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XV. CASE STUDY: THE CHURCH BURNING AND KILLING BY SECURITY FORCES IN PLEI LAO

First the police ordered some Vietnamese civilians to ransack and destroy the church with axes. They used a cable tied to a vehicle to topple it and the soldiers used their gun butts. Then they forced the ethnic Jarai to burn it. The police made the Jarai pour five liters of gasoline and ten liters of machine oil on the church, but they couldn't get it to burn. So then the police took over and they set fire to it. Everyone was crying-for the dead and wounded, and for the church.

-Jarai man from Plei Lao, June 28, 2001

Just weeks after the February 2001 protests in the provincial towns of the Central Highlands, a major confrontation took place between Vietnamese security forces and several hundred ethnic Jarai civilians in Plei Lao village, located about thirty-five kilometers from Pleiku in Gia Lai. On March 10, 2001, hundreds of police and soldiers, who were apparently attempting to break up a peaceful all-night prayer service, that villagers acknowledged included discussions of independence, fired into a crowd of ethnic Jarai, killing at least one villager. The police then burned down the church and arrested dozens of villagers, one of whom-Siu Boc-was subsequently tried and sentenced to eleven years in prison for "disrupting security." His trial was held in Pleiku in September 2001.

The exact circumstances of what happened at Plei Lao remain unclear. Human Rights Watch has obtained eyewitness accounts from villagers whose testimonies suggest excessive use of force by police. It appears that villagers did try to block traffic and interfere with arrests that they believed were unfair. They also acknowledge throwing rocks at a police jeep after security forces arrested one villager. No impartial observers were present to assess whether the police decision to open fire was in any way proportional to the threat they faced from an angry crowd, and the government has allowed no access to the site by independent observers since the incident. The police also then proceeded to burn down a church, an indefensible act under any circumstances.

Provincial and district authorities were clearly extremely apprehensive about the large number of Jarai who began to gather for an extended prayer meeting at the church in Plei Lao, beginning in early March. Villagers told Human Rights Watch they were praying for protection during a time of extreme duress after the February protests, when villages were flooded with police and soldiers. The authorities, for their part, were wary of some of the political content of the church services. Some of the villagers reportedly had organized small groups to monitor and observe the police when and if they entered the village, to try to prevent authorities from dispersing religious meetings or carrying out arrests. Photographs of Plei Lao taken on March 10, obtained by Human Rights Watch, show that at least one of the access roads to the village appears to have been partially blocked by a farm cart, most likely dragged into the road by villagers.

In interviews conducted in June and October 2001 by Human Rights Watch with more than a dozen eyewitnesses to the incident at Plei Lao, villagers gave equal weight to the problems of land confiscation and religious repression as underlying causes of the turmoil that erupted not only in the streets of the provincial towns, but in their hamlet of 400 people, in early 2001.

The Church at Plei Lao

In March 2001, Plei Lao stood out among other villages in Nhon Hoa Commune of Chu Se District, Gia Lai. It was the only village in the commune that had a church building-a simple wooden and thatch structure that villagers had built in July 2000. Several hundred Plei Lao residents-more than half the village-gathered there each Sunday. Once a month villagers from a dozen other hamlets in Nhon Hoa commune would gather at Plei Lao for larger church services.

Elders from Plei Lao say that the Jarai there have been Christians since 1974, when a Jarai man brought the religion to the village. "Christianity did not come to Plei Lao from foreigners," a Plei Lao villager told Human Rights Watch. "The Jarai became Christians because we saw that religion could help us have harmony in the family. God could protect us."455

Since the mid-1970s, villagers said, local authorities had harassed villagers for practicing Christianity, sometimes detaining and interrogating religious followers. Nonetheless, in July 2000, villagers were able to build a sizable church (12 x 6.5 meters). Local authorities largely turned a blind eye to its construction, although policemen regularly monitored church services.

In February 2001, hundreds of villagers from Nhon Hoa commune-200 from Plei Lao alone-joined the demonstrations in Pleiku, leaving their homes before dawn on the morning of February 2. Most were blocked from reaching the provincial town, turned back by police at barricades. After the demonstrations, policemen were posted in the village and approximately thirty soldiers were dispatched to the commune headquarters.

