Submitted for the Record by
Michael D. Benge
Former POW and
Advisor to the South Vietnamese
Ministry for Ethnic Minorities
To: The Senate Finance Subcommittee on International Trade
Hearings on S.J. Res. 47, Tuesday, July 7, 1998
Chaired by the Honorable Charles E. Grassley
Senator Grassley and other members of the Committee:
I wish to thank you for the opportunity to submit the following as written testimony for the record.
The first issue concerns, "Are the Vietnamese communists 'fully cooperating' on accounting for the POW/MIAs as professed by Ambassador Pete Peterson, and Senators John McCain and John Kerry?" My response for the following reasons is an emphatic, "No!"
-- I have attached to my written testimony a translation of an article written by a Vietnamese communist party member criticizing the party's "normalization" of relations with the United States. From this I quote a very relevant and revealing statement: "Hanoi has given the Americans fake cake on the MIA issue by not returning even one MIA. Conversely, the Americans still patiently promise everything and give everything--fake cake, including most favored nation fake cake!"
-- According to debriefing reports, while a POW, Ambassador Peterson was the last person to see two American POWs in the hands of the North Vietnamese prison officials in Hanoi. If my information is correct, the remains of only one of them have been returned. If this is true, "How can they say that the Vietnamese are 'fully cooperating'?" as professed by Ambassador Peterson, and Senators McCain and Kerry?"
-- Although only a small number of the last-known-alive priority cases are said to not yet have been resolved, I have been told that many of the names were crossed off the list solely on the basis the Vietnamese communists telling the American investigators that they knew nothing about them. This matter should be investigated by an investigator independent of the Defense and State Departments.
-- The crash sites are being 'salted' by the Vietnamese communists. Recently a flight suit in good condition belonging to Navy Lt. Borah, supposedly buried and exposed to the tropical elements for over 25 years, turned up at a crash site and is cited as evidence that he had died upon impact.
-- The Vietnamese communists have yet to turn over the files, sometimes referred to as the grey, blue or white files, which were kept on each individual POW. These files would be maintained by the central records division of Hanoi's Department of Enemy Proselytizing. If Lt. Borah's flight suit can remain in pristine condition after over 25 years' exposure to the tropical elements in Vietnam, surely records maintained by the communist central government would be in even better condition.
The second issue is regarding the Vietnamese communists' lack of cooperation on the immigration issue. Although I will go only into detail concerning the status of the ethnic minorities, I fully support the position of SOS Boat People that the Vietnamese are also discriminating against ethnic Vietnamese as well and not fully allowing qualified persons to be interviewed and processed.
The communist regime of Vietnam is in direct violation of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment by its discriminatory policies in not allowing free emigration of its peoples, especially so regarding its ethnic minorities. The Montagnards (French term for people from the mountains), are ethnic minorities in Vietnam, made up mainly of peoples of Malayo-Polynesian, Mon-Khmer, and Sino-Tibetian extraction. The Montagnards were our staunchest allies during the Vietnam War, and are now among the "poorest of the poor" in Vietnam. They suffered immensely during the war, with an estimated 250,000 killed and over 85% of their villages destroyed or forcibly-abandoned, Thousands were slaughtered after the Americans left in 1975. Just before the fall of Saigon in 1975, promises were made by U.S. Embassy officials that the United States would continue to support the Montagnard's resistance against the Vietnamese communists. A large number of them continued that resistance and consequently, thousands more were killed, large numbers were sent to reeducation camps, while others were sent to civil jails and prisons. In the latter case civil jail time is not considered by U.S. immigration officials as reeducation; therefore, these Montagnards are not considered to be qualified for the U.S. immigration programs.
There are less than 1,500 Montagnards in the United States, and of this number, only a very small number came out of Vietnam through the various immigration programs. The vast majority of these people came out of Thailand and Cambodia under special consideration as "resistance fighters (i.e., FULRO)," who continued to fight against the Vietnamese communists under the illusion of promises made by U.S. officials just before the fall of South Viet Nam. A great share of these people now reside in North Carolina.
By in large, the Montagnards have been denied access to or have been unable to access the various immigration programs set up by the U.S. Government, such as ODP, because:
At the present time, there are well over 1,000 Montagnards still in Vietnam who are duly qualified for the U.S. programs under present guidelines but are not being processed by the Vietnamese communist government. There are a large number of others who would have qualified, but may not now after being denied access to the programs for years: now, the U.S. Government is closing the programs under which they qualified. Even if the U.S. provided transportation for the Montagnards from the provincial capitals to Saigon for interviews, many would be "no shows" because village and district officials would not allow them to participate in the program, oftentimes by threatening retaliation on their families.
