Vietnam

Voice of the Martyrs Canada reports Hmong believers in Vietnam are facing opposition from village authorities because of their recent adoption of Christianity. Three families were expelled from their village in Cao Bang province, in northern Vietnam, because of their recent adoption of Christianity. Each family came to faith after a Hmong Christian worker prayed for an ill family member and the family member recovered from illness. 

About 2,000 Montagnards -- Christian minority tribespeople -- fled to Cambodia over 2001 and 2004 after Vietnamese authorities crushed protests in the region. For years, Montagnards have protested against the confiscation of their ancestral land and religious persecution, leading to often brutal repression. 

In one of the latest incidents of human rights abuses, the pastor of an outlawed Christian church was sentenced to 11 years in prison for allegedly sowing division between the communist government and the Vietnamese people. Nguyen Cong Chinh, 43 years old, was convicted of undermining the government policy of unity at his trial in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.

Supporters say the minority Christian defendants were participating in a religious convocation that allegedly ended in a "massacre" blamed on Vietnamese security forces. 

"I was beaten with force on my ears, eyes, stomach and hips. Eventually, a more violent blow on the left ear threw me to the ground. There two young people kicked me on the left and left side of my back. I was left unconscious. "

According to some accounts obtained by AsiaNews, dozens of police officers were present at the scene of the assault as it was underway. None of the agents tried to intervene to stop the thugs who destroyed the building and assaulted Fr Văn Bình. 

 A neighbor, on condition of anonymity, said that "they hit the altar of the Madonna. A child was carried away" and when he tried to rebel "they took him repeatedly slapping him in the face". 

Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment because of his Christian faith and his activism on behalf of religious freedom. Vietnam has refused to release the pastor despite international pressure.

“Religious freedom is not a favor but a fundamental and sacred right,” Bishop Michael Hoang Duc Oanh of Kontum said in a letter to President Truong Tan Sang, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung.

"I hope that in this Easter season, the local government will return our church," said a member of Hiếu Đạo parish. "We need it for Mass and prayer," he told AsiaNews.

In one of the latest incidents of human rights abuses, the pastor of an outlawed Christian church was sentenced to 11 years in prison for allegedly sowing division between the communist government and the Vietnamese people.

There are 6 million Roman Catholics in Vietnam, the second largest Catholic community in Southeast Asia after the Philippines. However, tensions have existed for decades between Catholics and the Hanoi government over church property seized by the Communists and other issues.

The one-day trial in Gia Lia province has left many questioning the role of faith and Vietnam’s communism. But ultimately, the case, which saw Chinh admit to being in charge of the Mennonite church in the Central Highlands, has left Christians fearful that a backlash, even violence, could become more common.

Another potential crackdown looms for the Catholics of the Con Dau Parish, located in central Vietnam. Vietnamese authorities reportedly forced the vicar of the parish to sign a demolition permit for the church and to remove the churches crucifix. In 2010, scores of Con Dau Christians were injured and one killed by police after participating in the funeral of a fellow parishioner.  

“Vietnam has jailed eight Hmong people for taking part in a major gathering last year which the court described as a separatist ethnic movement,” Agence France-Presse reports.

The eight Hmong Christians were sentenced to up to two and a half years in prison followed by two years of house arrest for their participation in a demonstration in April of last year demanding greater religious freedom. State controlled Vietnamese news media said the decision showed the "humanitarian" and "benevolent" side of the justice system as the sentences could have been much worse. 

“Representative Chris Smith, the author of the bill, said that ‘religious, political and ethnic persecution’ was continuing or even worsening and charged that Vietnamese authorities have tolerated forced labor and sex trafficking,” Agence France-Presse reports.

A Vietnamese court issued a three to five year prison sentence for two Catholics for distributing anti-government material in what appears to be a “government vendetta toward Catholics who defend the rights of the Church,” Asia News reports.

The Christian Chronicle shares the inspiring testimonies of two faithful Vietnamese Christians who recently died.