Cambodian police break up Vietnam refugee protest

By Ek Madra

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – Cambodian riot police on Wednesday
broke up a protest by ethnic minority asylum seekers against
the forced return of over 100 of their people to Vietnam, human
rights workers and the United Nations said.

Around 30 Montagnards, the mainly Christian tribespeople
from Vietnam’s Central Highlands, staged a brief demonstration
outside offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) in Phnom Penh.

But their protest against Wednesday morning’s repatriation
of 101 Montagnards to Vietnam, where human rights workers say
they face persecution, was cut short by the arrival of riot
police.

“Some of them got upset about the return of these people to
Vietnam and they got out of the (asylum seekers’ holding)
center,” Inna Gladkova, a UNHCR official. “But police escorted
them back to the shelter. They are fine now.”

Gladkova said the 101 had been sent back to Vietnam after
the UNHCR rejected their claims for asylum. Another 541
Montagnards, many of them women and children, are in UNHCR
holding centers in Phnom Penh while their claims are processed.

Vietnam’s government, accused of rights abuses against the
Montagnards who sided with the Americans during the Vietnam
War, has given assurances that returnees will not face
discrimination.

However, human rights workers said the way Cambodian police
went about sending them back did not bode well.

“They dragged them into the trucks,” said Naly Pilorge,
director of human rights group LICADHO. She said at least three
human rights observers had seen police wielding electric batons
to force the Montagnards, including women and children, on
board.

Phnom Penh police chief Heng Peov denied officers used
excessive force. A Reuters television cameraman covering the
subsequent protest was forced by police to erase his footage.

Since 2001, well over 1,000 Montagnards have been granted
asylum in the United States after fleeing to Cambodia from
central Vietnam.

However, there have been consistent reports of Cambodian
troops rounding up Montagnards and sending them back for a
bounty, leading to accusations Phnom Penh is taking direct
orders from its larger neighbor not to admit refugees.