Seven More Montagnards Arrive in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri Province


2015.02.24
MontagnardMap305.jpg The Montagnards are based in Vietnam's Central Highland provinces.
RFA

A new group of seven Montagnards from Vietnam arrived in northeastern Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province on Monday, while police raided another group and arrested four of the asylum-seekers who were hiding in the area, villagers living along the Cambodia-Vietnam border and a human rights group said.

Chhay Thy, the province coordinator of national human rights group Adhoc, said he is concerned about the security of both the new arrivals and existing group of 36 Montagnards—Christian indigenous people from Vietnam’s Central Highlands—already in the country.

“There are more Montagnards coming, [but] there is not shelter and food,” he said, adding that villagers had expressed concern that they can no longer provide safe shelter for the refugees in the face of raids by local police.

Chhay Thy also said he had informed a United Nations team in Cambodia about the new arrivals as well as the arrest of the four others.

Other villagers said police on Tuesday raided two Montagnard groups who were hiding in the Ratanakiri’s Lumphat district.

“The Police chased those Montagnards after they found their hiding shelters,” said one villager, who declined to be named. “There were 13 police officers with guns.”

Lumphat’s district governor Nou The confirmed that he had organized a group of officers to search for the Montagnards, but said he had not received any information about their hiding places.

“I ordered the operation, but I have not heard any reports,” he said.

Local and provincial police officers refused to discuss the arrests.

Refusal to cooperate

Authorities in Ratanakiri province had refused last week to cooperate with a U.N. team that wanted to retrieve the three dozen Montagnards and help them seek asylum.

Wan-Hea Lee, the U.N.’s office of the High Commission of Human Rights (OHCHR) representative in Cambodia, said that the authorities blocked U.N. vehicles from reaching areas where the Montagnards were hiding.

The U.N team had arrived in the province on Feb. 16 to seek cooperation with local authorities to retrieve the Montagnards, who fear that Cambodian officials will deport them back to Vietnam where they face persecution.

Cambodia usually summarily deports Montagnards, viewing them as illegal aliens rather than a minority group fleeing persecution in Vietnam.

Reported by Ratha Visal of RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

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