Evangelical Christianity
Persecution in the Central Highlands
From 2003 to 2008, the Mennonite Church
in Vietnam
was under constant persecution. Many members of the Church were placed under
surveillance. Hundreds of pastors, ministers, and lay Christians endured
humiliation, maltreatment, and imprisonment. Pastor Garan Che, as a case in
evidence, was detained for reeducation in Dak Nong for two years. Scores of
Christians were incarcerated for unfouded crimes following the demonstrations
in 2001. The authorities said that these
Christians had cooperated with the FULRO. Nevertheless, in a contact with the security
police on May 20, 2007,
Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh asked them to
produce the evidence for the link to and cooperation with the FULRO of the
Montagnards in the Central Highlands, they were speechless. They simply said
the Christians operated illegal religious activities, caused social disorder
and had to be brought to camps for reeducation. The pastor finds the accusation
quite absurd. The authorities themselves are the violators of the laws. His fellow
Christians are victimized, and they are
oppressed. Their voice is muffled. They commit no violation of the laws. The
administration accused them of crimes on false charges. The security police
practically commit crimes., They violate the laws but are nevertheless free of
charges. The majority of Christians in the Central Highlands are people from
the ethnic minorities. They adore their faith. They commit no crime. Only services
and practices of faith flourish. They believed that their Church is
legitimately independent, and thus seeks no compromise with the authorities.
That is the reason for which the authorities fabricate such crimes as link to
or cooperation with FULRO and DEGA. They use these charges as a pretext to
repress the Evangelical Christian Churches in the Central Highlands. This also serves
as a pretext under which they apply pressure .on the Evangelical
Mennonite Church, stopping the House
Church movement, in particular. The Church and the ethnic minority communities
had no involvement in the FULRO activities, If there had been any involvement,
it would have occurred in the past, from 1997 to 2002. This movement had
already come to a close and FULRO no longer existed.
The ever-increasing growth of Evangelical
Christianity has always caused the authorities acute frustration. Mass
conversions has created a serious problem to the regime. The authorities stepped
up repression on the Montagnards. In 2010, more than 70 Christians were
detained or arrested, and 250 Christians were imprisoned, according to Human
Rights Watch (2011). Police actuated raids to dissolve house church gatherings,
executed sessions of renunciations of faith, and sealed the border to
stop waves of asylum seekers from evading the country. About 1,700 Montagnards
fled to Cambodia after continual troops repression against land dispossession
protests and demonstrations for religious freedom in 2001 and 2005. In February
2011, a group of asylum seekers reportedly faced repatriation after the Cambodian
government closed a center for refugees operated by the U.N. agency in Phnom
Penh. Montagnards adhered to underground House Church outside the control of
the State were viewed as "Dega members." Targeted with suppression,
they were detained for questioning, interrogation, and arrest. The treatment
was inhuman. Security authorities even used electric rods during interrogation.
To stop the house church movement, the authorities sought to strike the Church
at the head. Prominent pastors and leaders were the primary target for
elimination.
In the Heat of Persecution
Pastor
Nguyen Cong Chinh
The struggle of the ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands for the rights.to ownership of land,
houses and properties, and worship places rose as persecution intensified in
almost all Christian communities in the Central Highlands. Pastor Nguyen Thanh
Long alias Nguyen Cong Chinh of the Mennonite Church was suspected of
instigating the movement. In this regard, he established relationship with the
Montagnards in the United
States and worked in cahoots with the
counter-revolutionary organizations operating overseas such as the Association
of Special Forces of the old Republic
of Vietnam. The relationship,
in fact, results from benevolence. The pastor only helped veteran soldiers of
the Special Forces to leave the country on the Orderly Departure Programs
projected and agreed on by both the United States of America and
Communist Vietnam. He helped people that are trapped by misfortune and needed counsel. Likewise, he helped the Montagnards living in Vietnam only
for humanitarian purpose. He never worked in cahoots with anyone to counteract
a “revolution” or to fight anyone. He nevertheless maltreated violence, arrest
and torture His wife and children were isolated from the society. Just like
fish in a pot and birds in a cage. he wished to speak out the voice of a man of
conscience, and of the oppressed whose
rights man are violated.
