A leading human rights group is calling on Vietnam to conduct a thorough and public investigation into recent disturbances involving ethnic Hmong in northwestern Dien Bien province.
In a statement issued in New York Tuesday, Human Rights Watch also urges Vietnam to identify everyone who has been arrested in connection with the protest and provide them access to their families and legal counsel.
A spokeswoman for Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week that “a number of over-reactive individuals” had been detained in connection with the demonstrations. However, reporters and diplomats have been denied access to the area and reliable details of what happened are not available.
International news media reported early this month that several thousand Hmong Christians had gathered in the province. The Vietnamese government said they came together because they believed a “supernatural being” would come take them to a promised land.
Local government officials confirmed that security forces had been used to disperse the Hmong, and some advocacy groups claimed that a number of them were killed.
In its statement Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said the Vietnamese government “can’t just throw a dark shroud over this situation and pretend that everything is back to normal.”
It called for a full investigation into the reasons for the unrest and allegations of excessive violence by authorities. It also called for free access to the area by journalists, diplomats and international agencies.
The Hmong are among several ethnic groups that live in the border regions of China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.
Many were allied with the United States during its war in Vietnam, earning them the anger of the Vietnamese Communist Party, which took control of the country in 1975. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Hmong fled the country. Some Hmong inside the country and overseas advocacy groups say those still in Vietnam face official discrimination and abuses.
