20 April 2004
The European Union expressed concern Tuesday about bloody clashes that erupted after security forces broke up protests by ethnic minority Protestants over Easter in Vietnam's Central Highlands.

In a statement released in Hanoi following talks with the government, the EU said it had requested "detailed information on the events," which the government has said resulted in the deaths of two protestors.

"The EU called on the authorities to fully respect international human rights standards in their longer-term response to the protests of Easter weekend and to allow peaceful demonstrations to take place," it said

"Furthermore, the EU requested the authorities to investigate the grievances of the ethnic minority people in the Central Highlands, to address them and to respect their freedom of religion."

Last week Human Rights Watch condemned Vietnam for its "repression" of the impoverished region's ethnic minority people, who are known as Montagnards.

The watchdog said thousands of demonstrators attempted to enter Buon Ma Thuot, the capital of Dak Lak province, on April 10 to conduct five days of protests against religious persecution and confiscation of ancestral lands.

Clashes erupted when police used tear gas, electric truncheons, and water cannons to prevent the demonstrators from entering the city, arresting dozens of people, according to the New York-based organization.

The group said it had received eyewitness reports of protestors being beaten to death by security forces outside Buon Ma Thuot, as well as unconfirmed reports of police casualties. Similar demonstrations and arrests were made in neighbouring Gia Lai province, it said.

The Montagnard Foundation (MFI), a US-based exile group, alleged that several hundred protestors were killed in the clashes, but diplomats believe these claims are vastly exaggerated.

Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Le Van Bang also dismissed the claims Tuesday, telling a business luncheon in Hanoi that only two people had died and that "about a dozen were wounded on both sides".

He also blamed the MFI for instigating the unrest but he conceded that there were "some difficulties" in the region.

"We are trying hard to solve these," Bang said, drawing parallels with Indonesia's efforts to resolve the insurgency in Aceh and the unrest in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south.

In its statement, the EU said it had asked Hanoi to grant access for diplomats, foreign journalists and aid workers to the Central Highlands.

International journalists have so far been denied permission to visit the region because the situation was considered "too dangerous" for them, according to Bang.

The EU also urged the government to resume stalled cooperation with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) over Montagnards fleeing Vietnam.

The comments came as a human rights worker in Cambodia, citing local sources living in the border region, said that a number of Montagnards who had fled to Cambodia following the protests had been deported back to Vietnam

"Regarding the Montagnards, they entered the province (of Mondolkiri) and were arrested and sent back.... Deportations took place twice but I do not know how many" people were sent back, he told AFP Tuesday.

Cambodian police, who boosted security along the border after the Easter protests, have denied the claims.

The clashes were the first large-scale demonstrations in the region since February 2001 when security forces forcibly broke up protests by more than 20,000 Montagnards, triggering a mass exodus into Cambodia.

Source: EU Business