(New York, May 13, 2005) – New evidence shows that Vietnamese security forces are continuing to mistreat and arbitrarily detain Montagnards, indigenous hill people from the Central Highlands, Human Rights Watch said today in a new 16-page briefing paper.

Human Rights Watch said Vietnamese officials are also continuing to force Montagnard Christians to recant their faith.

Targeted in particular are those perceived as following “Dega Christianity,” an unsanctioned form of evangelical Christianity followed by many Montagnards, who distrust government-controlled religious organizations and seek to manage their own affairs. The Vietnamese government has banned Dega Christianity and charges that it is not a religion but a separatist political movement.

“Montagnards who attempt to practice their religion independently still face assaults and live in fear,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The persecution of Montagnards for their religious beliefs and for their claims to ancestral lands continues unabated.”

Human Rights Watch said that recent talks between Vietnam and the United States on Vietnam’s designation by the U.S. as a “Country of Particular Concern” for religious persecution have produced some commitments by the Vietnamese government to allow greater religious freedom. Registration requirements for some churches have been loosened, and the Prime Minister has issued a regulation banning the forced renunciation of religious beliefs.

However, the regulation requires religious organizations to obtain government permission in order to operate. It states that only churches that have conducted “pure religious activities” since 1975 can register for official authorization. This effectively eliminates Montagnard house churches in the Central Highlands, most of which started up in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In an ominous tone, it instructs officials to publicly expose “disguised Protestants” and to “fight attempts by hostile forces to abuse Protestantism to incite people to act subversively.”

According to recent eyewitness accounts obtained by Human Rights Watch, local authorities in the Central Highlands have used the new regulation as grounds to arrest Montagnards suspected of belonging to Christian groups that operate independently. Government officials in Cu Se district of Gia Lai province summoned Montagnards from many villages for all-day meetings at district headquarters, where they were warned not to follow Dega Christianity, and in some cases forced to sign pledges promising to abandon religion and politics. (The Evangelical Church of Vietnam/South (ECVN) is the only Protestant organization authorized by the government to operate in southern Vietnam.)

In March and April, security forces in several districts of Gia Lai conducted search operations in the forests and midnight raids on villages, in which they ransacked the homes of women whose husbands have gone into hiding. Some women and their children were beaten during these raids. Human Rights Watch said that Montagnards in hiding, as well as villagers suspected of providing food to them, continue to be arrested by police and soldiers. Those arrested include not only those perceived to be Dega Church members, but pastors affiliated with the ECVN and their relatives. Some of those arrested have been beaten or tortured in detention, according to credible eyewitness accounts.

“Recent commitments from the Vietnamese government on religious freedom are welcome, but only if they lead to an end to abuses,” said Adams. “Vietnam should amend the regulations to allow full and unconditional religious freedom in order to end the official identification of religion as a threat to the state.”

Human Rights Watch said that at this point, the reforms appear to be having the perverse effect of allowing government security forces to take fresh action against religious activists.

Human Rights Watch said that it also has received reports of mistreatment of Montagnards who voluntarily returned to Vietnam from refugee camps in Cambodia. According to these reports, at least four Montagnards who returned to Vietnam in March were detained for more than ten days upon return. During interrogation by police at the Gia Lai Provincial Police Station, one of the returnees was stabbed in the hand with a writing pen. Another was punched in the back, the third was hit in the stomach, and the fourth was slapped across the face. They were then escorted to their home villages by commune police and local officials, who placed them under surveillance.

In a recent Memorandum of Understanding signed with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Vietnam pledged that there would be no retaliation or mistreatment against individuals who return from Cambodia to Vietnam. However, Vietnam continues to deny international monitors unhindered access to the Central Highlands to check on the safety of returnees.

“The general mistreatment of Montagnards and the targeting of returnees from Cambodia makes it clear that Vietnam is not upholding the commitments it made to UNHCR in January,” said Adams. “Hanoi must allow international monitors into the Central Highlands to ensure proper implementation of the agreement. Vietnam should stop denying that these abuses are happening and start showing the political will to end them.”

Annex: Excerpted Case Examples from the Briefing Paper