VIETNAMESE CIVILIANS ATTACK DEGAR FAMILY WITH MACHETE AND VIETNAMESE SECURITY REFUSES TO EVEN

On January 8th, 2011, a Montagnard man named A Hling, age 68 and his two children, A Nhong, age 25, and Y Nhao, were walking from their village toward their rice field when six Vietnamese civilian men carrying machetes ambushed them. A Hling and his two children attempted to escape but they were surrounded. As A Hling tried to turn, one of the Vietnamese swung and slashed him with a machete on his right leg. His son A Nhong similarly tried to run away but was struck on his left leg. Y Nhao was cut on her left arm when she tried to shield herself from their attack. Their wounds were deep but did not penetrate through the bones.

The family members did not go to the nearby Vietnamese clinic for treatment because these clinics are known to poison, mistreat and even actively euthanize Degars. Instead, they treated their injuries at home. The wounds were severe and prevented the family from working in the fields.

The attack was reported to the local authorities, but security forces refused to investigate charges against the Vietnamese attackers. Today, A Hling and his two children continue to be unable to work. A Hling and his children are from the village of Bon Kon M’Har, commune of Ha-Dong, district of Dak Doa in Gia Lai province.

Of the six Vietnamese men who ambushed them, three were known by name, Hung, Tuon, and Du who are all from the Ayun commune, in the district of Dak Doa in the Gia Lai province. The identities of the other three attackers remain unknown.

According to a reliable source of information from the Central Highlands, the Vietnamese government has begun covertly hiring civilian thugs to attack Degar people. It has always been common practice for the Vietnamese government to allow its Vietnamese civilian citizens to harm and murder Degar people, but now they are actively promoting civilian violence against our people. This evil action is in addition to depriving our people of our basic human rights and confiscating our lands, which leaves us with nothing; we are doomed to gradually and painfully die of starvation.

The government of Vietnam has imposed intolerable injustices such as these upon our Degar people in the expectation that our people will object, which would then allow the government to accuse our people of destabilizing their national security. Then, they will have grounds to arrest, torture, imprison and murder our people by beatings and poisonings. Their ultimate goal is to exterminate our race of people completely because we are different from them and because they greedily desire complete and uncontested possession of our homelands.

We, the indigenous Degar people of the Central Highlands, believe that the Vietnamese government and its civilian population will never stop persecuting our people until we are entirely extinct. Likewise, we can never stop struggling for our survival.

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