TEXT: TAFT TESTIMONY ON MONTAGNARDS IN VIETNAM
(Montagnards at the top of ODP agenda)

Washington -- The Clinton administration will continue to stress the importance of issuing exit permits in all of its dealings with Vietnam until all eligible cases, both refugee and immigrant visa applicants, are permitted to attend their Orderly Departure Program (ODP) interview, according to Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Julia Taft.

In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee March 10, Taft said: "The Montagnards, have been and will continue to be at the top of this agenda."

Following is the text of Taft's testimony, as prepared for delivery:

(begin text)

TESTIMONY OF
ASSISTANT SECRETARY JULIA TAFT
BUREAU OF POPULATION, REFUGEES, AND MIGRATION
DEPARTMENT OF STATE

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE

MARCH 10, 1998

As Prepared for Delivery

Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I welcome this opportunity to be here today to discuss with you our experiences with processing Montagnards for admission to the United States. I look forward to your questions because I believe it is only when our mutual concerns are on the table that we can most effectively move forward together.

MONTAGNARDS

The Montagnards are ethnic minorities from the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Many of the Montagnards fought with U.S. troops, including the Special Forces, during the Vietnam conflict. At the end of the war, some of the highlanders escaped SRV captivity and fled into the jungle where they joined a Montagnard resistance movement known as "FULRO, (FULRO stands for United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races) and continued to fight the Vietnamese Communists. These resistance activities continued until the early 1990's.

In 1985, a group of 201 Montagnards made their way to the Thai-Cambodian border following ten years' of resistance activities based in the jungles of Cambodia against the Vietnamese government. This group was processed for admission to the United States as refugees and was resettled in North Carolina in November 1956.

Eight years later, in September 1992, another 39$ Montagnard resistance fighters were discovered by United Nations Peacekeeping forces in northeastern Cambodia. Because of security concerns in Cambodia at the time, the group was quickly Processed and moved to the United States. This group was also resettled in North Carolina.

These Montagnards were resettled in North Carolina because of the intense interest of North Carolina communities, led by Vietnam veterans in the area, in resettling the Montagnards. Because of the outstanding record of North Carolina and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in refugee resettlement, the State Department agreed to this concentrated approach to Montagnard resettlement. Since the U.S. refugee resettlement program started, 16,225 refugees have resettled in North Carolina, nearly 6,200 of whom are Vietnamese.

ORDERLY DEPARTURE PROGRAM (ODP)

During the late-1970's and early-1980's when large numbers of people left Vietnam on boats, only a few Montagnards fled in this manner. The majority of the more than 1,600 Montagnards who have been admitted to the U.S. as refugees have been processed through the in-country refugee processing program known as the Orderly Departure Program (ODP). ODP was originally established in mid-1979, when the international community, led by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), sought a legal and safe means for people to depart Vietnam without having to resort to unsafe, clandestine boat departures. The United States and twenty-nine other countries originally participated in the program. UNHCR's involvement ceased during the early 1990's. Under ODP, Vietnamese are processed for admission to the United States as refugees, Amerasian immigrants, or immigrant visa beneficiaries.

Since late-1979 the program has considered applications from persons who were imprisoned for substantial periods as a result of their previous association with the U.S. or were otherwise closely associated with U.S. policies and programs. Applications for family reunification by spouses, children, parents, and siblings of residents of the U.S. were also considered.

Currently, ODP is processing the remaining caseload of former re-education camp detainees which includes Montagnard cases, qualified ROVR (Resettlement Opportunity for Vietnamese Returnees) applicants, some Amerasians, and current immigrant visa cases.

Since its inception, more than 600,000 Vietnamese have been processed through the ODP. Of this number, some 486,000 Vietnamese have been approved for admission to the U.S., including 230,949 who were admitted as refugees.

MONTAGNARD PROCESSING UNDER ODP

Since 1985, when we began keeping records that identified Montagnards specifically within the overall ODP population, our records indicate that 2,504 Montagnards have been determined to be eligible for consideration for admission to the U.S. as refugees. Of this number, 1,042 Montagnards were approved by INS for admission, 531 were denied at the time of interview or found not qualified by INS, and 893 were scheduled for interview but failed to appear. An additional 38 persons are awaiting INS interview or final INS interview decisions.

