[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 143 (Sunday, October 11, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2051]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE PLIGHT OF THE MONTAGNARDS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB ETHERIDGE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 9, 1998

  Mr. ETHERIDGE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring the attention of 
the Congress to the Montagnard refugees from the Central Highlands of 
Vietnam.
  The Montagnards were loyal allies of American Special Forces and 
served bravely with our U.S. military troops during the Vietnam War. 
Montagnards have suffered terribly in Vietnam for their religious and 
political beliefs at the hands of the Vietnamese Communists and they 
continue to suffer. I strongly support human rights and strongly oppose 
persecution throughout the world; values at the heart of our faiths and 
our American democracy.
  Since 1986, my state of North Carolina has been privileged to receive 
several hundred Montagnard refugees from the Central Highlands of 
Vietnam. There are over one thousand Montagnards who now live in 
Greensboro, Raleigh, and Charlotte, thanks to the hard work and 
compassion of people of faith and human rights activists such as 
Lutheran Family Services of North Carolina. The Department of State has 
called the resettlement of this new immigrant community one of the most 
successful resettlement programs in the United States.
  The Montagnards have become U.S. citizens, they enrich our nation, 
they are productive, proud people who love freedom and the chance for 
survival that this nation has offered them. The Montagnards stood by 
our nation and now we should do all we can to insure that their family 
members are allowed to emigrate from Vietnam.
  I am encouraged by the emphasis Ambassador ``Pete'' Peterson, himself 
a former Vietnam Prisoner of War and Member of Congress, has promised 
to place on the plight of the Montagnards. Our nation must strengthen 
its efforts in gaining measurable Vietnamese cooperation in processing 
applications for emigration under the Orderly Departure Program (ODP) 
and the Resettlement Opportunity for Vietnamese Returnees agreement 
(ROVR). We should expect and demand progress on all of the Montagnard 
cases. These families have waited too long to be reunited with loved 
ones.

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