TIGHT LIPPED DEPORTEES IN GIA LAI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HO CHI MINH CITY 000880 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF PHUM CB VM SUBJECT: TIGHT LIPPED DEPORTEES IN GIA LAI 1.(SBU) Summary: During their August 13-15 visit to the Central Highland province of Gia Lai, HRS Chief and Poloff spoke with four individuals, including two heads of household, from the Jarai ethnic minority who had been repatriated to Vietnam in January after failing to obtain refugee status in Cambodia. A planned visit with another family on the 14th proved impossible because they had "doubled back" in April. The visit accounted for thirteen of the 34 individuals repatriated this year. All of those we met were extremely poor and none indicated that they had fled to Cambodia to escape persecution of any kind. One said that police had hit him three or four times during an interrogation after he returned to Vietnam. None of the other three indicated that they had been abused by authorities in any way before they left or after they returned, but for unknown reasons, they appeared reluctant to provide much information. Two said that they had received GVN assistance since their return. We will need to make more monitoring visits to the area before we can determine whether there are any trends underlying the circumstances of these returnees and others like them. The USG strategy of monitoring closely events in the Highlands, combined with encouraging more foreign access to, and stimulating education and economic opportunities for, ethnic minority communities remain key to minimizing whatever problems may exist and to improving the lives of these individuals. End Summary. ¶2. (U) As part of a longer trip to Gia Lai (septel),HRS Chief and Poloff traveled to Ia Grai and Duc Co districts to monitor the conditions of thirteen Jarai individuals repatriated in January from Cambodia under the Tri-Partite Agreement between UNHCR, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Seven in Ia Grai were voluntary returnees and lived within 150 meters of each other in Bi hamlet, Ia O village. They had arrived in Phnom Penh on September 2, 2006, and voluntarily repatriated together on January 12 of this year. Before going to Bi hamlet, ConGenoffs spoke to District People's Committee Chairman Bui Ngoc Son. Son informed us that one family we intended to visit had returned to Cambodia on April 8. He also said that there were other returnees from Ia Grai who had doubled back to Cambodia including some who originally had left in 2005. The Voluntary Returnee and the "Double Backers" -------------- -- ¶3. (SBU) In Bi hamlet, we met with returnee Siu Blol and several members of his family. Originally Blol and two of his sons (Ksor Heunh and Ksor Lan, see below) had gone to Cambodia together with neighbor Rolan Loc and three of Loc's sons. Subsequently, both families voluntarily returned to Vietnam. In April, son Ksor Heunh (DOB 07 April 1989) accompanied the Rolan Loc family when they returned to Cambodia. Also joining the group was yet another of Blol's sons -- Ksor Huon (DOB 18 August 1982) -- who had not accompanied his father on the previous trip. Meanwhile, Ksor Lan, the other brother who had originally gone with Blol to and from Cambodia, reportedly was still in Bi village, although not living in his father's house. Blol said that he did not know why sons Heunh and Huon had gone to Cambodia, nor did he know why Rolan Loc had doubled back. However, Blol added that the only reason Heunh had returned voluntarily the first time was because of his own decision to do so. ¶4. (SBU) Despite being asked several times, Blol did not provide any clear reason for going to Cambodia in the first place. Nor did he explain why he volunteered to repatriate after four months. He said that he was not religious, but that he had followed "Protestants" to Cambodia. He had not been afraid of GVN officials before he left, but after he arrived in Cambodia he was afraid that he would be under surveillance if he went back. ¶5. (SBU) Blol had lived in Cambodia prior to 1978 when he fled the Khmer Rouge. He had no education because there were no schools where he lived in Cambodia. We spoke directly with Blol in Vietnamese with two village elders occasionally interjecting in mixed Vietnamese and Jarai. Blol was initially rather guarded in his responses, but then opened up. He has about four hectares of titled land on which he cultivates cashews and cassava. The cashew trees are three or four years old; his farm income amounts to about USD 250 per year. He has seven children, one in Seventh grade and another in Fifth. Double backer son Heunh completed Fifth grade, but returned son Lan "cannot stand school." ¶6. (SBU) Blol reported that he had not received any assistance from the government before or after he went to Cambodia. We asked him specifically about the various GVN programs for ethnic minorities, but he repeated that he had not received any help. Two local elders disputed that, saying, "Don't you remember? HO CHI MIN 00000880 002 OF 004 Yes, you have received