MONTAGNARD RETURNEES POOR AND FRUSTRATED

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HO CHI MINH CITY 000028 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR PRM/ANE, EAP/MLS, PRM/A, DRL/AWH AND DRL/IRF BANGKOK FOR RMA AND USCIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF PHUM KIRF UNHCR CB VM SUBJECT: MONTAGNARD RETURNEES POOR AND FRUSTRATED HO CHI MIN 00000028 001.2 OF 004 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Home visits from November 24-26 with 28 Montagnards in two of the poorest provinces in Vietnam revealed that economic factors, particularly a desire to escape from poverty, continue to be the main factors that drove these ethnic minority highlanders to flee to Cambodia, with the onward goal of reaching the United States. ConGen officers, accompanied by provincial External Relations Office staff members and a succession of local officials from Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces, spoke at length with these so-called "returnees," Montagnards who have come back home to the Central Highlands after failed attempts to reach the United States via Cambodia. Discussions focused on the returnees' socio-economic conditions, the reasons underlying their travel to Cambodia, their religious lives, and their interactions with local governments before and after going to Cambodia. A gulf of understanding and outlook between returnees and local officials was also often evident. Compared with previous monitoring visits, our meetings with returnees were less private, but the number of security personnel in evidence appeared to be fewer, and the level of local government briefing of returnees was reduced in some cases. Although most returnees were very poor and had too little land to support their families without outside employment, some had clearly made the transition to cash crop production. All recent returnees reporting having paid smugglers to help them reach Phnom Penh; in two cases the smugglers turned traffickers, taking advantage of their clients' vulnerability to take all their money. END SUMMARY ¶2. (SBU) From November 24-26, USCG HCMC staff (DPO, HRS chief and HRS LES) traveled through Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces, accompanied by a variety of local officials, in order to meet with a pre-arranged list of 28 returned Montagnards. The 28 returnees selected for monitoring included 24 who had returned recently from Cambodia -- within weeks or months of our visit -- and who had not been monitored before, as well as four who had returned in 2005 whom we selected for follow-up visits. Of this list of 28, we were able to meet 26, including all the recent returnees and two of the earlier returnees. Additionally, we met with two other persons returned under the 2005 MOU between Cambodia, Vietnam, and UNHCR and one pre-MOU returnee. Finally, we met with family members of one previously monitored returnee who was not in the area, having moved to his wife's village -- some 50 km away from his former home -- since he was last monitored in 2006. The other returnee we were not able to meet reportedly lives at a remote location, several hours of additional travel over roads in bad condition at the end of the rainy season. The 2005 Returnees -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Ksor Khai is a landless agricultural laborer with less than a year of formal education. Rahlan Hying has worked as a rubber tapper since his return and also has a 0.2 hectare pepper grove. Although both received some food assistance and roofing material for their homes after returning, they exhibited little interest in further help from the local authorities. Indeed, both appeared to be trying to live quietly in order to avoid attention from local authorities. Khai reported that he and his wife each earn about $3.50 a day as laborers. Their two younger children are in school, but their two teenagers stopped at Third Grade and do not work. Khai seemed indifferent about education, and his wife openly disdained it. He had little to say about any interaction with local authorities, but expressed thanks that we had visited. His wife, on the other hand, suggested that we not visit again. Hying, working eleven hour days on a rubber plantation, said he earned over $220 (roughly twice the private sector industrial minimum wage) some months, and combined with support from his in-laws, built a relatively large and sturdy three room house in 2006. Both returnees told us they had gone to Cambodia to seek better employment overseas. What They Sought and What They Left Behind -------------- ¶4. (SBU) All returnees who provided clear reasons for going to Cambodia said that they were looking for better employment and that they were inspired by others who had reached the U.S. and were remitting money to their families. Most referred to poverty as the reason they wanted to send money home, but some already had relatively prosperous and stable lives that they wanted to improve. Individuals who returned to established livelihoods in Vietnam had fairly clear ideas about their future plans. They will continue working with their families cultivating cash crops on land they already own or rent. Those who are landless or have too little land for subsistence were less self-assured. Many had arrived back in their villages in October, an awkward time in the agricultural cycle. They had nothing to harvest and were waiting until February for the next planting season, when local governments promised to help them with seeds. HO CHI MIN 00000028 002.2 OF 004 Mostly Money, But Also... -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Four returnees spoke of non-economic reasons for