The Prayer Meetings

In early March, Plei Lao villagers started to hold a prayer meeting at the church, which went on day and night for ten days-until it was broken up by security forces. Villagers from more than a dozen surrounding hamlets joined, swelling the numbers in attendance to more than 500, and possibly as many as 1,000.456

"After the demonstrations we were afraid all the time," a villager from Plei Lao told Human Rights Watch. "There were police and soldiers constantly patrolling in our village. We had many prayer meetings-not just on Sundays-to pray and respect God and ask for help and protection."457

Another villager explained: "This is our tradition to pray day and night-as a prayer for help and protection-especially during times when we are fearful."458

Services started at 9:00 a.m. and went until 3:00 p.m. In the evening services commenced again, from 5:00 until 10:00 p.m., when villagers slept for a while. At 1:00 a.m. villagers would start worshipping again, until dawn. Villagers said they were not afraid to gather in this manner-despite the crackdown after February. "We weren't afraid because we were just meeting to worship, and not to confront the authorities," said one villager. Nonetheless, after praying, talk often turned to politics, he said. "When we meet like this, part [of the meeting] is religious and part is political; for example talking about the fact that this land is the property of the ethnic minorities and the international community has approved our proposal for independence already."459

The Shooting

Beginning at 7:00 p.m. on the evening of March 9, hundreds of soldiers and riot police surrounded Plei Lao. At 4:00 a.m. on March 10, approximately sixty members of the security forces entered the village in three jeeps and several army trucks as villagers were praying in the church. According to eyewitnesses and photographs obtained by Human Rights Watch, the police were wearing white helmets and uniforms with protective padding. They carried plastic shields, batons, electric truncheons, tear gas canisters, and guns-both AK47 assault rifles and revolvers. Some of the soldiers were dressed in camouflage uniforms, rather than the usual olive green.

S, a young Jarai man, was sleeping in a hammock in a coffee plantation on the edge of the village. Awoken by the soldiers, he tried to run to warn the villagers in the church, but the police caught him. He was bound, gagged and put into one of three police jeeps. The rest of the villagers were unaware that anyone had been arrested, because it was still dark.

Many of the men continued praying in the church, but a contingent of women and girls went out to stand or sit across the road from the security forces, silently watching them. Some of the women wept as they saw more police and soldiers arrive. "We wanted to protect the church," said one man. "We sent the women to guard the road because we thought the police wouldn't hit or arrest the women."460

During the night more security reinforcements were called in from Pleiku, villagers said, with hundreds of police and soldiers posted on the perimeter of the village by daybreak, but not all entering the hamlet.

With the first light of dawn, some villagers realized that S had been arrested and was handcuffed in the police vehicle. A major confrontation broke out as about sixty villagers crowded around the jeep, trying to pull S out. The police fired tear gas and beat people with their batons. One eyewitness described what happened:

We worshipped until 4:00 a.m., when the soldiers came, shining their flashlights. We were praying at the time. The people tried to stop the soldiers, and told them we were praying. Some of us got close to the police jeep. When it got light, I saw one person handcuffed and gagged inside. His name is S. I don't know if he'd left the church or if they'd arrested him on the road. We tried to open the door to get him out. When the people hadn't yet gotten S out of the jeep, the police beat his sister until blood came out of her mouth. She was screaming for them to release her brother. She didn't hit the police. The police attacked first. They hit her with an electric baton and with their fists. They hit other people nearby. The people fought back.

After the people got S out of the jeep the police fired into the air. Then more police and soldiers came. They fired tear gas into the crowd and beat some of the people badly. Many people ran. Then the police lowered their guns and fired at people running away. Some people fought back and attacked the jeep. Some threw rocks and broke the jeep's mirror.461

A nineteen-year-old boy who was very close to the police jeep, offered this description of what happened:

The police and soldiers arrested one guy and gagged him so he could not speak. They handcuffed him and put him in their car. The people were angry and hit the car with rocks, breaking the mirror. The police fired tear gas. People carrying babies on their backs ran. The police used electric batons to shock some of the people. The tear gas was too thick.

