Tripartite meeting on return of Vietnamese highlanders


Ha Noi, Jan. 22 (VNA) -- Viet Nam, Cambodia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) have endorsed the importance of the provision of proper counselling to the highlanders (Montagnards) as an incentive for their safe return to Viet Nam.

This agreement was reached at a tripartite meeting held in Phnom Penh on Monday, Jan. 21, on Vietnamese "Montagnards" who had illegally fled into Cambodia's northeastern provinces.

FM Spokeswoman rejected assessment of H.R Watch on Vietnam

On Jan. 18, Foreign Minister Spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh answered question from Radio Voice of Vietnam: Please provide Vietnam's reaction to a report on human rights record in Vietnam in 2001 released by the Human Rights Watch which says that Vietnam suffered some backlash on human rights, especially in freedom of religion.

Answer:

We reject groundless and untruthful assessments by the Human Rights Watch.

<B>Of Human Rights in Vietnam</B>

This topic is not chosen at random in the wake of a related action taken early September by the US House of Representatives, an action in no way acceptable to the Government and people of Vietnam.

Human Rights are a cultural value of humankind, with enormous importance. As the Vietnamese often say, to lose one

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