Since August 3, 2006 he had not ben allowed to
contact with other pastors and ministers, and members of Christian congregations
due to poor communication and strict police control. Under strict surveillance,
he ventured to travel to islated community to visit the Christians there. One time,
he got lost in the forest, surrounded
amid a forest of rubber-trees and evoers. It was not until 3 o’clock in the morning of the
following day could he manage to run away from danger.
On April
8, 2011, the organ of security of Gia Lai decided to prosecute
Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh. On April 28, he was convicted on unfounded charges
of destroying tthe policy of great union, referring to Article 87 of the
Criminal Code. The organ of investigation maintained that from 2004 Nguyen Cong
Chinh had compiled and sent abroad writings that the administration of Vietnam viewed
as anti-revolutionary. He had equally had interviews with foreign mass media by
means of which he distorted the situation in Vietnam and calumniated the
administration and the military forces as well. On March 26, 2012, Pastor
Nguyen Cong Chinh was brought to stand trial before the People’s Court of Gia
Lai. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison for “causing division among the
people and sowing hatred and division among various ethnic minorities, between
the believers and non-believers, and between the believers and the
administration, thus breaching national sovereignty and destroying the
international policy of solidarity of Vietnam.” The pastor negated all crimes attributed
to him. He declared that, a dignitary of a religion, he only addresses things benefitting
people out of benevolence. He commits no crimes. He is stripped off the rights
to movement, and thus he has to struggle for it. The pstor had the right to
appeal within 15 days. In July, the Appeals Court of Gia Lai upheld the
sentence of the lower court after a half-day hearing.
In the prison, the pastor was the target of
mistreatment due to complaints about prison conditions. In a letter to the Head
of State Truong Tan Sang and Public Security Minister Tran Dai Quang in May
2014, fourteen leaders representing Evangelical Christianity, Catholicism,
Buddhism, Caodaism, and Hoa Hao Buddhism called for an investigation on abuses
against the Mennonite pastor and other prisoners of conscience. The letter
pointed out, among other things, instances of corruption, cuts in food rations,
and asking for bribes from prisoners in exchange for better conditions in the
prison. In their letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the
religious leaders specifically denounced “terrorist acts against prisoners of
conscience.” The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam recognizes
the rights to freedom of belief and religion, but religious services and activities
are strictly regulated by laws, decrees, and decisions.
The pastor’s wife Tran Thi Hong and their five
children became the target of enmity. Mrs.Tran was trailed wherever she went.
Her neighbors dared not see her for fear of being a party involving in her
husband’s “crimes.” On September
24, 2013, as she planned to visit her husband in jail, security
police sealed the gate with wire to prevent her and her children from leaving house, even to get medicine for her sick child. She did not know how long she
and her children would live under this condition. They were like prisoners in
their own house. “They have mistreated our family for so many years. They
continue to do so, and I don’t know what they will do to our family,” she said.
While her husband suffered maltreatment in the prison,
Tran Thi Hongg was subject to harsher harassment. She was continually targeted
with violence and trailed wherever she went. On April 14, 2016 following the
meeting with the members of the U.S. delegation, she suffered injuries from
beatings befalling her and missed the
opportunity to meet the delegation. Police stopped her from going to the
meeting place and escorted her back home. She was then interrogated about the
meeting by various organs of the local administration. Refuting unfounded charges against her, she
maintained that she commits no violation of the laws, and the authorities’ conduct
of affairs is undeniably rude. She denounced police’ acts of atrocity. She and
one of her children were harassed and robbed of their personal belongings while
they on their way to meet with the U.S. delegation. Having beaten her, policr
deposed her ouside her home. The victim exclaimed in grief that she had been
deprived of her human rights, that she had been beaten and humiliated so many
times, and that she had no longer energy to work. She demanded innediate end
to this repression.
