Montagnard Christians in Vietnam
2001-2011: Cycles of Repression
The Vietnamese government has launched a series of crackdowns during the last 10 years to suppress political organizing and independent religious activities among Montagnard Christians. Elite security units have hunted down and arrested Montagnard activists in hiding and sealed off the border with Cambodia to prevent asylum seekers from fleeing the country.
During these crackdowns, authorities have committed clear-cut violations of fundamental rights, including arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, and torture. Officials have employed coercion to pressure Montagnards to renounce their religion and pledge their loyalty to the government and the Communist Party of Vietnam. Police have used excessive force to dispel largely peaceful protests, resulting in the deaths of as many as eight Montagnards during demonstrations in April 2004 [13] as well as injuries and deaths of others during arrest and in police custody. At various times, restrictions have been placed on travel within the highlands, on public gatherings, and on telephone communication with the outside world.
At the same time, the government has initiated some reforms to address Montagnard grievances, including official programs to allocate land to ethnic minority families, improve educational opportunities, and bring economic development to the impoverished region. Police who have been posted in villages to monitor activities of suspected Montagnard leaders and prevent escapes to Cambodia have also carried out public works projects such as assisting villagers with farming and village clean-up projects.
The following timeline, drawn from Vietnamese state media accounts, western wire service reports, and Montagnard sources, illustrates a continuous pattern of repression of independent political and religious activities in the Central Highlands during the last 10 years.
February 2001:
Authorities suppress widespread demonstrations by Montagnards by dispatching tanks and elite troops to the region and arresting dozens of protest organizers. Afterwards, authorities enforce sharp restrictions on public gatherings, church meetings, and freedom of movement. [14]
April 2001:
Officials announce that 13 military regiments are to be located in an “economic defense zone” in Dak Lak and neighboring Binh Phuoc province, bordering Cambodia. The plan calls for the resettlement of close to 100,000 soldiers, militia, and their families, who are to clear up to 230,000 hectares of land to plant rubber, cashews, cotton, coffee and pepper.[15]
May 2001:
Officials organize “goat’s blood ceremonies” in dozens of villages in the Central Highlands. Villagers who participated in the February 2001 demonstrations are forced to stand up in front of their entire village and local authorities to admit their wrongdoing, pledge to cease any contacts with outside groups, and renounce their religion. To seal their loyalty, they are forced to drink rice wine mixed with goat's blood.[16]
February 2002:
An additional 2,300 soldiers are deployed in Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Kon Tum provinces, with party cadre sent to “hot spots” and remote areas to help maintain order.[17]
August-September 2002:
Police tighten security and arrest close to 70 Montagnards in Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Phu Yen provinces in an effort to suppress Montagnard protests reportedly planned in Mdrak district of Dak Lak and Buon Ma Thuot City.[18] “We arrested all the demonstrators. Nobody could escape,” a police chief in Dak Lak tells reporters.[19]
October-December 2002:
More than 600 “fast deployment” military teams are dispatched to the highlands. [20] Authorities intensify propaganda campaigns against “hostile forces” in the highlands, culminating in an October 2002 Party directive outlining the government’s efforts to eliminate “Dega Protestantism.” [21] State media covers officially organized ceremonies in which Montagnard Christians “voluntarily” reject their religion, with Dak Lak provincial television broadcasting programs called “Dispersing the Illegally Self-Elected Protestant Board of Deacons” and “Illegally Self-Elected Protestant Deacons Voluntarily Disperse,” showing Montagnard Christians “volunteering” to abandon their religion. [22] In November, government officials report that more than 2,700 Christians have severed connections with “bad elements who abuse religious issues to sow divisions in national unity,” dozens of evangelical Christians have confessed to having preached illegally, and 37 religious “cells” have been disbanded. [23]
February 2003:
Government and party officials in the Central Highlands are instructed to “eradicate all illegal religious organizations” and to organize official “Swearing Brotherhood” (le ket nghia) ceremonies in which Montagnards must publicly pledge their loyalty to the government and the party and renounce “Dega Protestantism.”[24] To enforce the new directives, police launch a fresh round of arrests of Montagnard Christians and political activists, as well as those suspected by the government of seeking to flee to Cambodia.[25]
