CBC News Online, The Times of India Online, Reuters
February 8, 2001
After the largest wave of protests seen in Vietnam in years the army and riot police are patrolling two provinces in the country’s central highlands. Land, religion and corruption fuel discontent among ethnic hill farmers.
Over the past two weeks, ethnic hill farmers in the coffee growing provinces of Daklak and Gia Lai have clashed with authorities, apparently over religion and land. The capitals in both provinces have been shut down to tourists for at least a week as security forces try to make sure the protests are over.
No deaths have been reported but several people have been injured in clashes, which included an attack on a post office and telephone switchboard earlier this week.
People living in the area say police have set up road blocks to keep protesters from reaching the major cities, and helicopters have been hovering over the rural areas.
Relocated population creates friction
The ethnic farmers living in the regions are coming into conflict with the people of Vietnamese heritage who recently moved to the highlands. The newcomers have been encroaching on lands occupied for generations. Corruption among local officials has aggravated the situation further, as has the attempt to impose the ruling Communist party’s authority in the provinces.
Religion also a source of tension
The farmers also complain they are harassed for their beliefs. Many of the hill farmers belong to illegal “house churches.” Government officials are concerned some people are using religion to sow discontent among the ethnic people in the region. Meanwhile, southern Protestants on Thursday began their first meeting since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. The meeting is expected to lead to the official recognition of the southern branch of the Evangelical church. But hundreds of thousands of mostly ethnic people who belong to about 150,000 small house churches won’t be represented at the three-day meeting.
CBC News Online staff
Thai FM seeks Vietnam’s help in curbing armed Oppn
The Times of India Online, Feb. 8, 2001
HANOI – Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai asked for Vietnam’s help on Wednesday in putting an end to a spate of sabotage plots by armed opposition groups operating from its soil. “We asked our Vietnamese counterparts to help us with information,” Surakiart told reporters after talks here with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien.
“They know better than us who has done underground work or can be a threat to the peace and security of Vietnam. “If we can build up a mechanism where this information can flow back and forth … we will be able to prevent this sort of incident from happening more effectively.” The official media here revealed last month that Vietnam had been the subject of no less than 11 separate sabotage attempts between March 1999 and March 2000 by agents of the opposition Free Vietnam Movement operating from Thai or Cambodian territory.
Surakiart said his Vietnamese counterpart had shown understanding about the difficulties Thailand faced preventing opposition groups from abusing its territory. “We had good discussions as to the fact that Thailand has a policy not to allow … any action against any other country, particularly neighbouring countries. “Thailand is a very open country and has been taken advantage of all the time.” Surakiart said Nien had expressed satisfaction with Thailand’s handling of the case of a Vietnamese-American who hijacked an aircraft from Thailand to drop anti-government leaflets over the commercial capital of Ho Chi Minh City during then US President Bill Clinton’s landmark visit here last November.
He had made no request for the extradition of former South Vietnamese fighter pilot Ly Tong, who is currently in custody awaiting trial by a Thai court. “My counterpart respects the judicial procedure in Thailand and they are hopeful that that procedure will be carried out in a very prudent manner,” Surakiart said. It was the new Thai foreign minister’s first overseas visit since he took office last month after January elections. “The reason we decided to come first to Vietnam is first Vietnam is a neighbouring country and second that Vietnam is chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,” Surakiart said.
Vietnam currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and is due to host a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum in July, which is expected to be attended by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and other top officials. The Thai foreign minister was due to fly on to Malaysia later Wednesday after talks with Prime Minister Phan Van khai and President Tran Duc Luong. (AFP)
Thousands protest over land in Vietnam coffee belt
Reuters, Tuesday, Feb 6, 2001
By David Brunnstrom
HANOI, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Several thousand ethnic minority people have staged protests in Vietnam’s coffee growing central highlands in recent days to demand a return of land, local residents said on Tuesday.
The residents reported some attacks in the province of Daklak by ethnic minority hill people on majority Vietnamese they accused of encroaching on their land. One resident said about three or four thousand hill people gathered last Friday in Pleiku, capital town of Gia Lai province, north of Daklak.
“They said they were moved out from their land and now their life is difficult” the resident told Reuters. “The next day they tried to move to Daklak but authorities were ready and prevented most from doing so.”
However, up to 400 did manage to gather in the centre of Buon Ma Thuot, capital of Daklak province on Saturday, and on Monday groups blocked parts of the National Road 14 linking Daklak and Gia Lai.
“There’s been some violence in the past three days” said the resident who witnessed the protest in Buon Ma Thuot, but he said he was not aware of any casualties.
Locals said the demonstrators had built barricades on the road about 10km (six miles) from Buon Ma Thuot and threatened to beat up strangers, but the way was clear on Tuesday.
POLICE ROAD BLOCK
However, another source living a few kilometres (miles) from Buon Ma Thuot said he had been unable to get into the town on National Road 28, which leads to the coastal town of Nha Trang, on Tuesday evening as he was stopped by a police road block.
“I think there is something going on, even this evening, but I don’t know what,” he said.
Local officials and the Foreign Ministry Press Department, which controls access to much information by foreign news organisations, could not be reached for comment. No reports of the unrest have been carried in Vietnam’s strictly controlled official media.
Saturday was the 71st anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party, which many hill people fought against during the Vietnam War which ended in 1975. Pleiku was a major U.S. base during the war.
It was not clear from which ethnic group the protesters came from, but the Ede and the Gia Rai are the largest in the area.
On Tuesday, coffee traders and exporters said trade had been normal but slow, partly due to unclear price trends, and the unrest in Gia Lai and Daklak had not affected their business. However, one trader said he had been scared by the protests and stopped scheduled transport of beans out of Buon Ma Thuot.
Relocation of large numbers of lowland Vietnamese to highland provinces to help clear land to grow coffee and other cash crops has created friction with ethnic groups who have lived there for generations. The problem has been exacerbated by corruption among local officials Last August, a violent clash erupted in a district of Daklak between minority hill people and Vietnamese settlers in which four officials, including two police officers, were slightly injured.
A local official said that in that incident, about 150 members of the Ede minority used sticks and farming tools to attack settlers, burnt some houses and destroyed about two hectares (about five acres) of robusta coffee trees.
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