Hilltribes resent government coffee plantations on their land

According to a report by the Associated Press news agency, a clash broke out on 10 March when police dismantled a wooden prayer house in Plei Lao, a hamlet near Pleiku, the capital of Gia Lai province.

The report revealed the scale of ethnic tensions was far greater than previously thought.

Three men and other "stubborn elements" were arrested for trying to stop police, a local police official told the news agency.

Some members of the Jarai tribe were wounded in the clash.

Human rights groups have criticised Vietnam for religious repression, citing the crackdown on Protestant "house churches" which have attracted many followers from ethnic hilltribes.

The recent protests have been fuelled by anger over religious rights as well as the government turning ancestral forests into the country's largest coffee-growing region.

Foreign concern

The communist authorities have acknowledged that "hundreds" of young people had set up a no-go zone in the central highlands in protests dating back to October - months earlier than previously admitted.

The army has since been sent in, the region closed and a number of arrests made, including, according to some reports, some pastors and church elders.

Ethnic minority groups make up 15% of the population

Vietnam has reacted defiantly in the face of growing foreign concern over a crackdown following the protests.

On Tuesday, it rejected calls by the US for diplomats to be granted access to the area, saying local authorities were too busy.

It also attacked calls for two dozen hilltribe fugitive members to be granted asylum in neighbouring Cambodia.

Crackdown

The foreign ministry described concern for the refugees by human rights organisation Amnesty International as "absolutely unacceptable".

A new decree warns against complaints against the state and party

Amnesty has said the refugees would face persecution if forcibly returned.

In Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen reiterated his government's unwillingness to grant asylum to the refugees, who have been detained for 10 days. Last week, the government warned of a renewed crackdown on protests.

"If anyone goes to complain at an official's house... with a petition or complaint that has been resolved reasonably and in accordance with the law... they will be prosecuted," a new decree stated.

"Anyone who has bad words about state or party cadres... which cause social disturbances or public disorder... will be prosecuted."