BACKGROUND RESOURCES
RACIAL AND ETHNIC ISSUES
This panel highlights the central role played by issues of racial and ethnic abuse in the development of global human rights. Particular attention will also be paid to the difficult issues lingering after such abuses have occurred such as in Yugoslavia. Finally, the effects of one such situation, the Vietnamese Montagnards, will be examined; a large number of Montagnards refugees resettled in North Carolina.
In order to assist you in following up on ideas and issues coming out of the panel, our panelists have suggested the following resources:
Racial and Ethnic Session Handout
On General Human Rights Issues (Professor Forsythe)
The International Center for Transitional Justice aids nations in pursuing accountability for human rights abuses, past and present.
http://www.ictj.org/en/index.html
Education and promotion of human rights is the mission of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science has a website dedicated to “Science and Human Rights.”
Forsythe, David P. Human Rights in International Relations. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
On Human Rights Abuses in the former Yugoslavia (Mr. Butler)
In an address in 2002, former US Ambassador for war crimes at large, Pierre-Richard Prosper, discusses the United States positing in support of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) http://www.state.gov/s/wci/us_releases/rm/2002/11287.htm
Former US Ambassador for war crimes at large, Pierre-Richard Prosper, outlines in 2002 the United States’ policy concerns regarding the International Criminal Court.
http://www.state.gov/s/wci/us_releases/rm/2002/12176.htm
In February 2007, Chief ICTY Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte addresses how truth is sought through international tribunals and the tensions between criminal justice and reconciliation.
http://www.un.org/icty/pressreal/2007/cadelst-070215.htm
A US Department of State Legal Advisor discusses the Iraqi Tribunal and how the international community can participate in encouraging justice (February 2006).
http://www.state.gov/s/l/rls/61110.htm
On the Vietnamese Montagnards (Ms. Reibold)
An extensive summary of Montagnard history compiled by a leader of the Montagnard Human Rights Organization.
A summary of a seminal 2002 Human Rights Watch report on the oppressive and abusive conditions of the Montagnard people. There is a link to the full report within this article.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2002/04/23/vietna3869.htm
The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) background guide on the Montagnards.
http://www.unpo.org/member_profile.php?id=40
In 2004, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) listed Vietnam as one of eleven countries of particular concern. http://www.uscirf.org/countries/region/east_asia/vietnam/vietnam.html
A USCIRF background on Vietnam is available at:
http://www.uscirf.org/countries/countriesconcerns/Countries/Vietnam.html
The US Department of State released a 2006 report on human rights practices and violations in Vietnam.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78796.htm
A Montagnard Chronology
compiled by
Rong Nay
Executive Director, Montagnard Human Rights Organization
The indigenous people of Vietnam’s Central Highlands are often referred to as “Montagnard” or Mountain People. Other tribal names include, “Anak Cu Chiang”or “Dega” referring to the “Original People” of the Central Highlands. Our ancient peoples inhabited the Central Highlands region for centuries with tribes that speak Mon Khmer and Austronesian (Malayo-Polyesian) languages. The Malay Polynesian groups migrated from Polynesia and Indonesia, with the Mon Khmer speaking tribes migrating from Burma.
The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Rhade, Jarai, Chru, Rai ( Seyu) , Roglai, and Hroy. Mon Khmer languages include those spoken by the Bahnar, Rengao, Sedand, Halang, Jeh, Monom, Koho, and Chrau, Katu, Phuang, Bru and Pacoh.
Prior to 1800, the Central Highlands tribal people lived isolated in their highlands existence, living peacefully separated from lowland cultures with life revolving around nature, the seasons, family, and village. There are over 26 tribal groups with the five major tribes being: Bahnar, Jarai, Rhade, Koho and Mnong. The early peoples believed in nature spirits and the divine, “Ae Die”( “Grandfather Sky” / God) was present in all creation.
1848- the first French Catholic missionaries explored the remote areas of the Central Highlands in Indochina and established a post in Kontum. The French organized the diverse tribes into a cohesive political unit and gave them the name, “Montagnard Du Sud Indochinois” or Montagnard of South-Indochina. During the colonization period the French Federal Government recognized the territorial sovereignty and integrity of the Montagnard people. There were no ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh people) living in the Central Highlands during that time.
1945-1954 The French Indochina War between the French and the North Vietnamese Communist forces. The French recruited thousands of Montagnards, including teenagers and 13 battalions of Montagnards were armed and recruited to join the French Forces in their fight against the North Vietnamese Communists.
