US embassy cable - 05HANOI904

UNCLAS HANOI 000904 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE ALSO FOR E, EB AND EAP/BCLTV 
STATE PASS USAID FOR CHAPLIN/ANE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, ECON, VM, HUMANR, ETMIN, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: Vietnam: ESF Funding for the Central Highlands 
 
REF: Hanoi 215 
 
1. This cable contains sensitive information.  Do not post 
on the internet. 
 
2. (SBU) As the Department begins to consider ESF requests 
for FY 2007, Post would like to highlight the great need and 
significant potential for an assistance program targeted at 
the Central Highlands, which is among the most contentious 
areas in Vietnam and a problematic aspect of our bilateral 
relations. 
 
3. (SBU) Ongoing tensions in the Central Highlands pose both 
human rights and religious freedom issues, and are spilling 
over into Cambodia.  Frustrations felt by ethnic minorities 
over an influx of ethnic Vietnamese migrants, land tenure 
and economic marginalization along with religious 
restrictions, an influx of ethnic Vietnamese migrants and 
severe poverty led to violent protests in 2001 and 2004. 
Over half of those living in the Central Highlands live in 
poverty.  Roughly a third of the people in the Central 
Highlands are from ethnic minority groups, many of which 
have poverty rates as high as 80 or 90 percent.  As 
economics and issues of land tenure are at the heart of 
ethnic minority discontent, expanded economic opportunity 
will ameliorate some of the frustrations that have led 
ethnic minorities to protest in the region, and in the 
longer term, will allow these groups to play an enhanced 
role in Vietnam's polity, making them less susceptible to 
rights abuses. 
 
4. (SBU) Recently Vietnam's Prime Minister said that he 
would welcome foreign assistance to improve the standards of 
living of ethnic minorities.  Based on the trip of our 
ECON/C and USAID Country Manager in December, it is clear 
that local authorities would welcome U.S. assistance.  Local 
officials have said so in both Kon Tum and Gia Lai 
provinces.  We are currently working on an analysis of the 
social and economic roots of some of the problems as well as 
the policies and efforts by the GVN and others in the 
Highlands (septels)  In addition to the genuine need to work 
on this sensitive aspect of our bilateral relations, we 
expect the Highlands will be getting greater attention from 
the broader donor community in coming years.  Vietnam simply 
cannot afford not to address the region's growing income 
disparities.  Having a U.S. assistance program there, 
however modest in relative terms, will give us a stronger 
voice in the donor-government dialogue on policies in that 
part of the country. 
 
5. (SBU) Another important issue is the ability of the 
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to 
gain access to the Central Highlands and thus begin 
addressing the problem of refugee flow into Cambodia.  The 
MOU the GVN signed with UNHCR in January (reftel) was a step 
forward, but part of the GVN's incentive for signing was 
UNHCR's promise to work with the international community to 
obtain development funds for appropriate projects in areas 
to which ethnic minority migrants are returned.  It is very 
much in the interest of the United States (and in the 
interest of regional stability) for UNHCR and the GVN to be 
able to implement this MOU successfully.  The first thing we 
can do to help is channel development assistance to the 
desperately poor communities of the Central Highlands. 
 
6. (SBU) We believe that USD 2 million in ESF funds directed 
to the Central Highlands would help address what has been 
one of the most problematic aspects of our bilateral 
relationship. 
 
MARINE 
 
 
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