Vietnamese Montagnards: better starvation and malaria in Cambodia that persecution in Hanoi AsiaNews - 11/28/2014
Phnom Penh - A group of 13 members of ethnic minority Montagnards, who fled Vietnam for persecution because of their Christian faith, are reeling from malaria and hunger in Cambodia. However, they refuse to leave the forest - albeit infested with mosquitoes carrying the parasite - for fear of being arrested and deported. The majority of them come from the Vietnamese province of Gia Lai and made a rough journey that led them, in early November, to cross the border into the Cambodian province of Ratanakiri; for weeks they have survived in the open, without a roof and scrambling every day for food to survive. Interviewed by
Radio Free Asia (RFA), the
Montagnards describe the risks taken during their flight. However, they add
they had to flee because of the constant threats of the Vietnamese authorities.
Some of them, during the trip, were discovered by Cambodian police and deported. In 2001 and 2004, at
least two thousand people emigrated to Cambodia to escape the violence of the
Vietnamese authorities, who arbitrarily confiscate land and persecute them
because of the Christian faith. Most of them got political asylum, with the
United States in the frontline in the granting of visas.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |