Overview
In the later year of the
1980's, the political line of "doi moi," the Vietnamese version of “glanost,” fanned a hope for change
throughout the country. The expectations were high. More representatives of the
Christian missions that had operated in Vietnam would have opportunity to enter
the swing. Their participation would contribute to the growth of the domestic
Churches. There existed at the time in Vietnam some 40 congregations, both
official and non-official domestic Churches. Three congregations often
assembled in private homes. The increase in number was significant. Their religious services were still under
restriction. Before the Communist takeover of South Vietnam. In 1975, Christian
congregations assembled in
some 300 church houses. By the end of the 1990’s, the conversions to
Evangelical Christianity were on the increase, estimated at 800,000, four times
bigger than the number of adepts 25 years previously. The Church’ .s religious services were
nevertheless performed “in hiding.”
Evangelical Christianity in
the Northwestern Provinces
Lai Chau
Evangelical Christianity was
introduced in the mountainous region of the North many years after the reunification
of the country. Tribal groups in the
remote northwestern provinces of Lai
Chau, Ha Tuyen, and Son La were the special targets of surveillance of the
government. A large number of H'mong
tribesmen were the first converts to Evangelical Christianity. The
movement began in 1989 and developed
tremendously in a short period of time. Estimates showed that H'mong
Christianss numbered more than 50,000 in a population of approximately a half
million. In many areas, H’mong rapid conversion to Christianity was largely due
to the propagation of Gospel through
programs in the native language of the Far East Broadcasting Co., an
American-based radio network with offices in Hong Kong.
“Security police agents of the Huoi Chan
Hamlet, Ang Tu Commune, Tuan Giao District, arrested, incarcerated, imposed
fines on, and beat up a number of people because of religious practices
1. On April 19, 1990, Hou A
Tong was arrested and beaten up. He is currently detained at No. 10
penitentiary, Dien Bien District.
2. Hou A Sua had been put in
fetters three times, twenty-four hours each time; three times, he had to pay a
fine for amends of 40,000 dong. In addition, he was called four times to the
commune office and was detained for a period of seven days each time. He was
also summoned three times to report to the district authorities of Tuan Giao.
Each time, he was imprisoned for one month and imposed a fine for amends of
50,000 dong.3. Seven others were Ly A Sua, Hou A Lenh, Vang A Gio, Vang A Sinh,
Vang A Di, Vang A Khai, and Hou A De. They were imprisoned for 7 days and
ordered to pay a fine of 50,000 dong. Barbaric treatment was inflicted on all
eight of them. They were ordered to pay in kind. Each of them had to supply the
authority with 30 kgs of pork, 50 kgs of rice, and 2kgs of chicken. They were then compelled to stay kneeling on
the ground for 60 minutes. The police raised an imitation altar on which they
put the pictures of the Lord, which they had confiscated and forced the
followers to prepare a meal. They called that a celebration of crimes of the
Lord. After that, they humiliated them by preaching a sermon of renunciation.
On the same day, they confiscated two tape recorders of Hou A Tong and a radio
belonging to Vang A Di. They threatened the followers, saying that if they
continued to practice these rites, they would be executed. Lo Van On, the
assistant to the District Chief of Security Police Bureau, and a number of
cadres of this bureau were responsible for all these doings.
The Vietnamese
administration showed deep concerns. The Nhan
Dan (The People) in April 1991 stressed that the conversion of increasing
numbers of H'mong was a widespread movement causing damage to the security of
the country. The government tried to disbelieve newly converted H'mong
believers systematically, with emphasis on their low cultural standards.
Politically, the H’mong were
accused of serving a scheme to overthrow the Communist regime and seeking to
join a religious movement that the H'mong followers in the South had initiated. Because of this, H'mong
Christians suffered persecution with beatings, forced labor, harassment --State
interference in farming and harvesting, imprisonment, threat, forced
immigration, and property dispossession. The abuses begun in 1991, continued
and multiplied in 1992, and reached a peak in the summer of 1993. H'mong
Christians suffered severe physical abuse. Authorities reportedly "played game" with them, forcing them to kneel and
worship government officials and their wives. Bibles and radios were regularly
confiscated. H'mong women and children were also reportedly abused. These
incidents caused some believers to flee to surrounding jungles to hold Bible
studies and prayer meetings under constant fear of police persecution.
