Refugees International: Articles: RI in the News - UNHCR, Cambodia Working Together to Help Christian Montagnards

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RI in the News - UNHCR, Cambodia Working Together to Help Christian Montagnards

11/23/2004

The Christian Post
UNHCR, Cambodia Working Together to Help Christian Montagnards
by Kenneth Chan

An influx of ethnic Montagnards from Vietnam to Cambodia over the last few months is creating a difficult challenge for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, a humanitarian group reported last Friday. However, Refugees International says that the refugee flow should also generate international pressure on Vietnam to change policies that are causing the mostly-Christian Montagnards to flee to Cambodia.

"Montagnard hill tribes in Vietnam have long encountered discrimination from Hanoi," the Washington, D.C.-based group said in a statement released last Friday. "Many of them helped the U.S. during the Vietnam war. They are Christians in a communist country. Their native lands have been targets of Vietnamese development plans to increase the production of coffee and other crops. They are an independent force in a land of discipline and central direction."

Refugees International reported that the harassment that many Montagnards face in Vietnam has prompted them to flee across the border to Cambodia, and the refugee flow will continue until Vietnam ends its oppressive policies.

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