I was about five meters from the vehicle. The people surrounded the car and tried the pull S out. The police beat the hands of the people trying to pull him out. The people weren't hitting the police, just trying to drag S out. There were both men and women trying to do this. There was a lot of smoke from the tear gas-it was hard to see. People were choking and gagging and dizzy. Some people were screaming; others carrying children in their arms were crying.

Once the people pulled S out of the car the police fired more tear gas and tried to prevent the people from taking him away. The shooting started when we ran. I don't know if they fired first into the air or not-but I know one person was shot in the leg. The people were able to get S into a house and cut off his handcuffs.462

Among those shot was Rmah Blin, thirty-three, from Plei Luh Yo. Police took him to the provincial hospital in Pleiku, where he died at 2:00 p.m. the same day. Seventeen people were injured from being beaten with batons or electric truncheons, and several sustained bullet wounds.

The Church Burning

After the shooting, the police conducted a house-to-house search in Plei Lao and gathered all the villagers near the church. Approximately twenty people from Plei Lao alone were arrested and handcuffed. Some were sent for questioning at the commune headquarters for one to three days, while others were sent to T-20 prison in Pleiku.

The dying and wounded were laid out near the church before being sent to hospital. The police then ordered the Jarai to burn down the church. One witness, who was arrested and sent to the commune headquarters afterwards, described the church burning and the condition of a number of the victims:

When they burned the church I was there, handcuffed. It happened around 12:00 noon. The police gathered everyone near the church, including those who were tied and handcuffed.

First the police ordered some Vietnamese civilians to ransack and destroy the church with axes. They used a cable tied to a vehicle to topple it and the soldiers used their gun butts. Then they forced the ethnic Jarai to burn it. The police made the Jarai pour five liters of gasoline and ten liters of machine oil on the church, but they couldn't get it to burn. So then the police took over and they set fire to it. Everyone was crying-for the dead and wounded, and for the church.

The wounded people were laid out nearby. One person with a bullet in his forehead didn't die. Another with a bullet in his head died later in Pleiku hospital. Another shot in both legs didn't die. After they burned the church the police took the wounded people for treatment, some to the district hospital and some to the provincial hospital.

Afterwards the police put fresh earth over the ashes and smoothed it so outsiders couldn't tell there had ever been a church there.463

The Arrests

Villagers said that approximately seventy men were arrested as a result of the March 10 incident. At least eleven men-six people from Plei Lao and five from Plei Kia-were sent for questioning at the commune headquarters. They were kicked and beaten by police officers in the truck along the way to the police station, but not at the police station itself.464 They were interrogated until around midnight on the night of March 10, and then released.

A young man who was sent to the commune office for interrogation described the arrests:

I was one of those arrested. I hadn't fought back or hit the police-I was too afraid. I just wanted to protect the church and prevent the police from going there. They were searching the whole village and entered each house. Around 9:00 a.m. they arrested me, near the church. They tied my hands behind my back, put me in the jeep, and kicked and hit me. When they arrested me I had blacked out-I think from the gas, or maybe from being shocked with an electric baton. I only came to when they threw me in the jeep to take me to the commune office. My mother and uncle were crying. The police said they were taking me to hospital but they took me to the commune office, where they took my photograph and interrogated me.

The police beat and kicked some of those arrested until they were covered in blood, calling us Dega. They beat us in the vehicle on the way to the commune office. In the commune office I saw many people who were bloody and wounded.

They asked me about our work, what we were doing, who the political leaders were. I told them we had no leaders, that all of us had woken up at the same time to struggle together. They didn't accept that and forced us to talk. So I told them the names of the two political leaders in my village.

At midnight they let me go, and my sister took me home. It was only then that I realized that the church had been burned down, and my uncle-who had cried when I was taken away that morning-had been arrested. He had not returned to the village as of the time I fled to Cambodia in May. 465

More than twenty others were sent for questioning and detention at the provincial prison in Pleiku. These included twelve villagers from Plei Lao, of whom four people-Siu Boc, Siu Thuc, Kpa Thop, and Siu Grih-had not returned as of November 2001. Fourteen people from Plei Kia were arrested and sent either to the district or the provincial police stations, but most were reportedly back in the village as of mid-May.

