Asia Security
Monitor
No. 90, July 28, 2004 Indian Maoists undermine ceasefire;
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| July 19: The Indian government has yet to come up with a coherent strategy to confront the rapidly expanding left-wing extremist Naxalite group in Northeast India, even though the government’s strategy of neutralizing the movement state-by-state has repeatedly failed, reports South Asia Intelligence Review. State governments have yet to unify their effort to combat the Naxalites due to a division between those who support the ceasefire and negotiations, and those who believe that the process will lead to more criminal activities. This problem has been acknowledged by Jharkhand Chief Minister, Afjun Munda, who noted that “the affected States should come together to address the issues of Left Wing extremism…talking to a single group will not solve the problem.” The Naxalites have repeatedly used negotiations as a tactic for consolidation and expansion, even holding peace talks in one state while operations are carried out in another. Even though the Naxalites of the People’s War Group (PWG) have agreed to an official ceasefire with the Indian government, Naxalite extremists in the state of Andhra Pradesh have once again exploited the negotiating period to expand their influence into new territories. Within the state of Karnataka, the group has been organizing training camps and village meetings, mobilizing unemployed youth and distributing pamphlets protesting that the government has evicted the tribal people from the Kudremukh National Park (KNP). The continued neglect of the tribal people in the KNP area by successive Governments has created the conditions for the easy entry of the Naxalites. A recently surrendered PWG guerilla stated that, “the [PWG’s] demands will not be acceptable to any Government and the talks are bound to fail,” and that the talks were only intended to ‘buy time to regroup’. July 21: The Vietnamese government is suppressing and strictly monitoring the ethnic minorities living in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, reports Time Asia. The Montagnards are grievously impoverished, as much of their land – which is utilized for plantations and natural resource exploitation - has been encroached on by Vietnamese migrants. They have also been subjected to religious persecution due to their practice of a form of Protestantism that is not officially sanctioned by the Vietnamese government. In the largest demonstration in Vietnam since 2001, thousands of Montagnards gathered in anti-government protests and clashed with security forces in Dak Lak, Gia Lai, and Kon Tum provinces during Easter. Although denied by the Vietnamese government, both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International assert that the security forces instigated the fighting and spurred civilians to attack the protestors. In recent years, thousands of Montagnards have fled from Vietnam to Cambodia, only to be classified not as refugees, but as “illegal immigrants” by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. Moreover Hun Sen stated that the Montagnards might be part of a rebel movement focused on creating an independent state in the Central Highlands. King Sihanouk of Cambodia, however, has offered a letter of support on their behalf. At the request of Vietnam veteran groups, many Montagnards have resettled in the United States. Despite a new exodus to Cambodia, the Vietnamese government denies the official migration of Montagnards, stating that “There is no reason for [the] ethnic minority people in the Central Highlands to leave their homelands.” Montagnards remaining in the highlands are closely monitored and regularly subjected to harassment and arrest by communist police and local officials. |
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Copyright
© 2004, American Foreign Policy Council.
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