SwiftVets.com

[Guest]

Dear American Friends,

As you are aware the United States would like to open trade and restore a diplomatic relationship with Vietnam. Furthermore, President Bush plans to visit Viet Nam this year. Although I do not oppose President Bush’s visit to Vietnam, I want to be sure that the any relationship with Vietnam will only be extended only on the condition that the Montagnards who fought with US troops over thirty years ago will be free and their self determination rights should be respected. We must demand that these atrocities be brought forth in any discussions between the United States and the Ha Noi government.

Let me briefly share with all of you that Montagnards in the Central High Lands continue to suffer under the Vietnamese government. The communist are duplicitous and continuous to hide human rights violations from the world.. The government pretends to have espoused change with regards to human rights but out of sight of foreign visitors, UN, and US government. I am really concerned about the future of the Montagnard Dega in the Central Highlands. They still suffer daily. They are jailed and even murdered by the North Vietnamese communist. They have no means to protect themselves. Everyday they close their eyes and pray to God that they will have enough food and water to live another day. It hurts me deeply to think that 5 millions of my people will be wiped from this lovely planet that God created for all his children.

Montagnards suffer tremendously under the communist regime. They are unable to travel freely from one village to another. They still can not communicate by phone with their family or relatives overseas because the lines are interrupted by Cong an (Vietnamese police). When Montagnards live in the United States attempt to send money to family members at home, the government officials confiscate the money. Many Montagnards who have tried to go back home to visit their family are not allowed to enter the country when they reach the Saigon airport, then the government officials sent them back to America. Only a few Montarnard people are allowed to visit Vietnam, but they report being investigated by Cong an (Vietnamese police) who threaten to harm family members or prevent future visits if they expose what they saw in Vietnam. Furthermore, many Montagnard women were raped by Cong an during the private investigation, because they are Christians. They pay Montagnard women 200 Dong (Vietnamese currency) to undergo sterilization which leads to depopulation. This genocide against Montagnard people continues in various secret ways. The government officials are still forcing the young Montagnard men and women to marry Vietnamese, forcing young Montagnard college students to go abroad pretending to study when in reality they are slaves for the government. They work to pay for government war debt such as in Indonesia, South Korea, Czechoslavokia and even force the beautiful girls into prostitution. Montagnard college students are not allowed to come to the United States to study, but only the Vietnamese.

I am unable to relate in this letter all of the suffering endured by the Montagnard in Vietnam.. I believe it is time for us to stand up for our rights. I would like to ask all of my American friends (Green Berets, Special Forces, Vietnam veterans, civilians who lost family members and relatives during the war) to stand beside us and support us again as you did during the Vietnam War. I know that we still owe you too much and there are not words to express the gratitude we feel for helping us. Please help us save our people. Please forgive me and don't be disappointed about our community falling a part. We are incapable to do any thing to free our own people. I will do my best to bring them together as a unity and one voice. Please write to your congress, senators, and the President of the United States. Also inform the United Nation and all free world of democratic countries. We need to exist and live in peace in our ancestor's land. Thank you.

Sincerely,



Ysiu Hlong


Montagnard Dega Association
611 Summit Avenue, Suite 10

[Stevie]

are these the people we had something in congress awhle back to protect and Kerry voted against it?
_________________
Stevie
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage
morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should
be arrested, exiled or hanged.

[LewWaters]

Stevie, Kerry had help with the betrayal of the Montagnards.

Our Viet War Friends Betrayed by John Kerry


Montagnards: Refugees from Vietnam unimpressed with Kerry


Kerry and McCain Shield Communist Vietnam's Slaughter of Christians

Since I was in the Central Highlands my entire length of time in Viet Nam, I saw them and their villages often. They are defintely a people that we should help, since we used them against 'Charlie' as much as we did. When we are forced to cut tail and run, we left them high and dry and on their own and from what I have heard, they have been decimated by the Vietnamese.
_________________
Clark County Conservative

[BuffaloJack]

