Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06HOCHIMINHCITY1243
2006-10-31 07:19:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Ho Chi Minh City
Cable title:  

ADJUDICATING ETHNIC MINORITY PRIORITY-ONE REFUGEE CASES

Tags:  PHUM PINR SOCI PREL KIRF PGOV PREF VM 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO4761
PP RUEHHM
DE RUEHHM #1243/01 3040719
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 310719Z OCT 06
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1692
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 1187
RUEHPF/AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH PRIORITY 0007
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 1781
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001243 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS, EAP, DRL, DRL/IRF, PRM, L

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/25/2016
TAGS: PHUM PINR SOCI PREL KIRF PGOV PREF VM
SUBJECT: ADJUDICATING ETHNIC MINORITY PRIORITY-ONE REFUGEE CASES

Classified By: Consul General Seth Winnick for reasons 1.5 b/d.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001243

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS, EAP, DRL, DRL/IRF, PRM, L

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/25/2016
TAGS: PHUM PINR SOCI PREL KIRF PGOV PREF VM
SUBJECT: ADJUDICATING ETHNIC MINORITY PRIORITY-ONE REFUGEE CASES

Classified By: Consul General Seth Winnick for reasons 1.5 b/d.


1. (U) This is an action request. Please see paragraphs 11, 12
and 13.


2. (C) Over the past few months, the Mission P-1 Committee has
been working to develop information on a potential political
refugee (P-1 visa) case involving an ethnic minority individual
from the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong. The individual
in question, Y Than, in his early 20s, is the son of the Chief
Pastor of the GVN-recognized Southern Evangelical Church of
Vietnam (SECV) in the province. In mid-July, Y Than and his
mother -- a deacon in the SECV -- contacted us to complain of a
sharp increase in police harassment. Y Than, who headed the
SECV youth wing in the province, was being summoned by police
for multiple interrogation sessions, some lasting a few days.
Three friends, also reportedly affiliated with the SECV were
detained. The four men were being interrogated about suspected
links to ethnic minority separatist groups. Police informed Y
Than's parents that they believed he had violated Vietnamese law
by communicating with ethnic minority activists living in the
United States and by using money received via wire transfer from
the U.S. to fund anti-government activities.


3. (C) Mother and son denied any involvement with separatist
groups. They said that Y Than shuttled ethnic minority
individuals from the Central Highlands to HCMC for medical
treatment and helped ethnic minority families with relatives in
the U.S. to collect remittances. These families were too
uneducated or too scared to collect funds on their own, Y Than
said. (Comment: We have interviewed dozens of other ethnic
minority families with relatives in the United States in private
in HCMC as they apply for family reunification under the
VISAS-93 program. Many of these individuals are marginally

educated at best, but very few have reported any problems in
securing their remittances on their own. End Comment.)


4. (C) Y Than was remanded to his parents' custody, but is
periodically called in for questioning. He noted that his
father's prominent position in the church has kept him out of
jail thus far. However, police scrutiny was so intense that, in
effect, he was under house arrest and had to discontinue his
church activities.


5. (C) Y Than explained that his troubles with the Vietnamese
government began in June 2001 when he crossed into Cambodia to
seek resettlement in the United States "at the behest of
friends." An uncle separately also had crossed to Cambodia
earlier in the year and was in a refugee camp. Y Than said he
did not participate in anti-Government protests in February 2001
or in April 2004 organized by separatist organizations,
maintaining that there were no such demonstrations in the area.


6. (C) Y Than said that his uncle was resettled in the United
States. However, Y Than decided to return in March 2002, after
appears from the GVN and his family. He claimed that he feared
that, if he did not return, the government would retaliate
against his family. His family received assurances that he
would not face police pressure after his return. After two
months, police required him to submit detailed reports of his
activities to the local government every three months and to the
provincial government every year. However, until mid-2006,
there was no additional police pressure and the family noted
that conditions for the Protestant church in the province are
gradually improving.


7. (C) Y Than noted that in mid-2006, he had spoken via cell
phone with his uncle in Greensboro, North Carolina. He denied
that his uncle was a member of any organization that supported
ethnic minority separatism inside Vietnam. He said he briefed
his uncle about religious freedom restrictions, disputes over
land between ethnic minorities and ethnic Vietnamese migrants in
the Central highlands and on whether the provincial government
was providing land to ethnic minorities in accordance with GVN
policy.