Three people from Plei Bo I were sent to prison in Pleiku and had not returned as of May. Soldiers also reportedly took away a fourth person from Plei Bo I, who had been shot in both legs. "They said they were taking him to hospital, but we think he went to prison," a villager told Human Rights Watch. "He was in the hospital first, but when his family went to see him there the police said he'd been sent to jail."466

Those who were arrested and then released a month or two later from prison in Pleiku said that they had been beaten after first arriving in prison, where they were detained in common rooms, not individual cells. Shackles were not used.467

The Aftermath

After the March 10 confrontation in Plei Lao, police were dispatched to most of the nearby villages in an attempt to restore order. In at least two villages, Plei Kli and Plei Djrek, police fired into the air and threw tear gas canisters as they entered the villages on the afternoon of March 10, where they carried out arrests.468 One person who was shot in the leg in Plei Djrek was brought to the hospital. Police later arrested him in the hospital and sent him to prison, where he remained as of September.469

In the weeks following March 10, commune and district authorities and local police conducted daily meetings in Plei Lao and the surrounding villages, criticizing Kok Ksor and charging that people were using religious services to conduct political activities.

Soldiers were dispatched to stay in many of the villages in Nhon Hoa commune, with three soldiers assigned to stay in each of the homes of families who were suspected of being church leaders or Kok Ksor supporters. In the surrounding hamlets, the military presence was also increased, but primarily at night, in order to prevent people from trying to escape. Villagers interviewed by Human Rights Watch in June 2001 said that the stepped up military presence continued in Nhon Hoa commune for months.

Villagers did not report any mistreatment from the soldiers, who ate separately from the villagers. But the surveillance was heavy: "If we went to our fields too often, or stayed in the house too much, they would tell us not to do that," said one Plei Lao villager.470 Those who returned to the village after being detained in Pleiku or the commune office were placed under even more scrutiny. They were not allowed to leave their houses when the police were in the village although some were able to slip off to their fields when the police were not around.

The version of the role of the military offered by the official state media was significantly different. On March 15, 2001, a group of correspondents from the Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army Daily) newspaper visited Plei Lao and offered this description of the situation:

We went to Lao Hamlet, one of the "hot spots" in Gia Lai. The local public roads were quite wide. Coffee and pepper orchards were green and flourishing. Children have since returned to school. The local people's life is back to normal.

Along the roads, troops from the K52 Work Team under the Gia Lai Military Command were working with the local people in rebuilding roads, watering the coffee orchards, and picking pepper... The people's life was so peaceful. No more cheating by the representatives of the so-called "the Autonomous Government of Dega"....

Deputy Hamlet Chief Rmah Kril said: "Our villagers mistakenly listened to the bad people. Now many people are hungry. I visited every house to learn about their situation so that the troops can provide rice and salt. I hope the government will strictly punish those who caused hardship to the people." 471

Testimony from one villager about military activities in Nhon Hoa commune after the March 10 incident confirmed that soldiers did carry out some public service activities, but with the overall goal of surveillance:

In Plei Lao the soldiers were helping the people make gardens and fences, clean the houses. Whatever the people did, they did with them. In Plei Lao, for families of the arrested people, they'd stay with that family. The reason was that those were the political struggle people-the soldiers didn't want others to meet them.472

Another man told Human Rights Watch that after March 10, police would break up all gatherings of more than four people:

If we had five people sitting together, they'd accuse us of having a political meeting. So we didn't meet each other so much. They would watch each house. If they saw four or five people together in a house they'd arrest and interrogate them. From that time we never dared worship in groups, except in the family.473

Church services stopped as well: "After the incident we stopped going to church or gathering for religious services and only prayed individually in our homes," said one man from a village near Plei Lao. "The people were extremely worried."474

In June 2001, Vietnamese state media and court officials announced that forty-one people would be tried in Gia Lai, including some in connection with the unrest in Chu Se district on March 10.475 On September 26, 2001, one Plei Lao villager, Siu Boc, was among seven highlanders brought to trial in Gia Lai provincial court. He was sentenced to eleven years in prison, on charges of "disrupting security" under Article 89 of the penal code.