The Montagnards in Viet Nam are a lot like the people of Quebec in Canada. They are separated by ethnicity, customs and language. They would like to be an independent state, separate from Viet Nam. Unlike the USA which is probably the most ethnically diverse country in the world, most other countries are fairly pure in their ethnicities. When one of these countries harbors a small ethnically and culturally different group it results in reqional quarrels that fester for centuries. Viet Nam and the Montagnards fit into this category. This is not a problem that the US should get involved in, we are having enough problems getting Kurds, Sunni's and Shiites to live together. The Montagnards and Vietnamese have been working this problem for centuries and will continue this way for many years to come. It is something we just can't change tomorrow. The Central Highlands of Viet Nam is not a place where the PC police will have any effect and we just have to accept that.
_________________
Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)

[Guest]

Web site: http://www.montagnard-foundation.org



WHY DID THE STATE DEPARTMENT REMOVE VIETNAM FROM THE RELIGIOUS WATCH LIST AHEAD OF BUSH’S VISIT TO HANOI?

IS TRADE MORE IMPORTANT THAN HUMAN RIGHTS?



TROOPS SURROUND VILLAGES, MONTAGNARD HOUSE CHURCH CHRISTIANS ARRESTED, TORTURED, ONE HOUSE CHRISTIAN KILLED AND HANGED



13 November 2006 Spartanburg S.C., USA



BACKGROUND: The indigenous Montagnard Degar Peoples have suffered decades of persecution by the Vietnamese communist government, namely; confiscation of their ancestral lands, Christian religious repression, torture, killings and imprisonment. To date over 350 Degar prisoners remain in Vietnamese prisons for merely standing up for their human rights, for spreading Christianity or for fleeing to Cambodia repression inside the Central Highlands is continuing at an alarming rate ahead of President Bush’s visit to the APEC summit in Hanoi.



President George Bush is scheduled to attend the Asian Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) summit this week from 17 November 2006 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Montagnard Foundation has received information from its people inside the Central Highlands of Vietnam over the last few weeks that Vietnamese authorities have increased the mobilization of soldiers to the region. Hundreds of villagers report soldiers stationed at their villages. Further, in the last few weeks and months, the Vietnamese security police have confiscated mobile cell phones from numerous Montagnard Degar people, often beating and torturing these people. Arrests, torture and one reported killing have occurred in the last few weeks. Some villages report that troops occupy the village while others report soldiers stationed surrounding the village. In some cases smaller groups of soldiers have been stationed at the village who are prepared to radio for reinforcements. The villagers report the soldiers and security police have threatened to shoot any Montagnards who attempt to leave these villages or speak to foreigners about what is happening.



VILLAGES OCCUPIED BY SOLDIERS & POLICE IN DAK LAK PROVINCE

On 5 November 2006 the Vietnamese government sent soldiers to occupy the following Degar villages in Daklak province where they remain to this day:



Buon Sut Hluot village, district Cu Mgar has stationed 20 police and 20 soldiers.
Buon Tring village, district Krong Buk, has stationed 20 police and 30 soldiers.
Buon Ea Hmlai village, district Mdrak, has stationed 10 police and 30 soldiers.
Buon Moak village, district Mdrak, has stationed 10 police and 30 soldiers.
Buon Cuoi village, district Krong Ana, has stationed 20 police and 30 soldiers.
Buon Cam village, district Krong Ana, has stationed 20 police and 30 soldiers.
Buon Ea Tieu village district Krong Ana, has stationed 20 police.
Buon Drec village, district Buon Don, has stationed 30 police.
Buon Cuor Knia village, district Buon Don, has stationed 20 police & 30 soldiers.
Buon Emap village, district Cu Mgar, has stationed 30 police.
Buon Cuor Hdang village, district Cu Mgar, has stationed 30 police & 30 soldiers.
Buon Ea Khit village, district Krong Ana, has stationed 20 police.
Buon Cu Mblim village, district Krong Ana, has stationed 20 police.
Buon Tong Ju village, district Krong Ana, has stationed 20 police.
Buon Sup village, district Ea Sup, has stationed 30 police.
Buon Don village, district Buon Don, has stationed 30 police.