January 2004:
Authorities intensify crackdown on Montagnards, with Mobile Intervention Police searching villages and nearby coffee plantations—sometimes with dogs—to arrest Montagnards suspected of supporting the Dega church movement. After cordoning off a village, prohibiting entry and exit, the security forces then enter the village. They search the homes of villagers suspected of hiding or feeding others, often destroying the houses and beating the inhabitants during interrogation. They then fan out into nearby fields and forests, searching for people in hiding.[26]
July 2004:
After widespread Montagnard protests in the Central Highlands in April 2004, the Department of Central Highlands Security (Cuc An ninh Tay Nguyen) is founded after a national conference on security in the highlands presided over by then-Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. [27] Elite police units, such as PA43, Political Security Section VI units, the Mobile Intervention Police, and the “Special Task Force” are dispatched to the region to back up provincial and district police to prevent further demonstrations, root out Montagnard activists in hiding, stop the flow of asylum seekers to Cambodia, and bring an end to groups allegedly taking advantage of ethnic issues and religion to incite social turmoil. [28]
Late 2004—Early 2005:
Police operations focus on capturing “reactionary FULRO operatives” in Dak Doa and Chu Se districts of Gia Lai, with state media reporting that 147 people are arrested in late 2004, including Kpa Hung, a key “ringleader” who is shot and wounded during his arrest and is now serving a 12-year prison sentence.[29]
March 2005:
Targeting of Montagnard Christians for persecution, arrest, and mandatory renunciation sessions intensifies after promulgation of legislation that requires all religious groups to be officially registered. Decree 22, promulgated in March 2005, bans any religious activity deemed to threaten national security, public order, or national unity. Instruction No. 1, issued by the Prime Minister in February 2005, specifically bans Dega Protestantism.[30] The new regulations provide legitimacy to government officials and police arresting or forcing the recantation of faith of Montagnards belonging to religious groups that operate independently of the government-approved Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam.[31]
November 2005:
Plans are announced to send 2,000 families from northern Vietnam to live and work in “Economic-National Defense Zones” (ENDZ) in Kon Tum and Gia Lai provinces near the Cambodian border. The Prime Minister also approves a plan to send 400 “young intellectuals” and members of the Communist Youth Union to the ENDZs for two-year terms to “enhance socio-economic development and strengthen defense” in the region.[32]
April 2006—July 2009:
PA43 forces and provincial police launch a “1,200-day campaign” that focuses on capturing “
reactionary FULRO operatives” and “Dega Protestants” in Chu Se district, Gia Lai.[33]
Mid-2006:
Government begins implementation of the 01 CA-QS plan by provincial and district police and military Corps 15 to ensure political stability, national security, and defense in three border districts of Gia Lai and for rubber plantations located there. Goals of the 01 CA-QS plan are: a) ensure national security and defense (both political security and security of rubber plantation); b)
eradicate FULRO and prevent escapes into Cambodia; c) mobilize masses to turn in reactionaries; and d) stop crime, especially illegal smuggling of rubber.[34]
August 2006:
The Special Task Force, an elite police unit within the E20 Battalion of the Central Highlands Mobile Police, coordinates with PA43 units and district and provincial police to hunt down and suppress FULRO “ringleaders,” focusing on Gia Lai.[35]
January 2007:
Plans are announced for construction of resettlement villages in border and low-income areas, including four Central Highlands provinces, for young people from other parts of Vietnam to “uphold their pioneer role in socio-economic development.”[36]
April 2007-June 2010:
Public security forces launch a three-year offensive that targets Montagnard church activists in Chu Se district, Gia Lai.[37]
May 2010:
Officials launch propaganda campaigns and public criticism ceremonies targeting the Catholic Ha Mon sect in Kon Tum, Gia Lai, and Dak Lak provinces.[38]
June 2010:
Heightened border security, arrests, and forced renunciation ceremonies take place in Gia Lai, allegedly in response to unrest in rubber plantations in Chu Prong district.[39]
Montagnard Christians in Vietnam | Human Rights Watch
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