BAJARAKA (stand for Bahnar, Jarai, Rade, and Kaho) is a separatist movement that protested the discriminatory policies of the Montagnards in the Central Highlands under the Republic of Vietnam government. It was the predecessor of the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO) organization.
After the Geneva Conference in 1954, [1] Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm abolished the status of Domain of the Crown, that is, ending the privileges of Head of State by Bảo Đại over the Central Highlands region and incorporated this land into the common territory of the Republic of Vietnam. Therefore, the Court based on Montagnard customary law was abolished and replaced with national law. The aim of this new policy is to build equality, solidarity and integration for development. [2]
After the founding of the Republic of Vietnam, the government of the First Republic opened the Office of Senior Advisors, It was later upgraded to the Upper Highlands Social Work Department under the Presidential Palace to manage the economic and social development of the Central Highlands region. Economically, there was an expansion of cultivated land and the establishment of plantations, settling hundreds of thousands of people from the north migrated to the south. There are also those who are taken to mountainous areas. [2]
Administratively, the government also abolished the separate Montagnard civil service ranks starting on 9 May 1958, related to President Ngô Đình Diệm:
"Dù Kinh hay Thượng phải căn cứ vào học vấn hay năng lực mà sử dụng."
In English: "Whether Kinh or Montagnard must be based on education or ability to use."— Ngô Đình Diệm
Some Montagnards who previously enjoyed priority have now lost that status. Meanwhile, land reform was carried out which caused the Montagnard families to lose hereditary ownership of their land. These factors gradually increased dissatisfaction among the Montagnard community. The government also dissolved feudal customary courts with the aim of prioritizing national law. Although there is no document that officially abolishes the above regulations, but in reality the courts used Montagnard customary law and did not uphold it, creating further conflict between the Montagnards and the Vietnamese government. [3]
In 1955, the Highlanders Liberation Front (French : Front de Libération des Montagnards; FLM) appeared in Đắk Lắk initiated by the Rade ethnic group to protest the policies of the Ngô Đình Diệm government. In May 1955, with the support of other ethnic groups, the movement took the name BAJARAKA, a name made up of four major ethnic groups: Bahnar, Jarai, Rade, and Kaho. [4] The movement's leadership group included Y Bhăm Êñuôl (Rade ethnic; founder), Siu Síp (Jarai ethnic), Y Dhơn Adrong (principal of Lac Thien Primary School), Y Nuin Hmok (Kram high school teacher), Y Nam Êban (military officer), Paul Nưr (Bahnar intellectual), and many scholars of Cham, Ma, Stieng origins, Y Bhăm Êñuôl established the Central Autonomous Committee, headquartered in Pleiku, to command the movement.
In May 1958, BAJARAKA sent a protest letter to the French embassy, The United States and United Nations ambassadors, denounced the discriminatory acts of the Republic of Vietnam government against ethnic minorities and their achievements in fighting against the militarists of the Japanese Empire, Việt Minh, and Việt Cộng. They asked the great powers to intervene to give the Montagnards independence.
In August and September 1958, the BAJARAKA movement organized many protests in Kon Tum, Pleiku, and Buôn Ma Thuột. The protests were suppressed and movement leaders such as Y Bhăm Êñuôl, Y Dhơn Adrong, Y Dhê Adrong, Y Nuin Hmok, Y Wick Buôn Ya, Y Het Kpor, Y Tluốp Kpor, Y Sênh Niê, Y Bun Sor, Y Yu Êban, Y Thih Êban, Touneh Yoh, Siu Síp, Paul Nưr, and Nay Luet is arrested.
From 1956 to 1962, believing that the Montagnards were very good fighters in the jungles, American military advisers entered the villages, equipping individuals with weapons, establishing Civilian Indigenous Defense Groups (CIDG) and Special Forces to fight the communists. The Montagnards were drawn into the Vietnam War some siding with Communism after the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam was founded in 1960. Others supported the government of the Republic of Vietnam. [5] At the same time in Phnom Penh in late 1960, two groups of Cham and Khmer Krom also established the Front for the Liberation of Champa and the Liberation Front of Kampuchea Krom opened the way for ethnic groups in South Vietnam to unite. [6]
On 19 May 1961, the Communists convened 23 delegates of the Central Highlands ethnic groups and established the Central Highlands Autonomous Movement (French : Mouvement pour l'Autonomie des Hauts Plateaux) into the hands of Y Bih Alêô to cooperate with the Communist army. When the First Republic of Vietnam was overthrown, all the leaders of the BAJARAKA movement who had previously been imprisoned were released through the intervention of the United States, further strengthened the Central Highlands Autonomous Movement. In March 1964, leader BAJARAKA established the Central Highlands Liberation Front (French : Front de Libération des Hauts Plateaux; FLHP), completely changed the policy from demanding autonomy to independent secession. [7] From the very beginning, the Central Highlands Liberation Front was divided into two factions:
The independent Highlands Separatists faction, who were fiercely pursued by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, had to flee to Cambodia for refugee and set up a base around Camp Le Rolland (in Mondulkiri province), northeast of Cambodia, 15 kilometers from the Vietnamese border.
