Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-11-Speech-4-135"
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"en.20020411.8.4-135"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, why are citizens from Vietnam’s central highlands fleeing to the neighbouring country of Cambodia? This question remains unanswered, despite the way out of their misery that the Americans are providing by offering to receive them. Unless this question is answered, we are only treating the symptoms while the problem continues to spread insidiously.
This evil is, quite simply, the Vietnamese government’s multiple disenfranchisement of ethnic minorities, whom the present resolution calls Montagnards, extending even to the persecution of the latter. This disenfranchisement is social, religious and economic in nature.
The ‘Kinh’, the so-called real Vietnamese, consider themselves superior to the indigenous peoples of the central highlands. With the help of the country’s Communist leaders, they have, in their capacity as migrants, simply robbed the indigenous people of the central highlands of their land over the past fifteen years. We have also indicated the way in which the Montagnards have been deprived of their rights on a social and economic front.
Among the Montagnards, there are a relatively large number of Christians, specifically Protestants. Their churches refuse to join the government-controlled Protestant unity church and are therefore deemed illegal. This renders the Protestant Montagnards additionally suspicious in the eyes of the already strongly anti-religious authorities.
Add to this the element of the Montagnards’ foreign religious contacts, and their efforts to achieve more self-determination, and it becomes clear why the Vietnamese government considers the central highlands a risk area and treats it accordingly. Let us face it; this Communist government is as terrified as ever at the thought of any groups or opinions taking shape independently.
Is this, therefore, a hopeless situation for the Montagnards? They can rely on an alert security service in their vicinity. Representatives of foreign donors and Vietnamese NGOs cannot travel freely in the area where they live. It is therefore extremely difficult to set up local development programmes. Meetings of representatives of indigenous peoples are either not allowed or are monitored by the security service.
Despite this, insiders in the shape of Western development workers in the central highlands, detect a glimmer of hope. Within the Vietnamese government services, there are also opinions circulating which show some understanding of the legitimate religious, political and social demands of the Montagnards.
In their contacts with the Vietnamese authorities, I wish the Council and the Commission much wisdom and patience in treading a path that will put an end to the intolerable disenfranchisement of the indigenous people of the central highlands. The present resolution should provide a welcome boost for them."@en1
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