echidna

From another site �

http://www.mhro.org/montagnard.htm
Prior to the Vietnam War numbers were estimated at around 2 million or more. Today those estimates are around 500,000.

Why is this persecution occurring ?

In truth, indigenous ethnic minorities suffer throughout the world whenever their land is invaded. One doesn�t need to be Australian to realise just how bad these problems can be. Government persecution of these tribal groups is all too widespread & the causes are largely common. In the case of the Montagnards the Vietnam War history worsens the situation.

• Retribution for Montagnard assistance to the South Vietnamese army.
• Government desire to gain control over land for agriculture & logging is the prime reason.
• Ethnic bigotry between highland and the ruling lowland cultures, definitely something not to be underestimated throughout S.E.Asia.

In particular I might draw a comparison with the Penan tribal people of Borneo. In its massive efforts to clear rainforests for timber, the Penan have progressively and violently been stripped of their land by the Malaysian government. The government response is quite a common one worldwide, which is to try & settle the nomadic Penan people into settlements, which it does with a degree of coercion & other unpleasant methods, exacerbated by massive cultural differences with the Penan, who 50 years ago only possessed the numbers 1,2,3,many.

But in all of Malaysia�s atrocity towards the Penan and other Borneo tribal groups in the last 20 years, these figures from the Vietnamese Central Highlands dwarf the Borneo atrocity, and can rightly be described as a modern-day genocide. This is entirely due to the authoritarian nature of the Vietnamese government, the secrecy which they have been able enforce over their actions & the western guilt which they have exploited over the Vietnam War.