ratanakkiri province – The Cambodian Red Cross should help ailing Montagnard asylum-seekers hiding in the northeast jungle regardless of their nationality, the organization’s director in Ratanakkiri province said Thursday.
“The Red Cross’s mission, [is to] help the vulnerable people,” said Red Cross provincial director Phath Keomuny. “If we have enough food…we can help them without care if they are Vietnamese or Cambodian, because they need to [stay] alive.”
“The government is so tight with the refugee[s],” Phath Keomuny said. His office is preparing to report on the grave living conditions of Montagnard asylum seekers to the main Red Cross office in Phnom Penh, he added. “It is really difficult to help the [Montagnards] because the provincial government keeps information about them a secret. We are neutral, we want to help the victim[s],” said Som Chanseang, deputy director of the Cambodian Red Cross’s Ratanakkiri office. Offered a shipment of 250 mosquito nets provided through The Cambodia Daily Mosquito Net Campaign, Phath Keomuny refused, saying his staff had no vehicles to transport the nets to the jungle.
My Samedy, secretary-general of the Cambodian Red Cross in Phnom Penh, said Thursday his organization cannot provide humanitarian assistance until the provincial government authorities report the living conditions of the Montagnards to the provincial Red Cross office.
My Samedy said he believed media reports about Montagnard asylum seekers languishing in the jungle. “But what can we do?” he asked. “The provincial [government] authorities never report the [Montagnards] to the Red Cross. All the Red Cross does is wait for the report, and [then] it will send humanitarian assistance.”
Thirty-seven Montagnard asylum-seekers lacking adequate food, drinking water and medicine have been interviewed and photographed in Ratanakkiri in the past month. Those interviewed corroborate local hill tribe sources who say as many as 250 Montagnards are hiding in the provinces, and are becoming desperate for food. CPP spokesman Khieu Kanharith did not answer phone calls seeking comment late Thursday.
The Red Cross is not going to travel to Ratanakkiri without an agreement with the Cambodian government, Antony Spalton, head of the delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said Thursday. Like the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Red Cross needs the government’s permission to access the area, Spalton said. “The Cambodian Red Cross has offered its services to the government.”
Civil society organizations condemned the lack of humanitarian assistance and protection being offered to the asylum-seekers in Ratanakkiri. Chea Vannath, president of the Center for Social Development, said the Cambodian Red Cross should act without the government’s permission. “It is their job to help any human being in distress,” she said.
Kek Galabru, president of the rights group Licadho, said Thursday that the government should not block the work of the Red Cross or the UNHCR. “It’s getting worse and worse,” she said. “They will die. It’s horrible to die from starvation and disease.”
(Reporting by Corinne Purtill, Yun Samean and Daniel Ten Kate)
