He was arrested in the autumn of 1958 for writing letters, and was not finally free until February 1964. The sources disagree about the sentence, the places and even the number of years — four, five, six or seven, depending on who is counting. What they agree on is that the government of the Republic of Vietnam held the man who had asked it for schools, and that it kept using him while it held him.
Where he was held
Human Rights Watch, following Hickey, says the leaders were put in underground solitary cells at Dalat for three months, and that Y Bham Enuol was later taken to the police headquarters at Ban Me Thuot, where he was reportedly tortured with electric shocks. The CIA study of 1966 has him in the Ban Me Thuot jail as late as 1963. A Mnong man interviewed by Human Rights Watch in 2001 remembered it differently: he said our leader was jailed at Hue for seven years. That is the only source we have found for Hue, and it is a memory given forty years later; we record it because it is our own people’s memory, and mark it as unconfirmed.
How long
| Source | The sentence, or the time served |
|---|---|
| CIA (1966) | Sentenced to four years. An unconfirmed report has him released in June 1960 and re-arrested soon after. |
| Hickey, RAND (1967) | Five years in jail. |
| Human Rights Watch, following Hickey (2002) | Released in 1959 with Paul Nur; re-arrested as soon as he resumed the campaign; imprisoned until early 1964. |
| Montagnard Human Rights Organization | Six years, with five other leaders. |
| Mnong testimony to Human Rights Watch (2001) | Seven years, at Hue. |
The one date that is fixed in a document is the end of it. The CIA study records that on February 10, 1964, the Minister of the Interior released Y Bham from prison, a fortnight after General Nguyen Khanh’s coup. The Montagnard Human Rights Organization gives February 12. Hickey says he was the last of the leaders to be let out. Two American accounts, the CRESS review of 1967 and the army handbook, instead put his release after the fall of Diem in November 1963.
What he did from inside
He did not stop, and the government did not leave him alone. The record shows three things happening at once.
- He kept leading. The CRESS review says he continued to lead the Rhade movement from his cell.
- He was used. In February 1963 he was taken out of jail to meet General Nguyen Khanh, then commanding II Corps. On February 14 an American aircraft flew him to a meeting at Pleiku; the CIA noted that his presence had an excellent effect on the highlanders there. He was returned to jail at the end of the month.
- He was asked to write. While a prisoner he wrote letters urging Y Bih Aleo, the Rhade leader who had gone over to the other side, to give himself up. The government that would not answer his petitions was willing to use his signature.
Y Bih Aleo’s own road is on Highlanders on the other side.
Out, and into a desk
When he came out in February 1964, Khanh’s government made him deputy province chief for highlander affairs in Darlac. It was the shape of a concession: a highlander at the second desk in the province where the trouble was. Hickey records the appointment. The CIA study records the result, and it is a single sentence that explains everything that followed: the new highland appointees were dissatisfied with their jobs.
Seven months later he was on the border with an armed movement. What happened in those seven months, and how far he was part of it, is on President of FULRO, 1964 to 1968.
What we do not know
- The charge, the court and the sentence, in a document.
- Whether the release of 1959 or 1960 happened at all, and if so for how long.
- Whether he was held at Hue at any point.
- What was done to him at the Ban Me Thuot police headquarters, beyond the one reported account of electric shocks.
Sources
- Human Rights Watch, Repression of Montagnards (2002), the historical chapter — Dalat, Ban Me Thuot, the 1959 release and the 2001 testimony
- CIA, The Highlanders of South Vietnam: A Review of Political Developments and Forces (June 1966) — the four-year sentence, the 1963 Pleiku flight, the letters to Y Bih Aleo, the February 10, 1964 release
- Gerald C. Hickey, The Highland People of South Vietnam: Social and Economic Development, RAND RM-5281 (1967) — five years, and the last to be released
- Kurt Bloch, A Review of United States Military Counterinsurgency Activities in South Vietnam, CRESS (1967) — leading the movement from his cell; release after November 1963
- Department of the Army, Area Handbook for South Vietnam, Pamphlet 550-55 (1967) — release after the fall of Diem
- Montagnard Human Rights Organization, history page — six years, and February 12, 1964
Compiled September 2026. The sentence and the length of it are not settled; every version we found is in the table above.