This register names the Dega men and women whose deaths since 1975 at the hands of the police, soldiers or prison authorities of Vietnam have been published by an independent source. It is short, and that is the first thing to understand about it. For almost every death in the record there is only a number, and for many there is not even that.
How we keep it
- A name enters the register only when a human rights organization, a UN body or a US government commission has published it. We have not used Vietnamese government or state media sources for any entry.
- We use the source’s own wording. Where it says a person was “reportedly” killed, so do we.
- Where the authorities gave an account of a death, and an independent source recorded it, we print that account beside the family’s.
- We give a person’s people, village or age only when the source does. Names are spelled as the source spells them.
- A family can ask us to remove a name, or to add one. See Adding a name below.
The names
| Name | Date | Place | As reported | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rmah Blin | March 10, 2001 | Plei Lao, Gia Lai; died in the provincial hospital, Pleiku | Aged 33, from Plei Luh Yo. Shot when police and soldiers broke up an all-night prayer service; taken by police to the hospital, where he died the same afternoon. Human Rights Watch notes that the exact circumstances remain unclear. | HRW 2002 |
| H’Lo Kbuor | April 10, 2004 | Outskirts of Buôn Ma Thuột; from Cư M’gar district, Dak Lak | A blind woman. Reportedly killed during the Easter demonstrations. | Amnesty 2004 |
| Siu Plen | April 10, 2004 | From Bon Ama Djong village, Ayun Pa district, Gia Lai | Aged 33. Reportedly killed. | Amnesty 2004 |
| Y’Bhit Enuol | April 10, 2004 | From Buon Dah Prong village, Buôn Ma Thuột | Reportedly killed. | Amnesty 2004 |
| Y’Dlah Eban | April 10, 2004 | From Buon Dah Prong village, Buôn Ma Thuột | Reportedly killed. | Amnesty 2004 |
| Y’Wien | April 10, 2004 | From Buon Dah Prong village, Buôn Ma Thuột | Reportedly killed. | Amnesty 2004 |
| Y’Luyen Eban | April 10, 2004 | From Buon Cuor Knia, Buôn Đôn district, Dak Lak | Reportedly killed. | Amnesty 2004 |
| Ksor Hnun | April 11, 2004 | From Plei Ring village, Dak Doa district, Gia Lai | Reportedly shot and killed. | Amnesty 2004 |
| Ksor Jo | After the demonstrations of April 2004 | From Bon Hoang village, Ayun Pa district, Gia Lai | Aged 33. Reportedly killed after the demonstrations; no date given. | Amnesty 2004 |
| Y Ngo Adrong | 2006 | Not recorded | Died in police custody. USCIRF listed him among ethnic minority Protestants beaten to death in custody. | USCIRF 2009, 2011 |
| Y Ben Hdok | Between April 28 and May 1, 2008 | Provincial police station, Dak Lak | Aged 29. Arrested on the evening of April 28, 2008, over that month’s protests. On May 1 the police told his family he had hanged himself. His family said his head, ribs and leg were broken and his teeth knocked out. | HRW 2009, 2011; USCIRF 2009 |
| Xiem Ksor, pastor | January 14, 2016 | Not recorded | Died after being physically assaulted by public security on Christmas Eve 2015. | USCIRF 2017 |
| Y Bum Bya, preacher | March 8, 2024 | Near his home; province not recorded in our sources | Found dead after the police summoned him, having reportedly threatened and beaten him (USCIRF). His body was found hanging from a tree after he was summoned to meet public security officers at a cemetery near his home (CSW). Fourteen UN experts said he died in custody after being tortured. | USCIRF 2025; CSW 2025; UN experts 2024 |
Amnesty International published the eight names from April 2004 just over two weeks after the demonstrations. It wrote that the eight were killed either during the demonstrations or died of their injuries shortly afterward, and that it feared “the final death toll is considerably higher.” It did not say who killed each person, or which people each belonged to. The events are told on Easter week 2004.
