US embassy cable - 04HOCHIMINHCITY507

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 000507 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/BCLTV, DRL/IRF, PRM, CA/OCS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, PGOV, PREF, SOCI, SCUL, KIRF, VM, RELFREE, HUMANR, ETMIN 
SUBJECT: HCMC ERO BRIEFS FOREIGN DIPLOMATS ON THE CENTRAL 
HIGHLANDS 
 
REF:  A) HCMC 0391  B) HCMC 0401  C) Hanoi 1113  D) HCMC 0406 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  In a briefing for the Consular Corps on April 
20, Director Le Quoc Hung of the Ho Chi Minh City External 
Relations Office (ERO -- the southern branch office of the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs) blamed "extremist elements" inside 
and outside of Vietnam for demonstrations that turned violent on 
April 10-11 in the Central Highlands provinces of Dak Lak and Gia 
Lai (refs A and B).  Mr. Hung assured the Consular Corps that the 
ERO would work to arrange visits to the area after the People's 
Council elections were held on April 25.  End summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Mr. Hung opened the briefing by acknowledging that "some 
incidents" had occurred in Dak Lak and Gia Lai, as well as in one 
small part of the new province of Dak Nong, which was spun off 
from Dak Lak late last year.  He accused "extremist elements" of 
"inciting, threatening, and forcing" some ethnic minority 
residents in the Central Highlands ("Montagnards") to take part in 
violent demonstrations.  According to Mr. Hung, the protesters 
attacked commune offices and "kidnapped" local officials, damaging 
property and causing injuries to both officials and ordinary 
residents in the process.  Despite the violent nature of the 
protests, he said, security forces had used maximum restraint in 
their efforts to quell the disturbances. 
 
3. (SBU) Mr. Hung cited casualty figures of 60-70 injured, most of 
them not seriously, and two dead, one from a sharp object thrown 
by another protester and one from an overturned tractor.  Mr. Hung 
stressed that those numbers were far below the "exaggerated" 
reports of Montagnard Foundation, Inc. (MFI) and other groups in 
the U.S.  While Mr. Hung admitted that hundreds had been arrested 
in the course of restoring public order, he affirmed that only the 
ringleaders and those who committed specific criminal acts were 
still being detained.  He said that government officials had even 
provided the rest of the demonstrators with transportation back 
home.  Approximately 200 tractors used by the protesters had also 
been impounded, but would be returned to any owners who had merely 
been deceived into participating in the demonstrations.  Mr. Hung 
told a questioner later that he was not sure which ethnic groups 
had taken part, although he thought there had probably been many 
Ede and Bahnar.  He was also unable to offer any specific numbers 
on possible refugee flows across the long border with Cambodia. 
 
4. (SBU) Responding to a question later in the briefing, Mr. Hung 
acknowledged that the GVN had advance notice of the demonstrations 
and referred to a press release before the event by MFI.  What the 
GVN had not known for sure was exactly where and when the protests 
would take place.  He said local officials had been surprised by 
the methods employed by the protesters -- particularly the use of 
tractors -- and the ferocity of the attacks.  While it would have 
been easy to put down the protests by force, given the ample 
military assets in these strategic border provinces, he said the 
GVN did not want to harm the majority of participants who had been 
innocently "duped" into joining the protests.  Knowing that the 
organizers were hoping for a harsh response, the GVN had accepted 
higher casualties among the military and police by choosing to 
exercise restraint. 
 
5. (SBU) Tying MFI and other foreign groups directly to the 
protests, Mr. Hung noted the unlikelihood that similar 
demonstrations could have occurred at roughly the same time across 
a wide geographic area, without "collusion" between internal and 
external forces.  For those who doubted foreign involvement, Mr. 
Hung pointed to MFI's press release of Friday, April 9, which 
announced the pending demonstrations and called on the 
international community to send observers.  According to Mr. Hung, 
this showed that the protests were merely a pretext for gaining 
international attention.  The real goals of the organizers were to 
tarnish the image of Vietnam, particularly in the eyes of 
international organizations and aid donors, and create social 
disunity at home.  That plan included encouraging people to cross 
the border to Cambodia illegally. 
 
