Eight religious minority Montagnards have emerged from hiding in a remote Cambodian border area where they crossed from Vietnam to flee persecution, the UN Refugee Agency said yesterday.
The group sought refuge in the jungle in Cambodia’s northeastern Rattanakiri Province for more than seven weeks.
Fears had mounted for their health in the malaria-ridden area where they remained hidden — albeit in contact with rights groups and the UN — fearing arrest and deportation by Cambodian authorities.
A UN official and a local rights activist told reporters that eight Montagnards, including a woman, emerged from their hiding and were met by a UN team early yesterday.
Rights activists said another group of five remained in the jungle and were considering contacting the UN soon.
Montagnard is a French term referring to the patchwork of mainly Christian ethnic minority groups who live in Vietnam’s mountainous Central Highlands region.
Many Montagnard groups practice forms of evangelical Protestantism, which puts them at odds with Vietnam’s communist rulers, who tightly control religion.
Cambodian Ministry of the Interior spokesman Khieu Sopheak accused the UN of violating the kingdom’s sovereignty by rescuing the asylum seekers without Cambodian authorities.
The UN has said local Cambodian authorities had denied UN access to help the Montagnards, who were from the Jarai ethnic minority group and reportedly suffering from ailments, including dengue fever and malaria.
In 2001, Vietnamese troops crushed protests in the Central Highlands, prompting an exodus of Montagnards.
Vietnam routinely asks Cambodia to return Montagnards who flee.
In May 2011, thousands of Hmong people — one of the Montagnard groups — gathered in Vietnam’s remote northwest apparently awaiting the arrival of a “messiah.” The gathering was broken up by authorities under circumstances which remain unclear.
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