A name we cannot yet place
In 2008 the US Commission on International Religious Freedom reported the death of Y Vin Het, “an ethnic minority Protestant man,” in March 2007. It wrote that he was repeatedly beaten in police custody for refusing to renounce his faith, could not afford medical care, and died of internal injuries. It also recorded the official account: that he had been hurt in a drunken brawl, which the Commission said provincial officials had forced him to put his mark to, without any independent medical examination. The report places the death in “Phu Sen province.” There is no such province; Phú Yên is the likeliest reading, but we have not confirmed it, nor that he was Dega. We record him here until we can.
Deaths counted but not named
- After 1975 — “The Communists executed some Montagnard leaders while others died in prisons or ‘reeducation’ camps,” Radio Free Asia’s Dan Southerland wrote in 2018. No count exists. See Re-education and the forest.
- February 2001 — At Ea H’leo, Human Rights Watch recorded about thirty demonstrators injured, but no deaths. The one killing it documented in the crackdown of 2001 is Rmah Blin’s. See The protests of 2001.
- April 2004 — The counts differ. Human Rights Watch wrote of “as many as ten” demonstrators killed in 2006, and “as many as eight” in 2011. USCIRF reported “at least ten” in Dak Lak. Amnesty named eight. Witness estimates and the government’s own figure are set out on the Easter week page.
- 2001–2011 — Human Rights Watch recorded that “at least 25 Montagnards have died in prisons, jails, or police lock-ups,” after beatings or illness in custody, or soon after being released early to a hospital or home. Only Y Ben Hdok is named in the part of the report we have been able to read.
- About 2014–15 — An elderly man, in poor health from ill-treatment during years in prison, died in the Gia Lai jungle trying to reach Cambodia. Human Rights Watch did not name him.
- 2023–24 — UN special rapporteurs wrote to Vietnam in 2024 about “unexplained deaths in custody” connected with the Cư Kuin attack and the mass trial that followed, according to USCIRF. We have not seen names beyond Y Bum Bya.
This register does not include the nine people killed in the attack on two commune offices at Cư Kuin on June 11, 2023. Their deaths are recorded on Cư Kuin, 2023.
What is missing
The full Human Rights Watch reports of 2006 and 2011, which may name more of the dead, are not ones we have been able to read in full. Nor have we found the text of the UN letter of 2024, Human Rights Watch’s own report on Easter 2004, or the US State Department’s country reports for these years. The war years before 1975 are outside this register; see Highland refugees of the war years and Dak Son, 1967.
Adding a name
If someone in your family died in custody, in a crackdown or while fleeing, and you want them remembered here, we would like to hear from you. Tell us what you know: the name, the village, the date, and how you learned of the death. We will not publish a name without the family’s agreement, and we will not publish anything that could put relatives still in the highlands at risk. If we cannot find the death in a published source, we will say that the account comes from the family. The way we handle what we are given is set out in Sources and method, and names of the imprisoned are kept in Prisoner records.
Sources
- HRW 2002: Human Rights Watch, Repression of Montagnards, chapter XV: “Case Study: The Church Burning and Killing by Security Forces in Plei Lao” (2002)
- Amnesty 2004: Amnesty International, Socialist Republic of Viet Nam: Renewed concern for the Montagnard minority, ASA 41/005/2004, April 27, 2004
- HRW 2009: Human Rights Watch, World Report 2009: Vietnam
- HRW 2011: Human Rights Watch, Montagnard Christians in Vietnam (2011)
- Human Rights Watch, No Sanctuary (2006)
- Human Rights Watch, Persecuting “Evil Way” Religion (June 2015)
- USCIRF 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2017, 2025: USCIRF, Annual Report 2006: Vietnam; USCIRF, Annual Report 2008: Vietnam; USCIRF, Annual Report 2009: Vietnam; USCIRF, Annual Report 2011: Vietnam; USCIRF, Annual Report 2017: Vietnam; USCIRF, Annual Report 2025: Vietnam
- UN experts 2024: OHCHR, Experts condemn misuse of counter-terrorism law against Montagnards in Viet Nam, August 28, 2024
- CSW 2025: Christian Solidarity Worldwide, General briefing: Vietnam, May 29, 2025
- Dan Southerland, “An Update on the Montagnards of Vietnam’s Central Highlands,” Radio Free Asia, October 23, 2018
Compiled September 2026. This register will change as names are confirmed or families come forward.