Instances of Persecution
The H’mong believers
repeatedly sent petitions to the local and provincial officials. After
unsuccessful requests for redress at the local level, in February 1993, a
H'mong delegation of eleven men, led by the Vietnamese Christian leaders in
Hanoi, came to the Ministry for the Interior to request in audience with the
authority in charge and to report in detail about the beatings, jailing, and
other instances of mistreatment they had suffered. An official at the Ministry
certified their claims and issued a record of evidence. The action came to no
help. Persecution persisted despite petitions and claims.
On January 10, 1994, the
police arrested Thao A Tong, a H'mong leader in Hong Thu Commune while he was
preaching the Gospel. He was charged with "taking advantage of religion to
break the laws and distract people from the productive labor." They
also arrested Giang A Di, a layman. There were no news of a trial, H'mong
Christians feared that these leaders suffered the same fate as did their fellow
Christians that had been arrested and were interned indefinitely, and without
trial.
The People's Court of Lai
Chau Province sentenced Ho Giong Cua to 18 months in prison on charges of
indicting the local authorities for religious repression. Ho had sent two
petitions with his and twenty-four other representatives' signatures from three
different communes on them to the provincial and central authorities citing
evidences of constant repression against Christianity by the communal
authorities. The petitions came to no answer, and the petitioner was targeted
with suspicion. He was arrested on ungrounded charges, sentenced, and
imprisoned.
News of religious repression
in Lai Chau and other regions in North Vietnam reached the refugee communities
overseas. However, they often failed to reach the mass media. A mixture of feelings was felt in the officia
mass media and some religious circles.
The official magazine Dai Doan Ket
(Great Union) of the Fatherland Front of Vietnam, on April 17, 1992, reported
incidents of “religious blasphemy” in Lai Chau Province. The Catholic
priest-deputy Phan Khac Tu nevertheless testified before the National Assembly
of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam that instances of abuses of power in matters
of religion occurred and false accusations by local authorities regarding the
religious practices of the some ethnic minorities in the northwestern highlands
caused disadvantage in religious worship.
Ha Giang
Despite repression Christian
membership continued to climb. The small Evangelical Church grew with
remarkable speed, notably in Ha TGiang, Tuyen Quang, and Lao Kay. This
northwestern mountainous region shelters
as many as 23 ethnic minority groups certain of which live on both sides of the
Vietnamese-Chinese borders. According to the Christian Today, an old missionary
in Vietnam who wanted to be anonymous reported that the community of
Evangelical Christians developed considerably among the H’mong. The faithful
was estimated at seven hundred thousand (700,000) in the 1990’s, seven times
more numerous than in was in 1975, the date of the change of political regime.
The most remarkable progress took place in the bosom of the H’mong ethnic
communes. For a decade long (1980-1990), at least one hundred twenty thousand
(120,000) H’mong living in Ha (Giang)- Tuyen (Quang) along the
Vietnamese-Chinese borders had embraced Christianity.
No one knows how Christian
members of tribal groups suffered from police harassment, threats, and abuses
of violence. One thing is certain, Christian leaders and believers served their
faith with fervor regardless of all
hazards. The News Network International reported that the police, on April 23,
1995, arrested the Reverend Pham Quang Vinh, a pastor of Evangelical
Christianity of North Vietnam and his companion, a Korean, were arrested when
they were traveling in the mountainous province of Lao Kay. The pastor, who
belongs to the Evangelical Christian Church officially recognized by the
authorities, was detained for eight days during which he was continuously
interrogated.
