UN to Search for More Vietnamese Montagnards

(ABC Radio Australia ) – Cambodia has granted permission for a United Nations refugee agency to make a second trip to the kingdom’s remote northeast to search for Vietnamese Montagnards fleeing repression in Vietnam . A prominent rights group said last week, shortly after the UN airlifted 198 asylum-seeking Montagnards to the capital, that a further 42 had been found hiding in the jungles in Ratanakiri province. Cambodia only allowed the UN and rights group, Adhoc, access to the region after international pressure, which followed Vietnamese authorities dispersing April protests by the Christian Montagnards over religious repression and land rights. UNHCR workers withdrew to Phnom Penh with 198 asylum-seekers last month.