Ethnic Cleansing: Just A Point Of View?

Is Vietnam engaged in ethnic cleansing or genocide? Is the answer a matter of point of view, or a matter of who profits? Is the answer, regardless, any less horrible?

I’ve written many times about various elements of the large-scale, purposeful persecution of the native Montagnards by the Vietnamese government, and of their “cousins” the Hmong in Laos. Today, the Montagnard Foundation has pulled together these various elements into a report, “Vietnam’s Blueprint For Ethnic Cleansing.”

The report is being sent

“to relevant bodies of the international community including”:
 US State Department
 US Commission on International Religious Freedom
 Members of US Senate and House of Representatives
 Amnesty International
 Human Rights Watch
 UN High Commissioner on Human Rights
 UN Special Rapporteurs (Indigenous Peoples, Torture, Racism, Religious, etc)
 European Commission
 ASEAN

In hopes that the blogosphere will also send the message that anyone cares, I’m sending key excerpts to you. First, a brief definitional discussion may be needed to clarify the dimensions of the case.

Genocide is a term reserved for wholesale, purposeful, government-organized, technological extermination of an identified group, and is even reserved for specific types as laid out in Geneva Conventions. There’s justifiable discouragement of excessive use of the term as cheapening the scale and suffering of those subjected to it.

Ethnic cleansing is a term for grayer areas of such horrendous efforts, when the effort is not as whole-encompassing, or there’s lack of global opinion agreement that it rises to genocide.

The UN’s General Assembly may have clarified when ethnic cleansing becomes genocide (Resolution 47/121, regarding Bosnia/Herzegovina):

... It [i.e. ethnic cleansing] can only be a form of genocide within the meaning of the [Genocide] Convention, if it corresponds to or falls within one of the categories of acts prohibited by Article II of the Convention. Neither the intent, as a matter of policy, to render an area “ethnically homogeneous”, nor the operations that may be carried out to implement such policy, can as such be designated as genocide: the intent that characterizes genocide is “to destroy, in whole or in part” a particular group, and deportation or displacement of the members of a group, even if effected by force, is not necessarily equivalent to destruction of that group, nor is such destruction an automatic consequence of the displacement. This is not to say that acts described as 'ethnic cleansing' may never constitute genocide, if they are such as to be characterized as, for example, 'deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part', contrary to Article II, paragraph (c), of the Convention, provided such action is carried out with the necessary specific intent (dolus specialis), that is to say with a view to the destruction of the group, as distinct from its removal from the region. As the ICTY has observed, while 'there are obvious similarities between a genocidal policy and the policy commonly known as 'ethnic cleansing' ' (Krstić, IT-98-33-T, Trial Chamber Judgment, 2 August 2001, para. 562), yet '[a] clear distinction must be drawn between physical destruction and mere dissolution of a group. The expulsion of a group or part of a group does not in itself suffice for genocide....[European Court of Human Rights, quoting the International Court of Justice, via WikiPedia]

I think the Montagnard Foundation is hesitant to use the term genocide, to avoid being caught up in definitional arguments, but what you’ll read below certainly seems to be more than “mere” ethnic cleansing relocation of a group. There’s many specifics, footnoted, and photos.

… Examining the evidence collectively, a blueprint of ethnic cleansing emerges as these human rights violations, including official and spontaneous transmigration policies, large scale deforestation, abuse of family planning methods, religious persecution, land confiscation, torture and extrajudicial killing, have been directed against a specific race of indigenous peoples….

The evidence of this persecution comes from various authorities namely the US State Department, the United Nations, US International Commission of Religious Freedom and internationally recognized NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International….

KILLINGS, IMPRISONMENT AND TORTURE
Since the year 2000, thousands of Degar Montagnards have been arrested, in what can be described as a policy of “arrest, torture, threaten and release” by Vietnamese security forces of whose intent is to repress the Degar population. Many Degars however are not released, being sentenced to prison terms and others die from torture and abuse for non violent peaceful activities. In recent years the Vietnamese government has intensified surveillance and paramilitary operations in the Central Highlands with the intent to crush both the spread of house Church Christianity and the Degar population from seeking legitimate redress for human rights abuses. Such arrests involved threats and torture, including beatings designed to deliberately cause death from internal injuries, electric shock torture and outright killings of indigenous Degar people for religious and non-violent political human rights activities….

TRANSMIGRATION, FORCED RELOCATIONS & CONFISCATION OF ANCESTRAL LAND
The Hanoi government had long ago commenced the forced confiscation of Degar ancestral land - the lifeblood of its indigenous peoples and over the preceding decades, forcibly relocated Degar villages to areas of poor farmland and limited health services. Reminiscent of Stalin’s purges, these began as 5-year plans (large-scale internal migration policies) which brought thousands of ethnic Vietnamese from the coast and North Vietnam onto traditional Degar lands. This occurred throughout the 80s and 90s and while no longer called 5-year plans, this spontaneous and government sponsored internal migration continues today in 2008 throughout the Central Highlands. Various authorities including the US State Department acknowledged such(see above). This displacement program is sometimes called “Fixed Field, Fixed Residence” (which also makes the Degar Montagnard’s traditional agricultural practices illegal) has effectively condemned the Degar people to a life of poverty. Vietnam through discrimination and corruption has also been unable to provide any reasonable alternatives to its’ indigenous minorities. The US State Department has also reported that, “longstanding societal discrimination against ethnic minorities remained a problem” while UNICEF had reported that ethnic minority children in Vietnam suffer the worst rates of malnutrition and poverty….

DEFORESTATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION OF ANCESTRAL LAND
The Vietnamese government has long confiscated lands throughout the Central Highlands and developed the region for private and state run coffee plantations, mining and extensive logging operations. Large scale logging operations owned by the military have illegally cut thousands of cubic meters from forest reserves and today in 2008 Vietnam has stretched these activities to neighboring Laos and Cambodia, where in co-operation with these governments (and military)the region has now become a hub of illegal clear fell logging. Indigenous villages throughout the region have for many years been subject to forced relocations to provide access to such logging companies and government run coffee and rubber plantations. The logging operations inside Vietnam resulted in extensive clear fell deforestation that has destroyed the once great forests of the Central Highlands. In 2001 the former director of Vietnam’s Department of Forestry Development, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Lung, stated, “Due to unchecked timber exploitation, most of our forests have been depleted, with depletion rates reaching well over 60 percent….

The governments of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have also jointly embarked on a massive economic development project in the vast region (triangle area) of their countries and have been reportedly called the “Triangle Project”. The plan was officially adopted in agreements reached between the Prime Ministers of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia at their 3rd summit in 2004 and ratified by the three countries on 28 November 2004. The triangle area encompasses over a hundred thousand square miles in the region bordering these three countries and has already resulted in deforestation and the forced removal of indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands. Reports of land confiscations in Vietnam and Cambodia are common. Endemic levels of corruption exist at every level of government in these three countries and environmental exploitation has negatively affected the indigenous peoples throughout the region. Deforestation is continuing at unprecedented levels in Cambodia and Laos as these countries engage in illegal logging, permitting officials at the highest levels of government to reap massive profits from deforestation. It is reported that the governments of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia all co-operate at various levels in these activities and the NGO Global Witness has directly implicated the Cambodian government in these abuses in a detailed 95 page report titled “Cambodia’s Family
Trees”....

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS
Religious repression of Christianity, particular repression against independent house church Protestantism practiced by many Degar people has long been part of Vietnamese government policy. Officially the policy is called “Plan 184" and was initially exposed by Freedom House in the late 1990s. This policy included repressing Christianity including forcing Degar people to renounce their Christian faith in official ceremonies, under threat of imprisonment and torture and included actual renunciation ceremonies conducted by authorities who using threats of torture and arrest would force Degar Christians to drink rice wine mixed with animal blood. These barbaric procedures were actually documented by the US State Department and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Human Rights Watch also confirmed such…

While the US State Department withdrew the “Countries of Particular Concern” designation (“CPC”) on Vietnam in 2006, good faith on Vietnam’s part was short lived. (CPC designation is an official category reserved for the worst violators of religious freedom). Upon gaining accession to the WTO and winning Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the US, Vietnam however, re-commenced its repressive ways. The resulting crackdown on house church Christians, dissidents and democracy advocates was described as the worst crackdown in decades by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Subsequently the decision to remove Vietnam from the CPC designation has been seen as premature by the US International Commission of Religious Freedom and Human Rights Watch. Religious persecution continues
throughout the Central Highlands of Vietnam today and the Vietnamese authorities are using the pretext of justifying such repression by claiming they are only responding to political or terrorist activities. In reality the Vietnamese authorities are seeking to control religion and very much opposed to independent house churches or any notion of independent religious denominations.

Protestantism however, is not alone in facing repression as such persecution is also perpetrated against ethnic Vietnamese Buddhists and Degar Catholics in Vietnam. This ongoing religious persecution forms one of the major grievances the Degar Montagnards have against the communist government….

STERILIZATIONS, FINES, COERCION & ABUSE OF FAMILY PLANNING
Abuse of family planning programs in Vietnam have long been reported, however, the extent of the abuse or investigations has not been presented to the public. The Vietnamese government has most certainly embarked on a policy of denial and likely cover up of any such abuses. The endemic corruption in Vietnam however, which permeates throughout the entire Vietnamese government suggests that abuse of family planning, namely coercion, fines, monetary incentives and forcible sterilizations are indeed possible if not likely…. later in 2001 the Montagnard Foundation documented over 1000 cases of Degar Montagnard women who were surgically sterilized by the Vietnamese authorities through force, coercion, bribery, threats of fines or imprisonment….

[O]ver the year 2001 – 2002 the Vietnamese army had assisted medical teams to force entire Montagnard villagers at gunpoint to attend propaganda meetings where they were threatened to get surgically sterilized. Young Degar girls also reported they were forced to receive injections that they were told prevents them from getting pregnant….

In the early 1990s the communist authorities conducted sterilizations using an acid chemical “quinicrine,” in pellet form which when inserted into the uterus, the pellet would dissolve and burns the uterus shut. The British Medical journal 'Lancet' reported over 31,000 women being sterilized in Vietnam by this method (see: Lancet, 1993, 342, 24 July at page 213-217). It is unknown whether Vietnam still uses this “acid” today….

CONCLUSION: ETHNIC CLEANSING
The Degar people are experiencing persecution today much as the North and South American Indigenous peoples or Australian Aboriginals suffered under European colonialism. Religious persecution, human rights violations and lands rights abuses continue today in the Central Highlands much as they did over the past decades. For the Degar people, they face a troubled future as Vietnam fiercely resists human rights reforms and fights desperately to retain authoritarian control. The international community further appears unable to stem this tide of persecution and seems more interested in economic relations with Vietnam than demanding they undertake human rights reforms. The Degar people are basically being forced to watch their race, their people, their culture and their future being eliminated and the preceding decades of persecution is nothing less than – ethnic cleansing.