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III.
UNDER HANOI’S
COMMUNIST REGIME FROM 1975 TO THE PRESENT Truly, 1975 only brought an end to the war for American Armed Forces who were defending freedom in South Vietnam. Unfortunately, the war continues for the Montagnards until today. The Hanoi regime has a “Long Memory” about the war and considers the Montagnards as a long-term historical enemy. The communist Vietnamese regime has a long-term strategic plan to destroy the Montagnard people for the three following reasons:
Hanoi fears insurrection from a Montagnard nation deprived of its land and the right to self-determination. The Hanoi regime aims to develop the entire Central Highlands for economic and strategic defense purposes through ethnic cleansing. After defeating South Vietnam, Hanoi established military control over the Central Highlands and immediately carried out a policy of punishment and discrimination against the Montagnards in public retribution. Thousands of Montagnard leaders and hundred of Christian ministers have been imprisoned and killed.
On March 1975, Y-Bham Enuol, Chairman of FULRO, and his family and other Montagnard leaders living exile in Cambodia were murdered by Khmer Rouge after the French Embassy in Phnom Penh refused to help. On April 18, 1975, the Hanoi regime executed Ksor Rot, Montagnard Senator of South Vietnam government. In 1981, Paul Nur, former Minister of Ethnic Minority Development of South Vietnam government was murdered in prison in Hanoi. His wife was not allowed to visit and take his body. From 1975 until 1983, Nay Luett, the former Minister Ethnic Minority Development, suffered years of imprisonment and torture in prison. Within two months after being released from prison, he died. There were doctors who arrived from Hanoi and removed Nay Luett’s brain from the body stating that they wanted to study the brain of this highly intelligent Montagnard. Nay Luett’s wife and relatives were afraid to tell anyone of this desecration. This is an example of the inhumane action of the Vietnamese Communists toward the Montagnards. This horrific action has been substantiated by several individuals who lived in Nay Luett’s village at the time of his death, and examined his body prior to burial. Since 1975, all Montagnard churches in the Central Highlands have been closed, and those not burnt, are used as offices by the local government. All private property owned by the Montagnards was confiscated. Our basic freedom to participate in political and religious activities is outlawed. Montagnards no longer own the land that belonged to our ancestors for centuries. Millions of the North Vietnamese have been resettled into the Central Highlands, stripping us out of our homes, land and forcing us deeper into the jungle to survive. Our properties have been confiscated, and many Montagnards have been turned into menial laborers or indentured servants for the Vietnamese. Montagnards do not even own their own bodies and homes. The police can enter their homes without permission and make arrests without any reason, based only on suspicion or just because they want to. Our traditions and customs have been systematically repressed and abolished. Our Montagnard languages are forbidden in school. Montagnard life in the Central Highlands has become the worst that it has ever been in our history. The Montagnard people are on the verge of extinction. In 1975, to avoid imprisonment, over 12,000 Montagnards fled into the jungle and reorganized the Montagnard resistance force known as FULRO, under the direction of Commander Y-Ghok Nie Krieng and Assistant Commander Rong Nay, to continue fighting for the freedom and independence of the Montagnard people. We were alone and empty-handed in the jungle of Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand for seventeen years. We had no help from the outside world.
We faced starvation, disease and constant military attack. As a result, nearly 10,000 Montagnard resistance fighters died from 1975-1992. The Montagnard people have endured imprisonment under the brutality of the Hanoi regime for 30 years. They have no right to live as human beings. They are not allowed to worship God or to freely exercise their Christian faith. The Hanoi authorities continue to force some pastors to drink a mixture of alcohol, goat’s blood, raw chicken liver and raw pig’s intestine, in an attempt to force them to renounce God and promise not to tell others about Christianity. The Montagnards cannot receive international humanitarian aid. They cannot take advantage of the same educational opportunities as Vietnamese people. The Montagnard people no longer own their land for farming. They have no place to live. Land is close to the heart of all Montagnards. To take their homes is to strip them of their dignity. To take the farms where they grow food for their families is to strip them of their ability to survive. Even the Vietnamese government has admitted that they are among the poorest of the poor in Vietnam. The Montagnards lives in the Central Highlands are completely controlled
by the Hanoi regime. We are heavily crushed by Hanoi. Our lives and
freedom have been taken away from us. We are crying out from the mountaintop,
but our voices fade away in the air. There is no one to hear our cries
for justice, freedom and struggle to survive in the Central Highlands
of Vietnam. On February 2, 2001, over 20,000 Montagnard people staged peaceful protests in the Pleiku and Daklak provinces against the Hanoi regime. They demanded the return of their lands, the right to live and the right to freedom of religion. The Hanoi regime responded by sending huge numbers of police and military forces into the Central Highlands to seal the area and expelled foreigners and news media. They used tanks and helicopters to crush the Montagnard protest. Hundreds of Montagnards were killed, beaten, arrested, and jailed. There were more secret trials of Montagnards in the Vietnamese communist’s “kangaroo courts” and people sent to long prison terms than anyone will ever know. Church ministers and church members are favorite targets for arrest. Hundreds of Montagnards simply disappeared from their families and have never been heard from again. Tens of thousands have been sent to Vietnamese secret gulags. Along the way, large numbers of Montagnards were hunted like animals by Vietnamese and Cambodian forces.
