US embassy cable - 05HOCHIMINHCITY1045

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 001045 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, SOCI, PREL, PGOV, VM, ETMIN, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: INTERVIEWS WITH VISAS-93 APPLICANTS SHOW SOME PROGRESS IN 
CENTRAL HIGHLANDS 
 
REF:  A) HCMC 968 B) HCMC 962 and previous 
 
1. (SBU) Summary.  HCMC's Refugee Resettlement Section recently 
concluded interviews of 124 ethnic minority families as part of 
the VISAS-93 reunification process for Central Highlands ethnic 
minority families.  This was the first time that ConGen staff have 
had completely unfettered access to a large number of ethnic 
minority individuals from across the Central Highlands.  The 
applicants were relatives of ethnic minority individuals who fled 
Vietnam after unrest in the Central Highlands in 2001.  The 
results of these interviews confirm improvements in the lives of 
ethnic minority families -- including on issues of religious 
freedom -- in almost all the provinces of the Central Highlands. 
Although police maintain a very visible presence in ethnic 
minority villages, the interviewees did not complain of official 
brutality and acknowledged that police focus on control of ethnic 
minority separatist activities.  The exception to the positive 
trend is Dak Lak, which, not surprisingly, also has been the only 
province that has failed to issue any passports for these persons 
under the VISAS 93 program.  End Summary. 
 
A Unique Window on Conditions in the Central Highlands 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
2. (SBU) Beginning in March, HCMC's Refugee and Resettlement 
Section interviewed 124 Central Highlands ethnic minority families 
as part of their family reunification (VISAS 93) processing, with 
the majority of the interviews taking place in August and 
September.  58 were from Gia Lai, 54 from Dak Lak, seven from Dak 
Nong, four from Kontum, and one from Lam Dong.  These individuals 
traveled to HCMC twice; first for an initial pre-screening 
interview and later for an interview with a United States 
Citizenship and Immigration Services officer.  ConGen PolOffs 
observed some interviews in August and September, all of which 
were conducted by U.S. citizens.  This cable summarizes the 
findings from these unfiltered accounts of conditions for ethnic 
minorities in the Central Highlands. 
 
Infrastructure and Education 
---------------------------- 
 
3. (SBU) The interviewees indicated that almost all villages have 
electricity.  Although most villages do not have an integrated 
water supply, access to water is not an issue: the villagers use 
wells, manual water pumps, or their own gravity-fed systems of 
bamboo pipes and channels to funnel the water from streams near 
their homes.  The interviewees also noted that the educational 
level in their villages is rising.  They confirm that many 
minority children are receiving subsidized education and most 
children now have at least some primary education.  Some said a 
few children had finished secondary school (ninth grade). 
 
3. (SBU) Almost all the interviewees were farmers who told us they 
scratched out a living usually growing rice and coffee, 
supplemented by manual day labor in local rubber and coffee 
plantations.  Many told us that they depended on money transfers 
from their relatives in the U.S. to supplement their incomes. 
From 2002 to 2004, it was difficult to receive money from 
overseas.  However, for the most part the situation has improved. 
Families now receive money transfers through local post offices 
and banks.  There are few problems with money transfers of USD 200 
or less.  With larger transfers, police officials temporarily 
confiscate some or all the money pending investigation.  According 
to the interviewees, the police seek to vet who sent the funds, 
the intended recipient and intended use.  In most cases, the 
families reported that they eventually received the funds from 
police.  In a few cases they still are waiting.  For example, one 
ethnic minority woman told us that police had temporarily seized 
500 dollars sent by her husband from the U.S., telling her that 
they feared that she would use the money to purchase cell phones 
for separatist activists.  (Note: Officials in the Central 
Highlands have alleged that organizations outside Vietnam funnel 
money into the region to support ethnic minority separatism.  End 
note.) 
 
Religious Freedom 
----------------- 
 
4. (SBU) With the exception of Dak Lak province, the interviewees 
made it clear that religious freedom conditions are improving 
gradually in the Central Highlands.  Protestants can gather to 
worship so long as they are not affiliated with the "Dega 
Protestant" movement.  Protestants in Dak Lak province face a much 
more restrictive environment.  One family from the village of Buon 
Ru in Dak Lak claimed that all bibles in the hamlet were 
confiscated and that Protestantism was banned formally in 2002. 
As far as the family knew, this was only a hamlet policy; they 
understood that conditions for religious practice were better in 
other areas.  However, one applicant from a village near the 
provincial capital of Buon Ma Thuot said that she had to sign a 
document in July 2005 agreeing not to have more than ten people in 
her house at any time.  Another family in a village in Cu Mgar 
District stated that officially they were not even allowed to pray 
at home but local police allowed them to do so within their 
immediate family. 
 
Ever-Present Officials and Dega Separatism 
------------------------------------------ 
 
5. (SBU) Officials and police appear to maintain a very visible 
presence in every ethnic minority village.  The majority of the 
police and government officials are ethnic Kinh (ethnic 
Vietnamese) although some are from the ethnic minority communities 
as well.  Police monitoring was more intense for those individuals 
and families that officials suspected of having participated in 
protests in 2001 and 2004 or of having ties to the ethnic 
separatist Dega movement.  Many of the interviewees confirmed that 
family members, including spouses in the United States, had 
participated in the ethnic minority protests in the Central 
Highlands in 2001.  A number acknowledged that family members had 
been involved in the Dega movement. 
6. (SBU) In all provinces, police interviewed the family members 
after the flight of their anchors to Cambodia.  Their actual 
treatment differed greatly depending on the province.  In Gia Lai 
and Dak Nong, families were interviewed several times but not 
harmed.  Dak Lak proved to be different as applicants reported 
incidents of physical harassment such as beatings or slapping 
during police interviews. 
 