HOUSE CHURCH CHRISTIAN ABDUCTED, MURDERED & HANGED

On October 22, 2006 at around 8pm a Montagnard Christian named Moi went to the latrine outside of his village. He failed to return. The entire village searched for him but could not find him. Later that next morning two Vietnamese police named Can and Thai, came to the village and told the villagers Moi was dead and hanging from a tree about 1km from the village. The whole village rushed to where the police said his body was and found Moi hanging on a tree tied up with Vietnamese military issue shoestrings. Moi’s skull was cracked, both arms broken and his body was covered in bruises and cutmarks. People from his village reported that Vietnamese officials had long hated Moi because he was a Christian who refused to join the official church.



ARRESTED BY POLICE: WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN:

On October 15, 2006 police from Dak Mil district, Dak Nong province arrested three of our Christian Brothers from their village of Buon Jun Yuh because they are Christians who refused to join the government church. Their current whereabouts and state of health remain unknown. Their names are as follows:



Y-Tai, age 27 from Buon Jun Yuh village, commune Duc Minh, district Dak Mil, province Dak Nong.
Y- Huyen, age 28 from Buon Jun Yuh village, commune Duc Minh, district Dak Mil, province Dak Nong.
Y-Nhat, age 23 from Buon Jun Yuh village, commune Duc Minh, district Dak Mil, province Dak Nong.


ARRESTED BY POLICE: WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN:

On October 13, 2006 police from Dak Mil district, Dak Nong province arrested two of our Christian Brothers from Buon Jun Yuh village because they refused to join the government church. Their whereabouts and state of health remain unknown. Their names are as follows:



Chuan, age 26 from Buon Jun Yuh village, commune Duc Minh, district Dak Mil, province Dak Nong.
Y- Ntun, age 24 from Buon Jun Yuh village, commune Duc Minh, district Dak Mil, province Dak Nong.


TORTURED BY POLICE NAMED NGUYEN VAN THANG AND LAM

On October 9, 2006 two Vietnamese police, named Nguyen Van Thang, Duc and Lam arrested our Christian Brother named Y-Leng Ya while he was riding his tractor to join his relatives for rice harvest at his farm. The police tortured him by beating him with their fists and kicking him until he passed out. Witnesses said blood was coming out of his mouth, nose, ears and the police threw him on their jeep and took him to the prison in Cu Jut district. The police accused him of wanting to escape to Cambodia. He remains in police custody and the condition of his health remains unknown.

ARRESTED BY POLICE: WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN:

On September 30, 2006 the police from Dak Mil district, Dak Nong province arrested Montagnard Christian Brother from his village of Buon Dak Mler because he is a Christian who refused to join the government church. His whereabouts and state of his health, remains unknown. His name is as follows.



Ngram, age 46 from Buon Dak Mler village, Duc Minh commune, Dak Mil district. Dak Nong province.




THE MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION CALLS ON THE US PRESIDENT, THE US STATE DEPARTMENT AND ALL THE PARTICPANTS OF APEC:



Ø To urgently raise the ongoing human rights violations of the Montagnard People with the Vietnamese government in order to create a permanent solution to this issue.



Ø To urgently demand the Vietnam government releases all the 350 Degar Prisoners identified in the Human Rights Watch report of 14 June 2006. http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/14/vietna13542.htm



Ø To urgently demand that Vietnam permits a permanent humanitarian presence in the Central Highlands by US, UN and international NGOs.

[BuffaloJack]

The VN gov't does not practice religious intolerance. It does practice ethnic intolerance. Viet Nam has a very large Buddhist and Christian population and there are even a smattering of Hindu, Taoists and other denominations. In the mid to late 70's the government kicked out the ethnic Chinese population. We know them as the Vietnamese Boat People. Most Americans don't realize that most of them spoke only Chinese and many spoke no Vietnamese at all. This problem with the Montagnards is an ethnic problem not a religious one. It is a problem that has existed for centuries and probably won't be settled soon.
Nobody is disputing that there isn't a problem. It's just not rooted in religious preference.
_________________
Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)

[Bob51]

Here's another source of information you may find useful:

http://www.cswusa.com/Reports%20Pages/Reports-Vietnam.htm#Vietnamese%20Christian%20leaders'%20final%20appeal%20set%20for%20February%202nd%20amidst%20stories%20of%20brutal%20torture