trying to get to the U.S. through Cambodia. One, Siu Chang, was a high school graduate who lived in his father's home. His father reported having tried to cross the border after the 2001 demonstrations in the Central Highlands, only to be caught and jailed for several months. Chang, applying for college at that time, said he had good test scores and hoped to become an English teacher, but was unable to enter because his family was blacklisted due to his father's attempt to cross the border. Chang's father had a few hectares of land, which he began to develop intensively upon getting out of jail, thanks to -- he acknowledged -- considerable help from government anti-poverty programs. Planting pepper, rice, and corn, the father became the wealthiest farmer in the village. He said his annual income is about $4,700, but his neighbors opined that was a very low estimate. Earlier in 2008, he was made the Vice Chairman of the local Farmer's Association. Chang did not provide an explicit reason for wanting to go to America, but indicated that he still wished to get a college education and become a teacher. He spoke some English, and seemed despondent over his inability to rise above his circumstances. He said that since he now had a family, college was no longer a realistic option. ¶6. (SBU) Adrang Y Kat told us he went to Cambodia to escape poverty, but also said he wanted freedom, particularly freedom of religion. He related that he became a Protestant in 1985, but from 1997 experienced difficulty in following his religion because police denounced the open observation of religion and pressured followers to abandon their beliefs. From October 2003 to October 2005, he said, he had to report all his movements to local police and obtain a travel permit before leaving his locality. (Note: Kat lives in La Da hamlet, Ea Drang commune, about two or three kilometers from Ea Hleo town, site of one of the biggest protests in 2001. End note.) He did not report experiencing any other specific problems before he left for Cambodia. ¶7. (SBU) During his repatriation, he said that provincial police confiscated from him a Bible, an English language book, some photographs from the UNHCR sites in Phnom Penh, and a letter with U.S. Consulate General contact information. According to Kat, police did not give any reason for taking the items or say whether he would get them back. When asked, he told us that there were no current restrictions on his activities. Before he was repatriated on October 18, he said that UNHCR officials had told returnees that they would have no problems in Vietnam and that they would have freedom to practice their religion. Without citing specific problems, Kat asked rhetorically in the presence of the district official who accompanied us: what kind of freedom do I have? When asked what his greatest needs were, he said that he wanted freedom of belief and movement, for the police not to interfere with him and his family, and for his children to be educated according to their ability. Kat's oldest and best-educated daughter, who followed him to Cambodia and was also repatriated on October 18, thanked us for our visit. After we left Kat's house, the district official apologized for Kat's statements, explaining that local police had not briefed Kat on what to tell us. We have recommended that UNHCR make a follow-up visit to Kat to speak with him under more private conditions and check whether his belongings have been returned. ¶8. (SBU) We heard an entirely different kind of personal story from a young woman of a relatively well-off family. She had gone to Cambodia primarily to join her "husband," who had gone to the U.S. in June 2006 as a Visas-93 beneficiary. Per Ede custom, the young man was to live in the household of his fiancee for three years before they became legally married. After one year he went with his mother and siblings to join his father in the U.S. It appears that he was still legally unmarried when he left. Post has identified him and informed the returnee about how she could eventually legally join her fiance in the U.S. ¶9. (U) Another returnee told us that he went to Cambodia because he was angry with his family after a drunken fight with his brothers. He said he paid a smuggler about $180 out of his average annual income of $3,000 from coffee and fruit to get him to Phnom Penh. He returned to Vietnam voluntarily after less than two months in Cambodia. Smugglers and Traffickers -------------- ¶10. (SBU) All 26 of the recent returnees went to Cambodia with the assistance of smugglers who took them across the border between Tay Ninh and An Giang provinces in the Mekong Delta. HO CHI MIN 00000028 003.2 OF 004 The normal fee is between $190 and $310 and includes transportation from somewhere on the Vietnamese side of the border to within sight of the UNHCR office in Phnom Penh. Most returnees said their "guides" spoke Khmer and that they traveled in small groups. The smugglers usually had the mobile phone number of one group member. Relatives in the U.S. reportedly helped arrange many of the trips. Two of the more prosperous returnees separately became trafficking victims after their guides threatened to turn them over to Vietnamese police if they did not give up almost all of their money. One man reported losing the equivalent of over $1,800, the other about $700. The latter was on the management board of the local Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV) congregation, but resigned after he returned to Vietnam. His younger brother is a village official. ...and Then the Cop Came -------------- ¶11. (SBU) Three returnees in one family -- the son (17 years old),the daughter (21),and the