Vietnam--Christian Persecution in Vietnam

Extremist Groups:

• No extremist groups have been cited for incidences of persecution in this country.

• 2/18/04 Vietnam
  Christians Receive Small Blessings of Human Rights
  (Compass) -- In recent months, Protestants in Vietnam have seen intense activity on the religious rights’ front and point to four incidents of government concession that may indicate a change in the religious liberty climate. After Baptist house church leader Huynh Tan Tai documented a series of abuses he had suffered, provincial officials apologized to him and returned the Bibles they had confiscated. Local administrators who denied residence papers to Dinh Van Hoang for refusing to recant his Christian faith were transferred from their post after an American visitor brought Hoang’s plight to the attention of senior government leaders. A police station sit-in and prayer vigil persuaded police in Ho Chi Minh City to release about 20 young people arrested for distributing Christian literature during the Southeast Asia Games. Finally, a court postponed legal proceedings against Rev. Bui Van Ba who was charged with “resisting an officer doing his duty” in connection with a police raid on a prayer meeting in the Ba home. Observers believe the concessions are due to Vietnam’s concern for its international image coupled with newfound resolve within the country’s house churches.

  1/21/04 Vietnam Montagnard Foundation
  Crackdown
  Persecution of Montagnard Christians in the Vietnam central highlands is increasing.  Since December, six men have been arrested, brutally tortured, and imprisoned for their faith.  Several more men are currently in hiding, and villages are living in fear of government persecutions.  There is a concerted effort on the part of the Vietnamese government to squelch the grassroots movement of Christianity in the Central highlands through brute force and violence against the believers. 
  
  The Monagnard foundation (TMF)is requesting several things in regard to this newest onslaught of attacks against the Montagnard Christians.  They are imploring the United Nations and foreign governments to take action to be able to go into the central highlands and monitor the actions there.  This action has been recommended by the UN Human Rights committee, but Vietnam has continued to ignore this. TMF is also requesting that action be taken to get the six believers released from prison, and protection given for the many other Montagnard who are living in fear.  In addition, TMF is requesting that international donors review how aid monies are being used in Vietnam for the purpose of ensuring the end of religious repression and human rights violations.  

  1/15/04 Vietnam (Compass)
  More Details on Trial of Rev. Bui Van Ba
  Less than 24 hours before his trial for “resisting an officer doing his duty” was to begin in Ho Chi Minh City, Rev. Bui Van Ba was served a notice postponing the trial to a later date, ostensibly because a judge was unable to attend. Rev. Ba has been under house arrest since a police raid of a prayer meeting at his home on August 18, 2003. But local sources believe vigorous and direct appeals by house church leaders to authorities -- including the threat to send demonstrators into the streets, the wide international publicity and interest shown by Western embassies -- are the real reasons for the postponement. Christian leaders in Vietnam warned that authorities could announce a new trial date for Rev. Ba at any time, and asked Christians worldwide to pray with them in the battle to secure rule of law and religious freedom.
  
  1/10/04 VIETNAM (Freedom House)
  Vietnam Christians Protest Trial of Pastor
  Braving the risk of reprisals, a group of Christian leaders in Vietnam has decided to publicly denounce the trial of Pastor Bui Van Ba, general secretary of the Full Gospel House Church, set for January 13, 2004.  Reportedly Pastor Ba and others were severely beaten during a police raid of the pastor’s home during a prayer meeting last August.  According to reports received by Freedom House, the incident occurred after police entered the home illegally and began pushing and beating the occupants.  Pastor Ba’s wife was manhandled and under the stress collapsed and fainted. Pastor Ba was beaten in front his family when he appealed for help for his wife. In prison he was chained to a post and beaten by plainclothes police before being subjected to a lengthy interrogation.  After questioning, he was reportedly stripped of his clothes and thrown into a cell without bed, blankets or mosquito net, and held 36 hours without being given food or water. Pastor Ba subsequently has been under house arrest. He was unexpectedly charged in late December with “resisting an officer doing his duty” and ordered to appear in court.  He will be tried before the People’s Court of District 11 in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam’s house churches, which are subject to official oppression, have decided to vigorously fight this case with the tools available to them.  The location of this incident and trial in Ho Chi Minh City, and the evidence of injustice have emboldened Christian leaders to denounce the trial publicly. 
  
