United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)

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1 STUDY GUIDE United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) T U M U N CONFERNCE 2017

2 T U M U N C B A N G K O K, T H A I L A N D STUDY GUIDE Committee : UNHRC C O M M I T T E E : U N H R C TOPIC : CONFLICT AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE TOWARDS THE MONTAGNARDS INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY IN VIETNAM TOPIC : CONFLICT AND HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE TOWARDS THE MONTAGNARDS INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY IN VIETNAM by Dio Herdiawan Tobing A. INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMITTEE The UNHRC currently has 47 members. These member states are grouped into numerically allocated regional blocs as follows: thirteen from the African Group, thirteen from the Asian Group, six from the Eastern European Group, eight from the Latin American and Caribbean Group, and seven from the Western European and Other States Group (WEOG). Membership lasts for a three-year tenure and necessarily terminates after a country has served two consecutive terms even the Permanent Five of the UNSC 1 are not guaranteed membership. It serves as the main UN forum for intergovernmental cooperation and dialogue on human rights issues. GA Resolution 60/251 emphasizes the principles of cooperation and genuine dialogue within the council s work, and stresses the need to eliminate any subjectivity, double standard or politicization from the issues 1 discussed (Terlingen2007).

3 It sits for ten weeks in every year, meeting at the UN offices in Geneva, Switzerland, and must meet for a minimum of three times per year, including for one main session. However, it may also convene for a special session to discuss a particular country or thematic mandate. Essentially, the focus of the Council is to help member states meet their obligations under human rights through encouraging dialogue, facilitating capacity building and providing technical assistance. It may also make recommendations to the UNGA for further development within the field of international human rights law. Its procedures and mechanisms include: the Universal Periodic Review mechanisms which assesses the human rights standards in all 193 UN member states; the Complaint Procedure which allows individuals or organizations to bring violation claims to be scrutinized by the Council; P H O T Oand S B Y the M AAdvisory R T I N R. S MCommittee I T H which provides the Council with expertise and guidance on thematic human rights issues. The mandates of the UNHRC include the following, as laid out in UNGA resolution 60/251: 1. To promote universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner; 2. To address situations of violations of human rights, including gross and systematic violations; 3. To promote effective coordination and mainstreaming of human rights within the United Nations system; 4. To promote human rights education and learning, advisory services, technical assistance, and capacity building; 5. To serve as a forum for dialogue on thematic issues on all human rights; 6. To make recommendations to the UNGA for the further development of international law in the field of human rights; 7. To promote the full implementation by UN member states of their human rights obligations and commitments; 8. To undertake a universal periodic review of every UN member state's fulfilment of its human rights obligations and commitments; and 9. To contribute, through dialogue and cooperation, toward the prevention of human rights violations and respond promptly to human rights emergencies. Importantly, resolution 60/251 also stipulates that the Council's work be guided by the principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity as well as by constructive international dialogue and cooperation with a view to enhance the promotion and protection of all human rights. 2

4 HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM The Montagnards were among the United States' staunches! allies. They fought alongside, and died in place of, American Special Forces (SF) and Special Operations personnel during the Vietnam War. As a result, about 50 percent of the Montagnards' adult male population were killed and more than 80 percent of their villages were destroyed in the course of the war. Since that time, the Vietnamese population has tripled while the Montagnard population has been reduced by more than half. Their fate has not been unlike that of the American Indians, as documented in John Elhe's The Trail of Tears, a chronicle of the tragedy visited upon the Cherokee Nation. Montagnards is French for "people of the mountains," and the term was picked up by the Americans to refer to those from the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. They are of Malayo- Polynesian or MonKhmer linguistic groups and include the Rhade, Jarai, Mnong, Banhar, Sedang, Pacoh, Hre, Hroy, Koho, Roglai and Stieng. Culturally and linguistically distinct from the P H O T O S B Y M A R T I N R. S M I T H Vietnamese, these people were the original settlers of the Central Highlands. They practiced forest-fallow farming-cutting down the trees, burning the debris and planting their crops. After a few years, when soil fertility declined, they abandoned their fields to be covered by forests once again. During the French occupation of Indochina, the colonial government proclaimed the Central Highlands a semi-autonomous area for the Montagnards in an attempt to keep the Vietnamese out. The Vietnamese regarded the mountains as being inhabited by evil spirits and as a place of poisoned water populated by savages. During the French Indochina War, the Montagnards sided with the French against the Communist-led Viet Minh. After the French lost the war, the North Vietnamese kidnapped several thousand very young Montagnards and took them to North Vietnam for Communist indoctrination. Later, those Montagnards were infiltrated back into the Central Highlands to act as agents for the North. The first American military assistance to Vietnam included the establishment of camps by U.S. Special Forces to train Montagnard illage defense forces. The SF also began recruiting Montagnards for more offensive purposes and establishing A-Team camps on infiltration routes along the borders with Cambodia and Laos. As the war went on, Montagnards were formed into quick-reaction teams-called Mike Forces-that were often dropped behind enemy lines when A- Team camps were under siege or search-and-destroy forces were overwhelmed. They also served with Studies and Observations Group (SOG) units in cross-border operations. The Montagnards were brave and effective fighters, and they were fiercely loyal to their SF leaders, never abandoning them as long as they were alive, and saving the lives of countless numbers of Americans. Their American comrades revered them in return. Today, Montagnards suffer from continuing persecution-because of traditional racial prejudice by the Vietnamese, who refer to them as Moi (less than human); because they fought on the side of the Americans during the war; and because more than 80 percent of them converted to Christianity. The younger generation today is punished for the purported sins of their fathers. The Vietnamese are worried by the spread of Christianity because it is a threat to their political religion, communism. 3