Sources said that the first
campaign of repression was launched in 1997. The letter of the chairman of the
People’s Council of the province Ha Tuyen to many families in the region in
October 1997 expressively declare that the conversion to Christianity
constituted an act of opposition to the Party and the law of the State on
religious freedom. “Our people must not be abused by evil elements that convert
us to the other religion.” In contrast,
the letter dated December 30, 1997 written in an approximate Vietnamese and
signed by some forty people in the name of a group of three hundred inhabitants
of a commune in Ha Giang described the authorities’ accusation as a brutal act
of intimidation. Abuses of power with all forms of repression had forced the
group of Christians to run away and hide in the forest.
The author of the report
recognized that the religious situation of the Christians was improving
considerably in comparison with what it had been in the first ten years under
the Communist regime since the takeover of South Vietnam. He affirmed, however,
that the believers had to brave danger to become a Christian thereafter. Abuses
of power of the Communist authorities at the Evangelical Christians were
tantamount to repression in Ha Giang. Group leaders were beaten. Others were
detained without a trial. Still, others were arrested and detained during
variable periods and lived in dismal conditions.
Two documents published in
the Vietnamese review Tin Nha (News from Home) in January 1999 illustrated
instances of repression against the Evangelical Christians in Ha Giang. Both documents showed the deliberate
intention of the local authorities to
inhibit all conversions to Christianity in the ethnic minorities of the
northwestern mountainous region. The first document is a circular of the
chairman of the People’s Council of the province of Ha Giang of June 27, 1997 expressing concern
about the demand for conversion to Christianity of a number of families of the
ethnic minorities. The second document is the
application form to be filled out and signed by the population in which
the signatory pledges to adopt a number of attitudes and behaviors as regards
religion.
The circular of the highest
authority of the province of Ha Giang, which appeared to be the reply to eleven
thousand (11,000) H’mong of the commune of Lang Ngoa. It particularly informed
the local authorities of the official demand for adherence to Christianity of
this tribal ethnic group. The document stresses the respect for religious
freedom with emphasis on the right to traditional worship according to which
“no one can force a believer who traditionally practices a religion recognized
by the State to follow another religion.”
The instruction is rather a warning. Mass conversions to Evangelical
Christianity was then on the rise and posed a problem to the State. “Evildoers,” who, for many years, had used
religious freedom as a shield to fan up a movement of conversions to “Ki To”
(Catholicism) and “Tin Lanh”
(Evangelical Christianity). The restitution these conversions, as foreseen by
the authorities, might cause a rupture of the traditional unity of the family
life of the commune. The population was asked to exercize the right given to
them by the State, and not to follow either religion.
The second document appears
in a form of an application, particularly for the inhabitants of the district
of Bac Me. Ha Giang Province. To fill out a number of inscriptions of identity
and confirmation, the signatory is made aware of a list of texts and circulars
concerning religion prepared by the regional civil authorities. It covers such
items as: 1) The signatory pledges to
follow necessary engagements concerning religious activities; 2) The signatory pledges not to participate in
the study of catechism, not to adhere to Christianity; 4) The signatory pledges
to intervene in any of such engagements by his/her fellow tribesmen in the
commune so that they will not listen to the Christians and proceed illegal
religious practices; 5) The signatory pledges to make report to the authorities
about those who continue to propagate the religion and denounce the activities
of the preacher from the outside; and 6) The signatory pledges that if he/she
infringes on these engagements, he or she will bear the consequences before the
law.
Repression against members
of the Evangelical Church in the Northwest continued. In January 1999, the
official review Phap Luat (Legal
Gazette), published in Hanoi, recounted the incident of repression against
believers of the Evangelical Church in the province of Ha Giang. A special
military detachment was put in place to “fix” the problem of “illegal religious evangelical
propagation.” These “bad elements” practiced
clandestinely a worship called “Vang Chu,” attracting approximately six
thousand followers. They destroyed their old sanctuaries. They forsake their
traditional ceremony of marriage. Instead of celebrating traditional rituals
for funerals, they threw corpses into hollowed gutters. The allegations were hinted at the new religious practices during a funeral ceremony
of those H’mong who renounced the worship of “ma” (ghosts) and adopted a novel
way of honoring the dead in conformity with Christian religious rituals and
practices.