  Leaders of the 21 house church organizations of the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship published a four-page “letter of protest” which they addressed to foreign embassies and to domestic and foreign mass media organizations, as well as to human rights organizations.  The letter documents violations of at least six specific provisions of the criminal code. It calls for:

  • The dismissal of all charges against Pastor Ba;
  • The bringing of charges against the officials who acted wrongfully against Pastor Ba and fellow Christians at the August prayer meeting;
  • Compliance by Vietnam with its own laws and the international agreements it has signed in regards to religious freedom and human rights. 

  In a third document, dated January 8, 2004, the Rev. Pham Dinh Nhan issued a call to the thousands of Christians in the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship, to fast and pray for justice for Pastor Ba from the morning of January 12 to the evening of January 14.  Christians in Vietnam are planning to attend the Pastor’s trial in large numbers.  They have also urged members of Western consulates and embassies, and foreign journalists to witness the trial. Copies of documents related to the case are on file at Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom.

  1/7/04 Vietnam (Compass)
  House Church Leader About To Go To Trial
  The trial of a Vietnamese house church leader arrested in August for “resisting an officer doing his duty” is set to begin January 13. Pastor Bui Van Ba, general secretary of the Full Gospel House Church organization, will be tried before the People’s Court of District 11 in Ho Chi Minh City. Ba has been under house arrest since August 18, 2003. On that date, about 25 Christians were attending a prayer meeting on the second level of the Ba home when a local public security officer entered without a warrant and demanded to search the house. When Ba’s wife, May, tried to prevent him from doing so, the officer threw her aside so violently she required hospital treatment for her injuries. When additional police arrived, they attacked Pastor Nguyen Nhu Hanh, hitting his head repeatedly against a cement wall and destroying a camera with which he had been taking photos. Pastor Ba arrived home at that moment and sought to reason with the officers, but they beat him violently and took him to jail in handcuffs. Advisors to Pastor Ba have used Vietnamese law to build a legal case asserting that the rights of the Ba and family were violated, but the country’s legal system will not allow them to help defend him.
  
  1/1/04 Vietnam (Freedom House & BP News)
  Vietnam steps up persecution targeting Hmong Christians
  WASHINGTON (BP)--Vietnamese authorities have stepped up their campaign of persecution of minority Christians, in some instances threatening to murder their spiritual leaders, Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom in Washington reported Dec. 30. Freedom House recounted that sources in Vietnam reported that 19 police agents destroyed Hmong Christian house churches in mid-December in four villages in Ta Tong Commune, located in the Muong Te District of Lai Chau Province.
  
  Freedom House also received reports that high-level authorities in Vietnam's northwest Lai Chau Province are openly threatening to "kill all Christian leaders." Vietnam's Hmong Christians have long experienced official persecution because of their faith. Freedom House reported the beating deaths by police of three Hmong Christians earlier in the year, including a 10-year-old child of a church leader sought for arrest.
  
  On Dec. 4, the Center for Religious Freedom reported the arrest of Hmong leader Ma Van Bay in the Central Highlands' Binh Phuoc Province. Later reports from the region in December indicate his arrest prompted other Hmong Christian leaders in the region to go into hiding. Government officials also are reported to be threatening Central Highlands believers with death.
  
   

• 12/11/03 Vietnam (Compass)
  Vietnam: Underground Church Evangelizes Southeast Asia Games. Govt. Arrests 18.
  News of clashes between Christians and public security police over Christian tract distribution has been pouring out of Vietnam since the opening of the 22nd Southeast Asia Games on December 5. The house churches, often zealous in their evangelism, have apparently organized the distribution of Christian tracts and literature featuring the testimonies of prominent Christian athletes, severely pushing the limits of religious freedom in Vietnam. By noon on December 10, at least 18 Christians were known to be in detention. Others were still missing. Meanwhile, the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, a prominent house church leader and religious freedom activist, survived an apparent assassination attempt on December 9. He threatened to organize street demonstrations if those detained over the literature distribution were not released. Although Vietnam recognizes two Protestant groups, dozens of house church organizations remain illegal and subject to official abuse.  Update on 12/12/03: Authorities in Vietnam have released 16 Protestants, including two pastors, who were picked up in Ho Chi Minh city, reportedly for carrying or distributing Christian tracts at the Southeast Asian Games.
  The AFP newsagency attributes the report to a member of the Protestant church who also says the whereabouts of three other Ho Chi Minh City-based Christians are unknown after their disappearance on Sunday.
  
