by Vu Kim Chung
29-9-2001
A court in Vietnam sentenced seven accused "provocateurs" to between six and 11 years in prison for their part in violent demonstrations in the central highlands of the country. The unprecedented protests in February 2001 by thousands of people in the Dak Lak and Gia Lai coffee-growing provinces rattled the Government into a twin strategy of appeasement of minorities and ruthless crackdown against political dissents. The Government had accused the protest leaders of taking orders from an exile group in the United States bent on destabilising Vietnam.
Alleged protest ringleaders Y Nuen and Y Nien, both members of the Ede ethnic minority, were sentenced on September 26 to 11 and 10 years in jail respectively for their role in the demonstrations, the worst outbreak of civil unrest in Vietnam in years. Quynh Hoa, head of Dak Lak's Cultural and Ideological Committee, confirmed the sentencing on charges of creating a security disturbance, but refused to give further details. The relatively harsh sentences also showed the Government's hard line against dissent. In contrast, six government officials convicted earlier in September of corruption in a notorious land scandal received less than 10 months in prison each, but then again many of those officials were incestuously connected to the halls of power in Vietnam.
In demonstrations that began on February 2, protesters broke windows in one Communist Party headquarters and did not disperse for at least five days. The unrest began in Dak Lak's capital of Buon Ma Thuot and spread to neighbouring Gia Lai. The protests were sparked by land issues. In past years, migration of Vietnamese into the sparsely populated highlands had pushed minority groups off their collectively owned lands. However, the Government, not wanting to admit its policies were socially incorrect, said the riots were an attempt to destabilise the country with the ultimate goal of setting up an independent state in the central hill-tribe region.
The authorities accused Kok Ksor, an ethnic minority exile in the US who runs the Montagnard Foundation, of masterminding the plot from his South Carolina base.
Vietnam in 2001 stepped up accusations that forces in the US were trying to bring about the fall of the Communist Party through a strategy it called "peaceful evolution", similar to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
"The provocative acts were organised as part of a scheme for peaceful evolution and subversion by hostile and reactionary forces," the official Vietnam News Agency said on September 27.
Government reports said all seven defendants pleaded guilty and asked for lenience.
The other defendants were identified as: Y Tum, sentenced to eight years and four months; Y Nok, sentenced to eight years; Nay D'ruk and Y Phen, who each received seven years; and Y B'hiec, who got six years.
Earlier in September, Vietnam's new Communist Party general secretary, Nong Duc Manh, toured the central highlands. Mr Manh, who is a member of the ethnic Tay minority, demanded that local authorities work to ensure solidarity among ethnic groups and "timely correction of mistakes" by authorities, state media said at the time. Since February, official media also touted almost daily the Government's efforts to improve living conditions among ethnic minorities, who are more likely to be poor and lower-educated because the ethnic Vietnamese give them less opprotunities thatn they do to people of their own ethnic background.
However, along with their efforts came an intensified crackdown against political dissidents. Security police earlier in September raided homes and questioned at least 15 people. Noted dissidents Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest, and Thich Quang Do, a Buddhist monk, remained imprisoned.
The crackdown left many wondering about the true colours of Mr Manh, who was elevated to the nation's most powerful position in April. A former president of the National Assembly, Mr Manh, 61, was initially seen as more moderate than his predecessor, the unpopular hardliner and military man Le Kha Phieu. However, analysts warned it might be at least a year before Mr Manh consolidated his power within the party factions and revealed his own true policies. After all, given the Machiavellian level of Vietnamese politics, a leader must watch his back and make certain sacrifices.