Montagnards: Victims and Microcosm of Vietnam’s Expansion and Imperialism

Saturday, December 18, 2010
Op-Ed by MP

THE major donor countries - particularly, the US, Japan, Australia and other EU countries should not ignore the plight of refugees known as ‘Montagnards’, currently, the subject of repatriation to Vietnam by the Phnom Penh government . On humanitarian grounds, at least, this group, drawn from one of Vietnam’s politically persecuted ethnic minorities should be allowed to remain in Cambodia or to claim asylum in any other third countries of their own choosing, in accordance with international conventions on refugees. No human being would consider the prospect of living in exile, away from their native habitat as an easy choice to make, especially if your state and government put a premium upon your head or discriminate against you as a people and an identity, such as the Khmer Krom people or the Montagnards. The Vietnamese regime had angered their Chinese counterpart in the 1970s and 1980s by discriminating against ethnic Chinese residents in Vietnam - a practice they extended to Cambodia through their client regime of the PRK - prompting waves of exodus of the 'boat people' of Chinese descend out of Vietnam, particularly, from former South Vietnam, and this had been one of the factors behind Beijing's determination to 'teach Hanoi a lesson' in 1979.

For all its tireless propaganda effort, the Vietnamese state has yet to respect the rights and integrity of indigenous populations living within their ever expanding territories. In the wake of the overthrow of the Pol Pot regime, the centuries - long repressed people of Kampuchea Krom had a chance to escape this repression by simply crossing over the western border into Cambodia. Economic poverty was a major contributing factor for this movement, but the Khmer Krom people have had their farms and livelihoods imperceptibly but ineluctably seized from their ownership or control from the moment Vietnamese authorities extended their official administrative presence across this region of former Cambodian territories, clearing the way for ethnic Vietnamese farmers to assume permanent control over the villages and farmlands; a historical trend that has been perpetuated and replicated to this day to the grief and misery of the Montagnards and - since the early 1990s or perhaps earlier - the Khmer farmers along the eastern frontiers.

In relations to the claim made in apology for Vietnam's criminal and genocidal policy and practices directed at indigenous populations regarding communist Vietnam ‘allowing’ Buddhist clergy in Kampuchea Krom to come over to Cambodia to 'revive' Khmer Buddhism, it should not be forgotten that the Khmer Krom clergy (itself very much a victim of the same discriminatory trend) has not been exempted from political and cultural discrimination by the Vietnamese state over the same historical period under Vietnamese suzerainty. Therefore, the clergy's principal motivation for coming to settle in Cambodia - still within the influence of that same suzerainty – is, in truth, no different from the social causes motivating or coercing many of the lay people of Khmer descend of the Mekong Delta to migrate upstream of the Mekong to the less densely populated land of their Khmer cousins. Further, the Buddhist clergy - not unlike all other secular social institutions - has been heavily infiltrated by Communist agents. Beside subjecting the clergy to the dictatorial influence of Hanoi aligned Communists - in - saffron robes like Tep Vong (aptly labelled 'Hochi-Monks' by KI Media here), all monks had been required to undergo political indoctrination sessions during the PRK era. The violent suppressing of protesting Khmer Krom monks in Cambodia itself at the hands of the current regime does nothing to support the claim that these monks' actual religious freedom is or has been promoted or respected by the Hanoi regime and its client state in Cambodia.

The question as to whether these Montagnards are genuine refugees or be repatriated to their place of origins is an issue that rights groups and UNHCR along with other responsible bodies outside the state should be allowed to determine first and foremost, free of undue political interference from the states concerned. The relevant UN Charter on refugees and displaced persons - if one is to go by this - would enable one to view such persons in similar vein to the way prisoners of war (for example) are viewed and defined, with all the binding implications as to rights and responsibilities in respect of their wellbeing and legal entities upon relevant authorities.

Why is it so hard for the Cambodian regime to accommodate a handful of Montagnards seeking sanctuary from persecution when the border between Cambodia and Vietnam has been open to one-way traffic in favour of illegal Vietnamese settlers in their hundreds of thousands, if not, perhaps, millions since 1979? Whereas Cambodian authorities are prepared to allocate hectares of arable land to Vietnamese fishermen and their families to settle in - not to mention the thousands of square kilometres of mineral, timber - rich swathes of land 'leased' to Vietnamese 'companies' - is it too much to ask that the Montagnards be allowed temporary shelter until such a time when their safe return to their home land can be assured? Or will that day ever come at all given Vietnam's relentless pursuit of its manifest destiny? If China's aggression and enslavement of Vietnam had once provided the reason for the latter's need for expansion and organic cohesion in both demography and territory terms, when will this need/compulsion be finally satisfied so that other peoples and nations can look forward to a time of peace and stability free from Vietnam's reactive syndrome, or her inbuilt- paranoia and siege mentality?

Or is this sense of insecurity vis-a-vis China simply a pretext for Vietnam to steamroll over smaller, helpless nations and peoples?

With kindest thought and Merry Christmas to all readers.