  
  12/11/03 Vietnam (Compass)
  Security Officials Attempt To Assassinate Christian Leader-16 Other Christians Arrested
  Public Security police in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) allegedly attempted to assassinate the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang at about 9 p.m. on December 9 by staging a motorcycle “accident,” according to the Vietnamese Mennonite Church in Saigon. Rev. Quang is a leader of the Mennonite house churches in Vietnam and a bold activist for religious freedom and other human rights. He had just finished meeting with a US State Dept. Democracy and Human Rights Offical. Miraculously, Quang was not seriously injured. But immediately after the “accident,” a number of police armed with rifles, handguns and electric cattle prods attacked Quang and a colleague. Quang escaped on foot, but his colleague was detained by police. At least 15 other Christians were arrested at about the same time. Pastor Quang managed to return to his home and organize 16 Christians to go the police station for a sit-in, hunger strike and prayer vigil to demand the release of the detained Christians.

  12/05/2003 Vietnam (AP)
  U.N. envoy chides Cambodia for allegedly forcing refugees back to Vietnam
  A U.N. human rights envoy on Friday criticized the Cambodian government for allegedly sending back to Vietnam ethnic minority hill tribe people who could face persecution by Hanoi's communist government. Peter Leuprecht, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy for human rights in Cambodia, said he had a "credible report" about people who have been sent back to Vietnam "in a clear violation of the fundamental principle of the ... refugee convention to which Cambodia is a party." He did not give details, but U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia this week reported that in mid-November authorities in Cambodia's eastern province of Rattanakiri handed over to Vietnamese officials 11 hill tribe people, known as Montagnards. Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak dismissed the allegation, saying it was "based on rumors." Thousands of Montagnards took part in demonstrations in Vietnam's Daklak and Gia Lai provinces in February 2001, protesting over land-rights issues and accusing the government of religious repression. Many Montagnards are Christian, while Vietnam is predominantly Buddhist. Nearly 1,000 hill tribe people fled to Cambodia soon afterward to escape a Vietnamese crackdown; about 900 were resettled in North Carolina in the summer of 2002.  They swelled the state's Montagnard population to nearly 5,000 — by far the largest group of Montagnards outside the central Vietnamese highlands. Speaking at a press conference marking an end to his 10-day visit to Cambodia, Leuprecht said he has "reasons to believe that there are people in the highlands on the other side of the border who have a justified fear of persecution" by the Vietnamese government.  Radio Free Asia said the people sent back last month fled Vietnam in July to hide in the malaria-infested jungles of Cambodia. The report said they were the last from a group of 60 who were deported. "There was never any information about new refugees," said Khieu Sopheak, the interior minister. "Nor was there even one to send back."
  The Montagnards were allies to American Army Special Forces soldiers during the Vietnam War, an alliance that has made life difficult for the Montagnards since Vietnam was unified under a communist regime in 1975. They have resettled in North Carolina largely because the U.S. Army Special Forces Command is based at Fort Bragg, near Fayetteville.
  
   

• 12/3/03 Vietnam (Compass) --
  On November 29, Vietnamese authorities extradited Ma Van Bay from Binh Phuoc province in the Central Highlands to his former home in Ha Giang province on the China border. Christians who know the brutality of government authorities in Ha Giang fear Bay, a key Hmong Christian leader arrested on November 17, will face serious abuse. A Christian since the early 1990s, Bay emerged as a leader of the rapidly growing Christian community in his home province. In 1997, authorities accused him of “stealing money from the citizens for personal gain” and illegally propagating the Christian religion. Badly beaten and facing up to 12 years in prison, Bay escaped custody and received help from Christians of another minority group in the Central Highlands. On July 1, police in Ha Giang beat to death another Hmong Christian, Vang Seo Giao, and disposed of his body in a river. A journalist in Hanoi who questioned Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the murder was informed that Giao had “drowned crossing a stream while drunk.”

• 12/2/03 Vietnam Press Releases from ICC
  Vietnamese Christian Flood Victims Denied Relief

  You are free to disseminate the following news. We request that you reference ICC (International Christian Concern) and include our web address www.persecution.org.
   
