[3] After World War II the concept of "Nam tiến" and the southward conquest was celebrated by Vietnamese scholars.

[5] Up until French rule, the Central Highlands was alleged by one American source as almost never entered by the Vietnamese since they viewed it as a savage (Moi-Montagnard) populated area with fierce animals like tigers, "poisoned water" and "evil malevolent spirits", but the Vietnamese expressed interest in the land after the French transformed it into a profitable plantation area to grow crops on,[6] in addition to the natural resources from the forests, minerals and rich earth and realization of its crucial geographical importance.

[7] However, the French tactic of divide-and-conquer to fragment national independent movements was also used, using specially-recruited Montagnard divisions and troops and dividing the region.

[8] In 1955, Northern Vietnamese migrants were settled in the Central Highlands after the autonomous Montagnard area was abolished by Ngô Đình Diệm.

Since 1964 the Montagnards of FULRO struggled for their own country and continued to fight against the Vietnamese Communist regime which persecuted them for their religious beliefs.

[11] After mass jailings and killings during the 2001 and 2004 protests by ethnic hill tribe minorities against the Vietnamese regime, foreigners were banned from the Central Highlands for a period of time by Vietnam.

[15] The Chinese, the Central Highlands Montagnards, Cham, and Delta Cambodians (Khmer Krom) were all alienated by the South Vietnamese government under Diem.

[16] The Vietnamese were originally centered around the Red River Delta but engaged in conquest and seized new lands such as Champa, the Mekong Delta (from Cambodia) and the Central Highlands during Nam Tien, while the Vietnamese received strong Chinese influence in their culture and civilization and were Sinicized, and the Cambodians and Laotians were Indianized, the Montagnards in the Central Highlands maintained their own native culture without adopting external culture and were the true indigenous natives of the region, and to hinder encroachment on the Central Highlands by Vietnamese nationalists, the term Pays Montagnard du Sud-Indochinois PMSI emerged for the Central Highlands along with the natives being addressed by the name Montagnard.

[17] The Vietnamese Kinh colonists flooding into the Central Highlands has significantly altered the demographics of the region.

[25] FULRO however did not represent the sole force or organisation among the Montagnards, Khmer Krom and other groups, as the Cambodian Campaign that created refugees in the region had caused many to join the Viet Cong and become members.

[27] Whether these issues are true or not is openly disputable, given that the Vietnamese constitution officially recognises all the present central highlands minority groups.

[42][43] Another wave of Montagnard refugees in Cambodia happened after the Vietnamese government crackdown on the protests in the Central Highlands in February 2001.

[47][48] Dak Lak's capital Buon Ma Thuot was the scene of the convergence of Montagnards in the thousands on April 20, Saturday of 2004.

Gia Lai's districts of Dak Doa, Cu Se, and Ayun Pa on April 11 were the scenes of further protests by Montagnards against the Vietnamese.

[50] Like the 2001 mass demonstrations, Buon Ma Thuot was once again the scene of a huge gathering of Montagnards demanding that their traditional Daklak lands be given back and religious freedom allowed.

There were deaths caused by shootings and violent batterings of Montagnards at the hands of the Vietnamese according to Human Rights Watch.

Prohibitions slapped on the entry of non-Vietnamese and censorship failed to stop reports of accounts of murder and torment inflicted upon Montagnards at the hands of Vietnamese citizens and police.

[98] Buon Ma Thuoat was flooded by Vietnamese armed forces after crushing the rally in which Montagnards took part in by the hundreds.

[110][111] Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation (KKF) supported the statement made by King Sihanouk on the situation.

The Central Highlands were requested to be open up to non-Vietnamese by the EU since the area was off limits to foreign reporters.

[123] The Italian Radical Party and Mountagnard Fondation's remarks were attacked as false by the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry.

As a means of intimidation, the Vietnamese gather hundreds of spectators to watch trials of arrested Montaganrds and force public repudiation of religious belief upon the Montagnards.

[129][130][131] Vietnamese government supported racism, anti-religious policies, land theft, abuse, and imprisonment against ethnic minorities like the Hmong, Montagnards, and Khmer Krom were condemned by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva during its 80th Session.

[137] Vietnamese police assaulted and beat Montagnard Degar children and babies in addition to adults, women, and old people in the province of Kontum, Kon Braih district, Dak T'Re commune in Bon Kon H'Drom village on 21 August 2012.

[140] The Montagnard Degar man Siu Thoan's family was terrorized and bullied by Vietnamese police including his wife.

[141] After rejecting a demand by the Vietnamese for his religion to be repudiated, a sentence of five years in jail was handed down to Y-Huong Nie, a Degar Montagnard.

Violence and jail sentences are used against ethnic minorities like Khmer Krom and the most racism is perpetrated against the Hmong and Montagnards.

Prospect of a new insurgency by Montagnards for independence were shot down by the Hun Sen regime in Cambodia which refused to aid them.

A thirteen-year-old Montagnard girl Y Kang was severely assaulted, beaten and kicked along with 16 Montagnard women and men by Vietnamese police in Gai Lai province, Plei Ku city, district Mang Yang, commune H'ra in Buon Kret Krot village on July 7, 2011.

The Vietnamese regime claims that Montagnard separatism is conducted by religious matters and uses this as a reason to attack their religion.