COMPLICATIONS AND HOLES IN THE STORY
--------------


8. (C) Based on Y Than's statement and our general knowledge of
conditions in the Central highlands we filed a P-1 nomination on
Y Than's behalf. However, as we pursued the case,
inconsistencies and questions emerged. For example, Y Than's
father and national representatives of the SECV baulked at
raising Y Than's problems with police with more senior GVN
officials. (Comment: The refusal of the SECV national board to
involve itself in the case is significant. In other cases, the
national board has intervened with provincial and central
government officials to resolve religious freedom incidents
involving ethnic minorities elsewhere in southern Vietnam. SECV

HO CHI MIN 00001243 002 OF 002


pastors have told us that some of their officials, especially in
Dak Lak and Dak Nong provinces were involved the separatist
movement in the past, complicating their ability to legalize the
status of some congregations in the Central Highlands. End
Comment.)


9. (C) Additionally, one of our most reliable contacts in the
Central Highlands and a senior member of the SECV, told us that
Y Than's family told him privately that their son was involved
with a separatist cell in the province. His parents tried to
discourage his participation, but to no avail. Our contact said
that he did not know the specifics of the activities of the
group with which Y Than was involved.

A Wide Range of Possible Activities
--------------


10. (SBU) Speaking to us in general about the activities of the
separatist groups, Vietnamese government officials say that
these groups have organized protests and sought to invite
violence -- sometimes using knives, dynamite and homemade
weapons -- to try and destabilize the Central Highlands and
invite international intervention. Activists reportedly
clandestinely distributed maps of the Central Highlands
delineating the area of an ethnic minority state. According to
the government, some activist organizations use symbols closely
resembling the flag of "FULRO," which conducted an armed
insurgency against the GVN in the Central Highlands until 1992.
Government officials also allege that separatist operatives
spread the word that "GVN collaborators" in the ethnic minority
community will "lose their land and be kicked of the Central
Highlands" along with the ethnic Vietnamese. Such operatives
have threatened village elders and church leaders who did not
support the separatist movement reportedly. The government also
alleges that some ethnic minority advocacy groups in the U.S.
divert donations for development to fund anti-GVN activities.
The GVN has not shown us any physical evidence to support its
claims, although it is clear that GVN intelligence and police
heavily target the separatist movement. (Note: The GVN does not
differentiate between peaceful political activism -- organizing
peaceful protests to demand ethnic minority rights -- and what
we would view as proscribed activities, such as inviting
violence. End Note.)


11. (C) Action Request: In other P-1 cases that the Mission P-1
Committee has adjudicated -- principally involving political and
religious freedom activists -- we looked at two basic criteria:

-- Whether the individual has a well-founded fear of persecution
in Vietnam, and,

-- Whether the activities of the individual were permissible in
the United States, for example, engaging in activities that
would be considered protected speech.


12. (C) Y Than undoubtedly has a well-founded fear of
prosecution, if not persecution, should he remain in Vietnam.
However, it is not clear to us whether Y Than's activates would
be proscribed in the United States. Our sense is that Y Than
likely was involved in political activities that sought to
promote a sense of ethnic minority exlusivism and the creation
on an independent ethnic minority state. Such activities could
promote tension and violence inside Vietnam, and run contrary to
USG policy upholding the territorial integrity of Vietnam. His
activities may have gone further than that. However, it is
unlikely that we will ever be able to document Y Than's precise
actions.


13. (C) A further area of uncertainty is the applicability of
the Lautenberg Amendment to this case and other possible cases
involving the estimated 1.1 million ethnic minority individuals
(sometimes referred to as "Montagnards") from the Central
Highlands. Does Y Than fall under the scope of the Lautenberg
Amendment -- although neither he, nor his family have any
apparent Vietnam War-era association with U.S. force? If so,
then what are the implications for P-1 Committee deliberations
on the merits of his case? Mission P-1 Committee requests
Department's legal and policy guidance on the case of Y Than,
which would then serve as a guide for evaluating cases involving
WINNICK