5 DISCUSSION OF THE PROBLEM The Vietnamese government has launched a series of crackdowns during the last 10 years to suppress political organizing and independent religious activities among Montagnard Christians. Elite security units have hunted down and arrested Montagnard activists in hiding and sealed off the border with Cambodia to prevent asylum seekers from fleeing the country. During these crackdowns, authorities have committed clear-cut violations of fundamental rights, including arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, and torture. Officials have employed coercion to pressure Montagnards to renounce their religion and pledge their loyalty to the government and the Communist Party of Vietnam. Police have used excessive force to dispel largely peaceful protests, resulting in the deaths of as many as eight Montagnards during demonstrations in April 2004as well as injuries and deaths of others during arrest and in police custody. At various times, restrictions have been placed on travel within the highlands, on public gatherings, and on telephone communication with the outside world. At the same time, the government has initiated some reforms to address Montagnard grievances, including official programs to allocate land to ethnic minority families, improve educational opportunities, and bring economic development to the impoverished region. Police who have been posted in villages to monitor activities of suspected Montagnard leaders and prevent escapes to Cambodia have also carried out public works projects such as assisting villagers with farming and village clean-up projects. The following timeline, drawn from Vietnamese state media accounts, western wire service reports, and Montagnard sources, illustrates a continuous pattern of repression of independent political and religious activities in the Central Highlands during the last 10 years. TIMELINE (RECORDED EVENTS) April 2001: Officials announce that 13 military regiments are to be located in an economic defense zone in Dak Lak and neighboring Binh Phuoc province, bordering Cambodia. The plan calls for the resettlement of close to 100,000 soldiers, militia, and their families, who are to clear up to 230,000 hectares of land to plant rubber, cashews, cotton, coffee and pepper. May 2001: Officials organize goat s blood ceremonies in dozens of villages in the Central Highlands. Villagers who participated in the February 2001 demonstrations are forced to stand up in front of their entire village and local authorities to admit their wrongdoing, pledge to cease any contacts with outside groups, and renounce their religion. To seal their loyalty, they are forced to drink rice wine mixed with goat's blood. February 2002: An additional 2,300 soldiers are deployed in Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Kon Tum provinces, with party cadre sent to hot spots and remote areas to help maintain order. 4

6 August-September 2002: Police tighten security and arrest close to 70 Montagnards in Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Phu Yen provinces in an effort to suppress Montagnard protests reportedly planned in Mdrak district of Dak Lak and Buon Ma Thuot City. We arrested all the demonstrators. Nobody could escape, a police chief in Dak Lak tells reporters. October-December 2002: More than 600 fast deployment military teams are dispatched to the highlands. Authorities intensify propaganda campaigns against hostile forces in the highlands, culminating in an October 2002 Party directive outlining the government s efforts to eliminate Dega Protestantism. State media covers officially organized ceremonies in which Montagnard Christians voluntarily reject their religion, with Dak Lak provincial television broadcasting programs called Dispersing the Illegally Self-Elected Protestant Board of Deacons and Illegally Self-Elected Protestant Deacons Voluntarily Disperse, showing P H O T O S BMontagnard Y M A R T I N R. SChristians M I T H volunteering to abandon their religion. In November, government officials report that more than 2,700 Christians have severed connections with bad elements who abuse religious issues to sow divisions in national unity, dozens of evangelical Christians have confessed to having preached illegally, and 37 religious cells have been disbanded. February 2003: Government and party officials in the Central Highlands are instructed to eradicate all illegal religious organizations and to organize official Swearing Brotherhood (le ket nghia) ceremonies in which Montagnards must publicly pledge their loyalty to the government and the party and renounce Dega Protestantism. To enforce the new directives, police launch a fresh round of arrests of Montagnard Christians and political activists, as well as those suspected by the government of seeking to flee to Cambodia. January 2004: Authorities intensify crackdown on Montagnards, with Mobile Intervention Police searching villages and nearby coffee plantations sometimes with dogs to arrest Montagnards suspected of supporting the Dega church movement. After cordoning off a village, prohibiting entry and exit, the security forces then enter the village. They search the homes of villagers suspected of hiding or feeding others, often destroying the houses and beating the inhabitants during interrogation. They then fan out into nearby fields and forests, searching for people in hiding. July 2004: After widespread Montagnard protests in the Central Highlands in April 2004, the Department of Central Highlands Security (Cuc An ninh Tay Nguyen) is founded after a national conference on security in the highlands presided over by then-deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. Elite police units, such as PA43, Political Security Section VI units,the Mobile Intervention Police, and the Special Task Force are dispatched to the region to back up provincial and district police to prevent further demonstrations, root out Montagnard activists in hiding, stop the flow of asylum seekers to Cambodia, and bring an end to groups allegedly taking advantage of ethnic issues and religion to incite social turmoil. 5

