Amnesty fears for Vietnamese family

Amnesty fears for Vietnamese family

PHNOM PENH (Agencies): Amnesty International appealed for authorities to ensure the safety of a missing ethnic minority family under United Nations protection, who had fled to Cambodia from unrest in the Vietnamese Central Highlands, a statement said on Friday.

Dien Y Lien, his wife Maria Nam Linh and their five children were reportedly arrested by local authorities after being granted temporary United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) protection, and are feared to have been forcibly repatriated.

The family was reportedly hiding from Vietnamese and local authorities in the northeastern Cambodian jungle with nearly 150 others who crossed the border to flee the violence which erupted in the Central Highlands earlier this year.

Cambodian police denied on Friday that they had detained the family. Col. Reach Samnang, Mondulkiri province police commissioner, told Associated Press by telephone that he was not aware of the arrests.