Although the military presence in Plei Lao persisted for months, a number of residents were eventually able to escape to Cambodia. "I fled because I was afraid," said one person who safely reached Cambodia, after having been beaten and detained at the commune office on March 10. "The soldiers had entered my house four times after the incident. I was worried they were getting ready to arrest me."476

At least six people who attended the Plei Lao meeting were among sixty-three refugees deported by Cambodian authorities on the night of May 15-16, 2001. Witnesses reported that several of the highlanders wept as they were handcuffed by Vietnamese police and taken away.

Two of the deported highlanders had been interrogated at the Nhon Hoa commune office on March 10; fellow villagers feared the authorities were preparing to arrest them before their attempted escape to Cambodia.

Asked what he thought would happen to Plei Lao villagers deported from Cambodia back to Vietnam, one young man from Nhon Hoa commune paused, gulped, and then said: "The second time they're arrested like this I can't guess-but maybe they won't release them again. Instead, they may detain them a long long time. If they don't kill them outright they might beat them to death, and let them die at home."477

A note handwritten in Jarai by villagers in Nhon Hoa commune, dated March 20 and obtained by Human Rights Watch, stated:

Now they've killed and arrested many of us. Since March 10 the people are very afraid. Some have fled to the forest, others are in hiding elsewhere, afraid to return to the village to work. The government doesn't allow us to follow our religion. If we don't follow the government and continue to conduct our worship meetings, the authorities said they will arrest us and put us in jail or even shoot and kill like before. Please let the U.N. and the international organizations know about this immediately, to protect the people.478

The Government's Response

Statements in the Vietnamese state media suggest that local government officials were seriously concerned about the large gathering of highlanders at the church in Plei Lao in early March. The official version of events at Plei Lao, as recounted in Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army Daily) on March 16, was that local authorities had tried to stop villagers from conducting meetings to discuss ways to "oppose the authorities at Kok Ksor's instigation."479 According to these state press accounts, local "gang leaders" such as Siu Thuc, Siu Boc, and Siu Grih threatened the local officials and forced the people to join the February protest:

These reactionaries called on the people "to sell all their land, buffaloes, and cows and to donate the money to the Dega government and the government will then return everything to the people. Children will not have to go to school. No more family planning, and so on."

Many families sold their buffaloes and cows in support of them. When these reactionaries ran out of money, they confiscated the last can of rice and last dong from the people. Many families fell into starvation because of them.480

The tensions in Plei Lao may have been a factor in the rescheduling of a government-sponsored press tour planned for Western journalists to the Central Highlands. On March 9, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry abruptly postponed the tour, originally planned to start on March 12.481 The Foreign Ministry gave little explanation for the delay, saying only that local officials were not yet prepared to receive visitors. It is conceivable, however, that the brewing tensions in Plei Lao were a factor: on the evening of March 9-the day the tour was cancelled- troops were being moved into position to surround the hamlet.

Western wire service reporters were not able to visit Plei Lao during the tour. The first Western wire service reports were published on March 27, 2001. Largely based on official sources and government media accounts, these reports said that the government had identified three people as leaders of the disturbances at Plei Lao: Siu Puoh (Boc), Siu Thuc and Kpa Thap. Together with other "stubborn elements," they had been arrested after trying to stop police from destroying a church. A district official stated that the three men had forced villagers to donate funds to build the church.482 On March 27, the Lao Dong (Labor) state newspaper said that "troublemakers" had incited villagers to stop working in their fields, causing food shortages in the district.

In another wire service account, government sources alleged that hundreds of youth had set up a "no-go zone" in the Central Highlands as early as October 2000, with villagers in Chu Se district forced to act as a "human shield" as part of the campaign to "declare a breakaway state of Dega." Agence France-Presse cited Lao Dong in reporting the following:

Fugitive separatist leaders from among the region's mainly Christian indigenous minorities had mobilized the youngsters to mount patrols "blocking off access by outsiders," the trade union daily Lao Dong (Labor) said...The local authorities had finally moved in to arrest the "troublemakers" in the village of Plei Lao on March 10 after they "incited villagers to provoke extremely serious disturbances." 483

"Underground churches" in Chu Se district were singled out in the report by Lao Dong as being used as a "gathering place where the troublemakers persistently met to discuss measures aimed at sparking fresh disturbances through the use of sticks, knives, stones...."484