May 27, 1946, Admiral D’Argenlieu, a representative of the French Federal Government in Indochina, created an autonomous country for the Montagnard population of South Indochina called “Pays Montagnards Du Sud Indochinois (PMSI). This Ordinance gave the Montagnard people a Statute Particular granting self-administration and self-determination to the Montagnard people of the Central Highlands. A map of the Central Highlands was established as follows: To the North limited by the 17th parallel, to the East limited by Annamitique ridge (Chaine Annamitique), to the West limited by the Laotian and Cambodia borders, to the South limited by the Cochin Chin, (Cochin China border)
July 25, 1950- The French classified the Montagnard territory as a “Domain de la Couronne” (Crown Domain) directly under the control of Emperor Bao Dai, recognizing that the Montagnards might need technical assistance for self-governance. The 13 battalions of Montagnard troops continued to serve the French Federal Government and to protect the Crown Domain for the Vietnamese Emperor, King Bao Dai.
May 21, 1951, Decree No. 16/QT/TD was issue. Article 1 said that the non-Vietnamese populations who lived on territories called the “Montagnard Regions of the South” and the Central Highlands administration was separate from the lowlands.
July 1953, Montagnard autonomy was suppressed by the regime of Emperor Bao Dai. The Pays Motnagnard Du Sud Indochinois (PMSI) was changed to Pay Montagnard Du Sud) PMS, Country of the Montagnards of the South
July 21, 1954- The Geneva Convention announced the end of the Indochina War. At the Convention, there were delegations from France, Britain, the U.S., Soviet Union, the Republic of China, Cambodia, Laos, South Vietnam and North Vietnam. Only the French and the Vietnamese representatives signed the agreement on the cessation of hostilities in Vietnam. The French did not allow representatives of the Montagnard people to participate in the Convention and consequently the Montagnard voice and interests for their homeland and territory was not represented.
Vietnam was divided into two countries. Ho Chi Minh assumed leadership in North Vietnam and Ngo Dinh Diem became the first President of the Republic of South Vietnam, divided by the 17th parallel. The French agreed to withdraw from Vietnam. The order was given to strike down both the French and Montagnard flags and the South Vietnam flag was raised. Thousands of Montagnads were stunned by this betrayal when the French transferred all Montagnard land and governance to South Vietnam.
Under Saigon’s Regime (1955-1963)
Montagnard autonomy, granted by the French government, was completely eliminated. Diem annexed the Central Highlands territory, and it became part of the national territory of the Republic of Vietnam, under the Administration of the South Vietnamese government in Saigon. In the seven provinces of the Central Highlands, Diem replaced Montagnard Province Chiefs with Vietnamese in order to gain better control. The Montagnard people were now classified as an “ethnic minority” on their own ancestral lands and the goal of the new government was assimilation.
Diem completely disarmed the Montagnards, confiscating traditional swords, spears and crossbows used for hunting giving them to the Vietnamese who were recently resettled on Montagnard lands in the Central Highlands. This left the Montagnard people totally exposed and vulnerable to attack by tiger and other jungle animals.
The 13 Montagnard battalions that had been part of the French army were reorganized and integrated into the South Vietnamese army and forced to take Vietnamese names. All Montagnard officers lost their commands and were replaced by Vietnamese.
Diem resettled one million, mainly Catholic, North Vietnamese refugees on the most fertile Montagnard lands in the Central Highlands. Montagnards were relocated from their villages, which were then taken over by the Vietnamese. The Montagnard people were forcibly relocated on less fertile lands where farming was difficult causing greater hardship and suffering. Many Montagnard leaders who opposed Diem were jailed or killed. In some cases they were falsely charged with being pro-Communist.
Diem prohibited teaching Montagnard languages and burned all documents and books in the Montagnard dialect. He abolished tribal courts, land and property rights and he refused to recognize the Montagnards as the rightful owners of the Central Highlands.
Diem’s campaign of assimilation included inhumane policies compelling Montagnard military men and civil servants to take Vietnamese names and to also change Montagnard names of villages, provinces, rivers and mountains to Vietnamese names.
