Seventeen Montagnard asylum-seekers who spent a nervous and uncertain two nights detained at an RCAF military post on the Mondolkiri bank of the Se Pok river, which splits Ratanakkiri and Mondolkiri provinces, arrived safely at a UN High Commissioner for Refugees site in Ratanakkiri’s provincial capital on Tuesday evening.
On Sunday evening, Pen Bonnar, provincial director of local rights group Adhoc, was escorting to Banlung the group of 11 men and six women, who fled Vietnam’s Gai Lai province, when armed soldiers stopped the boats. Two reporters were also traveling with the group.
Ny Poly, chief of RCAF’s O’leave river post, claimed he had not been given authorization to let the boats pass and detained the asylum-seekers until Monday morning, at which time he would radio his military superiors to ask for instructions.
Due to the remote location of the incident, reports seeped out that the asylum seekers had scattered and Mondolkiri authorities arrested Pen Bonnar and the two reporters, working for The Cambodia Daily and Radio Free Asia prompting outcry from human rights groups.
Long Visalo, secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, fueled the rumors during a press conference on Monday when he accused Adhoc, Radio Free Asia and The Cambodia Daily of exploiting the Montagnards for “political motivations” and “luring” them across the border.
The outing began Saturday morning, when Pen Bonnar received word from UNHCR officials that the government asked Adhoc to pick up the 17, who were believed to belong to one of the last known groups hiding in the jungle, he said on Tuesday.
The government wanted to wait until Monday to pick up the asylum-seekers, but Pen Bonnar told the UNHCR he wanted to leave on Saturday “because I didn’t want to wait a long time,” he said.
“I only talked to UNHCR,” Pen Bonnar said. “They said it was OK to travel on Saturday. The provincial governor [Kham Khoeun] gave the green light.”
Kham Khoeun could not be contacted Tuesday.
Thamrongsak Meechubot, UNHCR’s Phnom Penh representative, said Tuesday that Adhoc was “not working as an agent for UNHCR.”
“But [Adhoc] offered to help, and the governor of Ratanakkiri said it was OK,” he added.
UNHCR officials in Banlung were contacted from an Iridium satellite telephone owned by The Cambodia Daily from O’leave on Sunday afternoon when the 17 first emerged from hiding in the jungle, and again when they were detained shortly after at the military post. The UN officials said they would attempt to solve the problem with both Ratanakkiri and Mondolkiri officials and also raise the issue during a meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Phnom Penh on Monday morning.
Faced with a night at the military post, the asylum-seekers, mostly silent and appearing nervous, strung up hammocks at a makeshift guardhouse while Pen Bonnar purchased rice and some chickens from the soldiers to feed them. Though tense and suspicious at first, the soldiers relaxed with rice wine and explained that they were following orders from their superiors in Mondolkiri.
Mondolkiri Governor Tor Soeuth could not be contacted on Tuesday.
Bedding down on Sunday night, the asylum-seekers prayed and sang a hymn as the jungle around the RCAF post shuddered with the sound of amplified karaoke tunes belted out by the raucous but well-meaning soldiers.
The soldiers allowed the Adhoc official and the reporters to walk free, but they stayed because they did not want to lose sight of the asylum-seekers, Pen Bonnar said.
For one 32-year-old male asylum-seeker in the group, it was not his first night under Cambodian detention in that area of the jungle.
Interviewed in the RCAF guardhouse, he said he fled to the river border between Mondolkiri and Ratanakkiri in mid-2003 and was later arrested by Cambodian security forces and deported back to Vietnam, where he spent three months in prison in Dak Lak and Gai Lai provinces. Fearing re-arrest following the Montagnard demonstrations in the Central Highlands in April, he fled again to Cambodia in June, he said.
Asked if he feared deportation again, the man smiled and nodded back to the reporters and Adhoc, saying: “I am not worried because we are with the international community here.”
After spending Sunday night in military detention, the asylum-seekers were hopeful they would be released on Monday morning. But then the military received orders to continue holding the Montagnards, Adhoc official and reporters while orders were sought from higher levels of authority.
As the day wore on and a rainstorm descended, hope among the Montagnards that they would be leaving soon disappeared. But, with a large amount of chickens and rice purchased to feed the asylum-seekers, the military post settled down to some early evening karaoke and more rice wine.
UNHCR would reimburse Adhoc for all expenses incurred on the trip, Pen Bonnar said.
On Tuesday morning, the group was informed that everyone would be released and allowed to travel to Banlung if a report was written, in Khmer, to describe the activities of the rights worker and reporters, and to apparently have them accept blame for not informing the O’leave military post that they were in the area. Pen Bonnar penned the reports and the deal was signed with the customary thumbprint, but lacking ink, iodine from a first aid kit was used.
After a grueling four hours by boat under heavy rain and another two by truck, the 17 asylum-seekers were admitted to the UNHCR site in Banlung town where 181 others have been brought in the past two weeks. Interior Ministry and provincial police accepted the handover of the 17 with yet another signed and stamped statement.
Forty-one more Montagnards staying in Banlung are scheduled to arrive in Phnom Penh today, Meechubot said. They will join 31 Montagnards who arrived in the capital on Monday from Ratanakkiri.
(Additional reporting by Phann Ana)
