land but they refused. Bhutan then asked the Indian government to deploy forces in a joint effort to push out the Indian insurgents. Because of this unrest, many believers in the area had to abandon their plans for Christmas services.
“The pastors I met told me that some husbands were made to watch their wives being raped at gunpoint by soldiers of the Indian and Bhutanese armies,” this source explained. “Countless corpses were fallen on the ground and they were not permitted to bury or burn them.”
“At that point they were afraid that persecution against the believers might also erupt. In fact, in some places it had already started. When any natural calamities or untoward incidents take place in Bhutan, they blame the Christians. They say, ‘It’s because you have believed in a foreign god that our gods are pouring out their wrath upon us.’”
In February 2004, the source reported, “The situation in Bhutan is still very tense, but believers are strong in the Lord. The operation against the ULFA militants is ongoing. This has really jeopardized the life of innocent people, including the believers.
“Bhutan is in a very pathetic state at this time. We believe the government of Bhutan is secretly planning an operation against Christianity. In many ways, Christians are already deprived of their national rights, like children’s education, government jobs and even setting up private businesses.
“The Buddhist monks are persuading the government to enforce this operation against Christians. In fact, His Majesty of Bhutan is not against the Christians but he is bound by the religious law in Bhutan. That is, ‘one nation, one religion.’”
Meanwhile, believers in Bhutan have asked for prayer. “Dearly beloved people of God, we need your prayer support and words of encouragement. Please do pray for all the believers in Bhutan, that we would remain faithful and strong in Jesus.”
Google It!. 2:22:33 PM
|
|
JUBILEE CAMPAIGN CALLS FOR SANCTIONS AGAINST VIETNAM
JUBILEE CAMPAIGN PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
For further information contact Wilfred Wong on 020 7219 5129
UNITED KINGDOM (ANS) -- The Christian human rights organisation, the Jubilee Campaign, is campaigning for the British government to impose sanctions against Vietnam and to urge its European Union partners to do likewise because of the brutal and relentless persecution of the Degar people of the Central Highlands by the Vietnamese government.
Persecution has included the recent crackdown on April 10 by Vietnamese security forces against thousands of Degars peacefully demonstrating for their rights including their religious liberty and rights to land. The security forces also enlisted the help of many Vietnamese settlers in attacking the Degar. Demonstrators were shot,stabbed and beaten and about 400 of them, many of whom were Christians, were killed in Banmathout city.
The Degar are the indigenous people of Vietnam's Central Highlands and the majority of them are Christians. Persecution against the Degar by the Vietnamese authorities has included religious persecution, such as the systematic forced closure of their churches and the giving of Degar land to settlers from the ethnic Vietnamese majority.
Jubilee Campaign has been campaigning for the rights of the Degar people since 2001 and Jubilee is now lobbying British Parliamentarians to urge the British government to impose sanctions on Vietnam.The British government has already given millions of pounds in aid to Vietnam, including financial assistance to fight rural poverty.
Jubilee Campaign's Researcher and Parliamentary Officer, Wilfred Wong, says, "It is deeply ironic that so much British government aid has been given to Vietnam to combat rural poverty since the Vietnamese government is deliberately intensifying rural poverty by its brutal and systematic atrocities against the Degar. Many of the Degar are unable to work their fields or buy food or collect water because of this persecution. Government officials and many ethnic Vietnamese civilians have refused to sell or give food to the Degar people, worsening the food shortages for thousands of Degars.
"So far the Vietnamese government has generally ignored international concern about the persecution against the Degar so tougher action like sanctions is needed to try and force them to change their policies. There are clearly both racist and anti-Christian motives involved in this persecution. Now, more than ever, we ought to pray and speak out for the Degar people. "
At the moment the region remains sealed off by the Vietnamese authorities but information regarding the atrocities continues to come out of the Central Highlands. The human rights group, the Montagnard Foundation, has reported on a wide range of recent abuses against the Degars. For example, they describe how Tol, a Degar, was grabbed and killed by ethnic Vietnamese settlers on April 10. An eyewitness said that the Vietnamese civilians held him, poked both of his eyes and then beat him until he died.
Hnun, another Degar, was killed when the Vietnamese police shot him in the head. Siu Plen, 33, was participating in the peaceful demonstrations when the police arrested and handcuffed him, then gave him over to Vietnamese civilians and students who beat him up until his skull fractured and he died.