  (12/02/03) The Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) www.persecution.org has just become aware of the plight of Christian flood victims in Vietnam. The Central areas of Vietnam suffered from a devastating series of storms and heavy rains on November 14th, 16^th and 24th.  Through today, approximately 75,000 houses were destroyed, 120,000 hectares of rice crop ruined and thousands of rural people have been left homeless.
  
  Most of these people have received financial assistance and immediate relief from the Vietnamese government.  However, 425 Christians in the Quang Ngai province and 654 Christians in the Ninh province were refused help solely because of their Christian faith.  These Christians already live in dire poverty, and this tragedy has left many hungry and sick.  Without assistance, many are expected to die.  The Vietnamese government routinely persecutes Christians in the rural areas of Vietnam, and this is another example of how Christians are denied the most basic elements needed to survive.
  
  Vietnam has been, and is currently ranked as one of the worst violators of human rights. There are currently an estimated three hundred (300) Christian pastors imprisoned in these areas for simply holding legal church meetings.

  ICC urges American Christians to contact the Vietnamese Embassy and politely request that Christian flood victims of Quang Ngai and Ninh provinces be given the same flood relief as other Vietnamese. Also, please request the release of Christian pastors from prison.
  
  Embassy of Vietnam
  1233 20th st. NW Suite 400
  Washington DC 20036
  Ph. 202-861-0737
  Fax 202-861-0917
  info@vietnamembassy.usa.org
  
   ICC is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC delivers humanitarian aid, trains and supports persecuted pastors, raises awareness in the US Church regarding the problem of persecution, and is an advocate for the persecuted on Capitol Hill and the State Department. For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at 800-422-5441.

  
   

•  11/26/03 Vietnam-Christian Aid: VIETNAMESE MISSIONARY ARRESTED. Ma Van Bay, a missionary to the Hmong tribe, was arrested recently and is being held in a jail in southern Vietnam, according to a report received by Christian Aid. Bay is originally from Ha Giang Province next to the China border. The police there searched his house and found money from the offering of the church that meets in his house. They then accused him of using religion to take money from the people and said he was abusing religious freedom. They gave him a three to 12-year prison term. The exact date of his arrest was not specified. However, someone helped him escape and he fled to Binh Phuoc Province in southern Vietnam. There he was again caught and imprisoned. A contact for the Vietnamese churches said if he is returned to the police in the North, he will be severely beaten; if he remains in the South, he will simply be imprisoned. In either case, believers around the world are asked to pray that he regain his freedom. The Vietnam constitution stipulates freedom of religion. Ma Van Bay came to the Lord in 1990 by listening to FEBC radio. He took gospel training in Hanoi and returned to his community, where his ministry spurred the growth of the local church. This caught the attention of local authorities, who began to persecute Bay and the other believers. Bay was persecuted several times and once given a 3 to 12-year prison sentence. In 1997, out of fear of torture or arrest, he left his family and fled to the South. Later he was reunited with his family and was instrumental in translating Biblical materials from Vietnamese into the Hmong language. Those materials have been greatly appreciated by Hmong believers. Vietnamese Christian workers are continually badgered to compromise their faith by godless Communist community leaders. Pray for Bay and all Christian workers in Vietnam. There are now approximately 400 pastors imprisoned for their faith in Vietnam.
   

• October 20, 2003 (Montagnard Foundation) - There is currently a crackdown against Montagnard Christians in Vietnam that includes village attacks, shootings, and various forms of torture.  In the past weeks there have been multiple attacks.  On October 16, police and soldiers opened fire on a Christian brother with an AK47, and he was wounded and is now hospitalized.  On October 10, gunfire was opened against one man and his pregnant wife was tied up, beaten, and had a cloth stuffed in her mouth.  On the same day, six young Christian men returning from a funeral were arrested and suffered beatings and electric shock torture, and they have now been moved to an unknown location.