Persons found not qualified for processing for the most part have been those who did not qualify for the former reeducation camp detainees program because their reed detention was not due to pre-1975 association with the U.S. or South Vietnamese governments.

Of particular concern to the United States are the 893 Montagnards who have been scheduled for an INS interview but who have failed to appear. Many of these applicants have informed us that this has been due to their inability to secure exit permission, a requirement of the Vietnamese government. This is a serious problem.

Also of great concern to us is the failure of Montagnard beneficiaries of Immigrant Visa (IV) petitions to appear for interviews with U.S. consular officers. ODP records indicate that 58 Montagnards have current visa petitions on file but 30 have failed to attend scheduled interviews, many citing their inability to obtain exit permission from the SRV. The remaining individuals have not responded to ODP inquiries about their situation. ODP will not terminate any Montagnard IV cases if lack of an exit permit is the reason for not pursuing the application.

While it is possible that some Montagnard refugee and immigrant visa applicants fail to appear for their scheduled interviews due to poor communications and transportation between the Central Highlands and Ho Chi Minh City, we doubt that this is the primary reason. Rather, it appears that the Vietnamese government has denied passports and exit permits to the relatives of those Montagnards who are suspected of involvement in anti-government activities, such as FULRO.

To highlight the importance of the lack of access for Montagnards and other ODP processing issues, in January I traveled to Vietnam to discuss with Vietnamese officials ways to complete the processing of the remaining ODP cases. Since arriving in Hanoi in May 1997, Ambassador Peterson has regularly called on the Ministers of Interior and Foreign Affairs as well as other government officials to emphasize the priority the United States Government places on this issue and to urge the Vietnamese government to facilitate access to ODP for eligible Montagnards and other Vietnamese applicants. Throughout the years of ODP's existence, access to ODP for the Montagnards has been a standard item on the ODP agenda at almost every official meeting with the SRV to discuss ODP processing.

Last October, Vietnam announced that is was taking steps to accelerate procedures to clear ROW applicants for interview. These new procedures have resulted in the clearance for interview of nearly 14,000 ROVR applicants during the past four months. During my discussions in Hanoi, Vietnam agreed to further ROVR program modifications to the departure clearance procedures for INS-approved ROW cases. The SRV has expressed the desire to successfully conclude all extraordinary U.S. admissions programs so that we can move toward establishment of a "normal" migration relationship consistent with normalization of our overall bilateral relationship. We are hopeful that the SRV will shortly agree to similar expedited processing procedures for the Montagnards and other ODP programs.

I am pleased to note that, on February 26, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed us that staff from the Ho Chi Minh City Ministry of Interior office had already travelled to the Central Highlands to interview some of the Montagnards on the ODP list and that ODP would be able to interview them soon. That is good news, but I want to assure you that we will not put this issue to rest until we are granted access to all eligible Montagnard cases.

MCCAIN AMENDMENT

Of vital importance to the U.S. government is the completion of the processing of the remaining reeducation detainees caseload in Vietnam, the program that includes the Montagnard refugee cases. To complete this processing, the Administration requests the support of the Congress for a quick extension of the McCain Amendment which provides for the admission of the single, over 21 year old children of former reeducation camp detainees. This provision expired on September 30, 1997, but we believe it should be extended until March 31, 1999 in order to permit the humane conclusion of the program.

CONCLUSION

Mr. Chairman, while we are seeing tangible progress, I want to assure you that we will continue to stress the importance of these issues in all of our dealings with the Vietnamese until all eligible ODP cases, both refugee and immigrant visa applicants, are permitted to attend their ODP interview. The Montagnards, have been and will continue to be at the top of this agenda.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to this committee and to all in Congress who support our mutual efforts to alleviate some of the world's pain by assisting refugees.

That concludes my remarks. I will be happy to respond to your questions.

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