On July 19, more than 100 Vietnamese Montagnards emerged from the Cambodian jungle to seek U.N. refugee assistance, according to officials from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The Cambodian government is giving the UNHCR one month to find a country that is willing to resettle the refugees before they are sent back to Vietnam. More than 220 additional Montagnard refugees have appeared from the jungle since July 19, around 100 of whom have managed to reach Phnom Penh to claim asylum. Human rights groups estimate at least 200 more are hiding in the region.
The indigenous Montagnard people comprise more than 30 tribal groups based in the central highlands of Vietnam, and number about 600,000 total. About 400,000 or more are Christians, with significant numbers of both Protestants and Catholics. During the Vietnam War many Montagnards were recruited to assist United States forces. After the communist victory in 1975, the Vietnamese government began a campaign of revenge against the Montagnards for having aided the Americans. The Montagnards have long suffered political and cultural oppression, which has forced them to move from their homeland in Vietnam and assimilate.
The most recent attack on the Montagnards occured on April 10 and April 11, when Vietnamese police and pro-government groups used tear gas and truncheons to break up the "anti-government" and "counter-revolutionary" Montagnard demonstrators who were demanding religious freedom, independence, and the return of their ancestral lands.