7 Late 2004 Early 2005: Police operations focus on capturing reactionary FULRO operatives in Dak Doa and Chu Se districts of Gia Lai, with state media reporting that 147 people are arrested in late 2004, including Kpa Hung, a key ringleader who is shot and wounded during his arrest and is now serving a 12-year prison sentence. March 2005: Targeting of Montagnard Christians for persecution, arrest, and mandatory renunciation sessions intensifies after promulgation of legislation that requires all religious groups to be officially registered. Decree 22, promulgated in March 2005, bans any religious activity deemed to threaten national security, public order, or national unity. Instruction No. 1, issued by the Prime Minister in February 2005, specifically bans Dega Protestantism. The P H O T O S B Y M A R T I N R. S M I T H new regulations provide legitimacy to government officials and police arresting or forcing the recantation of faith of Montagnards belonging to religious groups that operate independently of the government-approved Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam. November 2005: Plans are announced to send 2,000 families from northern Vietnam to live and work in Economic-National Defense Zones (ENDZ) in Kon Tum and Gia Lai provinces near the Cambodian border. The Prime Minister also approves a plan to send 400 young intellectuals and members of the Communist Youth Union to the ENDZs for two-year terms to enhance socio-economic development and strengthen defense in the region. April 2006 July 2009: PA43 forces and provincial police launch a 1,200-day campaign that focuses on capturing reactionary FULRO operatives and Dega Protestants in Chu Se district, Gia Lai. Mid-2006: Government begins implementation of the 01 CA-QS plan by provincial and district police and military Corps 15 to ensure political stability, national security, and defense in three border districts of Gia Lai and for rubber plantations located there. Goals of the 01 CA-QS plan are: a) ensure national security and defense (both political security and security of rubber plantation); b) eradicate FULRO and prevent escapes into Cambodia; c) mobilize masses to turn in reactionaries; and d) stop crime, especially illegal smuggling of rubber. 6

8 August 2006: The Special Task Force, an elite police unit within the E20 Battalion of the Central Highlands Mobile Police, coordinates with PA43 units and district and provincial police to hunt down and suppress FULRO ringleaders, focusing on Gia Lai. January 2007: Plans are announced for construction of resettlement villages in border and low-income areas, including four Central Highlands provinces, for young people from other parts of Vietnam to uphold their pioneer role in socio-economic development. April 2007-June 2010: Public security forces launch a three-year offensive that targets Montagnard church activists in Chu Se district, Gia Lai. May 2010: P H O T O S B Y M A R T I N R. S M I T H Officials launch propaganda campaigns and public criticism ceremonies targeting the Catholic Ha Mon sect in Kon Tum, Gia Lai, and Dak Lak provinces. June 2010: Heightened border security, arrests, and forced renunciation ceremonies take place in Gia Lai, allegedly in response to unrest in rubber plantations in Chu Prong district. Questions a Resolution Must Answers (QARMAs) 1. How should the UNHRC as an international organization act towards this inhuman treatment of the Montagnard? 2. How should countries ensure the universality of human rights, embedded in international human rights instruments, are being enforced in national scale? 3. Is there a gap between international human rights standards and the implementation of such notion? 4. How should UNHRC cooperate with regional organization in discussion and finding resolution towards this problem? 5. Should the international community persuade Vietnam or other Stakeholders to settle this issue? 7

9 Reference list United Nations Security Council P5 China, France, Russia, the U.S. and the UK. There are currently 43 thematic mandates and 14 country specific mandates in operation at the UNHRC. THE MONTAGNARDS': Trail of Tears christians vietnam/case study religiousrepression christians vietnam/case study religiousrepression P H O T O S B Y M A R T I N R. S M I T H