UN looks to reach out in Jarai case

Two ethnic Jarai Montagnards claiming to have fled religious persecution in Vietnam may have been arrested by local police in Ratanakkiri province, a rights worker has said.

The UN is seeking to intervene in the case and has requested government cooperation while several more Christian Montagnards are thought to have crossed into Cambodia in recent days, sources told the Post.

“If the arrests were done in secret, then it is a severe violation of their human rights and rights as refugees,” said Chhay Thy, provincial coordinator for local rights group Adhoc.

The Vietnamese authorities in neighbouring Gia Lai province sent a report to their Cambodian counterparts saying that 16 Montagnards had fled to Cambodia, but rights workers and locals have only been in contact with 13 of the refugees, he added.

“We knew about and found only 13 people; we did not know about the other three,” Thy said.

The Montagnards – an umbrella term for ethnic minorities in use since the French colonised Vietnam – who recently fled to Cambodia are all ethnic Jarai, a minority group prevalent in northeastern Cambodia.

Read more at: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/un-looks-reach-out-jarai-case