The government of Vietnam currently recognizes fifty-four distinct ethnolinguistic minorities as inhabitants of their country (Dang, Chu, & Luu, 2000). It used to recognize more but there have been three releases of the official categorization by government-appointed ethnologists, in which various peoples were later counted together.

The visitor to Vietnam can focus on two different areas to find the highest concentrations of ethnic minorities: the "Northwest Loop" and the Central Highlands. Visiting the former is described very well by Doling (1999), which anyone should read if they intend to visit the different indigenous peoples in that area, traveling independently. The more tourist oriented traveler will find a plethora of tour companies in Hanoi who can arrange all-inclusive, group, package deals to visit the ethnic minorities in that area. While in Hanoi, a visit to the Museum of Ethnology gives a good idea of what to expect on the "Northwest Loop." Around Sa Pa (the main tourist destination) H'mong guides can be found who speak adequate English and are by far the best guides to that part of Vietnam. The Central Highlands, in contrast, could be a dangerous place for westerners to visit at the moment - for reasons explained below. In either case, the potential visitor should be aware that to stay overnight in an ethnic minority village requires an advance, official permit from the local police. Failure to get this permit puts both the visitor and, more importantly, their host at great risk.

Of course, indigenous minority peoples are to be found everywhere in Vietnam, but outside these two areas their integration into Vietnamese society is so profound that it is difficult if not impossible to distinguish any of them. This integration is largely a result of the official government policy towards its ethnic minorities of "assimilation:" a controversial policy at best, since most of its indigenous peoples are eager to maintain their own cultural identity and heritage. Given the recent history of Vietnam, it is understandable that Hanoi's policy has been more successful in the former North than the former South.

Vietnam has one of the worst human rights records of any country in this part of the world when it comes to treatment of its ethnic minority peoples. After re-unification in 1975, many indigenous peoples from the Central Highlands were stripped of basic citizenship rights and imprisoned and/or sent to "re-education" (forced labor) camps. Others simply fled into and hid in the jungle - their knowledge of the land and survival skills outmatching the Viet and allowing them to find safe haven there for many years. Much of this persecution by the Vietnamese authorities was effectively retribution because of the alliance between the various ethnic groups and the US forces fighting against the NVA during the American war. Afraid of continued alliances with the US after re-unification, Hanoi implemented a policy of outsider settlement (some have called this displacement) in the Central Highlands.

Skip forward to the Spring of 2001 and various ethnic groups began public demonstrations proclaiming their land, education and religious rights. A plight largely ignored by mainstream western media, about 1500 people sought refuge in neighboring Cambodia following heavy military crackdown against these demonstrators in March, 2001. (We met two western tourists in Vietnam who had been in that area at the time and, according to their information, were visited by Vietnamese authorities in their hotel one day and ordered to leave the area immediately.) About two thirds of those ended up in UN refugee camps in Northeast Cambodia by May, 2001. For almost a year they were the subject of uncertainty in the center of discussions between Hanoi, Phnom Penh and the UN. We sought permission from the governer of Ratakaniri Province, Cambodia to photograph the refugee camp there in November, 2001 but were refused. The UN, human rights organizations and journalists were expelled from the Central Highlands by Vietnamese authorities when their visit became too politically charged in March, 2002, after local ethnic villagers claimed that anyone returning to Vietnam would be punished/tortured/killed upon their return. (We traveled independently in the Central Highlands in January, 2002, and was assured by friends and relatives of the ones in Cambodia that should the refugees return they would surely be killed.) In April, 2002 the US State Department offered to accept them into the US as political refugees. They have since been re-settled in North Carolina.

Although this sounds like a conclusion to the situation, it isn't. Hanoi has repeatedly attempted to keep the situation away from international attention, accusing the US of unnecessarily interfering in its internal affairs. Although Cambodia is a signatory to UN Articles on refugees, it sealed its borders to further asylum seekers following the departure of these asylum seekers. Reports began surfacing toward the end of 2002 about further intervention, abuse and crackdowns by Hanoi in the Central Highlands. Other recent reports suggest that more ethnic minorities are now attempting to seek refuge in Northeast Cambodia, but they are being sought out for deportation back to Vietnam by corrupt local Cambodian police, who are paid a bounty for their find. On January 21, 2003, Human Rights Watch released a briefing paper documenting the latest Vietnamese crackdown (see the web links on the left).

We will continue to update this page as more news comes out of the area. For now, however, this part of Vietnam could be very unsafe for westerners to visit - particularly those traveling on a US passport.

Tour guides to the Central Highlands can be found in Dalat, Nah Trang and Hoi An. These guides, however, are not likely to be very knowledgeable about this situation and, for their own protection, are unlikely to share what knowledge they might have with western visitors.

Books

Jones, S., Saunders, J. & Smart, M., (Eds.) (2002) Repression Of Montagnards: Conflicts over Land and Religion in Vietnam's Central Highlands. New York: Human Rights Watch Publications.

Dang, N. V., Chu, T. S. & Luu, H., (2000) Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam. Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers.

Doling, T., (1999) Mountains and Ethnic Minorities: North West Vietnam. Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers.

Nguyen, V. H., (1999) The Cultural Mosaic of Ethnic Groups in Vietnam. Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers.

Schliesinger, J., (1997) Hill Tribes of Vietnam: Volume One. Introduction and Overview. Bangkok: White Lotus.

Schliesinger, J., (1998) Hill Tribes of Vietnam: Volume Two. Profile of The Existing Hill Tribe Groups. Bangkok: White Lotus.

Hickey, G. C., (1982) Sons of the Mountains: Ethnohistory of the Vietnamese Central Highlands to 1954. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Hickey, G. C., (1982) Free in the Forest: Ethnohistory of the Vietnamese Central Highlands, 1954-1976. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Hickey, G. C., (1993) Shattered World: Adaptation and Survival among Vietnam's Highland Peoples During the Vietnam War. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Mole, G. C., (1970) The Montagnards of South Vietnam: A Study of Nine Tribes. Rutland, VT: Tuttle.