Provincial Authorities in Cambodia Refuse to Help UN Rescue Montagnards

[geovalin]

Local authorities in northeastern Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province on Friday refused to cooperate with a United Nations team on a mission to retrieve three dozen Montagnards from Vietnam hiding in the forest there, hoping to seek asylum.

Wan-Hea Lee, the U.N.’s office of the High Commission of Human Rights (OHCHR) representative in Cambodia, told RFA’s Khmer Service in an email that authorities blocked U.N. vehicles from reaching areas where Montagnards— Christian indigenous people from Vietnam’s Central Highlands— are hiding.

“The UN vehicle was blocked from travelling on the main roads, particularly those that lead to the forest,” she said. “Later today, movement was permitted in certain areas but not where the Montagnards are said to be.”

The U.N. team was told that Interior Minister Sar Kheng had to approve cooperation with the OHCHR in the province before authorities could work with representatives from the international body, Lee said.

“I hope that such an instruction will be issued as soon as possible—or better, that the ministry itself will assume its duty to ensure that those seeking asylum will be able to access the asylum procedure,” she said “I underscore the fact that this duty is a voluntarily accepted legal obligation.”

The interior ministry’s refugee office conducts refugee status determinations.

Police roadblock

Ngoun Kouen, Ratanakiri’s police chief, declined to comment on the roadblock.

But Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator of the Cambodia rights group Adhoc, confirmed that for four days police have prevented the U.N. from leaving the provincial city and traveling to where the Montagnards are in hiding from Cambodian authorities whom they fear will deport them.

“The U.N mission didn’t get any fruitful outcomes. The U.N. left and waited for a green light from the Ministry of Interior before returning,” he said, referring to a previous trip to the province by the U.N. to retrieve Montagnards.

The U.N team arrived in the province on Monday to seek cooperation with local authorities to retrieve the Montagnards, who fear that Cambodian authorities will deport them back to Vietnam where they face persecution.

But local police blocked the team from traveling into Ratanakiri, Lee said.

Cambodia summarily deports Montagnards, viewing them as illegal aliens rather than a minority group fleeing persecution in Vietnam.

Reported by Ratha Visal of RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/un-blocked-in-ratanakiri-province-02202015140904.html