   

• Sept. 19 Vietnamese and Cambodian Police arrest Montagnards for helping refugees. (Freedomnownews)  In September 2003 a joint patrol of 15 Vietnamese police and 20 Cambodian Police arrested and beat four Cambodian Montagnards who were trying to provide food to a group of 50 Montagnards who had fled Vietnam. The four Montagnards were fined 2,500,00 Reils each and had all their supplies and money stolen. It is unknown what has happened to the refugees hiding in the jungles but only 17 now remain with the other refugees either having been arrested or perhaps died of starvation. Confiscation of Bibles, beatings and Montagnard woman raped by Police Officer Major Nguyen Vinh Chinh. On August 18, 2003, the Vietnamese government sent Major Nguyen Vinh Chinh, a police officer, with 100 Vietnamese soldiers from Daklak province to the village of Buon Yang Reh, district Krong Bong, province of Daklak to repress the Montagnard (Degar) Christians in this area.  The commander of this group was Major Nguyen Vinh Chinh who cooperated with the Degar police at Krong Bong district. Their names are as followed:  Y-Tir, Y-Phon Eban, Y-Dap Eban, Y-Juel Eban, Y-Lik Nie and Y-Dhan Knul.  They forced their way into H’Duen Buondap’s housse and searched her house thoroughly.  They confiscated the Bibles and hymn books found there and stole 150,000 VND.   This was not enough and Major Nguyen Vinh Chinh forced H’Duen Buondap in her room and raped her while his soldiers were with him in the house and also were the family members of H’Duen.  After that the officers searched each and every house in the village and beat up villagers who resisted their cruel and inhuman action because they are Christians.

   

• 8/28/2003 ANS Michael Ireland 50 MONTAGNARD REFUGEES TRAPPED ON CAMBODIAN BORDER WHILE VIETNAMESE ARMY & CAMBODIAN POLICE HUNT THEM DOWN $66 Bounty Offered By Authorities For Turning-In Each Refugee CAMBODIA/VIETNAM BORDER  (ANS) -- Fifty Montagnards, or Degar people, are hiding in terrible conditions in an undisclosed location along the Cambodian/Vietnamese border in order to avoid arrest and torture.
  
  The Montagnard Foundation, based in Spartanburg, S.C., (www.montagnard-foundation.org) has just received specific information these men, women and children are starving, sick and exhausted. They are pleading for help from the UNCHR and international community. To make matters worse the Cambodian authorities are arresting Montagnard refugees and handing them to Vietnamese police for cash bounties.  "These Montagnard Christian refugees risk being shot by Vietnamese soldiers. If arrested they will be imprisoned and beaten. One of the preferred methods of torture by Vietnamese police and army is electric shock torture," says an e-mail report received by ASSIST News Service (ANS). On July 21, 2003 Mr. Son Chhay, a Member of the Cambodian Parliament of the Sam Rainsy Party, called on the President of the National Assembly, Cambodian Prince Norodom Ranariddh to investigate and put an end to these human rights violations against Montagnard refugees.  Mr. Son Chhay demanded the Cambodian government “answer, clarify, and stop immediately the activities that violate human rights by the Cambodian authorities because it is inhumane and violates the 1951 International Refugee Treaty, of which Cambodia is a signatory.” He also confirmed the Vietnamese government is offering Cambodian authorities bounties of $66 for turning over Montagnard refugees to Vietnamese authorities.  Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the US State Department have all confirmed these human rights violations against Hill tribe Montagnards, many of whom are Christians.  In April, 2003 Human Rights Watch reported an “escalation of repression,” facing the Montagnards inside Vietnam and released “secret” Vietnamese government documents ordering this repression (see:  http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/04/vietnam042103.htm).  In May, 2003 the US International Commission for Religious Freedom stated, “the increased repression of religious freedom has been reportedly sanctioned at the highest levels of the Vietnamese government.”  The Montagnard Foundation says: "The situation facing these and other Montagnards is at a crisis point as the Cambodian border is patrolled by Vietnamese soldiers while inside Vietnam Montagnard villages remain under martial law where soldiers persecute them for practicing Christianity. "Untold numbers of Montagnards have been beaten, tortured and others murdered in what appears part of a sophisticated form of ethnic cleansing by Vietnam." The Foundation, which is dedicated to the preservation of the Indigenous Peoples of Central Vietnam, is urgently requesting that: "The UNHCR & international community please take urgent action and try to save the lives of these 52 Montagnards. It is the duty of UNHCR in Cambodia, according to the 1951 Convention on the Protection of Refugees to get food, water, medicine and protection to these unfortunate persons before Vietnamese authorities get hold of them.

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