BBC News
February 9, 2001

Vietnamese officials say they have restored calm to the country’s central highlands after the worst unrest for many years. But reports from the area – which has been closed to foreigners – say that tension remains high.

Troops, riot police and helicopters remain in the region, which is home to ethnic minority hill farmers.

Twenty people are reported to have been arrested in connection with a series of violent protests that shocked the country’s Communist rulers, according to Western diplomats.

Reports say thousands of members of ethnic minorities took part in the demonstrations in Daklak and Gia Lai provinces.

Their central grievance appears to be encroachment on their land by the Vietnamese majority population.

The United States Embassy in Hanoi has advised Americans to stay away from the region – essentially a pro forma statement, as the authorities are not allowing outsiders in.

Hotels in the two provinces have been barred from taking tourists for a week and tour agencies have reportedly been told the ban could remain in force for as long as a month.

A foreign ministry spokeswoman said protesters in Gia Lai’s capital, Pleiku, had destroyed public buildings and some members of the security forces had been injured.

Religion

The central highlands are home to many of the country’s 54 ethnic minority hill tribes.

Reports say they are angry that the government has turned ancestral forests into the country’s largest coffee-growing region, which has brought in lowland Vietnamese settlers.

The BBC correspondent in Hanoi says the protesters – some of whom are Christian – may also have been angered by government restrictions on their religious rights.

Anti-Communist ethnic hill people based in the US said the protests began after two Christian brothers were arrested and beaten.

The Montagnard Foundation’s website said 20,000 people protested in the highlands after the two were tortured by police at an army camp.

There has been no independent confirmation of that report.

Violence

Residents said Pleiku and Daklak’s capital, Buon Ma Thuot, appeared calm on Thursday. But outlying villages remained tense after two weeks of protests.

Reports said some of the demonstrations had turned violent, with protesters blocking a national highway, overturning vehicles and attacking a post office and telephone switchboard.

The country’s largest wildlife reserve, the Yok Don National Park, a major tourist attraction, has been closed for days due to the unrest.

The demonstrations have brought together people from the region’s many ethnic minorities, including the three biggest – the Jarai, Ede and Bahnar – who between them number more than 600,000 people.