It is unknown how many Montagnards were killed along the border by these forces. Of the thousands who fled, some 2,000 Montagnards successfully reached United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) camps in Cambodia. Over 1,000 were forced to go back to Vietnam; however, some 900 Montagnard refugees were resettled in the United States in 2002. Other groups still continue fleeing and hiding in the Cambodia jungle for survival. Cambodian police continue to hunt down and return Montagnards to Vietnam in exchange for bounties of $300.00 to $1,000.00 (for special leaders) from the Vietnamese government. We do not know what has happened to these Montagnards or whether they survived or not. Since 2001, 147 Montagnard Christians and pastors have been imprisoned and sentenced up to 12 years. The Hanoi government has spent $75,000 US equal 1,200,000,000VN to print photographs of Ho Chi Minh’s picture and distributed it to the Montagnard villages within the 4 cities; Kontum, Pleiku, Cheo Reo and Daklak. The local authorities force Montagnard families to hang the HCM picture inside their house as a substitute for pictures of Jesus Christ. The purpose is to intimidate the family not to challenge the government, or to revere any being other than Ho Chi Minh. Within traditional Montagnard culture, it is believed that Ho Chi Minh is the devil reincarnated because he has not been buried. Although he has been dead for a long period of time, his body has not been buried and it has been injected with formaldehyde for tourists and visitors to view the body. There are many traditional Montagnard people who believe that Ho Chi Minh, by not being buried, has transformed into the devil. The Montagnards fear the devil’s picture in their house and many Montagnards families have nightmares because of this image. Therefore, the devil’s picture in their houses is unacceptable. The Vietnamese Communists, despite the considerable propaganda about honoring and protecting tribal culture, are completely blind to this concern, for they do not care about the Montagnard culture and traditions. This example of the forced inclusion of the Ho Chi Minh’s picture violates Montagnards right to privacy, and their rights for religious freedom. It is an insidious means to undermine and destroy the Montagnard culture. The Hanoi government continues to consider the Montagnards as a long-term historical enemy. After 3 years, the situation never changes and the Central Highlands are under a heavy and oppressive blanket of security. The brutal abuse against the Montagnard people of the Central Highlands has been the subject of numerous human rights reports and recent articles. Life is extremely difficult for them, their land has been taken by the government, and our people are objects of contempt. Kidnappings, secret arrests and “disappearances” are increasing. On Easter, April 10-11, 2004, over 30,000 Montagnard people in Gialai and Daklak provinces gathered together for peaceful prayer vigils. Several thousand Montagnard Christians entered Daklak City and began their peaceful protests on Easter weekend with songs of praise, as well as speeches and banners, demanding the return of their ancestors’ land, the right to live and freedom of religion for the Montagnards of Vietnam.
Instead of resolving the problems peacefully, again the Hanoi government used a heavy-handed response with forces and tanks surrounding the protestors. The police, many in plain clothes, carried plastic shields, batons, knives, electric shocks, tear-gas canisters, AK47 guns, and clubs to disband the demonstrators. They began indiscriminately stabbing, beating and shooting the Montagnard Christian men, women, and children. According to eyewitnesses, the results were far worse than in 2001. Many were stabbed or shot to death in the street; others were savagely beaten and arrested. As a result, over 2,000 people were believed killed or they were “disappeared”, over 200 people were severely wounded without treatment, and over 300 Montagnard tractors were burned. Mass burials were reported. The Vietnamese police travel from house to house seeking to eliminate the sympathizing Montagnards and to detain and kill them. They disguised themselves as merchants, dressed in civilian clothes, and carried knives and small guns. Hundreds of North Vietnamese settlers also joined in operations with the police. The Montagnards are being severely punished, not for violating the law, but for being indigenous people and are persecuted for their Christian faith and political views. Thus, “Even though the protest is over, the secret killing continues.” The fear of the Montagnards is that if no help is provided for them, their entire population will soon be eradicated. They cry out to the international community to save them. The Hanoi government reinforced their military divisions in the Central Highlands formed strong partnership with Cambodia communist government to deploy their troops along border: Their goal is to hunt down and destroy the Montagnard people who try to cross the border as refugees. Since the 2001 to 2004 crackdown, the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments cooperated in kidnapping over 640 Montagnards who fled across the border. The Cambodia police officers raped and robbed them, murdering some, before sending the others back to Vietnam for imprisonment, torturing and killing. We are certain that those who are sent back from Cambodia to Vietnam will receive long prison sentences, killed outright, or secretly “disappeared” because the Hanoi government accused them of “Damaging National Security” These acts by the Vietnamese Cambodian governments against the Montagnards clearly violate the UN Convention on July 28, 1951, relating to the Status of Refugees. After millions of Cambodian refugees received protection and assistance from UNHCR, this cruel behavior by the ungrateful Cambodia government are crimes against humanity.
