UNHCR ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER IN VIETNAM

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000992

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS and PRM

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PREF VM CB
SUBJECT: UNHCR ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER IN VIETNAM

Ref: A) Phnom Penh 767; B) Hanoi 584 and previous

HANOI 00000992 001.2 OF 002


Summary
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1. (SBU) UNHCR's Assistant Commissioner for Protection Erika
Feller visted Gia Lai Province April 26-27 and met Vice
Foreign Minister Nguyen Phu Binh April 28. While in Gia
Lai, she met with six returnees (including two individuals
who were singled out by Human Rights Watch),who described
their reasons for crossing into Cambodia as strictly
economic and who had no complaints about their treatment
since returning to Vietnam. Based on her direct
observations and understanding, the situation in the Central
Highlands is "not essentially a refugee producing one," she
said. Meeting with VFM Binh, she suggested working-level
discussions on the issues of UNHCR access to detained
returnees, more streamlined procedures for arranging
monitoring visits and addressing accusations of mistreatment
when they arise. On the subject of Khmer Krom in southern
Vietnam, VFM Binh said that the GVN is prepared to allow
9,700 of these individuals access to Vietnamese nationality.
Although the Tripartite MOU has "run its course," it has
left in place a useful framework with which the GVN also
appears to be comfortable, she said. End Summary.


2. (SBU) During meetings with Pol/C and, separately,
interested diplomatic representatives on April 28, Assistant
Commissioner Feller discussed her visit to Gia Lai Province
and subsequent meeting with Vice Foreign Minister Nguyen Phu
Binh. She was accompanied by: Regional Representative
Hasim Utkan; Jennifer Pagonis, Deputy Head of International
Protection Section, UNHCR HQ; Mr. Jon Hoisaeter, Executive
Assistant to Ms. Feller; and, Mr. Vu Anh Son, Hanoi Chief of
Mission. Assistant Commissioner Feller described her visit
to Vietnam as an assessment of the Tripartite MOU among
Vietnam, Cambodia and UNHCR, which she negotiated and signed
over a year ago. Her belief is that signing the MOU was the
right thing to do considering its success in addressing the
needs of ethnic minorities who had entered Cambodia and
returned to Vietnam. It was also the right thing to do
because of its contribution to a considerable improvement in
UNHCR's relations with Vietnam and, to a lesser extent, with
Cambodia. The MOU is not perfect, as no compromise document
ever is, but it was also not difficult to justify, she said.
Based on her direct observations and understanding of the
situation, the situation in the Central Highlands is "not
essentially a refugee producing one," she said.

Gia Lai Province
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3. (SBU) During the Assistant Commissioner's two-day visit
to Gia Lai Province, she met with the People's Committee
chairman and six returnees, two of whom U.S. Mission
monitoring teams had previously met. (Note: Vietnam Chief
of Mission Vu Anh Son promised to provide us with further
details, including the names of the six. End Note.) This
group of six included both voluntary and involuntary
returnees, and the UNHCR team was able to secure a number of
private interviews. All six returnees said that they
departed Vietnam for Cambodia for economic reasons, Feller
said. They wanted to return to Vietnam because they were
disappointed with the situation in Cambodia and missed their
families. None of the returnees indicated a desire to be
resettled to the United States or elsewhere. When asked who
told them their economic prospects would be better in
Cambodia, the returnees responded that "people" came to
their village and told them. According to Feller, neither
religion nor land issues were raised as the "proximate
reasons" for the six wanting to leave Vietnam.


4. (SBU) None of the six indicated that they had been
harassed or discriminated against by local authorities after
returning to Vietnam, Feller continued. Two of the
individuals she met had been singled out by Human Rights
Watch as having suffered mistreatment. They both denied
being mistreated and questioned the origins of these
"rumors." In fact, in Gia Lai, there appeared to be signs
of "positive discrimination," in which returnees receive
rice and other goods. In the case of one individual, the
local authorities had helped him to find employment at a
State-owned rubber plantation. In another case, the
authorities helped a returnee to buy back the land that he
had sold prior to leaving for Cambodia.


5. (SBU) During her meeting with the Gia Lai People's
Committee chairman, the Assistant Commissioner pressed for

HANOI 00000992 002.2 OF 002


access to one returnee who is now under detention. The
official would not say anything about the case save that
this person is under investigation for "receiving money to
take people to Cambodia." Notably, the chairman expressed
some frustration with the number of monitoring visits,
Feller said. In her briefing for the diplomatic corps, the
Assistant Commissioner suggested that monitoring could
indeed be disruptive to individuals who are trying to
reintegrate and lead normal lives, but UNHCR will continue
its monitoring with the goal of interviewing 100 percent of
the returnees (UNHCR calculates that, over 11 missions to
date, it has met 64 percent of the returnees).

Meeting with VFM Binh
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6. (SBU) During her "positive" meeting with Vice Foreign
Minister Nguyen Phu Binh, the Assistant Commissioner
suggested working-level discussions on the issues of UNHCR
access to detained returnees, more streamlined procedures
for arranging monitoring visits and addressing accusations
of mistreatment when they arise. There has to date only
been one individual detained since his return from Cambodia,
but because he was returned to Vietnam under the auspices of
the MOU, UNHCR still considers him to be a person of
concern. VFM Binh agreed that these working-level
discussions would be possible, she said.


7. (SBU) Feller also raised with VFM Binh the issue of
stateless Khmer Krom in southern Vietnam. VFM Binh said
that the GVN is prepared to allow 9,700 of these individuals
access to Vietnamese nationality. For its part, Cambodia
agreed to cooperate to provide in groups or individually
assurances that these people are not Cambodian citizens,
Feller related.

MOU Has Run Its Course
--------------


8. (SBU) Feller said that the Tripartite MOU "has run its
course," but it remains a valuable and important framework
for responding to issues in the Central Highlands. The
document has attained a weight at the local level beyond
what was envisaged and remains a good tool for discussion
and training purposes. The Assistant Commissioner said that
the GVN appears comfortable with the modus vivendi that is
now in place, and UNHCR believes that it remains an
"adequate framework" for working with the Government.
However, UNHCR has to be on guard to ensure that people do
not get the impression that the end of the MOU means the end
of the problems it was created to address.

MARINE