The United States of America
The Department of State
The Department of State
Concerning to the side effects and the security of Indochina
through the bauxite exploitation
in the West Central Highlands in Vietnam
THE VIETNAMESE AMERICAN COMMUNITY
of
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
(VAC-NORCAL)
A Petition for the Survival of the Indigenous Peoples
and
the security of Indochina
December 23, 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Vietnamese American Community of Northern California (VAC-NORCAL)
PO Box 391063
Mountain View, CA 94039
(408) 940-7646
vacnorcal@gmail.com
01 January 2011
The U.S. Department of State
Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Secretary of State:
On behalf of the Vietnamese American Community of Northern California and all the Vietnamese in Vietnam and the Vietnamese refugees fleeing from the communists all over the world whose names are listed in Annex A, and representing the innocent Vietnamese indigenous people in the West Central Highlands (WCH) in Vietnam, we submit this petition to the US Department of State to consider the tragic sufferings of the Vietnamese people in cases below:
1. In 1997 the Vietnamese government secretly established an investment opportunity for bauxite in the Central Highlands[1]. In a joint statement on December 2, 2001 between the VCP and the PRC the exploitation of bauxite in Dak Nong was clearly proclaimed:
“On this occasion, both sides signed a framework agreement between the Governments of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam (SRV) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) on China's provision of soft credits to Viet Nam and an economic and technical cooperation agreement between the Governments of the SRV and the PRC; and agreed to actively urge businesses to conduct long-term cooperation in the Dac Nong aluminum bauxite project.[2]”
Clearly, Dak Nong was defined and isolated from province Dak Lak in the minds of the VCP before Dak Nong would be created. In 2005 the Vietnamese government was ready to providing the guidelines for the investment to exploit the bauxite ores, and in 2006 they started to clear the ground ready to build up alumina factories (Annex B). In 2004, the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) split one third of Dak Lak province to create a new province Dak Nong which has an area of 651.5 km2 and 120,000 M’Nong people and the rest 400,000 people are the Vietnamese and other indigenous people pursuant to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) census in 2009. From 2001 to 2004 there were many disorders in the Central Highlands when the indigenous people joined in meetings in Ban Me Thuot and Gia Lai to protest the Vietnamese government because their lands were confiscated and the religious prayers were prohibited. Many of the indigenous people were beaten, injured or killed in the clashes with the Vietnamese security police and hundreds of them ran for their lives to hide in Mondul Kiri province of Cambodia, the West Central Highlands (WCH) was closed from the outside world, the Western journalists, or the US authority personnel; however, the bauxite project was not stopped but continued. In 2008 the VCP granted license to the PRC’s companies to exploit the bauxite ores in the WCH that is planned to last from 90 to 100 years, while the population of the indigenous people is one third of the population of DakNong, but they cannot raise their voice to protect their human rights and save the farms and lands to sustain their living conditions that their ancestors and the Vietnamese ancestors lived together and flourished for many centuries.
Apparently, when the alumina factories are built up, the land are cleared and the surface soil is plowed away, a lot of houses of the people are removed and demolished, photographs of the remains of these demolished houses are seen in Annex C, any families that request for the compensation will be threatened, menaced, or beaten. The alumina factories are so close to the residential villages that in the future when two thirds of Dak Nong will be exploited, these houses will be removed, but the households are never compensated. Mrs. Magdalena Sepulveda, an independent expert of the United Nations about the human rights in a tour in Vietnam watching the human rights through the observation of the poverty in August 2010 was reported that “she particularly concerned the indigenous peoples in Viet Nam because of the inequality in Vietnam society is the reason for the poverty of these peoples.” Mr. Nguyen Ngoc, a professional writer of the Central Highlands in a visit to the Tan Rai said that he found out many K’Ho families were relocated when the area was cleared to build the alumina factories, he said “the K’Ho families cannot live in such inconvenient dwellings because they cannot raise the poultry, pigs and they do not have any lands to grow plants and corn for food. They left the area for a far away and unknown place in the forest to rebuild their new life” where they will not have schools for their children and they have to start their life from nothing.
2. In 2008 the Vietnamese Politburo standing committee of the VCP started the installation and buildups at Tan Rai of Bao Lam, district Bao Loc, province Lam Dong which are considered as the general headquarters of the PRC in WCH that controls and administers the total project of the bauxite exploitation in the WCH. The project was never discussed and approved by the Vietnamese Congress and thus met with violent protests and questions from every tendency, and all Vietnamese people who concerned such as the democracy fighters for Vietnam, all Vietnamese Communities of the anti-communists Refugees from abroad, political bloggers, internet surfers, journalists, scientists, economists, and the youths and students. Although being protested strongly, the VCP self-determined to allow the PRC to continue the exploitation of the bauxite ores saying that it is the big project of the government and nothing can be changed. At the same time the VCP started the terrorist scheme by hacking all blogs and arrest all people; especially, the bloggers who discuss the bauxite issue[3].
