Vietnamese Christians Face Propaganda War

(Compass) – During Easter weekend, April 10 and 11, Montagnards in Vietnam ’s Central Highlands attempted to stage public demonstrations to call attention to harsh injustices they suffer at the hands of communist authorities and ethnic Vietnamese settlers. Vietnamese security forces dressed in civilian clothes attacked the demonstrators, using weapons such as clubs with embedded nails, iron bars, chains, hoes and machetes. An unknown number were killed, hundreds were injured, and many are missing. The Vietnamese government later admitted that the demonstrations involved thousands of people. They mounted an aggressive propaganda campaign to justify its repression of the demonstrators. This week, government officials publicly blamed the U.S.-based organization Montagnard Foundation Inc. (MFI) for organizing the demonstrations. Officials vowed to punish anyone inciting further unrest in the Central Highlands. Human rights organizations said that while MFI may have acted unwisely, the organization should not become the government’s scapegoat for the heavy repression at the root of the unrest. One thing is certain: the controversy is sure to cause greater hardship for the Montagnard Protestant church.