WRITTEN QUESTION E-0674/03 by Marco Pannella (NI), Emma Bonino (NI),Marco Cappato (NI), Gianfranco Dell'Alba (NI), Benedetto Della Vedova (NI),Olivier Dupuis (NI) and Maurizio Turco (NI) to the Commission. Persecution, beatings, torture and murder by the authorities of the Republic of Vietnam against the Christian Montagnard population.
Date: 2003-03-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Christianity, EU relations, Viet Nam, freedom of religious beliefs, human rights, international relations, political violence

6.3.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 58 E/23

(2004/C 58 E/025)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0674/03

by Marco Pannella (NI), Emma Bonino (NI),
Marco Cappato (NI), Gianfranco Dell’Alba (NI), Benedetto Della Vedova (NI),
Olivier Dupuis (NI) and Maurizio Turco (NI) to the Commission

(7 March 2003)

Subject: Persecution, beatings, torture and murder by the authorities of the Republic of Vietnam against the

Christian Montagnard population

Y-Su Nie, a Montagnard (Degar) from the village of Buon Mbhao, in Mdrak district in the province of Dak
Lac, was arrested on 15 November 2002 by the Vietnamese authorities because he was asserting
Montagnard land ownership rights.

The arrest was confirmed by the report entitled ‘Vietnam: New Assault on Rights in Central Highlands,
Crackdown on Indigenous Montagnards Intensifies’, published by Human Rights Watch on 21 January
2003.

Following his arrest he was subjected to torture, including electric shocks. He gave in and every day he was
taken out of the prison to publicly denounce the activities of Kok Ksor, President of the Montagnard
Foundation, in front of the inhabitants of the Montagnard villages.

On 30 January government police handcuffed him and told him that he would die soon, but that the
Vietnamese government in its mercy of would allow him to see his family one last time.

After being injected with chemical agents he was released and sent back to his family weeping. He said ‘the
government has let me come and see you, but for only a few minutes because the police have injected me
with poison’. He died at 10 p.m. the next day, 31 January, and was buried on 2 February 2003.

On 7 May 2001 Mrs H’ble Ksor, who is over eighty years old and the mother of Kok Ksor, President of the
Montagnard Foundation, was beaten by the Vietnamese security forces. Some of her ribs were broken, she
spent 3 days in hospital and since then her medical problems have worsened. She was beaten whilst her
children were being forced to read out the charges against Kok Ksor on television, the reason for the
beating being that she herself had refused to do so. Since then she has been under house arrest in the
village of Bon Broai at Ayun Pa in the Gia Lai region. The police are even preventing her relatives from
bringing medicines to her and are continuing to threaten her.

Can the Commission say:

(cid:1) whether it has prevailed upon the Vietnamese authorities to put an end to the decades of repression of

the Montagnards (Degar), which has worsened since the peaceful demonstrations of February 2001;

(cid:1) whether it has taken any steps, and if so what kind, to ensure that the Vietnamese authorities meet the
requests set out in the Concluding Observations of the UN Human Rights Committee of 27 July 2002
(UN Doc. CCPR/C/SR.2031), starting with the request
to allow monitoring by the UN, other
international organisations and independent NGOs;

(cid:1) whether it intends to continue to fund the Vietnamese Government despite the fact that it continually
and repeatedly infringes its international obligations with regard to human rights, thereby contraven-
ing the cooperation agreements?

C 58 E/24

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

6.3.2004

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(16 May 2003)

The Commission would refer the Honourable Members to its reply to Written Questions E-0454/03 by
Mr Watson (1), concerning the persecution of Christians in Vietnam and E-0549/03 by Mrs Ludford (2).

The Commission, together with the Member States represented in Vietnam, monitors closely human rights
developments in Vietnam, including individual cases of concern and issues related to freedom of religion
and freedom of opinion, 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 regular dialogue with and in all démarches to the Government of
Vietnam on human rights issues. Moreover, the Member States as members and the Union as observer
fully support the work of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights and actively
work with the UN Commission for Human Rights.

The Commission and Member States have repeatedly urged the Government of Vietnam to strengthen its
respect for political and religious freedoms, as well as further strengthen economic and social freedoms.
They again expressed this request recently in their joint declaration at the Consultative Group meeting in
Hanoi in December 2002.

The Commission, together with the representatives of the Member States, will continue to follow closely
the human rights situation in Vietnam, to raise specific concerns with the Government of Vietnam and
take appropriate action.

(1) See page 18.
(2) See page 20.

(2004/C 58 E/026)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0705/03

by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(10 March 2003)

Subject: Chechnya: Russian troops blowing up civilians

Various independent Russian sources indicate that military and paramilitary troops carried out combing
(‘zachistka’) operations in the Chechnya town of Argoun at the beginning of January, arresting 100
individuals. Several days later, 18 corpses were thrown from the building which houses the Russian
control post. 32 people have disappeared. All the other individuals arrested, with six exceptions, were
released after paying ransoms and being subjected to torture and ill treatment. The six who were not
released were taken to the banks of the Argoun river, where sticks of dynamite were attached to their
bodies. They were then ‘blown up’.

At the same time, the Russians have dismantled the refugee camps in Ingushetia and sent the refugees into
Chechnya, where they risk persecution and where both their freedom and lives are in danger as long as the
international community fails to oblige the Russian Federation to put an end to the atrocities being
perpetrated and open serious negotiations with President Maskhadov’s legitimate government on the future
status of Chechnya.

What information does the Commission have concerning the absolutely unspeakable crimes perpetrated by
military and paramilitary troops in the town of Argoun and how has it reacted to these crimes? What
political and diplomatic initiatives does the Commission intend to take in response to the Russian policy of
dismantling refugee camps in Ingushetia and thus forcing Chechen refugees to return to Chechnya on the
one hand, and on the other, organising criminal military operations like those in Argoun? Could the
Commission draw up a proposal for joint action with the objective of implementing an emergency plan (cid:1)
along the lines of those implemented in Bosnia and Kosovo (cid:1) to take in all the Chechen refugees whose
lives and physical integrity are at risk if they return to Chechnya?