The Forgotten Montagnard, Degar, and Other Minorities of Vietnam

Twenty years after the post–war normalisation of Vietnam–US ties, the two countries are increasingly close. This process has sped up with China’s moves in the South The far east Sea since 2014, although numerous issues still hold the connection back:  Vietnam wants the embargo upon weapons sales gone and the United States wants to see a noticable difference in human rights.

The issues that previously have stood in the way of closer bilaterals ties have largely been, for Vietnam, the legacies of war. These legacies and their effects upon the post–war era are most often seen through the zoom lens of what the Americans left out, including unexploded ordnance and Agent Orange.

The US–Vietnam Joint Vision Statement, launched as Communist Party of Vietnam Common Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited the Whitened House to meet with President Obama, states that: ‘The achievements within United States–Vietnam relations are possible thanks to constructive joint initiatives to rise above the past, conquer differences, and promote shared interests looking toward the future’.

Yet rarely is the war heritage understood in terms of religious persecution. However, the central highlands hill people who converted to Protestantism and assisted American forces remain a few of the poorest, most isolated and in Vietnam today.

The persecution of the ‘Montagnards’ – a catch–all term used by the French for hill tribe minority teams – has been in the news this year as groups of Gia Rai (a central Vietnam local group) have been sneaking into Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province and declaring refugee status due to religious persecution. Phnom Penh offers rebuffed them, leaving human legal rights and refugee groups outraged. Roughly 85 are.

Meanwhile, Hanoi is reducing back on repression as scarves with the United States once again grow and the Trans–Pacific Partnership is finally being fast–tracked in america Congress. A high profile Catholic blogger was released from prison recently, even though former political prisoner Cu Huy ‘ Vu has claimed that political criminals are collected as helpful bargaining chips by Hanoi.

Religious persecution within Vietnam is important to the United States. The persecution of Protestant hill tribes gets less attention than the locking up of politically engaged and informed bloggers, some of whom tend to be religious. In many cases, US missionaries converted these people and many later fought for US forces in main Vietnam. Like other Vietnamese, they are suffering even generations on. Nevertheless, this is not the first order of economic when the issue of higher ties versus less oppression comes up.

Though the term ‘Montagnard’ is generally utilized by western news, it is more often reserved for those in the northern mountains near the Chinese edge, while ‘Degar’ is more traditionally requested those in the remote central areas bordering Laos and Cambodia.

The Cham, a now mostly Muslim team who once had an empire that stretched through central and South Vietnam, fall into neither class. The same is true of the Hoa, ethnic Chinese with a long history in Vietnam who have also suffered at varied times post–1974. However, both the Dao and the Hmong, who migrated from China from the middle of the 19th century, as well as the Gia Rai, the central–dwelling indigenous group, belong to the same state–mandated appellations despite their varied backgrounds and significantly differing cultures.

The US government has been doing much good work, helped together by a vocal and well–organized diaspora, on religious oppression in Vietnam. Wikileaks has revealed details of All of us investigations into religious tolerance at a local level across northern Vietnam. The conclusion of these investigations was that freedom or lack of it at this degree was partly a product associated with distant directives from Hanoi but centred much more upon the goodwill of local officials; some hindered Christian ceremonies whilst one man used to attend them as a sign of good will.

However, the problems for those in the highlands go back to the 1950s, when the communists started land confiscation and relocation associated with ethnic minorities, along with focusing on Christian groups. The groups formed the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO) in 1958. With a common religious history, they later helped america in the deep jungles. Many groups were Protestant, Tin Lanh or even Catholic. Many other groups also assisted Vietnamese forces.

While many of the ethnic minority people – some 40,Thousand of whom fought for the United States – might have left Vietnam post–1975, there has been small concerted help for them since. Compare this with Laos, where Hmong will also be persecuted. General Vang Pao, the Hmong warlord that assisted in America’s ‘secret war’ in Laos and Cambodia, gained US citizenship and was commemorated at Arlington on his death a few years ago. There’s a small but concerted team in the US campaigning for Hmong rights within Laos, but the same issue rarely comes up in any public or meaningful way in US–Vietnam dialogues.

Today many of these group peoples remain poor, isolated, and often have their lands confiscated. Travel to parts of Vietnam’s central highlands is still forbidden, making it hard to even verify human rights abuses. As much as Catholics in northern central Nghe An province nevertheless suffer setbacks generations on – for instance, a poor family report may prevent a person from acquiring better work or training – so too do groups who have had passing alliances with either FULRO or the United States. The United States knows this, however a lack of accessibility means verification is harder and it is simpler to argue for bloggers.

The wedding anniversary of normalised ties and Common Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s visit to the US may once again bring up human rights and the legacies of war but it is unlikely that the minority groups affected by this particular, unfortunate intersection of the two will see much progress.

Minorities forgotten as Vietnam–US ties improve is republished along with permission from East Asia Forum