Hkroih, from the village of Plei Djrong, was shot by the police in both of her legs which are now broken and the hospital has refused to treat her. Ngun, from the village of Plei Piong, was shot by police in the left leg and the hospital also refused him medical treatment. The hospitals are dominated by ethnic Vietnamese who are antagonistic towards the Degar.
Many of the Degar demonstrators have also disappeared and may have been killed. For example, Pin, Djum, Kuk and Ayui (many Degars have only one name) were all seriously injured after the attack on the demonstrators but now they have disappeared. Wung, Bing, Biung, Som, Dum, Dat , Hun, Ron, Jop and Wun, were among numerous Degars taken away from their villages by Vietnamese police at night and their whereabouts are unknown.
Over a thousand of the Degar have hidden from the Vietnamese security forces and have little or no food in their hiding places. They could starve to death if the anti-Degar crackdown is not ended soon.
HHlon, a 20 year old Degar girl, was gang raped by 20 Vietnamese soldiers at gun point and then taken away to an unknown location. She has still not returned to her village.
Jubilee Campaign is an interdenominational Christian human rights organization which has worked with over 150 British Parliamentarians on human rights issues worldwide.
Google It!. 1:05:19 AM
|
|
HIDDEN HORROR
What Does a Train Wreck Look Like in North Korea?
By Kristin Wright
Special to ASSIST News Service
NORTH KOREA (ANS) -- Headlines were shattered Thursday (April 22) with news of a tragic train crash in North Korea. In the United States, a train wreck of this proportion would be responded to immediately with every measure taken to identify the dead and aid the survivors. But what does a train wreck look like in North Korea?
Dr. Norbert Vollertsen is a German emergency physician who spent eighteen months doing medical relief work in North Korea. While there, he experienced firsthand the tragedy of everyday life for North Korea's impoverished millions. "No power supply, no food, no running water, no soap, no blankets, no sanitation, no heating system in winter," he told me later, adding, "and no hope, and no future."
Given Dr. Vollertsen's bleak but nonetheless realistic firsthand account of life in North Korea, one can paint a bitter picture of Thursday's train wreck. Bodies have doubtless been hurled in every direction; many are barely hanging on to life. How long will they wait for emergency treatment? Or perhaps we should wonder, "Will it ever come?"
To grasp the real circumstances of the crash, I am convinced, would require a far darker imagination than I possess. Try to imagine effective medical treatment, effective emergency intervention - in a country destitute of resources. As the minutes and hours drag by, how many will breath their last? And will they wonder if anyone ever knew that they existed - or worse yet, that they died in this way? Out in the harshness of earth and sky, unsheltered and uncared for, abused by their government and forgotten by the world?
I hope that somehow, some way, they will know that they are not forgotten.
Future generations will judge us for what we have known and not acted on. North Korea's horrific human rights record is doubtless the material of today's holocaust. As intelligence on North Korea's massive modern-day concentration camp system continues to surface, as reports of starvation and cruelty become more widespread, our accountability increases. With each new emerging piece of evidence, the free Western world becomes more responsible to act.
In just a few days, on April 28, a peaceful demonstration will be held on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. Participants will be using their liberty here in the U.S. to stand for freedom in a land of hidden horror. The event, "North Korea Freedom Day", will be attended by members of the U.S. Congress and Senate, citizens from across the U.S., and defectors from North Korea. They will be rallying in support of bipartisan legislation that will assist refugees and orphans in the DPRK. It's a crucial opportunity for those who care about suffering North Koreans to take an active stand on their behalf.
I return to the train wreck. In a land where orphans starve and Christians are killed for their faith, a land of hidden horror, some 3,000 people are injured, dying, or dead -- right now. There is bound to be someone my age out there. Perhaps some girl in her twenties with high hopes for her future. I wonder...Will she make it? And what will I do to make her future bright? What will I do to make her future free?
Kristin Wright is founder and director of Stand Today (www.standtoday.org), a human rights organization that works on behalf of refugees and persecuted Christians worldwide. She can be reached by phone at 937-725-3385 or by email at kwright@standtoday.org.
Google It!. 1:02:43 AM
|
|
© 2004 Radio Free China
Last Update: 5/1/2004; 10:20:26 AM
|
|
|