January 1955- Ho Chi Minh promised autonomy for the Montagnards in the Central Highlands of Vietnam once victory with South Vietnam was achieved. Ho Chi Minh forcefully recruited thousands of Montagnard men, women and children to serve as laborers and to work on construction on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. There were many young Montagnard children from the various tribal groups who were kidnapped and taken to North Vietnam to be subjected to Communist doctrine training and propaganda with the intention to use these young people as agents and future fighters in the Central Highlands of the South.
1956-The War between North and South Vietnam began. The Montagnard people were used by both governments in the North and the South during the Vietnam War and the Montagnards were used as tools in the war. Thousands of Montagnards were displaced and resettled along the roads under the Land Development Program of President Ngo Dinh Diem and the American advisor, Wolf Ladejinksy. This program was labeled“AP” or the Assimilation Program, and the result of this destructive program was that thousands of Montagnards died through starvation, disease and neglect.
1958 The BAJARAKA Movement was formed against President Diem’s Policies. Several Montagnard leaders representing all the major tribal groups of the Central Highlands and led by Y Bham Enuol, formed the BAJARAKA Movement to resist assimilation policies and to regain the right of self-determination and autonomy which had been granted by the French. This name was a combination of the letters for the main tribes of the Montagnard people: the Bahnar, Jarai, Rhade and Koho. BAJARAKA’s goal was to create a separate nation with Montagnard self-governance, yet living peacefully with the Vietnamese people. President Diem crushed the BAJARAKA Movement by force, resulting in the death of some Montagnard leaders and the imprisonment of others.
1960- Ho Chi Minh created the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NFL) to overthrow the South Vietnam government. At the same time, in order to draw more Montagnards to the Communist forces, Ho Chi Minh created a movement called, “Front for the West Liberation of the Central Highlands” and appointed a puppet chairman, Y Bih Aleo. Thousands of young Montagnards were conscripted who lived in remote areas to fight and die for the benefit of the North Vietnamese Communists. Ho Chi Minh continued to falsely promise to restore autonomy to the Montagnards after victory over South Vietnam.
1961-1972 The United States backed South Vietnam in the Vietnam War. The American Special Forces recruited and trained over 40,000 Montagnard troops who fought alongside the American soldiers with courage, loyalty and enduring friendship. Montagnard leaders were told and most believed that the U.S. government would help the Montagnard people regain their autonomous state with the rights for self-determination and self-governance. Finally, the Montagnard people were exploited and exterminated by both governments of North and South Vietnam.
(1964-1975) Under General Nguyen Van Thieu’s Regime
February 12, 1964 The Montagnard leader, Y Bham Enuol and six other BAJARAKA leaders were released. The Saigon government immediately appointed Y- Bham Enuol as Assistant Province Chief of Daklak Province to conciliate Montagnard aspirations and to prevent another potential uprising. However, the military government of Saigon continued to oppress the Montagnard people, just as the Diem regime had done.
Y Bham Enuol and other Montagnard leaders again organized a new underground front called, “Front de Liberation des Hauts-Plateaux Montagnard” (FLHPM), the Montagnard Highlands Liberation Front. The Khmer Krom and Champa people in Cambodia had their own movements called, FLKK ( The Liberation Front of Khmer Krom) and FLC, the Liberation of Champa. Both groups approached Y Bham Enuol and asked to join. A new front was formed called, FULRO, “Front Unifie De Lutte De La Races Opprimee and was organized August 1, 1964. The purpose of this united front was to combine forces to defeat common enemies. All three fronts consented to have Y Bham Enuol as Chairman.
September 20, 1964 The Montagnard leadership, now under FULRO, rose up and a rebellion took place in seven Special Forces camps in Darlak, Pleiku and Quan Duc Provinces. These gun battles were against government forces in the major cities of the Central Highlands. In 1965, fighting broke out in Buon Brieng, Cheo Reo and Dak Nong provinces where hundreds on both sides were wounded and killed. This resulted in the Vietnamese government executing 800 Montagnards and arresting 1,000 FULRO Resistance members who were then jailed and later secretly killed. The Saigon government sentenced four Montagnard FULRO members to death.
