Vietnam should cease its persecution of indigenous Montagnards in the Central Highlands, and Cambodia should continue to offer sanctuary to those fleeing across the border, Human Rights Watch said in this new report. The 200-page report, Repression of Montagnards: Conflicts over Land and Religion in Vietnam's Central Highlands, provides the most detailed account to date of the unrest that erupted in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in early 2001 and offers a rare glimpse into the mechanisms of Vietnamese political repression. Human Rights Watch provides an in-depth analysis of the grievances that gave rise to the protests, and an analysis of the human rights violations that took place in response to them. It found that the Vietnamese government violated fundamental human rights in the course of suppressing the protests, and that those violations-which range from government infringement of religious freedom to torture by police-were continuing as of March 2002. |