The worst destiny fell on the H’Mong at Nhan Co of DakNong province and the K’Ho at Tan Rai of Lam Dong province. Their houses were destroyed, flattened; left them the homeless people without any compensation or lands for farming and raising the poultry. The exploitation of the bauxite ores will cause deaths to the river species and the birds; the elephants will not have enough land to survive, all kinds of animals might be gone because of the dust from the red bauxite ores and the contaminated water sources. Such tragic destruction will lead to the genocide and the definite collapse of the WCH cultures in a near future. The irresponsible clearings of the forest trees also cause the change of climate in the highlands that all people around the world concern, The United Nations showed the serious attention to the indigenous peoples when the climate where they live is changed because of the human factors. A report of the United Nations specifically refers to this issue:
“Indigenous peoples are among the first to face the direct consequences of climate change, owing to their dependence upon, and close relationship with the environment and its resources. Climate change exacerbates the difficulties already faced by vulnerable indigenous communities, including political and economic marginalization, loss of land and resources, human rights violations, discrimination and unemployment.[4]”
On 8 December 2010, at the turning point of the world looking for ways to protect the climate from being changed, the Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico, came to an agreement to protect forests from being cleared, or fell in order to reduce “emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable use of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks[5]”
The exploitation of bauxite ores in the West Central Highlands in Vietnam is not an exception, and therefore endangers the survival of the indigenous people in the area. However, the VCP does not mind of the dangers that can lead to the genocide even there are many Vietnamese people inside or outside the country request them to stop immediately the project. In May 2009, the Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung went to China where he confirmed the steps of continuing the project before the China’s top leaders, David Pilling of the Financial Times considered this visit of Nguyen Tan Dung as paying tribute to China with bauxite ores of Vietnam as a gift to a new superpower in the area[6].
Uncountable broken dams and irresponsible openings to release overloaded water caused deadly floods in the central Viet Nam in the tropical rainy season of 2010; the red sludge flood spilled from the giant reservoir in Cao Bang, Viet Nam, the environmental pollution made by foreign metal factories when they pour the toxic liquid into the rivers causing deaths and deformities and diseases to the human beings and the river species. The trees in the forests are felled and cleared disorderly to build dams, the trees are uprooted, the soil is plowed recklessly leaving the land barren and unprotected; as a result, when the rains come in torrents and the release of huge volumes of water that run downstream to the low land will cause unpredicted deadly and uncontrollable floods (Annex D). The deadliest and most critical disasters are from dozens of dams in the central Viet Nam when they opened the doors of the dams to release water from the high elevation. The giant reservoirs of bauxite red sludge with a volume of billions of cubic meters accumulated through dozens of years from 3,000 feet above the sea will cause unprecedented and unwarned deaths to more than twenty million people who are living in the lowland Mekong delta. The red sludge reservoirs are also very close to the natural lakes and residential area; therefore, when the red sludge floods spill over the area not a single one living thing in the neighborhood and the lowland can survive.
At Nhan Co, Dak Nong, the alumina factory is about 4,000 feet from the populated local community Nhan Co and to a natural lake that supplies living water for hundreds of thousand people. At Tan Rai, Lam Dong, the alumina factory is much closer to the natural lake and the residential area. Consequently, the pollution caused by toxic dust in the air and absorption of the heavy metal contaminants into the river sources is inevitable. In Hungary, the broken walls of the red sludge reservoir released one million of the toxic red sludge and inundated the nearby village on October 4, 2010. On the CBSNEWS October 6, 2010 there was an article about this disaster:
“The European Union said it feared the toxic flood could turn into an ecological disaster for several nations and urged Hungarian authorities to focus all efforts on keeping the sludge from the Danube. It is important that we do.... everything possible that it would not go, that it would not endanger the Danube," EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik told the AP in Brussels. "We have to do this very moment everything possible ... (to) limit the extent of the damage."
"This is a serious environmental problem," EU spokesman Joe Hennon told Associated Press Television News. "We are concerned, not just for the environment in Hungary, but this could potentially cross borders."
Greenpeace was even more emphatic. The sludge spill is "one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years," said Herwit Schuster, a spokesman for Greenpeace International.
Greenpeace workers took sludge samples on Tuesday and were having them tested in labs in Vienna and Budapest to find out how contaminated the sludge was by heavy metals.
"It is clear that 40 sq. kilometers (15.5 square miles) of mostly agricultural land is polluted and destroyed for a long time," Schuster said. "If there are substances like arsenic and mercury that would affect river systems and ground water on long-term basis.[7]"
"This is a serious environmental problem," EU spokesman Joe Hennon told Associated Press Television News. "We are concerned, not just for the environment in Hungary, but this could potentially cross borders."
Greenpeace was even more emphatic. The sludge spill is "one of the top three environmental disasters in Europe in the last 20 or 30 years," said Herwit Schuster, a spokesman for Greenpeace International.
