Grace Bui

“The one that just got kidnapped recently, a year ago, I worked with him. They kidnaped him during the Songkran, the Thai New Year. At that time nobody pays attention. Everybody went home to their home-towns, all the stores were closed. We knew exactly the location where they kidnapped him. The Vietnamese of course deny that, the Vietnamese government. They say – the guy just went over to Vietnam illegally, so we arrested him. It’s a poor reasoning. He got an interview for resettlement, I think to Australia, so I remember. The took him back to Vietnam and they deny it. However, I worked with Thai MoD on this case and my name was all over Thai newspaper. Somebody on that day, they saw the kidnapping and they videotaped it. And they gave it to the police.” “On the video I saw a white car, the have a licence plate also. And three people. The activist was driving his motorcycle and two cars cornered him. Three people came out and took him and pushed hi in the car.”

„I stayed in the transit area in the airport of Soul for four, five days. And then I said – ok, what country I should go to? To wait for my dog and my staff? And I looked around and said – not Laos, because they are Communists, right? I do not want Cambodia, so what about Thailand? I have never been to Thailand before. So, I went to Thailand.” “I was planning to stay for two weeks to wait for my staff. And during that trip, I changed my whole life. I met a refugee. I saw him walking on the street. And he was talking in some kind of language that I have never heard before. He switched over to Vietnamese. I went after him and asked, where he came from. And he told me I am a refugee and I am a Montagnard. We live in the Highlands and we are a minority, ethnic minority. So I said – Vietnam still has refugees in Thailand? I went on my facebook and sent messages to America and nobdy knew that we still have refugees in Thailand. So I said – take me to your place. I want to see other refugees. He took me to his place. The room was really small. Half of this size. And they had 10 people living there. The whole community at that time they were like 160 and something families.”

“My father was working for the American government and they knew, after the North took over the South, then my father would go to jail for a long, long time.” “We left like two weeks before the Fall of Saigon. They told my father the location where we would meet and after that they took us on the bus to the airport. My father said that was very scary. Because the US government lied to the Vietnamese guards at the airport, saying that all these people were going to Australia to work for the American government. Everything was still the same, it was two weeks before the Fall of Saigon, there was not too much danger. But to get out of Vietnam was not that easy. So, we stayed at the airport overnight, waiting for the helicopter to come to get us. They send a helicopter, not a plane. We all got inside and they flew us for two hours. My father said we didn’t know where we were going. Finally, we landed and nobody would get out, because they didn’t trust the American government. They thought they took us, flew with us for two hours and took us back to Vietnam. When they lifted the door and nobody wanted to get out, my father was the one to get out first. And there were two rows of ladies with custom dresses and flowers. It turned out they landed in the Philippines.”