Painful Deaths
Y-Kuoi, a native of Dha Prong Commune, Dak Lak
Province, was arrested on May
13, 2003 and died in the prison on December 5, 2004. His family said that he died
as a result of beating and torture. The security police warned against his
family with threat if they ever disclosed the cause of his death they would
suffer the same fate. On June
10, 2007, the Montagnards Foundation in the United States
informed that two Christians were killed by the security police. The
victim, Dieu Suoi, died on May
21, 2007, only two days after his release from prison. Dieu Suoi
was arrested and incarcerated in the prison of Dak Nong on September 14, 2005 on charges of not
having joined the State-affiliated Church, and participated in the activities of
the house church denomination. According to his relatives, he could not endure
torture during imprisonment.
Eviction from the Refugee Camp
For fear of being arrested and expelled from U.N.
refugee camp in Phnom Penh,
Kampuchea, many refugees deserted the camp. A number of them were arrested and escorted
back to Vietnam.
Pastor A Dong and his family members of the Mennonite Church of Vietnam were
the four people among them. He came to
the camp on June 12, 2007.
During his stay at the camp, he found lack of protection, the pastor decided to
leave the camp. The authorities of the Ministry for the Interior of Kampuchea arrested
and escorted him and his family members back to Vietnam.
Pastor A Dong is a native of Sa Binh Commune, Sa
Thay District, Kontum
Province, He had been the
general administrator of the Mennonite
Church at Sa Thay. In
September 2006, having attended a course in ministry in Phnom Penh, he came
back to Vietnam. The security police at Sa Thay arrested and detained him for 10
days. He had to pay a fine of $VN 500,000 dong. He was placed under house
surveillance for 5 years. He was forbidden to perform ministerial services or participate
in religious activities in any Churches in the Central
Highlands. He had to report his daily activities at the security
police headquarters of Sa Thay weekly. In August 2007, he and his family evaded
to Kampuchea.
Escorted back to Vietnam, he was detained in Saigon for 10 days. He was then brought back to Sa Thay.
On June 11, 2008,
he was brought to stand a a crime relevation meeting at Sa Thay District where
the representatives of the press and masses organizations of the district and
province were in attendance. The crime revelation focused on finding out the
motives of his evasion to Kampuchea.
The reason for which he decided to evade is simple. He was forbidden to perform his ministerial
duty and to meet with his fellow Christians.
He was thus deprived of the rights to freedom as man.
Constant repression
continued all through the following the period of renovation. Pastor Aga of
Daklak lamented over the difficulties facing the Christians. Many followers
were prevented from serving faith, arrested, and detained before Christmas Eve (2012)
when they were about to prepare religious services in Kontum. At Pon Hamlet, Ya
- Pe Commune, Maddrak District in Dak Lak Province, Pastor Y Noen and the
minister Y Jon were convoked "to
work with" the security sevice P88
of Maddrak District. Pastor Y Noen was admonished to abandon his faith as the
Church he was serving had not been sanctioned
by the State. The Church, in reality, had been active for some seven years and
had not done anything wrong. Out of suspiscion, the authorities found fault with
the Church, adding that it had links with the FULRO and seeking means to
eliminate it. "The Church is a purely religious organization, we only
serve our faith," the pastor contended.
Repression has forced the
Montagnards to evade their homeland and seek refuge in the northwestern neighboring
Kampuchea's Ratannakiri. Fearful of being caught and repatriated by local
Kampuchean authorities, the victims survived in hiding in the jungle, staying
on food from a group of Jarai, one of the tribes that make up the Montagnards
in either side of the Vietnam - Kampuchea borders. In December 2014, a U.N.
team of refugee and human rights officials was blocked by Kampuchea authorities
in Ratannakiri from searching for group of 13 Montagnards who were hanging
about in the jungle where they hid for more than seven weeks.
In May 2013, the Gia Lai People’s Court sentenced
eight ethnic minority Montagnards to between three to eleven years in prison on
charges of “undermining security.” Some
of them were accused of having worked with an outlawed organization overseas to
establish an autonomous region for the ethnic minorities in the Central
Highlands. All eight accused were convicted under Article 87 of the Penal Code,
which provision characterizes the crime of “undermining national unity by
sowing division,” or practicing “ethnic or religious hatred.”