The communist government of Vietnam has steadfastly refused to allow the reunification of several families of the former FULRO members, even after almost two decades. A few have succeeded, but only after paying large bribes to the communist officials. The families of those who cannot or refuse to pay these huge bribes are denied access to the U.S. programs and are not allowed to rejoin their families in the United States. Even if these bribes are paid, they are still not allowed to leave. Often after paying bribes, they are sent back at this point to start the process all over again. Much of the process is only a scam. One outstanding example is when a former FULRO member tried to get his wife and child out of Vietnam and paid over $10,000 in "ransom money" to Vietnamese officials, they were still not allowed to leave.
The Montagnards are among the poorest of the poor in Vietnam. In Vietnam, the relatives of the Montagnards previously affiliated with FULRO, or thought to have been sympathizers, are denied access to higher education, medical facilities and other GVN services. Higher education is necessary to get most jobs, and the few Montagnard who are fortunate to get jobs, are relegated to only menial ones. Bribes are required at the village level, at the district level, and again at the provincial level, and it does not end there. They must somehow make their way to Saigon from the central highlands where they live, and are required to pay bribes at each police check point. They are also required to stay at a government hostel in Saigon that charges exorbitant prices, and then they may have to pay an additional bribe to gain access to the ODP process at the American Consulate.
Reportedly, Montagnard families who come to the U.S. are required to add a Vietnamese to the family before being allowed to immigrate, and a family member is held hostage in Vietnam as insurance. Once in the U.S., the Vietnamese "adoptee" disappears within the Vietnamese community.
The Vietnamese communist government is practicing cultural genocide against the Montagnards by breaking up the extended families and putting all of the elders in "retirement villages," where they have little or no means of support, access to medicine, etc.. Traditionally the Montagnards farmed, but their farmlands have been taken away from them and they are allowed only a tiny bit of land as a "kitchen garden," in which to grow food to survive. If they want to continue to farm, they are forced deep into the jungle; however, due to the collusion between high-ranking Vietnamese and Cambodian communist authorities, the jungles and mountains are rapidly being denuded, and soon there will be no place for them to farm. Furthermore, those who have "gone to the mountains" are often accused of being FULRO supporters, are raided and their food confiscated, or they are killed outright. At best, whatever food they have is taken by the Vietnamese.
Many of the Montagnards in Vietnam are Christian and some are ordained ministers. However, the Montagnards are not allowed to have or construct churches, and if they are caught having services, they are heavily fined.
The problems that the Montagnards face are not only those caused by the Vietnamese communist government, but there are also a number of obstacles caused by officials in the U.S. government. It has been reported to me that certain individuals in the immigration program consider the Montagnards, especially those previously affiliated with FULRO, as terrorists, and on that basis put their papers at the bottom of the pile. Also, there are a large number of Montagnards who served for over five years in many American programs, such as the Mike Force, the Kit Carson Scouts, the PRUs, and the Troung Son Cadre program, but this service is not recognized as qualifying them for Orderly Departure, These people risked their lives in rescuing pilots, and gathering intelligence that saved the lives of hundreds of Americans, but because of some bureaucratic oversight, their service does not qualify. Several Montagnards, and one Vietnamese, who worked for me in the CORDS Program for five years, have been denied access to ODP. They have asked me for help, Unfortunately, one of the requirements to get them out is to send them money to pay the bribes, which of course I refuse to pay to the Vietnamese communists. Another Montagnard who worked for me, for a short time, and is now trained as a doctor, has been on the INS waiting list for family reunification for over 12 years. She has two sisters in the U.S. one a citizen and the other holds a green card,, who have guaranteed her complete maintenance at no cost to the government.
On this basis, I do feel that the Vietnamese communist government deserves no waiver of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, and benchmarks on progress toward increased immmigration and accounting for POW/MIAs should be set as goals for the Vietnamese to reach before such a waiver d takes place.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael D, Benge
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I spent 11 years in Viet Nam--1963-75, five years as a Prisoner of War--1968-73. While serving as a civilian Foreign Service Officer, I was captured in South Viet Nam by the North Vietnamese, and held in numerous camps in South Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos and North Viet Nam--27 months in solitary confinement and one year in a "black box." For efforts in rescuing several Americans before capture, I received the State Department's highest award for heroism and a second one for valor.