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Police from Vietnam’s Dak Lak province made surprising visits to 2 areas in Thailand the place numerous ethnic minorities are looking for refugee standing on grounds that they’ve been persecuted, they informed Radio Free Asia.
Members of the Montagnard neighborhood stated they panicked when the brokers visited their properties on Thursday to influence and threaten them to return to Vietnam. The time period “Montagnard” was coined by French colonialists to explain tribes who reside in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, a lot of whom are Christians, however Vietnam has rejected use of the time period.
Police additionally looked for these wished in final June’s armed assaults on two Individuals’s Commune headquarters in Dak Lak province within the Central Highlands that left 9 folks lifeless, the refugees stated.
The world the place the assaults occurred is dwelling to about 30 indigenous tribes who’ve a protracted historical past of battle with the Vietnamese majority, and who declare they’ve been discriminated in opposition to.
In January, 100 people have been tried within the case, and 10 have been sentenced to life in jail on terrorism costs. The rest have been handed sentences starting from three-and-a-half years to twenty years, totally on terrorism-related costs. Vietnamese legal professionals criticized it as a hasty present trial.
Montagnards dwelling in Bang Len district Nakhon Pathom province, 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Thai capital Bangkok, stated Thai police introduced the Vietnamese law enforcement officials to their properties.
Thai law enforcement officials requested the Montagnards to assemble in a entrance yard the place two of eight Vietnamese officers wearing plainclothes questioned them, one of many refugees informed Radio Free Asia on Friday.
Not satisfied
The 2 officers gave their names and stated they have been from the homeland safety pressure in Dak Lak province and from the Gia Lai provincial police, whereas the opposite officers took photographs and movies with smartphones and camcorders, the refugee stated.
They tried to influence the Montagnards to return to Vietnam, saying they’d deal with their transportation, meals and lodging bills,” he stated.
“As soon as you come back to Vietnam, we’ll deal with every thing,” the refugee stated, recalling the officers’ phrases.
However he was skeptical. “If we returned to Vietnam, we might die,” he stated “We might by no means be secure. What the Vietnamese [authorities] need is to imprison us.”
Dinh Ngan, an ethnic Bana refugee, stated the directorof the Gia Lai provincial police stated he could be their “guardian” in the event that they wished to return. In any other case, the director stated the police would arrest them or they’d face difficulties.
One other refugee, Nay Phot, stated the identical official informed the Montagnards to return to Vietnam the place the federal government could be lenient in the direction of them and supply them with land and automobiles.
“They threatened that if we didn’t come again, the police must arrest us, after which the federal government would not forgive us,” he stated.
In an announcement posted 9 days in the past, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Safety branded Montagnard Stand for Justice and the Montagnard Assist Group as terrorist organizations linked to the 2023 Dak Lak assaults.
Asking about others
The refugee, who requested anonymity out of worry of his security, stated the 2 officers requested him and others in regards to the whereabouts of Y Quynh Bdap and different wished Montagnards, displaying them their photos and arrest warrants on their cellphones.
Y Quynh Bdap, co-founder of Montagnard Stand for Justice, was accused of being related to the Dak Lak assaults and later sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail on a terrorism cost at a trial held in Vietnam this January. He has denied collaborating within the assault.
Police Col. Adisak Kamnerd of the Bang Len police informed RFA that he had not obtained requests from any company to permit Vietnamese officers to go there.
One other safety official, who requested to not be named as a result of he isn’t approved to talk to the media, informed BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated on-line information service, that this was the primary recognized incident whereby Vietnamese police questioned Vietnamese refugees in Thailand, violating their primary privateness rights. He additionally referred to as the motion “undiplomatic.”
“I consider they’re coming after the suspects within the Dak Lak assaults,” he stated.
The incident occurred sooner or later after the Public Safety On-line Newspaper reported that Minister of Public Safety To Lam met with Thai Ambassador to Vietnam Nikorndej Balankura. Throughout the assembly, Lam proposed that the 2 sides signal an settlement on extradition and mutual authorized help in prison issues.
RFA didn’t obtain a response to an electronic mail despatched to the U.N.’s refugee company in Bangkok.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs didn’t instantly reply to an emailed request for data.
Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
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