HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Two of the three Vietnamese provinces hit earlier this year by hill tribe protests are responding positively by improving conditions for ethnic minorities, the U.S. ambassador said Wednesday.
Ambassador Douglas ``Pete'' Peterson said the February protests in Vietnam's Central Highlands appeared to have been caused by 20 years of large-scale migration of ethnic Vietnamese to the area and the resulting marginalization of native minority people.
Religious issues apparently did not play a major role in triggering the protests, in which thousands of mostly Protestant hill tribe members poured into the streets of the provincial capitals, he said.
The rare mass demonstrations shocked the Communist government, which quickly sent in riot police and military to quell the occasionally violent protests. Dozens of hill tribe members were arrested and hundreds of others fled into neighboring Cambodia.
Peterson visited the region for five days beginning last Thursday after Vietnamese authorities accepted his long-standing request to be allowed to make a fact-finding trip.
Since the protests, the government has limited foreigners' access to the region. Foreign journalists were taken on a government-sponsored tour of the area in March but their contacts with local residents were controlled.
Peterson, who has resigned after four years as ambassador and is leaving Vietnam on Sunday, said he was warmly welcomed in two of the provinces - Lam Dong and Daklak - and was allowed to meet freely with officials and ordinary people there.
In both provinces, officials ``spoke freely about the many activities they are undertaking in the social, economic, and political spheres to address the problems underlying the unrest earlier this year,'' Peterson said.
But Peterson said he was not allowed free access to officials or ordinary people in the third province, Gia Lai.
The provincial leaders, he said, appeared to be preoccupied by the perceived security threat from the unrest instead of attempting to find constructive solutions to the problems.
``Clearly, this is a misguided policy, and it is my hope that the local leadership will redirect their energies toward addressing the real problems of the people,'' Peterson said.
He said he has urged central government officials in Hanoi to help the province find long-term solutions to the problems.
Vietnam's treatment of ethnic minorities has become an issue in U.S. congressional debate on an agreement that would grant normal trading status to Vietnam. Opponents of the pact have cited human rights issues in urging the United States to delay ratification.
Tensions between the two countries flared when Washington gave asylum to 38 hill tribe members who fled into Cambodia after the protests. Another group of about 300 hill tribe members remains in a U.N.-supervised camp in Cambodia, but is expected to be repatriated to Vietnam soon.
AP-NY-07-11-01 2234EDT
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.