Vietnam refugees leave for US

The refugees claim they were persecuted in Vietnam

The first batch of more than 900 Vietnamese hill tribe refugees flew out of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on Monday to asylum in the United States.

A group of 50, dressed in smart new clothes in contrast to the rags in which they arrived last year from Vietnam, were escorted to the international airport by police to make the flight.

The hill people, known as Montagnards, say they fled across the border to escape a government crackdown on ethnic and religious minorities in the poverty-stricken Central Highlands region - an allegation which Hanoi denies.

They were granted asylum in the US after a year of talks between Phnom Penh, Hanoi and Washington.

Over the next six weeks, the 900 will be flown out in groups of 50 to settle eventually in the state of North Carolina, which already has a considerable Vietnamese immigrant population.

Some of the refugees appeared nervous - some had never flown on a plane before - but US officials told Reuters news agency that the departure had gone smoothly.

'Persecution'

The Montagnards, predominately Christian, accuse the Vietnamese Government of stripping them of their farmland, persecuting them for their religious beliefs and subjecting them to systematic abuse.

After a year spent in a border refugee camp, they were sent to live in an abandoned garment factory under the care of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

Cambodia does not want more asylum-seekers from Vietnam crossing its borders

Cambodia agreed to house the refugees after pressure from the US but called for the closure of United Nations refugee camps on the border to deter other prospective asylum-seekers.

Despite reluctance on the part of Cambodia, Peter Leuprecht, UN special envoy to Cambodia, has said they still hope to raise the issue of future Montagnard refugees with the Cambodian authorities.

"You don't send back; it's a fundamental principle of refugee law," he told Reuters news agency.

"It's in the Geneva Convention and it should be respected."

The Vietnamese Government initially demanded the return of the Montagnards, who are viewed with suspicion since their allegiance to US special forces operating against Communist forces during the Vietnam war.