Vietnam Crackdown: More Hmong Killed As Army Deploys

Saturday, 7 May 2011
Press Release: Center for Public Policy Analysis

Vietnam Crackdown: More Hmong Killed As Army Deploys

May 7, 2011, Washington, D.C., Vientiane, Laos and Bangkok Thailand

Hmong hilltribe women inspect traditional skirts before buying at Can Cau market in northern province of Lao Cai in 2001. Foreign journalists have been denied access to the scene of a rare ethnic Hmong protest in remote northwestern Vietnam, the government spokeswoman said Friday.… Read more » (AFP/File)

More Hmong protesters have been killed or arrested in Dien Bien province today as Vietnam deploys additional army units and thousands of soldiers and police to seek to contain mass demonstrations and the spread of discontent with the policies of the government in Hanoi, and local communist party officials. Hundreds of additional ethnic Hmong are missing or have disappeared, many have been arrested and loaded onto military trucks where they are being sent to unknown locations in Vietnam or Laos..

Vietnam People's Army troops and security forces have killed at least 21 more ethnic Hmong protesters on May 6-7, in the Dien Bien province area of Northern Vietnam and seriously wounded 132 more according to the Center for Public Policy Analysis, non-governmental organizations and Hmong, Vietnamese and Lao sources in the province and border area. Casualties continue to mount with a total of 49 now know dead since the crackdown by Vietnam's army More Hmong demonstrators have also disappeared at the hands of Vietnamese security forces as Hanoi seeks to seal the remote, mountainous border area, with Laos off from independent journalists.

“Innocent Hmong protesters seeking basic reforms, and to address fundamental injustices, are now being attacked by Vietnam People's Army troops and propaganda and false allegations from Hanoi; ” said Christy Lee, Executive Director of Hmong Advance, Inc. in Washington, D.C.

“The soldiers have killed another 21 more people and have wounded and arrested hundreds more according to what our Hmong people are reporting and from our sources in the Dien Bien province area of Vietnam and the border area with Laos,” Ms. Lee stated. “Another Hmong person is on the verge of death from her wounds inflicted by any AK-47 army rifle-butt and bayonet”

“We know that the Army has falsely accused the Vietnamese and Hmong people engaged in the recent protests and rallies and has moved in many armored vehicles and trucks to take the Hmong people away to unknown locations in Vietnam, or Laos, where they may be tortured or killed, or simply disappear,” Lee concluded.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam's (SRV) information ministry, and military officials charged with suppressing the open uprising against the government in Northern Vietnam, have accused the protesters of being irredentists, which the Hmong in Dien Bein province have denied and deemed propaganda. http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/136155-1304626071-vietnam-peoples-army-attacks-peaceful-hmong-demonstrators.html
“The situation is in flux in Northern Vietnam, but presently, we know that 21 more Hmong have been killed by Vietnam People's Army soldiers and police in Dien Bien Province in the last 24 hours,” said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy (CPPA) in Washington, D.C.
http://www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

“Currently, a total of at least 49 Hmong people are known to have been killed by Vietnam People's Army troops and special police since Hanoi's crackdown was launched by the military against peaceful Hmong demonstrators,” Smith commented.

“At the height of the rallies, the Hmong demonstrations for land reform and religious freedom involved more that 8,500 people in Dien Bien province and the Dien Bien Phu area along the border of Vietnam and Laos,” Smith said. “The Hmong were peacefully calling for basic human rights and government reform.”

“We have received credible reports that 1263 Hmong have been arrested and loaded onto military trucks where they are being sent to unknown locations by Vietnam People's Army soldiers and special paramilitary police,” Smith stated.

“Most of the Hmong killed and wounded in recent days by the Vietnamese troops suffered gunshot wounds from automatic weapons, or were apparently beaten and bayoneted to death,” Smith said.

“Unfortunately, thousands of Vietnamese soldiers and police began attacking the Hmong demonstrators to try to disperse the crowds voicing calls for land reform, human rights and religious freedom,” Smith commented. “We are urging the government of Vietnam and the Army to immediately cease these senseless and blood attacks against the Hmong protesters and their families.

“Casualties continue to mount and more Hmong demonstrators have disappeared at the hands of Vietnamese security forces as Hanoi seeks to seal the area off and pursue the people into the mountains and jungles,:” Smith observed.

“We have reports that over 1263 Hmong demonstrators are missing at the hands of Vietnamese People's Army soldiers and secret police who have brought in military trucks to force Hmong protesters arrested, ” Smith concluded.

The ongoing religious persecution of minority Christians and independent Animist, and Buddhist believers, by the state security apparatus and military in Vietnam, and Laos, remains problemati and is a serious problem for the Hmong and other ethnic groups..
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1105/S00090/vietnam-laos-uprising-28-hmong-protesters-killed.htm

According to the CPPA and other sources, at least seventeen Viet-Hmong Christians were killed and 33 wounded on May 3rd in the Dien Bien Province, and Dien Bein Phu, areas of Vietnam bordering Laos n attacks by VPA military forces. All of these people were independent Catholic and Protestant Christian believers. Additionally, eleven independent Viet-Hmong animist believers were also known, and confirmed, to have been killed on the same day by Vietnam People's Army forces.