Human Rights Watch questioned eyewitnesses to the incident at Plei Lao about the "human shield" report. One Plei Lao resident of Plei Lao stated that villagers in Plei Lao organized themselves after the February demonstrations to make sure that no one was arrested:

Before March 2001, no one was arrested in the village. The people didn't let them [carry out arrests.] We protected ourselves. We had some youth-when the police came to investigate or interrogate someone, the youth would surround them-standing off to the side a bit-to see if they were going to arrest the person. The youth would say, we demand our rights to our land, religious freedom, and so on. They wouldn't yell anything, but simply ask the police why they were here-we're not making a war or fighting with you. The youth told the police that we don't use violence in our demands, only our voices. There were many youths who protected in this way. They didn't carry anything in their hands, but would just gather near the house of the person being interrogated. This made the police angry because the youth wouldn't let them carry out arrests. The police didn't argue with the youth. But if the police had tried to arrest us, the youth would have taken us back. No one from Pleiku or outside the village helped organize this-we organized it ourselves. I don't know if other villages did anything similar.485

Other Nhon Hoa residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch said they did not know anything about villagers organizing a "human shield" or gathering to protect villagers from arrest by police. As one villager put it, "No, the neighbors would not gather around when the police entered someone's house to interrogate them. We were afraid, and kept away when the police came by."486

455 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from Plei Lao, June 27, 2001.

456 Among the hamlets that joined were Plei Kia, Plei Klu, Plei Bo I, Plei Bo II, Plei Tao, Plei Poi, Plei Luh Yo, Plei Khy Ki, Plei Djrek, and Plei Puoi.

457 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from Plei Lao, June 28, 2001.

458 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from Plei Lao, June 27, 2001.

459 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from a neighboring village who was present during the incident at Plei Lao, June 27, 2001.

460 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from a village in Nhon Hoa commune who was present during the incident at Plei Lao, June 27, 2001.

461 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man who was present during the March 10 incident, June 27, 2001.

462 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man who was present during the incident at Plei Lao, June 27, 2001.

463 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from Plei Lao, June 28, 2001.

464 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from a village in Nhon Hoa commune who was present during the incident at Plei Lao, June 27, 2001.

465 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man who was present during the incident at Plei Lao, June 27, 2001.

466 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man who was present during the March 10 incident, June 27, 2001.

467 Interviews with Jarai men from Plei Lao and neighboring villages, October 31, 2001.

468 Human Rights Watch interview with Jarai man from a village near Plei Lao, who was present during the March 10 incident, June 27, 2001.

469 Interviews with villagers from Plei Lao and neighboring villages, October 31, 2001.

470 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from Plei Lao, June 27, 2001.

471 Quan Doi Nhan Dan, Hanoi (People's Army Daily), March 16, 2001, "Vietnam: Army daily cites U.S.' `active support' of ethnic unrest in highlands," translated by BBC Worldwide Monitoring, March 29, 2001.

472 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from a village in Nhon Hoa commune, June 28, 2001.

473 Human Rights Watch interview with Jarai man from a village in Nhon Hoa commune, June 28, 2001.

474 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from a village in Nhon Hoa Commune, June 28, 2001.

475 Agence France-Presse, "Vietnam to hold mass trial of 41 people over highlands unrest," June 16, 2001.

476 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from Plei Lao, June 28, 2001.

477 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from a village in Nhon Hoa commune who was present at the March 10 incident, June 28, 2001.

478 Jarai-language document and translation on file at Human Rights Watch.

479 Quan Doi Nhan Dan, Hanoi (People's Army Daily), March 16, 2001, "Vietnam: Army daily cites U.S.' `active support' of ethnic unrest in highlands," translated by BBC Worldwide Monitoring, March 29, 2001.

480 Ibid.

481 Deutsche Presse-Agentur, "Vietnam postpones journalists' visit to troubled Central Highlands," March 9, 2001.

482 Tini Tran, "Vietnamese villagers clash with Cops," Associated Press, March 27, 2001.

483 Steve Kirby, "Vietnam admits to large-scale rural unrest in highlands," Agence France Press, March 27, 2001.

484 Ibid.

485 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from Plei Lao, June 28, 2001.

486 Human Rights Watch interview with a Jarai man from Plei Lao, June 28, 2001.

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