PLEIKU, Vietnam - Vietnam said on Tuesday that ethnic minorities in its restive Central Highlands were well treated and that those who had fled to Cambodia after unrest were safe to return.
But minority people interviewed during a government-organised trip for the foreign and local state-run media in the highland province of Gia Lai said they still faced difficult living conditions and curbs on their religious activities.
The trip was the first open to foreign journalists since a highly controlled tour 11 months ago that followed unprecedented ethnic protests over land and religion. It is part of efforts to counter reports that harsh treatment of Protestant hill people who took part in the unrest prompted many to flee to Cambodia.
Hanoi reached an agreement with the U.N. refugee agency last month to repatriate more than 1,000 hill people from camps in Cambodia. The plan has been criticised by the United States and rights groups for having inadequate safeguards for returnees.
Blin, a teenager who spent a month camped out in a Cambodian forest last year after leaving his home village of Do in Gia Lai hoping for better opportunities, said he was beaten up by Vietnamese guards after being caught in the border area.
"They told me I was in a restricted area and they beat me," he told a small group of foreign journalists.
A woman in the nearby village of Bong Phum, who gave her name only as Ploi, said her husband Y Deh fled to Cambodia in November having "quarrelled" with local authorities. She said both she and her husband had joined anti-government protests last year.
"There were bad words exchanged...he was frightened. I'm not sure by what," she said, while surrounded by officials and journalists. She said he did not want to return to Vietnam.
She rejected suggestions that her husband had left his home province in search of a better life and because he hoped to be resettled in the United States. "He loved this land," she said.
Asked if his absence made life difficult for her and her three children, who live in a dusty wooden house, she said: "We have always been in difficulties, we are short of food."
CONDITIONS FOR WORSHIP
Minority Protestant pastors told journalists on Monday conditions for worship had improved somewhat, but the communist government still imposed significant restrictions.
Pastor Siu Y Kim said conditions varied, depending on the attitude of local officials. "In some places it's easy, in others it's not that easy," he said. He was critical of Protestants who joined the unrest for letting politics interfere with religion.
The pastor said he was unable to confirm reports carried by rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, that ethnic minority Protestants had been forced to drink animal blood to get them to return to animist beliefs.
"There may have been some cases, but this would not have been the policy of the government, just the behaviour of some individuals."
He said his group was no longer harassed as it had been in the past, but it still had to be "discrete."
Life for minority people is clearly tougher on average than that for the majority Vietnamese. A report by the U.N. Children's Fund last year said up to 45 percent of children of minority people in the highlands suffered from malnutrition.
FREE SCHOOLING AND HEALTH CARE
Nguyen Vy Ha, the ethnic Vietnamese chairman of the People's Committee of Gia Lai province, said the local government had worked hard to improve minority living conditions and since last year had offered free schooling and health care.
He dismissed suggestions that any of those who went to Cambodia might be harmed if they returned. "No one loves these people better that we do and their families," he said.
Ha said they could not be called asylum seekers or refugees as Vietnam had done nothing to prompt their exodus. Instead, he said, they had been misled by "hostile forces," a reference to U.S.-based exiles.
Despite Ha's comments, analysts say Vietnamese authorities see the minority problem as essentially a security issue as many of the hill people fought along side the United States during the Vietnam War and are still considered to have suspect loyalties.
"Pastors say some curbs eased in Vietnam highlands"
By David Brunnstrom
PLEIKU, Vietnam, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Protestant pastors in Vietnam's restive Central Highlands say conditions for worship have improved somewhat in the past two years, but Hanoi still imposes significant restrictions.
Evangelical pastor Siu Y Kim told a government-arranged briefing in Gia Lai province ahead of a controversial U.N. repatriation of hilltribe asylum seekers from Cambodia that while the communist government now approved the existence of the Protestant church, it still barred the building of churches.
Kim said on Monday there were still only two officially approved pastors for a congregation of 100,000 and that he himself was only recognised as a pastor by members of his 300-strong church group. "It may take more time for the government to recognise my legal status."
He said they were obliged to worship in small groups in their homes, in what are called "house churches."
"We are free to practice our faith with members of our family, but if other people want to come, we have to seek permission," he said, adding before the church's recognition it was illegal to have people come to his house.
The pastor spoke during a rare press tour of the highlands organised by the government, which is anxious to refute reports that harsh treatment of mainly Protestant hill people who staged rare protests last year prompted an ethnic exodus into Cambodia.
It is a sensitive issue for Vietnam, as many of the hill people fought along side the United States during the Vietnam War and are still considered a potential security risk. Hanoi has been keen to play down the religious aspect of the protests.
Both Kim and another pastor living nearby in Pleiku, Siu Pek, were critical of Protestants who had joined the unrest, which they said was incited by exiles overseas promising economic gain.
"Many of the protesters were very young and had not learned the true message of Protestantism," said Siu Pek. "Some people mistakenly associated Protestantism with politics."
He said he believed most Protestants living in Gia Lai were "orthodox" believers who did not support the protest leaders in seeking a separate tribal state dubbed "Degar."
CONDITIONS VARY
Kim said conditions for Protestants varied from place to place, depending on the attitude of local officials. "In some places it's easy, in others it's not that easy," he said.
He said he was unable to confirm reports by rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, that ethnic minority Protestants had been forced to drink animal blood to get them to return to animist beliefs. But he did not discount them.
"I think that could not be a general policy. There may have been some cases, but this would not have been the policy of the government, just the behaviour of some individuals. Some people are good, some people are maybe different."
Asked about a report carried by Human Rights Watch that a Protestant church had been burned down by police and soldiers in a district of Gia Lai last March, he again said he had not heard this independently, but added: "It could not have been an official church because they are not allowed and if there was a gathering, it was not for religious reasons."
Kim said he had taken part in two prayer meetings several years ago which had been broken up by the authorities and participants taken away for "working sessions" to explain government policy on religion.
He said his group was no longer harassed like this and its activities needed not to be secret. They did though still need to be "discreet."
The two simple church meeting rooms in the large attic at the back of Kim's house bear this out, with the entrance through a trap door set into the ceiling -- not unlike Jewish fugitive Anne Frank's "Secret Annex" in World War Two.
The chairman of the provincial People's Committee Nguyen Vy Ha said Gia Lai was implementing a policy to recognise house churches and rejected the reports of the church burning and animal blood.
He said Hanoi had taken so long to recognise the Protestant church in southern Vietnam because before the communist victory in 1975 it had mainly existed in the enemy armies of the United States and South Vietnam.
Kim said he hoped one day he would be able to move his congregation into more formal premises. "I am sure it will happen," he said.