(New York) - Cambodian police used excessive force on July 20 when they forcibly deported 101 rejected Montagnard asylum seekers to Vietnam from a Phnom Penh refugee facility, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch said that the Montagnards could be at risk of further mistreatment in Vietnam, as there is no proper international monitoring system in place to ensure that Montagnard returnees are free from intimidation, detention or abuse by Vietnamese authorities.
The July 20 deportation began at 5:30 a.m. with Cambodian police setting up roadblocks to bar journalists and Cambodian and United Nations human rights monitors from a refugee facility in Phnom Penh known as Site 1. Site 1 has primarily housed asylum seekers whose refugee claims had been rejected by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). At 6:00 a.m., dozens of riot police, some with AK-47 assault rifles slung over their shoulders, entered the facility. The asylum seekers were seated together in the courtyard of the facility, gripping each others' arms, to avoid being taken away. Eyewitnesses said that the Montagnards at no time acted violently toward the police. They merely attempted to passively resist instructions to board the buses by sitting down and linking their arms together.
After the asylum seekers ignored an order to board the buses, the police made no attempt at negotiation. Instead they began to slap, hit and use batons to beat the asylum seekers. They dragged people out of the facility by their arms, legs and, in several cases, by their hair, and pushed them on to buses. Police beat at least one woman with a baby strapped to her back, and kicked other Montagnards as they were seated. They beat individuals with batons and used electric prods to inflict shock, even as they were boarding the buses.
“There was no excuse for using electric batons or beating unarmed individuals engaged in peaceful civil disobedience," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The use of unnecessary force shows just how little the Cambodian government cares about police discipline and about the well-being of the Montagnards.”
An eyewitness described what happened when police entered Site 1:
The Montagnards were completely non-violent. Some were gathered in a group and began to pray and then they let out a terrible sound of lamentation and wailing. Some moved forward and sat clinging to one another crying. They did not move when the police wanted them to go onto the bus. Police pulled one man out in front and beat him as he was lying on the cement. He writhed when he was stuck with a baton. More people were beaten and dragged or carried out the gate. I saw a policeman kick one woman in the stomach. Police in white helmets arrived carrying large black batons, which they beat people with. Some people were kicked. Another set of police arrived wearing green helmets and carrying electric batons. I saw the lights flashing on the electric batons and I saw people groaning with pain when they were struck.
Other eyewitness accounts corroborate this statement.
Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian government to undertake an independent and impartial investigation of the incident and discipline or prosecute as appropriate officials who authorized or used excessive force.
Cambodian and international human rights groups and the Cambodia Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights have long pressed the government to cease the use of electric batons by police.
“Electric batons are dangerous weapons and should not be used for crowd control,” said Adams. “Despite widespread criticism, the Cambodian government continues to abuse peaceful protestors with these weapons.”
Police abuse, including the excessive use of force by police officers, is explicitly prohibited by two major international human rights codes that are enshrined in Cambodian law. The U.N. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials states that "law enforcement officials may use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty."
The U.N. Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms provide that law enforcement officials “shall, as far as possible, apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of force” and may use force “only if other means remain ineffective.” When the use of force is unavoidable, law enforcement officials must “exercise restraint in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offence.” The Basic Principles state that in dispersing assemblies that are unlawful but non-violent, “law enforcement officials shall avoid the use of force or, where that is not practicable, shall restrict such force to the minimum extent necessary.”
Moreover, Human Rights Watch said that the police’s use of excessive force violates an agreement Cambodia signed with UNHCR and Vietnam in January 2005. The agreement provides for the return to Vietnam of recognized Montagnard refugees who refuse to resettle abroad. It also provides for the return of Montagnard asylum seekers whose refugee claims have been rejected by UNHCR. It provides that UNHCR will work with the governments of Cambodia and Vietnam to “bring back [to Vietnam] in an orderly and safe fashion” and “in conformity with national and international law” those Montagnards who do not agree to either resettle abroad or “voluntarily” return to Vietnam.
“Cambodia, through the behavior of its police, has violated international human rights principles, its own laws, and the agreement it signed with UNHCR and Vietnam,” said Adams. “This was not a safe return, it was an unnecessarily violent one.”
Human Rights Watch expressed concern for the safety of those forcibly returned on July 20.
Human Rights Watch has documented cases of intimidation, detention and police abuse of Montagnards who voluntarily returned to Vietnam from Cambodian refugee camps.
Cambodia is bound by international human rights treaties, including the Convention against Torture, not to forcibly return people to a place where they are likely to face torture or persecution.
Within 24 hours of the July 20 deportation, articles in Vietnam's state media quoted the same deportees who earlier had resisted return as saying they were happy to be home and that they were repentant, to their fellow "villagers, family and the Party and State," about their "illegal" departure from Vietnam.
“In a one-party state with a long history of forced ‘reeducation’ and little freedom of speech, reports of repentant returnees are chilling,” said Adams. “They reek of propaganda and suggest coercion and fear.”
Human Rights Watch called on the Vietnamese government to provide UNHCR and other independent monitors with free and unfettered access to all Montagnards who have been returned, whether with their consent or forcibly. This is necessary to discourage any mistreatment of returnees, and to enable UNHCR to provide information to other potential returnees in Cambodia who need to be able to make informed decisions about whether to return.
Previous UNHCR monitoring visits to the Central Highlands were not conducted in a way in which Montagnards returnees could speak freely and confidentially, Human Rights Watch said. A single UNHCR official, a Vietnamese national, briefly met returnees, often in the presence of police and government officials, making it impossible for returnees to speak freely. Further returns of Montagnards should not go ahead unless there are adequate guarantees that they will be conducted in conditions of safety and dignity and UNHCR’s international staff has unrestricted access to returnees before, during and after any repatriation.
"For monitoring to be meaningful, it must be carried out in an unrestricted manner by international staff who have nothing to fear from the Vietnamese government," said Adams. "Interviewees must be absolutely certain that there will be no retaliation against them if they speak truthfully to UNHCR or others."