On 26 August 1964, a congress of 55 moderate Montagnards, representing ethnic minorities, met in Pleiku. Fearing being excluded from the negotiations, the rebels staged an uprising on the night of 19 September 1964. Special Forces commandos and Highlands Civilian Combat Teams captured a number of outposts in Quảng Đức province such as Đức Lập, Bù Đăng, and Bù Đốp. The rebels controlled Highway 14, attacked Srépok post, then advanced to Buôn Ma Thuột, occupied the VTVN radio station, and called on the Montagnards to rise up against the Kinh to build an independent nation. The uprising killed 35 Republic of Vietnam soldiers.
On 20 September 1964, General Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Lộc, commander of Tactical Zone II, declared martial law in Buôn Ma Thuột, the 23rd Division, along with several commando and armored battalions, were mobilized to retake the radio station and other rebel-occupied outposts. When the rebel forces were about to be completely destroyed, the US embassy suddenly advised Vĩnh Lộc to negotiate.
Y Bhăm Êñuôl á representative of the moderate faction of FLHP, was invited to negotiate with the rebels. The results of the agreements:
After Y Bhăm Êñuôl escaped to Cambodia, FLHP linked up with:
Montagnard, or also known as Degar, is an umbrella term for the various indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The French term Montagnard ( ) signifies a mountain dweller, and is a carryover from the French colonial period in Vietnam. In Vietnamese, they are known by the term người Thượng, although this term can also be applied to other minority ethnic groups in Vietnam. In modern Vietnam, both terms are archaic, and indigenous ethnic groups are referred to as đồng bào or người dân tộc thiểu số. Earlier they were referred to pejoratively as the mọi. Sometimes the term Degar is used for the group as well. Most of those living in the United States refer to themselves as Montagnards, while those living in Vietnam refer to themselves by their individual ethnic group.
Đắk Lắk, anglicized as Daklak, is a central mountainous province in the Central Highlands region, the Central of Vietnam. It borders Gia Lai to the north, Phú Yên and Khánh Hòa to the east, Lâm Đồng and Đắk Nông to the south, and Mondulkiri of Cambodia to the west.
Pleiku is a city in central Vietnam, located in the Central Highlands region. It is the capital of the Gia Lai Province. Many years ago, it was inhabited primarily by the Bahnar and Jarai ethnic groups, sometimes known as the Montagnards or Degar, although now it is inhabited primarily by the Kinh ethnic group. The city is the centre of the urban district of Pleiku which covers an area of 260.77 km².
The Central Highlands, South Central Highlands, Western Highlands or Midland Highlands is a region located in the south central part of Vietnam. It contains the provinces of Đắk Lắk, Đắk Nông, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, and Lâm Đồng.
Jarai people or Dega are an Austronesian indigenous people and ethnic group native to Vietnam's Central Highlands, as well as in the Cambodian northeast Province of Ratanakiri. During the Vietnam War, many Jarai persons, as well as members of other Montagnard groups, collaborated with US Special Forces, and many were resettled with their families in the United States, particularly in North Carolina, after the war.
Jarai is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Jarai people of Vietnam and Cambodia. The speakers of Jarai number approximately 530,000, not including other possible Jarai communities in countries other than Vietnam and Cambodia such as United States of America. They are the largest of the upland ethnic groups of Vietnam's Central Highlands known as Degar or Montagnards, and 25 per cent of the population in the Cambodian province of Ratanakiri.
The Bahnar or Ba-Na (Vietnamese pronunciation:[ɓaː˧naː˧] are an ethnic group of Vietnam and the indigenous people of the Central Highland provinces of Gia Lai and Kon Tum, as well as the coastal provinces of Bình Định and Phú Yên. They speak the Bahnar language, a language in the Bahnaric language group that belongs to the Mon-Khmer language family.
The Rhade or Êđê are an indigenous Austronesian ethnic group of southern Vietnam.
The United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races was an organization whose objective was autonomy for various indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities in South Vietnam, including the Montagnards in the Central Highlands, the Chams in Central Vietnam, and the Khmer Krom in Southern Vietnam. Initially a political movement, after 1969 it evolved into a fragmented guerrilla group that carried on simultaneous insurgencies against the governments of South Vietnam under President Nguyen Van Thieu and North Vietnam of Ho Chi Minh. Opposed to all forms of Vietnamese rule, FULRO fought against both sides in the Vietnam War against the Soviet-aligned North and the American-aligned South at the same time. FULRO's primary supporter during the 1960s and early 1970s conflict in Southeast Asia was Cambodia, with some aid sent by the People's Republic of China during the period of the Third Indochina War.
