Ethnic unrest sweeps Vietnam<\/p>\n
HANOI (AFP): A wave of apparently well-coordinated protest was
\nsweeping Vietnam's central highlands as the region's ethnic
\nminorities vented their anger at the loss of lands to Vietnamese
\nsettlers, residents said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Thousands of minority protesters had taken to the streets of
\nthe region's main towns over the past few days prompting
\nauthorities to launch a major crackdown, residents told AFP.<\/p>\n
Some minority people were now being barred from leaving their
\ndistricts but protests were continuing in rural areas on
\nWednesday, they said.<\/p>\n
The communist authorities sought to play down the protests,
\nconfirming just a single demonstration in a single town more than
\na week ago.<\/p>\n
But officials at the region's biggest tourist draw, the Yok
\nDon National Park, confirmed it had been ordered to close for the
\npast three days and was not expected to reopen soon.<\/p>\n
Fury at government land confiscations, which have turned the
\nminorities' ancestral forests into the country's largest coffee-
\ngrowing region, was the principal factor behind the protests,
\nresidents said.<\/p>\n
But they were also fueled by government repression of fringe
\nProtestant churches which have won large numbers of followers
\namong the minority peoples in recent years.<\/p>\n
Several thousand protesters staged a four-day protest in the
\ntown of Pleiku, capital of Gia Lai province, over the weekend,
\nwhile another 2,000 demonstrated in the Dac Lac provincial
\ncapital of Buon Me Thuot on Tuesday, residents said.<\/p>\n
"On Friday and again throughout the weekend, lines of
\nprotesters stretching as far as the eye could see marched along
\nthe roads leading into Pleiku," a businessman in the town told
\nAFP.<\/p>\n
"Several policemen were injured and a number of the
\ndemonstration's organizers arrested," a textile seller said.<\/p>\n
In Buon Me Thuot, around 2,000 minority people traveled into
\nthe town to demonstrate Tuesday, a resident said.<\/p>\n
The demonstration only lasted a single day but protests were
\ncontinuing Wednesday in nearby Yok Don National Park, he said.
\nWeekend protests were also held in rural districts of Gia Lai
\nprovince, coinciding with the demonstration in Pleiku.<\/p>\n
"There were demonstrations in several districts but the
\nlargest was here in Chu Prong among members of the Jarai and
\nBahnar minorities," said the owner of a jewelry shop in the
\ndistrict.<\/p>\n
"Uniform and plainclothes police were out in force to monitor
\nthe demonstrations and several protesters were arrested before
\nbeing released a few hours later."<\/p>\n
Police were now preventing minority groups from leaving the
\ndistrict, he added.<\/p>\n
Residents said the demonstrations had brought together people
\nfrom the whole range of ethnic minorities which inhabit the
\nregion, including the three biggest -- the Jarai, Ede and Bahnar
\n-- who between them number more than 600,000 people.<\/p>\n
There was a shared anger at a massive influx of Vietnamese
\nsettlers to grow coffee and other cash crops, which made ethnic
\nVietnamese a small majority in Gia Lai province for the first
\ntime ever at the last census in 1999.<\/p>\n
Vietnam has jumped from nowhere to become the world's second-
\nlargest coffee exporter in recent years, largely through the
\nopening up of new plantations in the central highlands.<\/p>\n
The region has long been resistant to government control of
\nany hue, spawning resistance movements which fought first the
\nFrench, then the U.S.-backed Saigon regime and then the
\ncommunists.<\/p>\n
A United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Peoples fought
\nout of bases just across the border in Cambodia as recently as
\nthe late 1970s, prompting the communist authorities to launch a
\nfirst wave of Vietnamese settlement into so-called New Economic
\nZones in the region through the 1980s.<\/p>\n
In recent years, fringe Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches
\nhave attracted large numbers of followers among the minorities,
\nagain attracting the suspicion of the government.<\/p>\n
Anger over the authorities' seizure of church buildings helped
\nfuel the wave of protests, one resident told AFP.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday the authorities in Gia Lai called in religious
\nleaders to deliver a stern warning to keep out of the unrest.<\/p>\n
Provincial officials "stressed the need for vigilance in the
\nface of ... attempts by wicked elements to exploit religion
\nto ... sow disunity among local inhabitants," official media
\nsaid.<\/p>",
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