The Vietnamese state-controlled media has accused the United Nations High Commissioner

for Refugees of attempting to provoke an exodus of Montagnards from Vietnam into

Cambodia. An article in World Security newspaper on December 29 accused the UNHCR

of sending 13 ethnic highland minority members living in a refugee camp in Phnom

Penh to

foment civic unrest in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Thamrongsak Meech-ubot, the UNHCR representative

in Cambodia, dismissed the claims as "clearly baseless", according to the

Reuters news agency. He claims the 13 refugees in question had returned to Vietnam

simply because they missed their families.