Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-11-Speech-4-139"
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"en.20020411.8.4-139"2
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".
The Commission fully shares the concern of the members who have spoken about the situation of the Vietnamese Montagnards.
We have always recognised that complex events were behind the instability which started to take hold in the central mountains of Vietnam at the beginning of 2001. Like you, we have watched the exodus of the hill tribes from the region with concern and have supported efforts by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, working with the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments, to guarantee suitable conditions under which those wishing to can return.
We are therefore sorry to see that the tripartite agreement has been broken and, given the circumstances, we welcome the positive decision by the Cambodian government to allow Montagnards currently living in the refugee camps in Cambodia to return to the United States under the plan coordinated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. However, we feel that this measure does not offer a definitive solution to the problems at the root of this exodus.
We shall therefore continue to encourage Cambodia to face up to its international responsibilities. It is subject to the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and should continue to offer aid, asylum and temporary protection to asylum seekers. At the same time, we share the views expressed by the members in their resolution that Vietnam should continue in its efforts to improve protection for civil, political and religious rights. In the case of the hill tribes in particular, the Vietnamese government can obviously only deal with these problems at a local level and that is where they must be dealt with.
These issues tie in generally with the need for pro-active reform in Vietnam; the Vietnamese administration needs to get used to the idea of pluralist opinion and the virtue of a political regime which brooks different points of view at all levels, which is not necessarily the case at present. Vietnam also needs to extend its legal reforms and ensure that the constitutional rights of all its citizens are applied fully and fairly.
That is the Commission’s position. With all due respect to Mr Dupuis, may I close by reminding him that our policy in Vietnam is not the policy of Poul Nielson, it is the policy of the Commission, the policy of the Council of Ministers, the policy of the European Parliament, in short, the policy of the European Union."@en1
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