Socialist Republic of Vietnam

NEW YORK — A Vietnamese permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) has refuted fabricated information on Viet Nam’s situation provided by the Transnational Radical Party (TRP).

Nguyen Tat Thanh, the Minister Counsellor and Deputy Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to the UN, said the TRP, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) with consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), has allowed the Ksor Kok’s Montagnard Foundation Inc (MFI) to take advantage of UN forums to distribute fabricated information regarding Viet Nam.

Speaking at a resumed session of the NGO Committee under the ECOSOC in New York on May 18, Thanh said: "Viet Nam has consistently objected to the participation of Ksor Kok and the MFI in UN meetings and conferences under the cover of the TRP. This individual and his organisation, the MFI, are pursuing separatist goals against Viet Nam, and in pursuit of those goals they have resorted to violent and terrorist acts."

At last year’s session of the NGO Committee, responding to a request from Viet Nam’s proposal, the Committee decided to propose that the ECOSOC suspend the TRP’s consultative status with the ECOSOC for three years. However, the ECOSOC did not endorse the Committee’s decision.

Thanh argued that the ECOSOC’s refusal was unjust and failed to address the issue, going on to say that the TRP’s actions are not consistent with the principles and regulations of an NGO. Further, he went on, the TRP has violated ECOSOC resolutions through its support of a member organisation which is employing terrorism to pursue a separatist agenda against Viet Nam.

Thanh stressed that Viet Nam has evidence to prove that Ksor Kok is a terrorist and his MFI is a separatist organisation aiming to set up the so-called ‘independent state of Degar’ within Vietnamese territory and thereby violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Viet Nam.

Thanh called on the session to ban the TRP from attending future ECOSOC forums.

"The TRP’s support of terrorist activities means they have neither moral nor legal right to participate in the Committee’s deliberations," he said.

Viet Nam News, May 20, 2005