help." Blol was adamant and the elders gave up. ¶7. (SBU) Although he initially had little to say about his treatment after returning, when asked what he wanted to tell us, Blol volunteered that district-level police had hit him three or four times on the hands and ears during an interrogation in April. He also said that police had questioned him once since then at the local police station and another time at a border post. (Note: All of these were around the time that Rolan Loc and two of Blol's sons went to Cambodia, although Blol did not make a link. Blol's village is about two hours walk from the Cambodian border. The district center is farther inside Vietnam and there are two "border" posts between the two places. End note.) He was questioned all three times about why he left Vietnam. He said that police were frustrated with his vague responses, so they hit him. Blol's account of this was very matter-of-fact and he did not appear to be particularly upset about it. Village elders had no reaction to this. ¶8. (SBU) HRS staff overheard a local official asking villagers how the double backers returned to Cambodia. According to the response, they had crossed the border from Tay Ninh province, south of the Central Highlands. ¶9. (SBU) Blol expressed concern for his two sons in Cambodia and asked us to pass a message to them: "The GVN does not do anything to you when you return." He wondered how they could come back to Vietnam. ¶10. (SBU) Blol did not appear to be afraid of ill-treatment, but he was also skeptical of the GVN and appeared to prefer independence to receiving assistance from the government. Two Young Deportees -------------- ¶11. (SBU) On January 22, 2007, eight deportees were returned to Vietnam from Cambodia, most of them from Duc Co district in Gia Lai. Two relatively young deportees, Rmah Phyeo and Rocham Chinh (aka Rocham Jinh),were from Ba hamlet, Ia Pnon village. We visited both at their homes on the afternoon of August 14. ¶12. (SBU) Arriving at the family home Rmah Phyeo shares with her parents and siblings, we found her sitting inside an internal doorway with her mother between her and everyone else. She would scarcely look at any of the visitors and eventually sat with her face turned away and covered by her hand. She acknowledged her name and that she had been in Cambodia, but said nothing else audible to us. After several failed attempts to make her more comfortable, we left her alone and talked to her father. Our primary impression, based on demeanor evidence, was that she was extremely embarrassed and too ashamed to talk to us. She would not say why she would not speak with us, nor would she answer any other questions. Her parents, on the other hand, appeared relaxed, and were willing to speak with us. ¶13. (SBU) While Poloff engaged the local elders, Refcoord spoke with Rmah Phyeo's father. He would not comment on why his daughter would not speak to us. He said that police had visited Rmah Phyeo two or three times after she returned to ask why she had gone to Cambodia. According to her father, she had simply followed some other people and did not have a clear motive. Of his three children, she was the only one with an education, having completed Fourth grade. She and her siblings, along with their grandparents, are Catholic, attending services at a house in Ba hamlet on Saturday and Sunday. Her father had served a tour in the Vietnamese army from 1978. The family has a farm of 0.8 hectares, upon which they grow cassava. They had not received any particular government assistance since her return from Cambodia. Both Rmah Phyeo and her father understood and spoke Vietnamese. They have no family members overseas. ¶14. (SBU) When asked about living conditions in Ba, the hamlet chief spoke at length about the local rubber plantation. In 1997, more than 30 local families had transferred their titled land to the then-new rubber plantation. They did not receive any compensation for their land, but they were given jobs clearing the land and planting and caring for the trees. However, when the plantation began harvesting, many of them were told that they were not "suitable" and were replaced by "Northerners." Although some native residents still work on the plantation, the hamlet chief complained that their pay is docked if they missed a day or two of work. He said that they had complained to officials up to the district level about losing their land. There has never been a response to their complaints. The chief admitted that living conditions had improved in many respects since the plantation arrived. There were more services and the company provided food aid. HO CHI MIN 00000880 003 OF 004 ¶15. (SBU) Rocham Chinh is apparently known as "Jin" or "Jinh" in Ba Hamlet and so local officials were not certain he was the person we sought to interview. However, based on his age and the time when he was in Cambodia, it appears that the two are the same. We spoke to him outside his home with hamlet elders, local officials, and an elderly female relative in view, but out of earshot for at least part of the conversation. We