John Aglionby on the Treatment of the Montagnard Minority in Vietnam

Vietnamese security forces joined forces with armed men in civilian clothing to violently disperse thousands of ethnic minority Montagnards demonstrating in the central highlands over Easter, Human Rights Watch announced today.

Unlike Montagnard exile groups, who are claiming hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed in the attacks in Dak Lak, Gia Lai and Dak Nong provinces, the human rights group says it has credible reports of 10 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

But it has grounds for believing the number of casualties could be much higher. "We fear that a huge cover-up operation has likely already taken place," said Dinah PoKempner, the general consul for HRW.

"The Vietnamese government needs to account for the large numbers of people who never returned to their villages after the demonstrations and are now feared to be dead or detained at unknown locations."

The recent protests are believed to be the largest in the region since February 2001 when the security forces forcibly broke up demonstrations by some 20,000 Montagnards, triggering a mass exodus into Cambodia.

The Montagnards, also known as the Degar people, were the indigenous inhabitants of many of Vietnam's coastal areas. Over the last 30 years, their numbers have been steadily depleted by war and repression. They now number about one million, a third of the pre-Vietnam War total.

The Vietnamese government claims two people were killed and up to 70 injured in the two days of protests that began on April 10 over anger at alleged continuous repression of the Montagnards' freedom to practise their religion - an unsanctioned form of Protestantism - and erosion of their traditional land rights.

But human rights groups and Vietnam-based diplomats are suspicious that the government's unusually exaggerated public response - senior ministers were dispatched to the area within days and the tightly-controlled press have given the issue unusually extensive coverage - means what occurred was much more serious than what is being admitted.

The authorities have publicly blamed the United States-based Montagnard Foundation of inciting the protests. "The organisers of the demonstrations spread rumours that United Nations aeroplanes were available to migrate local people abroad," the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that people were offered money to demonstrate.

The chairman of the Montagnard Foundation, Kok Ksor denied the provocation accusation. "That [accusation] is false," he told the Guardian. "The villagers asked my advice and I told them to wait until Christmas to protest. But they didn't listen. They said they couldn't keep quiet because people are being killed everyday."

He said he thought the death toll from the protests was "at least 400" but had heard reports of it being in the thousands. In the past the foundation has been known to exaggerate its figures.

In its report, HRW quotes an alleged eye-witness's account of what happened at one demonstration on the outskirts of the town of Buon Ma Thuot. The 26-year-old Ede woman is quoted as saying police had lined up students and ethnic Vietnamese men in civilian clothing holding metal bars, shovels and machetes along the route of the protest.

"They suddenly rushed at the unarmed crowd, beating the demonstrators until many were lying in the streets," she allegedly said. "They chased demonstrators who tried to flee, including children and women."

HRW says she and many other demonstrators fled to the coffee fields behind the shops lining the road, chased by security forces.

Her quoted account continues as follows: "A thousand people tried to get away from the slaughter by the police and civilians. They were beating us with metal bars and sticks. People were bleeding from their throats, noses, mouths, and eyes. The villagers were crying as they tried to get away from the slaughter by the police and civilians. We were running helter-skelter.

"Those who tried to hide in the coffee plantation were caught, beaten and killed on the spot. Police, students, and Vietnamese threw rocks at us. Many of us were bleeding from being hit on our heads with rocks. Many people were injured and bleeding. We didn't have any first-aid for their wounds. They were bleeding from their throats, noses, mouths, and eyes.

"A blind woman sitting on the farm tractor was killed on the road by a dozen Vietnamese people, including police. They asked her to get down from the tractor but she could not because she was blind. They rushed at her and beat her until she fell from the tractor and died. The police and Vietnamese civilians smashed and stepped on our food, clothing and blankets we had prepared for a long-term peaceful demonstration asking for freedom and the end to harassment of our religion and our Montagnard life."

It is impossible to verify this or the other similarly horrifying accounts that are trickling out despite the news blackout imposed on the region and the banning of foreigners from visiting the affected provinces.

"If the Vietnamese government has nothing to hide they should open up the region immediately," another HRW representative said. "It's clear people were attempting to gather in masses to show their deep discontent at the violation of basic rights and it seems the protest was put down very violently."

A researcher at Amnesty International who is studying the Montagnards said there was "no reason to think that Human Rights Watch has got this wrong" although he said he had only heard credible reports of four deaths.

"Our information suggests the authorities knew what was happening and the demonstrations were ambushed," the researcher said.

Foreign diplomats are included in the ban on visiting the area. On April 20 the European Union made a formal protest to the Vietnamese government, demanding a verifiable explanation of what occurred and access to the area. It has yet to receive a response.