05/16/2005

During the Vietnam War, the Montagnards were among the very staunchest U.S. allies and paid a very high price in terms of casualties.  Owing to the rapid fall of the Central Highlands in 1975, very few Montagnards left Vietnam during the U.S. evacuation.
 
Serious human rights problems have arisen in the Central Highlands of Vietnam since 1975 leading to the flight of several thousand Montagnards into neighboring Cambodia, where the refugees often encounter further problems, including arrest and forced return to Vietnam. Reliable reports persist of bounties offered to villagers to turn in the refugees hiding in eastern Cambodia to the authorities for deportation.
 
In 2002, Refugees International was among the NGOs pressing the U.S. and Cambodia to protect the refugees and maintain first asylum for them. On Easter Sunday, 2004, Vietnamese security forces reacted very harshly to peaceful demonstrations by Montagnards in the highlands.  The Vietnamese claim only about ten Montagnard citizens were killed, but human rights organizations estimate that far more people died.  As a result of this unrest, Montagnards have fled in greater numbers to Cambodia, where at the end of 2004 there were over 500 refugees.
 
In late January 2005, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, signed a tripartite agreement with Vietnam and Cambodia to regularize the refugee situation. Even though it was not sought by either government, the UNHCR decided to impose a refugee screening determination (RSD) process to determine eligibility for refugee status.
 
RI believes the UNHCR RSD process is badly flawed, including an appellate procedure which has not been adequately explained to the asylum seekers.  We have seen no written guidance to the asylum seekers about the process, so they are understandably unclear about it. Further, the UNHCR made it clear that Montagnards not deemed to be refugees would cease to the responsibility of UNHCR, virtually inviting the Cambodian authorities to force them to return to Vietnam, even though monitoring of returnees has not yet been agreed to by Vietnam.
 
Working in close collaboration with human rights organizations, RI has been urging the UNHCR and the U.S. government to take action to ensure that Montagnards are not forcibly returned to Vietnam. UNHCR Acting High Commissioner Wendy Chamberlin is working with her staff and the governments of Cambodia, Vietnam and the U.S. to define a common approach that protects refugees from return to Vietnam before reliable monitoring is in place. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, Arthur Dewey, is working closely with the Acting High Commissioner to resolve this sensitive problem.
 
The Congress has been also helpful on a bipartisan basis. Recently Congressmen James A. Leach (R-Iowa) and Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (D-Guam), respectively the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, wrote to Acting High Comissioner Chamberlin about the Montagnard refugees.  RI supports their recommendations to UNHCR, which include revising the tripartite agreement to ensure that refugee returns are voluntary and suspending all repatriation of Montagnards until adequate monitoring is in place in the Central Highlands.
 
RI expects the letter to prompt continuing senior attention to the plight of the Montagnards in the UNHCR and in the U.S. government. Please click here to see the text of the Congressional letter.