May 4, 1967 Y Bham Enuol proposed that the Saigon government accept the following 8 points of the Montagnard people’s aspirations:
1. To accord a special statute and a special Constitution for the Montagnard people
2. To set up a special commission for Montagnard affairs at Buon Ama Thuot, the capital of the Montagnard Republic, Plateaus Montagnard Du Sud (PMS)
3. To permit recruitment and organization of the Montagnard Armed Forces
4. To return to the Central Highlands all Montagnard civil servants and military men on duty outside Montagnard territory
5. To permit the Montagnard people to receive aid directly form the U.S. or from other nations
6. To raise the Montagnard flag to the same height as the Vietnamese flag
7. To clearly mark the borders of the Central Highlands so that the Montagnard people could regain their autonomy
8. To agree to the participation of the Montagnard people in another Geneva Conference or in other international conferences to resolve issues
The Saigon government was reluctant and continued its inhumane policies towards the Montagnard people. Montagnard troops continued to fight with the South against North Vietnamese Communists, which became a contradiction for both sides.
December 1967 North Vietnamese troops using flame-throwers killed over 300 Montagnards ( Stieng) refugees at Dak Song.
January 26, 1968 Viet Cong forces overran Ban Me Thuot, Pleiku, Kontum and Dalat. The Vietnamese Communists used Montagnard villages as shields to cover their assault on the towns and thousands of Montagnard people were killed. In Hue City, Communist troops invaded and executed 80 Montagnard students who were living in a boarding school of the Ministry of Ethnic Minority Development.
August 15, 1968 Y Bham Enuol , the President of the Montagnard independence movement , after 4 years of cooperating with the combined front, discovered that the Montagnard people were being used. He decided to withdraw completely from the combined FULRO movement and made the announcement that the earlier Montagnard independence movement, FLHPM, the Front de Liberation des Hauts-Plateaux Montagnard, would continue its goal to regain Montagnard Central Highlands sovereignty and integrity. This decision was made known clearly to the Saigon government on that same date.
September 16, 1968 President Nguyen Van Thieu consented to meet with Y Bham Enuol in Saigon to discuss Y Bham Enuol’s eight-point proposal. No concrete decision was made at the end of the meeting.
The conflict in the Central Highlands became increasingly violent with the American and South Vietnamese military bombing Montagnard villages in their efforts to stop the Communist offensive. Vietnamese Communist forces mounted intensive night assaults on Montagnard villages, killing men, women, children and the elderly huddled in bunkers.
Nay Luett, the Montagnard Minister of Ethnic Minority Development, was well aware that the North Vietnamese Communists would possibly destroy all the remaining Montagnard people in the Central Highlands. He proposed to organize a 50,000 member strong Montagnard Force, with support from the United States, to defend the Montagnard people in the Central Highlands. However the South Vietnamese government and the American Ambassador refused to even consider it.
March 30, 1972 North Vietnam continued its sweeping offensive and attacked many Montagnard villages in the Central Highlands. During the fighting, B-52s dropped thousands of bombs on Montagnard villages attempting to stop the Communist forces in the region. Over 250,000 Montagnard people perished and over 85% of their villages were destroyed. As a result of the fighting, the wounded, homeless, malnourished and displaced Montagnard people died by the thousands.
October 20, 1973, Y Bham Enuol in Cambodia decided to nominate Kpa Koi as the vice-president of the Montagnard Independence Movement, FLHPM, and continued to struggle and demand that the Vietnamese government satisfy the eight point proposal for Montagnard self-governance and autonomy.
The U.S. Armed Forces withdrew from Vietnam following a cease-fire agreement with the North Vietnamese in 1973. All Montagnard Special Forces units were transformed into Vietnamese units and renamed Border Ranger Forces ( Luc Luong Bien Phong). They were used as first-strike forces and deployed along the Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam borders to block the movement of troops and equipment from the North to the South along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. As a result, thousands of Montagnard troops were killed along the borders.
December 1974 South Vietnam’s President Thieu stated that the Montagnard people would have to protect their own land. The government planned to withdraw its military forces and proposed a free bombing range. This proposal marked the continuation of a campaign of ethnic cleansing for the Montagnard people that would continue to present day.
March 3-10 1975, the North Vietnamese forces overran Ban Me Thuot ( Buon Ama Thuot) Pleiku, Kontum, Dak Nong and Dalat and occupied many Montagnard villages that became bases to attack other cities in the Central Highlands.
March 11, 1975 The South Vietnamese Government’s Air Force bombed Buon Pa Lam, killing 125 Montagnards and wounding 210. The entire village was burned to the ground and Montagnard villagers were forced to flee from their homes suffering terribly with no clothing, blankets, food or medical supplies.
