http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0606/S00326.htm

Vietnam: UN rejects report of torture of returnees
Saturday, 17 June 2006, 10:50 am
Press Release: United Nations
UN refugee agency rejects report of torture against Montagnard returnees in Viet Nam

The United Nations refugee agency today rejected a recent report from an international non-governmental human rights organization alleging that Vietnamese authorities have been detaining, interrogating and torturing Montagnard asylum seekers who have returned to Viet Nam from Cambodia.

The report, issued on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW), also urged the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to review its participation in the return exercise, called the Agency’s monitoring ‘flawed’ and said its public statements appeared to be ‘calculated’ to gain greater access to Viet Nam’s Central Highlands, the Montagnard tribesmen’s place of origin.

“Frankly, we find the report unbalanced and reject its accusations. The allegations do not tally with our first-hand experience of the Montagnard caseload in Cambodia, nor with our 12 monitoring missions to visit returnees in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam,” UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva.

“We reject the accusation made in the report that we made public statements praising Viet Nam’s treatment of returnees in order to gain greater access. We have absolutely no reason to do so. Our public statements have reflected the reality we found on the ground. We will continue to report what we find in an objective manner.”

Under the terms of an agreement signed in Hanoi in January 2005 between UNHCR, Viet Nam and Cambodia, Montagnards who had arrived in Cambodia and were recognized as refugees could either be resettled to a third country or return to Viet Nam, which guaranteed they would not be punished, discriminated against or prosecuted for illegal departure.

UNHCR said it had now visited more than 64 percent of all returnees, many of them several times, and had also spoken with the two people on whom HRW had relied heavily for their report and Mr. Redmond said the Agency had “found discrepancies between accounts they related to us and to HRW.”

“There have been no similar allegations of mistreatment from any other returnees, who now total 102 voluntary returnees and 94 deportees,” he added.

A total of 672 Montagnards were resettled from Cambodia in 2004/2005. There are currently 249 in Phnom Penh. In 2005, 82 Montagnards returned home voluntarily, with a further 20 returning in 2006. A total of 94 persons have been deported.

They should pick on America and their child-exploiting corporations.

That was a silly exaggeration my true point is that I think everything should be investigated instead of taking things at face value.

This is one hell of a wierd conclusion you get out of that article. I almost wonder if we were reading the same article. O_o If i read it correctly, and i think i do, it was the HRW that issued that report and not the Montagnards themselfs. Beside that, it's a report about torturing and not about oppression. The UN couldn't find themself agreeing to the result of the issued HRW report about torture because of their own researches in the field. Though a footnote should be place here. Those 12 montering mission to visit the refrugees in the central highlands of Vietnam, i don't think those visits were without any vietnamese government officials. But coming back on the statement made by the UNHCR. They disagrement with the HRW report doesn't mean they also agree with the conclusion you just came up with, that the Montagnards are not being oppressed. There is nothing in that article that imply such a statement from the UN. On the contrary, i would more find myself agreeing with the opposite after reading the same article that you've read.


Don't i read here that UNHCR recognizes Montagnards as refrugees. AND that they needed garantees of the vietnamese government that Montagnards returning to Vietnam will not be punished. There is not a lot of room for speculation about the situation of the Montagnards here...

One more footnote should be placed. The UN is not one of the most reliable organisation i've known. And it also feel more like a cumbersome moving giant 1000 headed dragon to me. With so many undercurrents and selfinterests in the organisation that it sometime amazes me that they could even agree to something. Hehehe. I went a bit overboard there but you get my drift. ^^ Don't get me wrong here. I'm not against the UN. It's more like the opposite, i'm a big believer in the United Nations philosophy! And the UN is just the best thing we can come up with right now, following that philosophy. ^^

I am also glad there are organisation like HRW. Which doesn't mean i approve with their above conduct. I guess they too have conflict of interests and are sometime a bit selfish. There aren't a lot of organisation who aren't that or humans for the matter. But it's better to have eyes watching for misdeeds in our societies than not even looking for it at all. Eventhough those eyes sometime may be somewhat blurred by the goals they have set and the things they are searching for. In the end, as many factors as possible should be taken into account and weighted. And as many angles as possible should be viewed, before taking any conclusions. It's good conduct here and it's good conduct in general. Don't let yourself be blinded by your goals. It's a too commonly made mistake...

well said.....well said.

I don't feel sorry for Montagnards. They aren't exactly innocent either.

http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/mar/assessm...p?groupId=81604



Not to mention terrorist attacks done by FULRO.

They hate VietNamese and attack Viet people so measures had to be taken to deal them.