Vietnam accuses US political groups of orchestrating attacks and promoting secessionist agenda, lists it as 'terrorist organisations'

Vietnam has accused two political groups based in the United States of orchestrating attacks and promoting a secessionist agenda, saying that it has listed both the groups as “terrorist organisations”, its internal security agency said on Wednesday.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Public Security, the groups are the North Carolina-headquartered Montagnard Support Group Inc (MSGI) and Montagnard Stand for Justice (MSFJ), which was established in Thailand.

Both groups operate in the United States and are accused of involvement in deadly attacks in the Central Highlands region in June 2023 that killed nine people, including four policemen.

Montagnards, or “mountain people” in French, are an ethnic minority from Vietnam’s Central Highlands. Many are Protestant Christians who sided with the United States during the Vietnam War.

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The communist government has long been sensitive to the activities of overseas-based dissident groups led by members of Vietnam’s vast diaspora, typically calling them “reactionaries”. It also retains tight media censorship and tolerates little criticism.

It has listed as terrorist groups several organisations that have pledged allegiance to the defunct state of South Vietnam, which ceased to exist when the Communist North won the Vietnam War in 1975.

The two groups listed on Wednesday had recruited ethnic minority people in Vietnam, trained them and instructed them to “carry out terrorist activities, incite protests, kill officials and civilians, sabotage state assets and try to establish their own states”, the ministry statement said.

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“Anyone joining the groups or receiving funding from the groups would be charged with terrorism and be dealt with,” the statement said.

Separately, the Human Rights Watch on Wednesday said Vietnamese authorities had over the past week arrested three prominent activists on charges of conducting propaganda against the state and called on the government to immediately release them.

“These three activists are not guilty of anything except exercising their basic rights to freedom of speech,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

With inputs from Reuters.