Les Kosem, also known by the nom de guerre "Po Nagar", was a Cham military officer and a prominent figure in the Second Indochina War and the Cambodian Civil War.
The Khmer Loeu is the collective name given to the various indigenous ethnic groups residing in the highlands of Cambodia. The Khmer Loeu are found mainly in the northeastern provinces of Ratanakiri, Stung Treng, and Mondulkiri. Most of the highland groups are Mon-Khmer peoples and are distantly related, to one degree or another, to the Khmer. Two of the Khmer Loeu groups are Chamic peoples, a branch of the Austronesian peoples, and have a very different linguistic and cultural background. The Mon–Khmer-speaking tribes are the aboriginal inhabitants of mainland Southeast Asia, their ancestors having trickled into the area from the northwest during the prehistoric metal ages. The Austronesian-speaking groups, Rade and Jarai, are descendants of the Malayo-Polynesian peoples who came to what is now coastal Vietnam; they established the Champa kingdoms, and after their decline migrated west over the Annamite Range, dispersing between the Mon–Khmer groups.
Rade is an Austronesian language of southern Vietnam. There may be some speakers in Cambodia. It is a member of the Chamic subgroup, and is closely related to the Cham language of central Vietnam.
The United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races waged a nearly three decade long insurgency against the governments of North and South Vietnam, and later the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The FULRO insurgents represented the interests of indigenous Muslim and Hindu Cham, Montagnards, and Buddhist Khmer Krom against the ethnic Kinh Vietnamese. They were supported and equipped by China and Cambodia according to those countries' interests in the Indochina Wars.
The native inhabitants of the Central Highlands of Vietnam are known as the Montagnard. The Vietnamese conquered the Central Highlands during their "march to the south". Ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh) people now outnumber the indigenous Degars after state-sponsored colonization directed by both the government of South Vietnam and the current Communist government of unified Vietnam. The Montagnards have engaged in conflicts with the Vietnamese, from the anti-Communist South Vietnamese government, the Viet Cong, to the Communist government of unified Vietnam. There are contrasting views on this issue, as the constitution of the government of Vietnam states "Article 36 of the Constitution, the state invests heavily in education and supports various preferential programmes for ethnic minorities, like ethnic minority boarding schools, lower entry requirements and quota for minorities." Both the initial 1945 constitution and the revised 1992 constitution of North Vietnam and the successor state the Socialist Republic of Vietnam stated that all minority groups in Vietnam have the right to maintain their mother tongues in their schooling as well as to use their languages to preserve their ethnic cultures and values, although the degree of enforcement remains ongoingly debated due to complicated nature.
Đồng Khởi was a movement led by remnants of the Việt Minh that remained in South Vietnam and urged people to revolt against the United States and the Republic Of Vietnam, first of all in large rural areas in southern Vietnam and on highlands of South Central Coastal Vietnam. This movement took place from the end of 1959, culminating in 1960, rapidly spreading across the South, dissolving the rural government structure of the Republic of Vietnam under President Ngô Đình Diệm, resulting in a significant part of rural South Vietnam being controlled by the communists, leading to the foundation of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam.
The Front for the Liberation of Champa was a Cham nationalist organisation active in Ninh Thuan province and the Central Highlands of Vietnam. It was founded in 1962 and merged with the Central Highlands Liberation Front and the Liberation Front of Kampuchea Krom to form the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races (FULRO) in 1964.
Y Bham Enuol was a Rhade civil servant and a prominent figure during the Vietnam War.
The Montagnard country of South Indochina, sometimes abbreviated as PMSI, was an autonomous territory of French Indochina, and an autonomous federation within the French Union, created in 1946 following the French reconquest of the Central Highlands from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam during the First Indochina War. The territory was supposed to be an autonomous homeland of the Montagnard people within French Indochina, but existed mainly to serve French colonial interests in the region.
The Austroasiatic crossbow which is also known as the Hmong crossbow, the Jarai crossbow, or the Angkorian crossbow is a crossbow used for war and for hunting in Southeastern Asia. It has become a symbol of pride and identity for ethnic groups from Myanmar (Burma) to the confines of Indochina.
Y Bih Alêô is an Vietnamese Rade ethnic intellectual and military man. Trained by the French at the Pháp–Đê Elementary School in Buôn Ma Thuột, it later joined the resistance movement led by Y Jut and Y Ut, against the French. After that, he worked as an interpreter for the French, served as a green loincloth soldier, and rose to the rank of commander of the Bảo An Binh Battalion. Working as a squad leader during this time, he met a number of political prisoners in prison and was inspired by them.