Degar Woman Imprisoned for Preaching Christianity
Degar Woman Imprisoned for Preaching Christianity
ICC Note:
Puih H’bat, a Degar Christian, has been held for five months in a Vietnamese prison for preaching Christianity. Her family has been completely denied visitation rights and fear that she may already be dead.
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9/11/08 Vietnam (MontagnardFoundation) Is Puih H’Bat dead? On Wednesday April 9, 2008, at approximately 6:30 pm, four Vietnamese security police came to the house of our Christian sister, Puih H’Bat, in the village of Ploi Bang, Ia Chia commune, Ia Grai district, Gialai province while she was leading 20 Christian believers in prayer services at her home. The security police demanded that these Christians sign a document agreeing to join the Hoi Thanh Tin Lanh Vietnam (The Evangelical Church of Vietnam), which is the government sanctioned church. The police said if they refused to sign the document, that they would be arrested, tortured and imprisoned. All Christian believers at the home of Puih H’Bat, however, refused to sign the document.
The next day, on April 10, 2008, at approximately 8:00pm, more security police supported by Vietnamese soldiers came to the village of Ploi Bang and summoned the entire village to report to Ploi Bang Elementary school.
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The security police continued to threaten the villagers, attempting to coerce them into signing the document joining the official government sanctioned church. When everyone still refused, they dismissed the meeting at approximately 10:00 pm.
On April 11, 2008, at approximately 4 am in the morning, 8 Vietnamese security police stormed into the house of our Christian sister, Puih H’Bat, and arrested her, put her in a truck and took her to Ia Grai district prison. The same night, the police also arrested two other Christian brothers, Ksor Sim and Rahlan Don. During the arrest of Ksor Sim, police sprayed a chemical repellant inside his house forcing the whole family outside, whereupon security police shocked him with electric batons until he collapsed unconscious. His wife and 16 year-old daughter ran to see if he was alive or dead, and the police then beat and shocked them with electrical batons until they also collapsed unconscious.
Ksor Sim and Rahlan Don have been released from prison because they had agreed to sign a document to follow the government sanctioned church.
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Puih H’Bat is imprisoned at the criminal prison facility T-20 in Pleiku according to what the Vietnamese security police told her mother. But what crime has she committed? Is it against the law for a Degar woman to tell other Degar people about Jesus Christ? She was not preaching to the Vietnamese, but only to comfort our indigenous Degar community in order to be able to endure the brutality of the Vietnamese government.
Five months later, the authorities still refuse to allow Puih H’Bat’s family to visit her in prison. It is greatly feared she has already been killed or suffers from serious wounds as a result of being tortured.