Tuesday, June 04, 2002

Real Refugees: Also in the News and Observer, Ned Glascock reports that "in the next six weeks, 900 Montagnards will leave Cambodia and settle in the Triangle, the Triad, the Charlotte area and a handful of North Carolina towns". This group is coming from Cambodia where they fled after a Vietnamese government crackdown following protests over religious freedom and land rights. Montagnards, our allies in the Vietnam war, have been persecuted by the Communist regime ever since. The Vietnamese government wanted Cambodia to repatriate those who fled but after Vietnamese goons visited the U.N. refugee camp and threatened the inhabitants, the U.N. amazingly looked for another home for the refugees. North Carolina already has a small Montagnard population sponsored by churches and groups of veterans who had fought by their side in Vietnam. I can't help but contrast these real refugees from tyranny with the millions of "economic asylum seekers" who flood our country.