6. (SBU) Mr. Hung stressed that the Central Highlands were now 
open to foreign tourists, although local authorities were still 
dealing with the aftermath of the destruction and looting.  When 
Acting Consul General followed up on the access issue during the 
question and answer period, Mr. Hung modified his comments 
somewhat, saying that while tourists were free to travel, 
journalists and diplomats should recognize the sensitivities 
involved and make sure their visits were handled through official 
channels.  While diplomats were always free to travel as tourists, 
that meant limiting themselves to guided tours and not "poking 
around" and talking to people in the affected areas.  He said ERO 
would do its best to arrange official visits as soon as the 
People's Council elections were over on April 25. 
 
7. (SBU) When A/CG raised the general issue of visits by 
journalists and others, Mr. Hung announced that the ERO would send 
a diplomatic note to ConGen HCMC on Wednesday inviting a 
delegation to visit after the elections (note: the dip note had 
not arrived as of Thursday evening).  Noting that he wished 
foreign diplomats had been there to see the violent acts committed 
by the "terrorists," Mr. Hung said the GVN had decided to restrict 
such travel because it feared a visit by foreigners might 
encourage extremist elements.  He added quite bluntly that ERO 
really had difficulty persuading local officials to accept 
American and other foreign delegations, especially in the Central 
Highlands.  He excused this, saying that local officials needed to 
expend a great deal of time and energy to arrange good trips and 
were easily drained by frequent visits. 
 
8. (SBU) Director Hung ended his formal briefing by noting that 
some press agencies had carried false stories blaming the GVN for 
oppressing the Montagnards.  On the contrary, he said, the GVN was 
committed to improving the material and spiritual life of the 
ethnic minority groups, although their standard of living and 
educational level remained low, especially in the Central 
Highlands.  Noting that some protesters had carried banners 
blaming the ethnic majority Kinh Vietnamese for appropriating 
their land, Mr. Hung attributed the problem to ethnic minority 
migrants from the north.  At the same time, he acknowledged that 
better land management was needed everywhere in Vietnam, not just 
the Central Highlands. 
 
9. (SBU) According to Mr. Hung, the real motivations of the 
protesters were quite different.  He claimed that debriefed 
protesters had told authorities they were deceived into 
demonstrating in Buon Ma Thuot by promises that UNHCR planes would 
come to their rescue and take them out of the country.  Other 
rumors promised UNHCR would pay US$5,000 to any refugees they 
resettled.  Asked by a member of the consular corps why the GVN 
hadn't simply tried to explain the situation to the Montagnards 
before the rumors spread, Mr. Hung noted that the authorities were 
not close enough to the people they serve.  He also said it takes 
time to change people's thinking, something the GVN had been 
trying to do with the Montagnards since the unrest of 2001.  To 
make his point, he noted that the GVN had been pushing a family 
planning policy to improve the lives of the ethnic minorities. 
Unfortunately, Kok Ksor had twisted that policy to convince the 
ethnic minorities that the GVN was really using the policy to 
eliminate their culture. 
 
10. (SBU) Comment:  The ERO did not cover any new ground after the 
previous day's MFA briefing in Hanoi (ref C), but the question and 
answer session was more extensive than expected, lasting over an 
hour.  And this briefing was certainly more enlightening than a 
private meeting at ERO a week earlier (ref D).  In a brief 
statement as the Dean of the Consular Corps, the French CG noted 
that this was the first such briefing on a sensitive matter he had 
been asked to attend in his four years here.  On the margins of 
the meeting, several foreign diplomats commented that while it was 
difficult to overcome the GVN's often defensive tone, their 
sources seemed to confirm the broad general outlines of the 
demonstrations presented during the briefing.  They agreed, 
however, that it is extremely difficult to get a full and accurate 
picture of events without open access to the Central Highlands. 
WHITE