by Ian Timberlake
(AFP)
HANOI - Vietnamese soldiers clashed with ethnic Hmong after thousands staged a rare protest in a remote mountain area calling for greater autonomy and religious freedom, a military source said Thursday.
The Vietnamese army sent troop reinforcements after the demonstrations broke out several days ago in Dien Bien province in the far northwest of the communist nation near the border with China and Laos.
Soldiers "had to disperse the crowd by force", according to the military source, who did not provide details of any casualties or the number of troops involved.
"Minor clashes occurred between the Hmong and security forces," he added.
Protesters numbered in their thousands and "the army had to intervene to prevent these troubles from spreading", the source said.
It is Vietnam's worst known case of ethnic unrest since protests in 2001 and 2004 in the Central Highlands by the Montagnards, about 1,700 of whom fled to Cambodia after troops crushed protests against land confiscation and religious persecution.
The mainly Christian Hmong are a Southeast Asian ethnic group who helped US forces against North Vietnam during the secret wartime campaign in Laos and faced retribution after the communist takeover.
The isolated but scenic Dien Bien region is normally popular with Vietnamese travellers, some of whom warned each other on a chat room to stay away from the area because of a "Hmong uprising".
Other postings on the same topic had been removed, as sometimes happens in Vietnam when controversial issues are reported online.
The US-based Center for Public Policy Analysis, an outspoken supporter of the Hmong cause whose claims cannot be independently verified, said 28 protesters had been killed and hundreds were missing.
In a statement from the Center, Christy Lee, executive director of the Washington-based campaign group Hmong Advance, cited "credible reports" of a major crackdown.
The operation was in response to Hmong people's protests for land reform, their opposition to illegal logging, "or because of their independent Christian and Animist religious beliefs", Lee said.
A local official in Muong Nhe district, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of Dien Bien town, told AFP that more than 3,000 Hmong were still gathered on Thursday.
"The situation is complicated," he said, denying their action was a protest. "We don't know what they want."
AFP reached the province's police chief but the line went dead when he was asked about the gathering. He said things were "good" in the area.
Local authorities had detained several people and opened an investigation, the military source said, adding the Hmong were "incited" by local people wishing to exploit the May 7 anniversary of Vietnam's victory over French colonial forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
"We are very concerned," the military source said. "On Thursday the situation is generally stable but we don't know what will happen tomorrow.
"The Hmong called for freedom of belief and the setting up of a locally autonomous region," the source said.
Vietnam is a one-party state dominated by the majority Kinh ethnic group. Public gatherings are strictly controlled and all traditional media are linked to the regime.
The country's 53 minority groups number nearly 10 million out of a population of 86 million, according to a 2009 World Bank report which listed almost 790,000 Hmong.
That report said Vietnam's ethnic minorities have a poverty rate more than five times that of the majority. But the government has said reducing ethnic poverty has been a constant priority over recent few years.
No comments:
Post a Comment