Press briefing notes on Cambodia and Cuba/USA

Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Rupert Colville
Location: Geneva
Subjects: (1) Cambodia / Montagnards, (2) Cuba
Date: 19 December 2014
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(1) Cambodia / Montagnards

OHCHR and UNHCR are increasingly concerned about the health and well-being of 13 Vietnamese Montagnards who have been hiding in the Cambodian jungle for more than seven weeks with no access to assistance or protection.

A joint team from Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior, UNHCR and the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) travelled to Ratanakiri on Thursday last week (December 11) to engage with the local authorities and find and talk to the Montagnards. It was agreed that if the group indicated that they wished to apply for asylum, they would be brought to Phnom Penh to enable them to do so.

Despite a clear instruction by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H.E. Sar Kheng to cooperate with the joint team, the local authorities in Ratanakiri have refused to allow the team to meet with the group or to transport them to the capital. This morning, provincial authorities prevented UN access to the ethnic Jarai villages in the area. Between 10:00 and 11:00 local time the joint UN/Ministry of Interior team were stopped at a road block as attempted to enter the area where the Montagnards are believed to be hiding. The team contacted the Governor, but he did not intervene to  facilitate their entry. In the meantime, UN officials were informed that provincial police have continued to search for the individuals, possibly with a view to returning them to Viet Nam. We believe there are substantial grounds for believing that the Montagnards may be in danger of being subjected to human rights violations if they are returned to their country of origin, Viet Nam.

In Bangkok this morning, UNHCR and OHCHR issued a joint press release appealing to the Cambodian authorities to take urgent action to ensure that the Montagnard group is escorted to Phnom Penh and given access to the asylum procedure in line with the 1951 Refugee Convention and Cambodia’s sub-decree on refugees and asylum seekers.

(2) Cuba (approximate rendering of responses to several questions)

We very much welcome the developments towards normalizing the relationship between Cuba and the United States, and in particular the fact that the remaining three members of the so-called 'Cuban Five' as well as US citizen Alan Gross have all been released as part of the agreement. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention qualified the detention of the three members of the Cuban Five as arbitrary back in 2005, and that of Mr Gross as Arbitrary in 2012, so it is good to see all of them finally released. The progress towards normalizing relations between the two countries will hopefully have a beneficial knock-on effect on the human rights of all Cubans, and therefore we are delighted to see the unblocking of the situation.

ENDS

For further information and media requests, please contact Rupert Colville (+41 22 917 9767 / rcolville@ohchr.org) or Ravina Shamdasani (+41 22 917 9169 / rshamdasani@ohchr.org)

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