Montagnards: Amnesty International report 2004
In Vietnam, arrests and trials continued of those linked to the 2001 unrest and the resulting flight of hundreds of ethnic minority (Montagnard) asylum-seekers to neighbouring Cambodia. Allegations of torture and deaths in custody were also reported by overseas Montagnard groups.
Thirty-three men were sentenced to between 18 months' and 13 years' imprisonment for their involvement in the unrest or for helping those trying to flee the country, bringing to 76 the total number of people known to have been tried since 2001. No outside monitoring was permitted of the trials, and detainees' access to family members and lawyers was limited. Not all such cases were made public and the number of those arrested and detained was believed to be much higher. Access to the Central Highlands remained strictly controlled; several groups of diplomats and journalists were permitted to visit the region under close supervision.
Y Kuo Bya, Ye He E Ban, Y Jon Enuol and Y Bri Enuol were sentenced
to between 10 and 13 years' imprisonment and between three and four years' house
arrest on release by the People's Court of Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands
on 16 October. They were charged with inciting unrest in 2000-2001 and "sabotaging
the policy of national unity".
Source: Amnesty International