son-in-law (25),respectively, of a primary school teacher -- told us they went to Cambodia "for fun." The teacher's son-in-law has a sister in the U.S. who may have inspired their trip. They left home without telling their mother. Three days later police informed her that her children had gone to Cambodia. ¶12. (SBU) Local authorities had apparently forgotten about our visit to the family's home and we began our interview accompanied only by two members of the provincial ERO office who simply observed our meetings. After a few minutes, a village policeman arrived and introduced himself. He sat quietly until we asked the three young returnees how much they paid their smuggler to cross the border. After a vague answer from the teacher's son-in-law, the policeman, almost shouting, demanded a more exact response. With the policeman glowering at the abashed returnees, we immediately ended that part of the interview and skipped several possibly sensitive questions. The Religious Dimension -------------- ¶13. (SBU) With some possible exceptions, the returnees appeared to be able to practice their religions mostly as they wished. Adrong Y Kat was the only returnee who complained specifically about religious issues. One of the 2005 returnees described himself as an SECV member, but added that he does not gather with others to worship, "since thinking about religion troubles me." He did not appear comfortable speaking with us, perhaps because local officials were present, so we did not ask him to explain. There were no churches in the villages we visited, so most believers (including Adrong Y Kat) were gathering in homes with government approval, sometimes going to a more distant church. Most said they belonged to the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV),described by some as "Pure Protestantism." The four returnees we visited in Kia hamlet, Nhon Hoa village, Chu Se commune, Gia Lai province said that they were Protestant, but not SECV. The SECV had a meeting point in the community, but their group did not, so they did not gather. We did not ask the school teacher's children (paras 11 and 12) about their religious affiliation. Two others said they were not religious. The Land and Community Dimension -------------- ¶14. (SBU) Most villages we visited were inhabited almost exclusively by Montagnards. The only exception was in an irrigated rice growing area of Krong Ana district. Nine returnees -- eight from Dak Lak -- reported that they had at least one hectare of land. The ninth is Siu Chang, the would-be school teacher son of the wealthiest farmer in his village. Thirteen others have less than one hectare, some reporting as little as 1000 square meters. Four from Gia Lai, including the two 2005 returnees, have no land at all. All of the returnees have electricity in their homes and the homes we saw had televisions and DVD players. The Monitoring Tool -------------- ¶15. (U) For the first time, we used a questionnaire designed by PRM/ANE with input from HRS Chief to conduct returnee interviews. Questions cover family background, community composition, livelihood, why and how returnees traveled to and from Cambodia, religious practice, treatment by the government, assistance received, and a self-assessment of needs. Returnees seemed to be at ease with the use of the questionnaire; most of the questions are not overtly sensitive, but allow returnees to provide considerable information about difficulties they may be facing. Comment HO CHI MIN 00000028 004.2 OF 004 -------------- ¶16. (SBU) These home visits permitted an intimate look at the difficult, often suffocating world experienced by ethnic minorities the Central Highlands as well as the complex circumstances in which they live. We observed many Montagnards who clearly disdain such trappings of a "modern life" as education. On the other side of the fence, we observed local officials who by their body language and other behaviors demonstrated suspicion and ignorance of Montagnards and Protestants. Blatantly patronizing attitudes by officials were on full display. We also met some "assimilated" Montagnards working for local government, who seemed to have adopted the prejudiced and ill-informed -- even if well-intentioned -- local government plans and projects for the Montagnards. While national laws and policies theoretically support equality for ethnic minorities and offer financial subsidies to improve their lives, the reality on the ground can be much different, where mutual distrust, mutual disdain, and enormous cultural differences remain evident. ¶17. (SBU) In this environment, it is not difficult to understand why these individuals tried to leave. The majority of the returnees had no better than limited access to education when they were of school age. Of those with better access, some dropped out after deciding that the education offered had little relevance to their lives. Now, as adults, they are either disinterested in or face difficulty in trying to adapt to a way of life driven by a cash economy, sedentary farming, and commodity production as opposed to traditional swidden subsistence agriculture. They exhibit a sense of frustration at the local power structure that is largely closed to them and that looks down on them. Nevertheless, some returnees seem to be reintegrating fairly well into their original villages. These individuals tend to have sober and practical outlooks that have probably eased their adaptation to the changes sweeping the Central Highlands. Both the frustrated and the pragmatic went to Cambodia hoping for better prospects in the United States. End comment. ¶18. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Hanoi. FAIRFAX