After the lock-down by the repressive Vietnamese communist military and police and the situation was settled down, on May 11, 2004, the Vietnamese communist government reluctantly invited the United Nations representatives to take a four-day guided tour to the site of mass protests. The United Nations delegation was under heavy escort by high-ranking government officials from Hanoi and dozen of police officers. They had no free access to any of the Montagnard villages. The delegation went around the cities of Kontum, Gialai, Daklak and talked with some of Montagnards who were trained by the Hanoi government. Thousands of the Montagnards were believed dead or missing and their bodies were never found. How clever the Hanoi government is. Since the unrest began in 2001, U.S. government officials, foreign journalists and NGO’s have not been permitted to freely access Montagnard villages. The population of Montagnards at the time of the North Vietnamese takeover of South Vietnam in 1975 was approximately 1.6 million. At present our people number about 750,000 according to Vietnamese communist government statistics. It is well documented that Vietnamese communist authorities destroy Montagnard Christian Churches and try to destroy their faith. The initial plan of the Hanoi government was to destroy Montagnard religion by accusing the Montagnard Protestant Churches of being spies for the American CIA. The Hanoi government is seeking any possible means to destroy the Montagnards without the attention of the international community. Today, the situation for the Montagnards in the Central Highlands of Vietnam is extremely dangerous. The Hanoi government security forces keep a very tight grip on the Montagnard people. The Hanoi government has now assigned one Vietnamese policeman to control every Montagnard family; they cannot leave the house without the permission from the police, and they are followed wherever they go. Montagnards are among the poorest of the poor in Vietnam. Even the Vietnamese government has admitted to this. The Montagnards are barely able to provide subsistence for their families, yet the Hanoi government forces them to feed the police with the food they need for their own survival. The Montagnard villages in the Central Highlands are now a prison for the Montagnard people. It is evidenced that “Ethnic Cleansing” is taking place. However, it is so subtle that no one in the world knows that the Hanoi government is intentionally doing it, but it has been taking place for decades throughout our Montagnard history. This hostile nature of the Hanoi government towards the Montagnard people has never ended and will continue unless there the United Nations intervenes. The Hanoi government has a long-term strategy of ethnic cleansing toward the Montagnard people and those who survive will gradually be assimilated into the Vietnamese society. The Montagnard people do not want to lose our identity, language, customs, traditional way of life; and we do not want to be Vietnamese. We are very proud of what we are and we want to keep the identity that God has given to us. We want to be free, and free in our own way, to govern our own selves and our own lives for the benefit and happiness of our own people -- The Montagnards in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
The world does not know the intention of the Hanoi government, or if they do, they seemingly do not care. The world has not seen the ongoing persecution that is carried out secretly throughout our Montagnard history. Hanoi is pursuing a genocidal policy through its “economic reform programs” and long-term strategy of occupying Montagnard land. The Hanoi government is a signatory to numerous human rights agreements. The Universal Declaration on Human Rights, adopted in 1948, lists a full range of human rights to which people are entitled “without distinction of any kind such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other option, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” The International Covenant on Civil Political Rights, to which Vietnam is a party, states in Article 27 “In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the rights, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language”. The Hanoi government is also a party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. In 1983, the United Nations General Assembly called for the recognition of the following basic rights of indigenous populations:
None of these rights presently exist among the Montagnards in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Even President Bush seems to have forgotten the Montagnard People. This was the promise he made in his first inaugural address: "War on terrorism must never be an excuse to persecute minorities." Both communist regimes in Cambodia and Vietnam are systematically terrorizing one of America's most stalwart allies, the Montagnard people of the Central Highlands of Vietnam who lost one-half of their adult male population fighting for the U.S. Without them, there would be thousands more American names on that somber black granite wall — The Vietnam Memorial. Abandoning these Montagnards, America’s loyal allies during the Vietnam War, sets a terrible historical precedence for the United States. Is this the message we want to send during the U.S. War on terrorism and at a time when so many Americans are risking their lives in so many countries?
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