[Vnbiz] US envoy says no signs of persecution in Vietnam highlands

[Phan, Tai]

US envoy says no signs of persecution in Vietnam highlands 1 hour, 32 minutes ago
 


HANOI (AFP) - A senior US State Department official said she had seen no signs of persecution in Vietnam's Central Highlands of ethnic minority people who had fled to Cambodia and were later repatriated. 

 
 
Scores of the mainly Protestant Christian Montagnards have been sent home by Cambodia after being denied repatriation to a third country, and human rights groups have claimed some of them have faced persecution upon coming home.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey said she had spoken with seven returnees she had chosen at random in a Central Highlands village and that none had reported ill treatment.

"I have to report that with no exceptions the people who were returned from Cambodia that we spoke with all indicated that there has been no punishment," she told a Hanoi media briefing.

"Most of them, when they traveled, were following somebody with no particular understanding of resettlement in a third country or what was going to happen when they come to Cambodia," she said.

"Those that we had the opportunity to speak with seemed to be happy to be home with their families again."

Around 2,000 Montagnards -- a group whose members backed US forces during the Vietnam war -- fled to Cambodia in 2001 and 2004 after security forces crushed protests against land confiscations and religious persecution.

Vietnam, Cambodia and the UN High Commissioner for refugees signed an agreement in January 2005, under which about 750 Montagnard refugees could either be resettled in a third country or voluntarily return to Vietnam.

Vietnam guaranteed they would not be punished, discriminated against or prosecuted for illegal departure, but New York-based Human Rights Watch last year accused Vietnam of detaining and sometimes torturing returnees.

Sauerbrey said the US and Vietnam shared agreement that those Montagnards who feared persecution in Vietnam should stay in the communist country and take their concerns directly to US missions.

"I think that our government and the government of Vietnam share a belief that it is far better for people who fear persecution, oppression for political reasons or ethnic reasons, whatever, for that problem to be addressed inside the country rather than them having to flee to Cambodia," she said.