March 24, 1975 President Thieu informed three high level American officials that he was withdrawing his forces from the Central Highlands and requested that the U.S. Air Force consider the Central Highlands as a free bombing area.
April 4, 1975 Nay Luett, Minister for Ethnic Minority Development, and many other Montagnard leaders, met with George Jacobsen, Assistant the to the U.S. Ambassador, Colonel Lamar Prosser, and Edward Sprague. Nay Luett asked for protection for the Montagnard leaders and people because he knew genocide would be committed upon the Montagnard people, but Mr. Jacobsen refused.
1975 The Khmer Rouge defeated the Lon Nol government in Cambodia. Y Bham Enuol and his family and other Montagnard leaders were killed by the Khmer Rouge after the French Embassy in Phnom Penh refused to provide sanctuary or assistance.
April 30, 1975 The North Vietnamese Communists took over South Vietnam and thousands of Montagnards fled into the jungle. The North Vietnamese military captured and imprisoned thousands of Montagnards, many who would later die in re-education camps. Thousands would be executed because of their allegiance to the U.S. military or for their involvement with the South Vietnam government.
1981- Ksor Rot, the Montagnard Senator from South Vietnam was executed and Paul Nur, the Former Minister of Ethnic Minority Development was murdered in a Hanoi prison.
1983- Nay Luett, the Montagnard Minister of Ethnic Minority Development, suffered years of imprisonment and torture following the Communist take-over. Within two months after being released from prison, he died. Doctors from Hanoi came to the home of Mr. Luett shortly after he died, removed the body and took it to a local clinic where the brain was removed stating that the Hanoi medical team wanted to study it because Mr. Luett was such a brilliant and influential Montagnard leader. The family was warned not to reveal this horrific act and desecration to anyone, although several family members and witnesses testified after examining the body prior to burial. Mr. Luett’s wife is one of the surviving witnesses.
April 30, 1975 until Present
Several thousand Montagnards were captured and executed by the Communist regime or died in “re-education” prisons. Over 12,000 Montagnards who escaped to the jungles of Cambodia and Vietnam continued fighting the Vietnamese Communists for 17 years from 1975-1992 with the name, “Front de Liberation des Hauts-Plateaux Montagnard (FLHPM/FULRO) under the direction of Commander Y Ghok Nie Krieng and Assistant Commander, Rong Nay. The aim was to resist the Communists and to continue fighting for Montagnard freedom and independence . Thousands died in the jungle because of starvation, disease, attack by tiger, and combat wounds.
February 1986 The Montagnard Force (FLHPM, the Montagnard Highlands Liberation Front, often referred to as FULRO, ) decided to lay down its weapons near the Thai-Cambodian border and to ask for political asylum in the U.S.
November 24, 1986 The first group of 212 Montagnard soldiers with all the former FLHPM leaders came to the U.S. as refugees. All were resettled in North Carolina.
November 1992 The second and remaining group of 417 former soldiers and their families were airlifted from a remote northeastern territory in Cambodia, to Phnom Penh, and on to the communities of Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. The Montagnard Resistance Movement was over and a new, peaceful struggle would continue for Montagnard human rights, the rule of law, and Montagnard self-determination in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
2001 to 2004, over 30,000 Montagnard people staged peaceful protests in the Pleiku and Daklak provinces against the Hanoi regime. They demanded the return of their lands, the right to live and the right to freedom of religion. The Hanoi regime responded by sending huge numbers of police and military forces into the Central Highlands to seal the area and expel foreigners and news media. They used tanks and helicopters to crush the Montagnard protest. Hundreds of Montagnards were killed, over 2,000 were missing, and over 500 were arrested, and jailed up to 16 years.
Today the Montagnard people have lost more than any other group in Vietnam. They have lost the right to live, the right to own their ancestral lands, the right to have churches, the right to attend local schools, and the right to operate traditional courts. They are now in danger of losing their entire culture. Traditional ways of life have been systematically abolished. Development assistance and humanitarian aid continues to be blocked and international observers restricted from the Central Highlands.
The Central Highlands is now a prison area for the Montagnard people. The campaign of “ethnic-cleansing” has continued. The Montagnard people pray that the world will intervene.
For further reference see the ethno-histories: Sons of the Mountains and Free in the Forest, both by Gerald Cannon Hickey, Yale University Press, 1982.
Dr. Hickey is the world's leading expert on the indigenous people of Vietnam's Central Highlands.