WRITTEN QUESTION P-1885/01 by Marco Pannella (TDI) to the Commission. Montagnard tribes in Vietnam.
Date: 2001-06-21
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU relations, Viet Nam, cooperation agreement (EU), human rights, national minority, protection of minorities, religious discrimination

20.12.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 364 E/219

Information within the Commission services to improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of European
policy monitoring that require a spatial analysis of the European territory at European and global level(cid:146),
while being primarily concerned with the Commission(cid:146)s internal needs, can clearly contribute to setting up
the framework for a European Spatial Data Infrastructure. Among its decisions, the adoption of a common
metadata standard and a single reference system can be considered as the first steps in the direction of
defining an integrated Geographic Information Landscape for Europe.

(1) COM(98) 585 final.

(2001/C 364 E/239)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1885/01

by Marco Pannella (TDI) to the Commission

(21 June 2001)

Subject: Montagnard tribes in Vietnam

In February 2001 the Vietnamese Government deployed tanks, helicopters and over 13 regiments of
soldiers into the Central Highlands of Vietnam to quell demonstrations by Christian Montagnard hill tribes.
These indigenous hill tribes were protesting over the arrest of two of their church leaders as well as years
of religious persecution and confiscation of their ancestral lands. The International Commission of Jurists
(Australian section) distributed a report in February 2001 concluding that since 1975, Vietnam has
the Montagnards, namely torture, arbitrary arrest,
committed gross human rights abuses against
sterilisation policies that violate women(cid:146)s rights, forced relocation and expropriation from their traditional
lands and increased repression of religious freedom.

Reports indicate the indigenous Montagnard population are now being terrorised by security forces. The
situation has deteriorated to such an extent that Montagnard refugees are fleeing to Cambodia with
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Refugees International and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees calling for urgent action to protect them, as Vietnam has offered (cid:145)bounties(cid:146) for
their capture and return. In June 2001, martial law and a media blackout in the region continues. Vietnam
has further cordoned off the region in an attempt to halt refugees.

Has the Commission already investigated the reports of human rights violations facing the Montagnard
population inside Vietnam(cid:146)s Central Highlands and the potential
for a humanitarian crisis if more
Montagnards are forced to flee as refugees? Has the Commission made the provision of aid and trade to
Vietnam contingent on the Vietnamese Government complying with international human rights law?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(13 July 2001)

The European Community-Vietnam Co-operation Agreement, which was signed in 1995, stated in its first
Article that respect for human rights and democratic principles is the basis of this co-operation. The
Commission, together with the Member States represented in Vietnam, therefore monitors closely human
rights developments in Vietnam as part of the policy of the Union to encourage and support the continued
commitment of the Government of Vietnam to progress in the field of human rights. The Commission also
participates with the Member States in all dØmarches to the Government of Vietnam on Human Rights
issues.

The disturbances in the Central Provinces of Gia Lai and Dac Lac in early February 2001 were the subject
of a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam. Thousands of members of ethnic
minorities were reported to have taken part in demonstrations, some of which led to violence, with groups
of protesters blocking a national highway and attacking a post office and telephone switchboard and other
public buildings during four days of unrest. Police and military forces, including helicopters, were deployed

C 364 E/220

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

20.12.2001

to restore order. A number of arrests (initially stated to be 20) were made. These events were reported by
the official Vietnam News Agency. However, foreign correspondents were not permitted to visit the two
provinces.

Observers in Vietnam have attributed the protests to a complex set of circumstances. The provinces have
been relatively sparsely populated for many years before the Government encouraged settlement in the
area to increase the use of agricultural
land hitherto little exploited by the local people. In particular,
plantations were developed for the production of coffee, which has become an important export product
for Vietnam. Many of the new inhabitants, however, were from the Kinh and Viet ethnic groups (the two
predominant ethnic groups in Vietnam). There were also reports of land confiscation and corruption
among local officials during the settlement process.

It has also been suggested that the ethnic minorities resent the efforts of the Government of Vietnam to
reconcile with the Catholic and the official Protestant Churches. Many of the Montagnards are reportedly
associated with a clandestine protestant evangelical church, which is not recognised by the Vietnamese
authorities.

it has been recalled that,

Finally,
fought against, and then
collaborated with the French army. Some of them had later taken up arms together with the American
forces against the Communists in the Vietnam war.

the Montagnards had first

in the past,

The Commission continues, so far as is possible in the present circumstances of restricted access, to
monitor developments in the area.

(2001/C 364 E/240)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1889/01

by Ioannis Mar(cid:237)nos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

Subject: Accession of new countries to the Union

(27 June 2001)

According to Facts about Turkey, a sleek publication produced by the Turkish News Agency and
distributed for some time to all MEPs, 97 % of Turkish territory is in Asia and 3 % in Europe (Eastern
Thrace). Russia is in a similar situation, albeit that its European part accounts for much more than 3 % of
its territory and stretches as far as the Urals. Since December 1999, Turkey has been a (cid:145)candidate State(cid:146) for
accession, despite the fact that a very small part of its territory is in Europe. Russia, a country with a vast
market and inexhaustible natural resources, has not yet acquired that status as it has not submitted an
application for membership.

Would a possible Russian application for accession in the distant future mean that the Union would extend
its geographical frontiers to the shores of the Far East and border on countries such as China and Japan?
Would it be possible (provided the Copenhagen criteria are met) to consider a (cid:145)pilot(cid:146) accession to the
Union for regions such as European Russia or Eastern Thrace (European Turkey), which clearly are in
Europe and have a significantly higher level of economic development than the other regions of the
countries to which they belong?

To what extent does the Commission consider it appropriate to draw up a study on such a possible
development, which might result in the incorporation of some areas of those countries into the structure
of Europe, and the avoidance of an adverse situation in which the EU would shoulder the burden of the
economic convergence of underdeveloped, remote areas which,
furthermore, belong to geographical
regions which are not in Europe?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(31 July 2001)

Turkey(cid:146)s eligibility as a European state which could become a member of the Community is established in
Article 28 of the Association Agreement between the Community and Turkey, which was signed on
12 September 1963 and entered into force on 1 December 1964 after ratification by all the signatories in
keeping with their respective constitutional procedures.