had to remind local officials that the interview was supposed to be private. Rocham Jin's demeanor exhibited discomfort, perhaps considerable embarrassment, and possibly fear. We do not know why he was so uncomfortable. He speaks and understands Vietnamese, although he has had no education. His family has no land and his father is deceased. His concept of time seemed very vague. He said that he had become a Protestant about a year ago, but he was not able to tell us if that was before, during, or after his time in Cambodia. He was not able to clearly answer when he had returned from Cambodia. He would not answer why he went to Cambodia or what he hoped would happen when he got there. He said that he was not afraid to answer our questions, but most of his answers were, "I do not know," spoken in an almost inaudible voice. ¶16. (SBU) "I do not know" was also his answer to whether he had received assistance from the GVN after his return. Village elders told us that he and his mother had received a loan to build a house and pointed out the new, but small, concrete walled and tin roofed building Rocham Jin had been inside before we arrived. The family had also reportedly received a cow. He did not provide a meaningful answer to whether anything had happened to him since his return to Cambodia. A Family Dispute -------------- ¶17. (SBU) Rmah Su and his family, of Bon hamlet, Ia Tuk village were the final returnees we met. He, his wife, and two children were deported in January after spending about a year in Cambodia. He spoke with us in Vietnamese outside of his house with a village elder nearby and local officials visible, but out of earshot. His wife and children were also present. Rmah Su described himself as a farmer with about 0.8 hectares of land planted in cashews. He earns about 600,000 VND (USD 38) a year from these and makes most of his income working as a day laborer for an ethnic majority Kinh resident of the hamlet. He completed Fifth grade; his wife has had no education. He said he expected their oldest child to begin First grade in September. The school is a few minutes walk away. ¶18. (SBU) Rmah Su said he joined other people who left the village after he had a dispute with his siblings over land. They told him to leave. He said he had not been mistreated by the authorities before or after he went to Cambodia. He has a younger sister overseas, but he does not know in which country. Her husband left first and then sponsored her to join him. Rmah Su did not appear to know any other details about how his sister left. He was religious before he was married, but ceased practicing when he moved to Bon hamlet. (Note: Customarily when Jarai marry, the new husband moves to his wife's community. End note.) His wife was not then, and is not now, religious. ¶19. (SBU) Since returning to Vietnam, Rmah Su said that the government had treated him "alright." He initially said that he had not received any assistance since his return, but the village elder remarked that Rmah Su had received a loan for 8 million VND ($500) to build a new house and drill a well. At the time of our visit, the well was complete and bricks for the new house were piled in front of the tin shack he had built eight years earlier when newly married. ¶20. (SBU) While Rmah Su was a good deal more communicative than Rmah Phyeo and Rocham Jin, his answers to our questions were terse and his demeanor suggested that he was uncomfortable in our presence. Follow-up questions were necessary to learn more than basic information about his situation. Comment -------------- ¶21. (SBU) We do not know why the deportees we met on this trip were so ill at ease and unwilling to speak with us. Previous experience suggests that returnees, especially deportees, may be ashamed and embarrassed within their communities because they either did not succeed in their goal of being resettled or were "fooled" by those who convinced them to cross the border. A monitoring visit can remind them of that shame. The contrasting behavior of Rmah Phyeo and her parents fits this hypothesis. Similarly, while Rmah Su was not enthusiastic about speaking with us, his wife did not appear tense. Siu Blol was among the HO CHI MIN 00000880 004 OF 004 more outspoken returnees we have visited, but he returned voluntarily, is more mature, and was in Cambodia for only about four months. Local officials sometimes play up the shame theme, although they did not mention it on this trip. We approached this explanation skeptically, but have come to believe it is a valid factor. ¶22. (SBU) Many things could account for the reticence of this set of deportees, but their very unwillingness to speak to us makes it difficult to understand their situations. There is little that can be ruled out. Our current policy of more monitoring trips, encouraging more foreign access to the Central Highlands, and the stimulation of education and economic opportunities for ethnic minority communities remain key to minimizing whatever problems may exist in the area and to improving the lives of these individuals. End Comment. FAIRFAX