Money First, Human Rights Last [Originally posted by 'Socheata' on KI Media]
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Montagnard village during the Vietnam War.
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April 4, 2011
Bruce Kesler
Family Security Matters
Hanoi
hasn’t only been persecuting Montagnards. Any who challenge or are
feared to challenge the government’s corruption and oppression are
arrested, often tortured, and imprisoned.
The newfound fervor for human rights
among liberal supporters of President Obama’s “kinetic” enterprise in
Libya might be better turned to Vietnam. Instead, ignoring the
persecution of minorities there and ongoing – indeed, increasing –
repression of dissent, they fall into line with US businesses profiting
from cheap Vietnamese labor to look away. We ally with Middle East foes
of freedom and abandon real seekers of freedom in Vietnam.
During the Vietnam War, the
Montagnards -- Vietnam’s Central Highlands hill people, a distinct
ethnic and cultural group different from the majority lowland Vietnamese
– became strong allies in fighting against the communists. They had
long wanted autonomy within Vietnam, and seeking their support Saigon
granted them many of their requests.
Since 1975, the communist
government of Vietnam has ruthlessly persecuted the Montagnards,
imprisoning, torturing, murdering many and taking their lands for roads,
plantations and mines, denuding the forests for valuable woods, moving
the Montagnards from poverty to rootless impoverishment and loss of
culture. Together with many within the government, those with
connections and Chinese state businesses profit.
Many
Montagnards are devout Protestants, Degar, whose churches are not
recognized by the state and whose members come in for particularly harsh
punishments. The Montagnard Foundation is their voice in the West,
documenting and exposing their persecution. Few listen and fewer care,
least of all the US government. Under both presidents Bush and Obama,
the US government has looked away, with the myth that somehow Vietnam
would be a counterweight to China but actually favoring US businesses
that also profit from trade with Vietnam.
I’ve frequently written about
this. (See, for example, these at a previous website.) My friend Scott
Johnson is a lawyer, writer and human rights activist focusing on tribal
peoples from South East Asia. His latest article, awaiting publication,
focuses on cables from our ambassador to Vietnam that came to light in
the WikiLeaks. The cables in question are from US Ambassador to Vietnam
Michael Michalak titled, Vietnam Religious Freedom Update. “Essentially
the leaked confidential cables are a testament of betrayal as they
blatantly fail to mention the hundreds of tribal Christian Montagnards
or Degar people imprisoned in Vietnam….It’s as if the hundreds of
Montagnard prisoners never existed….”
The
leaked cables also makes numerous mention of “significant gains”
Vietnam is making on religious freedom with references to “registration
of scores of new religions” and the “training of hundreds of new
Protestant and Catholic clergy”. ”Registration” and “training” are in
reality codewords for control enforced by brutal security forces. The
new religions are in fact government implemented programs designed to
control religion and Hanoi has merely changed its tactics in persecuting
Christians since being dropped from the CPC designation. Ever since,
thousands of Montagnard Christians have been arrested, tortured and
released in a deliberate policy to repress house churches from expanding
membership. Over the past decade Protestant congregations have grown
600% in Vietnam, a statistic that has alarmed communist officials. Thus
control mechanisms, namely, torture, beatings, imprisonment and even
killings have become integral to Vietnam’s policy to control religion
through “training” and “registration” of government Churches, such as
the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam. By mentioning the successful
expansion of these government approved Churches the State Department
merely legitimises Vietnam’s oppressive police state. In other words –
the US government is saying, “yes you can be a Christian, but you must
be a Christian controlled by the Vietnamese communist party”.
To
its credit, Human Rights Watch has not abandoned the Montagnards. In
report after report, HRW has documented and decried their ruthless
treatment by Hanoi. HRW’s latest report is covered in the New York
Times:
“The
United States government should recognize this and should clearly
designate Vietnam as a country of particular concern for violations of
religious freedom,” Mr. Robertson said. “I think the facts demand it.
The situation with the Montagnards is one of the most egregious
violations of religious freedom in Vietnam.”
The Central Highlands are mostly
off limits to journalists and independent rights groups. The report
said much of its information came from the official news media as well
as from asylum seekers who had fled through the mountains to neighboring
Cambodia and from overseas Montagnard advocacy groups.
