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MONTAGNARD CHRISTIAN REFUGEES BEATEN AND DEPORTED TO VIETNAM DURING PEACEFUL PRAYER RESISTANCE

Montagnard Foundation

On 20 July 2005, numerous wire services reported Cambodian authorities forcibly deported approximately 100 Degar Montragnard Christians back to Vietnam. Various human rights groups denounced the move as Montragnard Degars will face the recall possibility of reprisals, torture and imprisonment by Vietnamese authorities.

Details of this incident were provided to the Montagnard Foundation direct from the deported victims by mobile cell phone. See below:

Prior to the deportation of the Degar Montagnard Christians, the Cambodian authorities entered camp number 1 to distribute rice, tooth paste and tooth brushes to the Montagnard asylum seekers. The Degar Montagnards refused to accept them stating they did not want to go back to Vietnam. The Cambodian officials however, insisted they take the items and that they were not going to be deported. However, on the night of 19 July 2005 Cambodian authorities and police entered refugee camp number 1 in Phnom Penh and placed the 100 Degar Montagnards there under guard.

At approximately 6 am the following morning on 20 July 2005, the Cambodian police called the Degar Montagnards out and told them to walk toward the bus as they were going to go back to Vietnam. The Degar Montagnard refugees however, sat down and interlocked their arms, closed their eyes and started praying.

The police then began to beat the refugees' hands with batons and tried pulling them apart but the refugees held on to one another tightly and continued praying. The police then started shocking the refugees with electric truncheons until some of them become unconscious and fell down. The police and soldiers then dragged the Degar Montagnard to the bus while they were screaming and crying because of the beatings. Their cries and screams were heard outside the camp by bystanders and other refugees.

During this time, the representative of the UNHCR, Mr. Eldon Hager, stood there watching but did not say any word or attempt to intervene.

Some of the Degar Montagnard refugees from camp 2 and camp 4 left their camp and tried to enter camp 1 to assist their brothers and sisters who were screaming but the Cambodian police stopped them and pushed them back into their camps.

After the police loaded the Degar Montagnard refugees on the bus, some of the deported Montagnards called the Montagnard Foundation in the US via mobile cell phone and reported how they were severely beaten and shocked with electric current. The Degar Montagard deportees also made these please which they hope the international community will hear. The Degar Montagnards fear that once they are in the hands of the Vietnam police, they will be injected with some kind of drug that will poison them. This is a very real fear and the Degar people learned about this drug injection from the many Degar prisoners who have spent time in Vietnamese security police prisons. Many prisoners report being injected with some kind of mind altering drug that makes them incoherent and behave as if insane. The Montagnard Foundation also notes that the Vietnamese Sunday School teacher Le Thi Hong Lien was also given mind altering drugs whilst in prison (as reported by Open Doors in May 2005). Degar prisoners also do not live long after being released from prison, some for a few weeks but so many Montagnard prisoners die within a year after being released from Vietnamese prisons. Many Montagnard prisoners also became paralyzed from being severely tortured in prison.