7. (SBU) A number of applicants from villages in Dak Lak reported 
that they or their children had been detained by police stations 
for questioning. In 2002, an applicant's adult son was held for 
eight days and questioned two or three times daily to determine 
whether or not he brought food and/or money to his father and 
others hiding in the forests after the 2001 protests.  In 2001, a 
family of three was detained for nearly one month in Buon Ma Thuot 
because they tried to escape to Cambodia.  In another case an 
applicant was detained twice for two days in December 2004 and in 
March 2005 to "study the dangers of following people who might 
urge her to take part in demonstrations."  Another applicant was 
detained over Christmas 2004 for 13 days for "spreading wrong 
information over the telephone."  In the beginning of 2005, a 
woman was kept at the District Police Officer for three days 
because "she had a lot of overseas calls."  Dak Lak-based 
applicants also reported an oppressive police environment in their 
villages.  Police would drive by their homes continually, watch 
the house all-day/night, follow the applicant and family members, 
and search homes at any time.  One woman in the Dak Lak commune of 
Ea Bar stated that she was placed under surveillance for 24 months 
due to her suspected affiliation with FULRO, the officially 
defunct ethnic minority armed resistance organization.  Other 
reported forms of harassment in Dak Lak included a claim from a 
family living in Buon Ru village that their home was burned down 
and their well was poisoned by other villagers and local 
authorities in December 2004.  Another Dak Lak resident claimed 
that her cell phone was confiscated because she made "too many" 
international calls. 
 
The VISA 93 Process 
------------------- 
 
8. (SBU) All interviewees reported that they had to receive 
official permission to travel outside of their immediate village 
area.  Most were not stopped along the way or questioned en route 
to HCMC for their two interviews.  The majority of applicants from 
provinces other than Dak Lak reported that they did not face 
harassment upon their return to their village after their initial 
pre-screening interview.  Again, Dak Lak was the exception.  Dak 
Lak residents complained that documents needed for their VISAS 93 
interview, such as their household registration book, the 
immigration package from RRS, and their applications for 
passports, were held by the police for up to a month; that the 
applicants were ordered to report to local police after their 
initial RRS interviews and threatened that they would not be 
allowed to return for their second interview; one applicant from 
Ea Bar commune reportedly was told that "traitors' wives are sure 
not to leave Vietnam."   (Note:  While no Dak Lak Visas 93 
applicant has yet to receive a passport from provincial 
authorities, almost all applicants were able to return to HCMC for 
their second interview with the USCIS officer.  Moreover, Dak Lak 
has continued to cooperate with legacy refugee programs and issues 
needed documents and passports to those beneficiaries, whose 
anchors in the U.S. had left Vietnam under a program sanctioned by 
the GVN.  End note.) 
 
9. (SBU) Interviewees from provinces other than Dak Lak generally 
did not complain that officials were obstructing the issuance of 
passports and other travel documents.  Many delays in passport 
processing could be ascribed, at least in part, to the ethnic 
minority applicants failing to have basic documents such as birth 
and marriage certificates that local officials required.  These 
documents, often based on affidavits, needed to be issued or 
reissued before a passport application could be completed, a 
process that local and provincial officials were facilitating. 
For example, some applicants noted that local officials were 
actively assisting them in filling out their passport 
applications.  Delays were further compounded by confusion and 
ignorance within local bureaucracies on how to handle these cases. 
Applicants were often sent to multiple places to pick up or submit 
paperwork.  The situation is particularly acute in Dak Nong, which 
split off from Dak Lak in January 2004, creating new 
administrative challenges for the applicants and officials as 
paperwork and records are sorted out and the bureaucracy 
reorganizes.  Most applicants reported that officials did not 
solicit bribes.  When they did, the bribes amounted to less than 
USD 20 per case. 
 
10. (SBU) Albeit slow, every province save Dak Lak has recorded 
progress in issuing passports to applicants.  For example, to date 
Gia Lai has issued passports to 30 applicant families.  Dak Lak 
has not processed any of the 54 VISAS 93 cases currently on file. 
Many Dak Lak-based applicants reported during their interviews 
with us that local officials refused to process paperwork for 
individuals whose sponsor in the United States had left Vietnam 
illegally or was suspected of involvement in anti-government 
activities.  Some reported that Dak Lak officials refused to 
accept or to process their paperwork without giving any 
explanation. 
 
11. (SBU) Comment:  The results of our interviews reinforce our 
own observations that -- outside of Dak Lak -- the situation for 
ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands has been improving over 
the past year (reftels).  It is particularly significant that this 
particular cohort is reporting this gradual positive change.  As 
the left-behind family of persons who fled Vietnam after anti- 
government protests in 2001, this group would have been an obvious 
target for official harassment and retribution.  End Comment. 
 
WINNICK