2RHPZ
09-29-2004, 06:21 PM
Concentration camp escapee finds life in N.C.
September 29,2004
Rong Nay, his wife H'buanktul and Jacques Nhan Nguyen were in town last weekend. They visited Faith Fellowship Church.
Nguyen, the nephew of Boa Dia (Vietnam's last king) and a high-ranking former Vietnamese official, lives in California. Nay became second in command of anti-communist forces after the fall of Saigon. When he fled Vietnam 13 years ago, he had a price on his head. He and his wife now live in Cary.
Let me tell you about Nay. His story is terrifying.
Nay and his wife are Montagnards, people who lived since the ninth century in the Central Highlands, a separate state in Vietnam. The people are ethnically different from Vietnamese. The tribe originally was called Degar. It was the French who changed the Montagnards' name and the French who turned over control of the Montagnards' government to Vietnam when France abandoned that country.
Since that time, the Montagnard population - nearly all of whom are Christian tribesmen - has plummeted from about 3.5 million to about 650,000.
Montagnards fought with the U.S. during the Vietnam War, providing invaluable support to the Army's Special Forces.
That's a smidgeon of background. Nay's experience goes like this:
He was jerked from his home one night by communist soldiers, leaving behind his pregnant wife and three children. He was to be "re-educated."
The communists imprisoned Nay in a concrete box too small for him to stand upright. If he sat on the floor and placed his hands on his head, his arms touched the concrete ceiling. He saw no daylight for 24 days.
Later, Nay and other prisoners were forced to work at gunpoint in the jungle, often having to find their own food. All the while, his captors constantly attempted to convince him of the righteousness of communism.
Nay escaped after 10 months, living in the jungle and fighting with the resistance force. He fought for almost 15 years, never knowing if his wife and family were alive.
Escaping and surviving was "a miracle. God helped me," he said. "We believe in God. It was just faith."
The communists confiscated the Nays' house, two cars and all their possessions when he was arrested. Everything the couple had was turned over to those loyal to the revolution. His wife was forced into the countryside where she had to scrabble for enough to feed her children.
Villagers helped the resistance fighters. They provided clothing, weapons and ammunition secreted from the communists. Eventually the weapons wore out and the ammunition supplies were exhausted. Nearly 10,000 Montagnards died hiding and fighting in the jungles while Nay led them. They continue dying today as Vietnamese communists engage in genocide, bent on destroying the tribe.
By the 1980s, the communists had a bounty out for Nay. He made his way by foot into Cambodia and on into Thailand, where he contacted the U.S. Embassy. It was a long way to North Carolina for him, his wife and their children, a route cleared in 1991 by an assistant to former Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
Now Nay spends his time helping the growing Montagnard community in North Carolina and trying to give aid to his fellow Montagnards still in Vietnam. He's trying to understand why the Senate's East Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee blocked the Vietnam Human Rights Act. Sen. John Kerry was chairman.
The bill would have tied U.S. aid to Vietnam to "significant progress" in human rights issues. The House of Representatives approved the measure 410-1 in 2001. It was reintroduced this year in the House and passed 328-45 but again is blocked in the Senate.
Secretary of State Colin Powell raised the subject this week, expressing similar human rights concerns about Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, China, Burma, North Korea and Eritrea.
Nay and his family and nearly 3,000 Montagnard hills tribesmen in North Carolina can live safely today. But what about the 647,000 others still in Vietnam?
To learn more about the Montegnards, visit www.montagnard-foundation.org
September 29,2004
Rong Nay, his wife H'buanktul and Jacques Nhan Nguyen were in town last weekend. They visited Faith Fellowship Church.
Nguyen, the nephew of Boa Dia (Vietnam's last king) and a high-ranking former Vietnamese official, lives in California. Nay became second in command of anti-communist forces after the fall of Saigon. When he fled Vietnam 13 years ago, he had a price on his head. He and his wife now live in Cary.
Let me tell you about Nay. His story is terrifying.
Nay and his wife are Montagnards, people who lived since the ninth century in the Central Highlands, a separate state in Vietnam. The people are ethnically different from Vietnamese. The tribe originally was called Degar. It was the French who changed the Montagnards' name and the French who turned over control of the Montagnards' government to Vietnam when France abandoned that country.
Since that time, the Montagnard population - nearly all of whom are Christian tribesmen - has plummeted from about 3.5 million to about 650,000.
Montagnards fought with the U.S. during the Vietnam War, providing invaluable support to the Army's Special Forces.
That's a smidgeon of background. Nay's experience goes like this:
He was jerked from his home one night by communist soldiers, leaving behind his pregnant wife and three children. He was to be "re-educated."
The communists imprisoned Nay in a concrete box too small for him to stand upright. If he sat on the floor and placed his hands on his head, his arms touched the concrete ceiling. He saw no daylight for 24 days.
Later, Nay and other prisoners were forced to work at gunpoint in the jungle, often having to find their own food. All the while, his captors constantly attempted to convince him of the righteousness of communism.
Nay escaped after 10 months, living in the jungle and fighting with the resistance force. He fought for almost 15 years, never knowing if his wife and family were alive.
Escaping and surviving was "a miracle. God helped me," he said. "We believe in God. It was just faith."
The communists confiscated the Nays' house, two cars and all their possessions when he was arrested. Everything the couple had was turned over to those loyal to the revolution. His wife was forced into the countryside where she had to scrabble for enough to feed her children.
Villagers helped the resistance fighters. They provided clothing, weapons and ammunition secreted from the communists. Eventually the weapons wore out and the ammunition supplies were exhausted. Nearly 10,000 Montagnards died hiding and fighting in the jungles while Nay led them. They continue dying today as Vietnamese communists engage in genocide, bent on destroying the tribe.
By the 1980s, the communists had a bounty out for Nay. He made his way by foot into Cambodia and on into Thailand, where he contacted the U.S. Embassy. It was a long way to North Carolina for him, his wife and their children, a route cleared in 1991 by an assistant to former Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
Now Nay spends his time helping the growing Montagnard community in North Carolina and trying to give aid to his fellow Montagnards still in Vietnam. He's trying to understand why the Senate's East Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee blocked the Vietnam Human Rights Act. Sen. John Kerry was chairman.
The bill would have tied U.S. aid to Vietnam to "significant progress" in human rights issues. The House of Representatives approved the measure 410-1 in 2001. It was reintroduced this year in the House and passed 328-45 but again is blocked in the Senate.
Secretary of State Colin Powell raised the subject this week, expressing similar human rights concerns about Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, China, Burma, North Korea and Eritrea.
Nay and his family and nearly 3,000 Montagnard hills tribesmen in North Carolina can live safely today. But what about the 647,000 others still in Vietnam?
To learn more about the Montegnards, visit www.montagnard-foundation.org