BANGKOK: Cambodian authorities are hunting more than a dozen ethnic minority hill people from Vietnam, drawing international criticism and raising further doubts about Australia's controversial agreement to send refugees to Phnom Penh.
The United Nations refugee agency and human rights advocates have called on the Cambodian government to call off its efforts to track down, detain and forcibly deport 13 Christian Montagnards who have fled Vietnam where their people have faced years of persecution.
The Montagnards have been hiding in the Cambodian jungle since October after fleeing Vietnamese authorities who were trying to arrest them. They are reported to have little food and their health is deteriorating.
Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), warned the Montagnards' involuntary repatriation without a chance to make a claim for asylum would violate Cambodia's international obligations.
UN officials are seeking Cambodia's approval to meet with the group.
Phil Robertson, deputy director in Asia for Human Rights Watch, said sending the Montagnards back to Vietnam would ''show just how little refugee rights and protection mean in Cambodia and no amount of public relations spin to the contrary from Canberra will convince anyone otherwise''.
''Put simply, this is a clear test case that will demonstrate whether Cambodian pledges to uphold the UN Refugees Convention are worth the paper they are written on in the MOU [memorandum of understanding] with Australia,'' he said.
''Under no circumstances should Cambodia send these persons back to Vietnam, since to do so would fundamentally violate Phom Penh's commitments under the refugee convention.''
Australia's agreement with Cambodian leader Hun Sen to send refugees to Cambodia, one of the Asia's poorest countries, has been condemned by human rights groups, Cambodia's opposition and non-government organisations.
The latest criticism comes from the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, representing 16 Cambodian organisations, which issued a statement saying the ''lack of transparency over this deal amounts to a fundamental breach of democratic principles of good governance, respect for rule of law and due process''.
The committee called on the government to explain how it will ensure that refugees being sent by Australia will come voluntarily, what will happen to them once they arrive and how almost $40 million in additional aid money that Australia has given to Cambodia in exchange for the agreement will be used.
Australia has said it will be up to Cambodia how many refugees it accepts under the agreement where Australia will provide accommodation, food, training and business loans to the refugees for an initial 12 months.
But the refugees would then have to leave Phnom Penh and settle in Cambodia's impoverished provinces where education, health and other services are poor.
HRW's Mr Robertson said there was no hiding the fact that Vietnam had continuously waged a systematic and pervasive campaign of discrimination and persecution against Montagnards that includes arbitrary arrests, beatings and torture, and convictions leading to long prison terms on trumped-up charges in kangaroo courts.
''What needs to happen is these 13 persons should be allowed to travel to Phnom Penh unhindered so that they can tell their accounts of religious and political persecution to officials tasked with assessing refugee claims,'' he said.
Thousands of Montagnards fled to Cambodia after 2001, when Vietnam's communist government cracked down on protests against land confiscation and imposed restrictions on religious freedoms.
Many were rounded up and returned to Vietnam while others were eventually given asylum in the US and other Western countries.
Many Montagnards sided with the US during the Vietnam War more than 40 years ago.
The United Nations refugee agency and human rights advocates have called on the Cambodian government to call off its efforts to track down, detain and forcibly deport 13 Christian Montagnards who have fled Vietnam where their people have faced years of persecution.
The Montagnards have been hiding in the Cambodian jungle since October after fleeing Vietnamese authorities who were trying to arrest them. They are reported to have little food and their health is deteriorating.
Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), warned the Montagnards' involuntary repatriation without a chance to make a claim for asylum would violate Cambodia's international obligations.
UN officials are seeking Cambodia's approval to meet with the group.
Phil Robertson, deputy director in Asia for Human Rights Watch, said sending the Montagnards back to Vietnam would ''show just how little refugee rights and protection mean in Cambodia and no amount of public relations spin to the contrary from Canberra will convince anyone otherwise''.
''Put simply, this is a clear test case that will demonstrate whether Cambodian pledges to uphold the UN Refugees Convention are worth the paper they are written on in the MOU [memorandum of understanding] with Australia,'' he said.
''Under no circumstances should Cambodia send these persons back to Vietnam, since to do so would fundamentally violate Phom Penh's commitments under the refugee convention.''
Australia's agreement with Cambodian leader Hun Sen to send refugees to Cambodia, one of the Asia's poorest countries, has been condemned by human rights groups, Cambodia's opposition and non-government organisations.
The latest criticism comes from the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, representing 16 Cambodian organisations, which issued a statement saying the ''lack of transparency over this deal amounts to a fundamental breach of democratic principles of good governance, respect for rule of law and due process''.
The committee called on the government to explain how it will ensure that refugees being sent by Australia will come voluntarily, what will happen to them once they arrive and how almost $40 million in additional aid money that Australia has given to Cambodia in exchange for the agreement will be used.
Australia has said it will be up to Cambodia how many refugees it accepts under the agreement where Australia will provide accommodation, food, training and business loans to the refugees for an initial 12 months.
But the refugees would then have to leave Phnom Penh and settle in Cambodia's impoverished provinces where education, health and other services are poor.
HRW's Mr Robertson said there was no hiding the fact that Vietnam had continuously waged a systematic and pervasive campaign of discrimination and persecution against Montagnards that includes arbitrary arrests, beatings and torture, and convictions leading to long prison terms on trumped-up charges in kangaroo courts.
''What needs to happen is these 13 persons should be allowed to travel to Phnom Penh unhindered so that they can tell their accounts of religious and political persecution to officials tasked with assessing refugee claims,'' he said.
Thousands of Montagnards fled to Cambodia after 2001, when Vietnam's communist government cracked down on protests against land confiscation and imposed restrictions on religious freedoms.
Many were rounded up and returned to Vietnam while others were eventually given asylum in the US and other Western countries.
Many Montagnards sided with the US during the Vietnam War more than 40 years ago.
Still countries are mopping up the mess created by the USA. We talk about corruption, and lack of human rights in Asia, but we don't really need to look far to see the biggest culprit in the west.
Posted by reader on December 4, 2014 14:07