Greenpeace workers took sludge samples on Tuesday and were having them tested in labs in Vienna and Budapest to find out how contaminated the sludge was by heavy metals.
"It is clear that 40 sq. kilometers (15.5 square miles) of mostly agricultural land is polluted and destroyed for a long time," Schuster said. "If there are substances like arsenic and mercury that would affect river systems and ground water on long-term basis.[7]"
The exploitation of bauxite in Dak Nong, the deforestation and the plowing up the surface of two thirds of the area of Dak Nong, and the huge reservoirs containing the red sludge of billions of cubic meters certainly are deadly disasters that more than twenty million people in the WCH and in the lowland are waiting every minute.
3. Along with the exploitation of bauxite in the WCH, a lot of unidentified strangers came in groups or lived scattering that nobody can trace their identity. The west of the WCH is Cambodia, and the north of WCH is southern Laos. A network of complicated and hidden trails linked the three nations of Indochina together like the Ho chi minh trails in the Viet Nam war before 1975. The presence of the unidentified strangers in this sensitive area will endanger the delicate safety and security of Indochina; especially, the impact of the natives and the strangers can lead to the uncontrollable un-stability in the region. While the indigenous people are innocent and simple people, the strangers come and mix into the mountainous community with hidden purposes will bring the corruption and destruction to the WCH culture that many centuries their ancestors have nourished and flourished. The corruption and collapse of the WCH culture are not avoidable as the disastrous conflict can be intentionally instigated by the unidentified strangers at any moment; thus, the safety and the security in Indochina will be more difficult to control and lead to the damages to the national interests of the Indochinese countries.
Today, on behalf of the Vietnamese American Community of Northern California and all the Vietnamese in Vietnam and the Vietnamese refugees fleeing from the communists all over the world whose names are listed in Annex A, and representing communities of the innocent Vietnamese indigenous people in the West Central Highlands in Vietnam, we submit this petition to the US Department of State to strongly protest and request the VCP to stop exploiting bauxite immediately and unconditionally. We also urgently request the US Department of State to:
1. Investigate the violation of human rights, to find possible ways to save the WCH culture, to examine the living conditions and sufferings of the indigenous people who are being oppressed, isolated and deprived of their lands by the exploitation of bauxite. Assess the impact of the exploitation of bauxite to the environmental and ecological system.
2. Investigate, examine and evaluate the safety and security principles, procedures of the alumina factories and their reservoirs of bauxite red sludge for the sake of the indigenous people’ and the twenty million Vietnamese people’s lives in the lowland Mekong delta. Assess the level of the contamination of the toxic factor in living water sources. Examine the dams to limit the destructive floods the dams can cause to the people every year.
3. Pay close and critical attention and to have deep concern to the security and the safety of the Indochinese countries because of the presence of so many unidentified and unknown people in the WCH which is the sensitive and strategic heart of Indochina.
Sincerely,
Signed and sealed
Nguyễn Ngọc Tiên <nguyenngoctien_6@yahoo.com>
Chairman of the Committee of the Representatives of VAC-NORCAL
The Committee of the Representatives of VAC-NORCAL:
Lê Thị Cẩm Vân Vice Chairman (External Affairs) <cvan888@yahoo.com>
Nguyễn Hữu Nhân Vice Chairman (Internal Affairs) <johnnhannguyen@yahoo.com>
Đỗ Christine Treasury Secretary <christinehdo@gmail.com>
Tháo Hào Youth Program Commissioner <hao.thai@gmail.com>
Trần Mai Manager of the VAC-NORCAL Office <phucphosj@gmail.com>
The Board of the Supervisors:
Nguyễn Mộng Hùng <h_nguyen1935@sbcglobal.net>
Phan Quang Nghiệp <nghiepphan@sbcglobal.net>
Nguyễn Thiếu Nhẫn <laomoc45@yahoo.com>
[1] In Search of Aluminum International Institute of Sustainable Development. 2009. P 36
Ha Noi, Dec. 2 (VNA) -- Viet Nam and China issued a joint statement in Beijing on Dec.2.
[3] Remarks by Ambassador Michael W. Michalak at Human Rights Day Event
[4] The effects of climate change on indigenous peoples. UN Report
[6] The Financial Times. David Pilling, Asia pays tribute to its new superpower. May 7, 2009. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/01991f5a-3a9f-11de-8a2d-00144feabdc0.html#axzz17spepkS5
[7] KOLONTAR, Hungary, Oct. 6, 2010. Hungary Opens Criminal Probe of Sludge Disaster. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/06/world/main6931717.shtml
The United States of America
The Department of State
The Department of State
Concerning to the side effects and the security of Indochina
through the bauxite exploitation
in the West Central Highlands in Vietnam
THE VIETNAMESE AMERICAN COMMUNITY
of
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
(VAC-NORCAL)
A Petition for the Survival of the Indigenous Peoples
and
the security of Indochina
December 23, 2010
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