Source:         www.assistnews.net

Date:            May 28, 2007 

By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

SPARTANBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA (ANS) -- A religious persecution watchdog organization is urgently calling international medical teams and the International Red Cross to visit Degar Montagnard prisoners inside Vietnam's prisons and provide medical care to prisoners recently released from prison.

The move follows the detention, arrest and beating torture of two Montagnard Degar Christians who have been brutally tortured, ending in their subsequent deaths.

According to the Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Montagnard Foundation Inc. (MFI), Rahlan Lua, a Degar Montagnard Christian (age 43) from the village of Bon Toat, commune of Ia Siem, district of Krong Pa in Gialai province died on April 10, 2007 from the effects of torture and maltreatment he received in prison. He was brutally beaten many times whilst in custody and police had targeted him for re-arrest. He had long suffered internal injuries from torture and his village state he was marked for death by security police.

Rahlan Lua was first arrested, tortured and then sent to Ha Nam prison on December 18, 2001 because of his involvement with the peaceful demonstration calling for religious freedom and land rights in February of 2001. He was released on July 15, 2005 but re-arrested, tortured again and sent to the prison facility in the province of Tuy Hoa on November 5, 2005.

His health started to deteriorate and he was later released on February 18, 2007 but died on April 10, 2007. His village reports that the Vietnamese security police arrested and tortured him the second time to make sure that he would certainly die when he gets home. The second time of release he did indeed die and was buried on April 12, 2007.

In the case of the second victim, police released a torture victim days before his death fearing he would die in prison: most of his ribs were broken and his body was battered.

Y-Kuo Nie, a 53-year-old Degar Montagnard Christian from the village of Buon Cu Mil, commune of Ea Trun, district of Krong Bong in the province of Daklak, died at around 8 am on March 18, 2007 after he was released from prison.

Y-Kuo Nie was first arrested, tortured and sent to prison facility in Ha Nam province on February 16, 2001 for his involvement with peaceful demonstration calling for religious freedom and land rights in February 2001.

Due to the severity and repeated torture he endured the Vietnamese security police knew he was going to die, so, the police called his wife to go pick up her husband from Ha Nam prison. However, Y-Kuo's wife, H'Long Buonya, was so poor and could not afford to travel to Han Nam even though she so wanted to. Eventually the Vietnamese security police brought her husband home to his village on March 17, 2007.

When Y-Kuo Nie was reunited with his family on March 17, 2007 his health was extremely bad and he told his wife and children he had been tortured many times in prison. He requested a Christian preacher to pray with him before he dies. After his preacher had prayed for him that day, the next morning of March 18, 2007, at around 8 o'clock he died.

Security police kept a close watch on the funeral but before Y-Kuo Nie's corpse was placed in the coffin his wife cleaned his body and dressed him in new clothes. She then discovered that most of her husband's ribs were broken and his body covered in bruises. Y-Kuo Nie was buried on March 21, 2007 and appears to have died from prolonged abuse and internal injuries.

On behalf of the families and relatives of Degar prisoners, MFI is appealing for and calling on the international community, United Nations, European Union and especially the government of the United States of America to use its influence "To urgently demand Vietnam release all 350 Degar prisoners as identified in the Human Rights Watch report of 14 June 2006."(www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/14/vietna13542.htm).

MFI is also urging concerned governments to pursue a permanent humanitarian presence in the Central Highlands by US, UN and international NGOs in order to address the underlying causes of the persecution of the indigenous Degar peoples.

MFI also recommend the US State Department reconsider placing Vietnam back on the 'Country of Particular Concern' (CPC) watch list of nations which are the most egregious violators of rights

The indigenous Degar Peoples (known under the French colonial term "Montagnard") have suffered decades of persecution by the Vietnamese communist government, namely; confiscation of ancestral lands, Christian religious repression, torture, killings and imprisonment.

To date more than 350 Degar prisoners remain in prison for standing up for human rights, for spreading Christianity or for fleeing to Cambodia. These prisoners suffer abuses and are subjected to torture, including electric shock treatment, as well as being withheld food and medical care. Many Degar prisoners have been specifically beaten on their bodies repeatedly in order to deliberately cause them to die slow deaths from internal injuries.

One Degar man named Y-Ngo Adrong was tortured to death on 13 July 2006 -- of which the US Department described as "a credible report of extrajudicial killing by security forces" (See: 6 March 2007 US State Department's Report on Vietnam).

In the above mentioned cases the prisoners died after severe torture and never recovered from the torture they received in prison. Villagers stated Adrong was marked for death by security forces who tortured, harassed and re-arrested a Degar Christian prisoner until he died of injuries.

For more information, contact:
Montagnard Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 171114 - Spartanburg, SC 29301-0038 Usa
Fax: (864) 595-1940 - Phone: (864) 576-0698
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it    
Website: www.montagnard-foundation.org