TERRIFYING ABUSES IN VIETNAM

By Forum / Washington Times

"War on terrorism must never be an excuse to persecute minorities," according to President Bush (President speaks out on rights, Washington Times, 10/20/01), yet the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) has been systematically terrorizing one of America's most stalwart allies, the Montagnard people of the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

After destroying their church buildings, and burning their house-churches (private residences where the Montagnards are forced to hold services), the Vietnamese secret police (Cong An) are systematically forcing Christian Montagnards to drink a mixture of liquor, goat's blood, raw chicken liver and raw pig's intestine, renounce God, and promise not to tell others of Christianity. If they do not, they are tortured, imprisoned or "disappeared." This affront is comparable to forcing Muslim or Jewish people to eat raw pork.

Additionally, the Vietnamese communists have been systematically implementing a policy of coerced sterilization of Montagnard women, a fact admitted to by Vietnamese Ambassador to the United Nations, Nguyen Quy Binh, at a conference in Geneva last August. The sterilizations included use of an outlawed chemical that burns and scars the women's reproductive organs causing irreparable harm. This policy is in violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defined as including "imposing measures to prevent births within the group."

During the first part of this year, the Montagnards staged a series of peaceful protests over the burning of churches, confiscation of their lands, starvation conditions, and other human rights abuses. The Vietnamese communists reacted violently, beating, imprisoning, and killing many of the protesters. Thousands fled to the jungle, many heading for what they thought would be safety in Cambodia. Of the hundreds imprisoned for the protests, at least 48 have been sentenced in secret trials to long terms in prison --"kangaroo courts" denounced by human rights groups in the U.S. and Europe.

Hanoi has also carried out acts of international terrorism by crossing into Cambodia to kidnap Montagnards who fled the communist terror and sought refuge there. A special unit of the communist secret police infiltrated UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) camps in Cambodia in order to intimidate legitimate Montagnard refugees and to influence UNHCR decision making in the camps.

Two members of Cong An unit Luoc Luong 04 have been identified in one camp. To prove their loyalty to the Vietnamese communists, these two agents each killed three members of families of former freedom fighters who fought for the Americans during the Vietnam War. Upon their insistence, a UNHCR camp official forced 117 Montagnard Christians and former freedom fighters from one camp into the arms of Cong An and back to Vietnam to face torture, prison or death. In moribund irony, the Vietnamese communists have labeled these Christians as terrorists.

One refugee family -- Y-Lien Dien, his wife Maria Nam, and five children -- thought they had reached safety in Cambodia and had been given a UNHCR certificate of protection. In violation of international law, the Vietnamese communists crossed into Cambodia, kidnapped this family, taking them back to their village, Krong Dieng, in Vietnam. There, the mother and father were tied to posts in the center of the village, severely beaten in front of their children and villagers, left hanging on the poles, and reportedly died.

While a Prisoner of War, I witnessed similar treatment of prisoners who were left tied to the poles for days until they died. Of the hundreds that have been similarly kidnapped in Cambodia and taken back to Vietnam, many have just "disappeared."

Regardless of these gross and sadistic human rights violations against our former Montagnard allies, Congress and the White House recently rewarded these communist terrorists by approving a new Bilateral Trade Agreement giving the Vietnamese government (SRV) increased access to U.S. markets as well as providing U.S. subsidizes for investment in that terrorist state.

In return, Hanoi made only a token public expression of condolence to the United States for the September 11 tragedy--Black Tuesday, while at the same time, the Vietnamese Communist Party's Official newspaper, The Peoples Army Daily, blamed the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on "America imposing its policies and values on the world."

While demanding increased trade, Hanoi has conducted a media blitz covering up its litany of human rights abuses against the Montagnards and other Vietnamese peoples. SRV President Tran Duc Luong condemned the recently passed Vietnam Human Rights Act, HR 2833 linking improved human rights to increased trade as "brazen interference" in the affairs of Vietnam. Passed in House by a vote of 410 to 1, this Act is now frozen in the Senate by Senator John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, and a long-time advocate for the Vietnamese communist government. Mr. Kerry seemingly cares more for a government that sponsors terrorism than for our allies who are the victims of terrorism.

Over one-half of the adult male population of the Montagnards was killed fighting side by side with Americans during the Vietnam War. Without the Montagnards' supreme sacrifice, there would be thousands more American names engraved on the somber black granite wall of the Vietnam Memorial. Many more have died since the end of the war because of Hanoi's terrorist and genocidal policies. If this is allowed to continue, the Montagnard people and their culture will cease to exist in our lifetime

As the Administration was building a coalition against terrorism, Congress and the White House rewarded the Vietnamese terrorists, while turning our backs on these brave and loyal Montagnard allies. At this crucial time, this sends absolutely the wrong message to the world and should give our new allies pause to think.

Forum
Washington Times
1/13/02

Courtesy of:
Michael Mike Benge
Falls Church

Mr. Benge is a senior adviser to the Montagnard Human Rights organization. He spent 11 years in Vietnam as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer and worked closely with the Montagnards during that time.

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