WRITTEN QUESTION E-1181/03 by Marco Pannella (NI), Emma Bonino (NI),Marco Cappato (NI), Gianfranco Dell'Alba (NI)and Benedetto Della Vedova (NI) to the Commission. Arrest by the Vietnamese authorities of Montagnards suspected of supporting the Montagnard Foundation, of being Christians and of recruiting members for the Transnational Radical Party.
Date: 2003-04-01
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU relations, Viet Nam, cooperation agreement (EU), ethnic group, political rights, political violence, protection of minorities, religious group

C 88 E/340

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

8.4.2004

(2004/C 88 E/0346)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1181/03

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

(1 April 2003)

Subject: Arrest by the Vietnamese authorities of Montagnards suspected of supporting the Montagnard

Foundation, of being Christians and of recruiting members for the Transnational Radical Party

The following Montagnards (Degar) have been arrested because they were suspected of supporting the
Montagnard Foundation, of being Christians and of collecting the names of Montagnards wishing to join
an NGO with consultative status at the UN (the Transnational Radical Party), which promotes the
enforcement of human rights world-wide by non-violent means:

(cid:1) at around noon on 28 January 2003: Y-Nen Buon Ya (24) and Y-Ne Buon Ya (27), from the hamlet of
Buon Buor, Cu Jut district; Y-Ne Buon Ya has been tortured (beating and electric shock) in Cu Jut
prison;

(cid:1) on 29 January 2003: Y-Thim Eban (57) and Y-Seo Buon Ya (29), from Buon Kdun, Buonmathuot

district; there has been no news of either of them since;

(cid:1) on 12 February 2003: Y-Mul Buon Ya (39), from the village of Buon Cu Dlue, Cu Jut district: tortured

in Cu Jut prison;

(cid:1) around noon on 12 February 2003: Y-Ngoan Buon Ya (41), from the village of Buon Nui, Cu Jut

district: tortured in Cu Jut prison;

(cid:1) at around 3 a.m. on 13 February 2003: Y-Uen Buon Krong (27), from the hamlet of Buon Buor, Cu

Jut district: detained in Cu Jut;

(cid:1) on 24 February 2003: Y-Gedion Nie (42), from the hamlet of Buon Tong Ju, Krong Ana district:

detained in cells at the former radio station in Buonmathuot, where he has been tortured;

(cid:1) on 27 February 2003:Y-Put Hdok, from the hamlet of Buon Cuor Knia, Buon Don district: there has

been no news of Y-Put Hdok since then.

In the light of the foregoing detailed information, would the Commission state:

1. what action it intends to take to establish and ensure that those responsible for these atrocities against

Montagnards are duly tried and that the victims of their violence are freed immediately?

2.

its view of the fact that the Vietnamese Government regards as a criminal act the exercise of an
individual’s political right to join an NGO with consultative status with Ecosoc and the UN, such as
the Transnational Radical Party, which promotes the enforcement of international
law on human
rights by non-violent means?

3. whether it regards the behaviour of the Vietnamese authorities as compatible with the cooperation
agreements signed with the Vietnamese Government, which consistently orders its own security forces
to imprison, beat up and torture Montagnards who try to exercise their fundamental rights of freedom
of religion, freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly and freedom of association, as enshrined in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Vietnam?