To stop the movement of
conversions in agreement with the strategy from the central organ, the local authorities sought to “strike the
snake at the head.” About thirty leaders of the Church were arrested and
detained in the prisons and concentration camps. H’mong who evaded from Vietnam
and sought refuge in Thailand confirmed atrocities inflicted on them by
Communist cadres. H’mong Christians were forced to sign a contract of
engagement in which they were forced to pledge not to adhere to Christianity.
The authorities launched campaigns of repression against Evangelical
Christianity, which the Communist authorities consider as instrument of
imperialism.
Lao Kay
In Lao Kay Province where
conversions to Christianity of the H’mong was phenomenal the relations between
the authorities and tribal minority groups became increasingly tense. The
authorities of the province had deep
concerns about the growth and activities
of the tribal Christians as did their
colleagues in Ha Giang. Top secret documents prepared by the Office of Minority
and Religious Affairs reveals the reasons for which preventive measures to stop
the movement of conversions to Christianity. The differences in the views of
the world between the Marxists and
believers Therefore, the imperialists exploit religion to resist, oppose, and
destroy the “revolution.” One of crucial
tasks to prevent the exploitation of religion in the new situation include: All
ranks and levels should organize to effectively carry out policies and
procedures and make these a part of daily life.
In 1999, a forty-page
anti-Christian pamphlet by the Vietnamese Communist Party in the province of Ha
Giang reveals that repression during the previous years was deplorable. A list
of 40 H'mong Christians serving sentences their faith was established. Twenty
among them were liberated in 1999. Some were released before the expiration of
their penalties; and others still served their terms. In November 1999 by the
information Bureau of Lao Kay used a training booklet of 31 pages to help cadres handle the situation of
Evangelical Christianity. Conversions to Christianity nevertheless spiraled
with a steady speed. The number of H’mong adherents to Evangelical Christianity
was the estimated between one hundred fifty thousand (150,000) to three hundred
thousand (300,000). The movement appeared to be a problem to the
administration.
On
May 5, 1999, the Steering Committee 184 in Hanoi developed a strategy to handle
the situation. The Committee particularly set guidelines for implementation of religious policies and solutions to solve
the problem the religion, particularly in the mountainous provinces of the
Northwest. Efforts were made to completely stop all negative manifestations of
religion and fight against evil elements that exploit religion and cause
unrest. Programs 184 B laid out specific policies towards Evangelical Churches
among ethnic highland minorities
Anti-Christian measures against the H’mong followed, forcing an estimated 8,000
to 10,000 fled their ancestral lands mostly to Dak Lak in the Central
Highlands, a thousand kilometers away.
Hundreds of copies of
complaints, written with a simple style
but well articulated with emphasis on the situation of the H’.mong reached the responsible of the State organs. The
great majority of these petitions, were ignored. The petitioners often received
warnings with threat from the local authorities instead of legal redress. A
report published in mid-2002 by the International Christian Concern presents
the cases of such incidents. Rarely did
the Christians receive answer from the Provincial People's Council of Lao Kay;
neither did they receive one from the Office of Cultural and Religious Affairs.
On one occasion, the petitioners were accused
of having violated all kinds of
strange administrative procedures that they had not known.
These servants of God
claimed that they were, in fact, outlawed. They had sought in vain to join the
Evangelical Church of North Vietnam. Any effort
to come into contact with this institution was considered illegal by the
authorities. They could not reclaim their religious freedom because in
Vietnam the “enemy” always exploits that
freedom to oppose the the religious
policy of the “Revolution.” The local
public officials,” according to the report, “apply correctly the policy of the
Party and government in religious matters. They do not interdict religious
practices but illegal activities such as the diffusion and the teaching of the
Christian religion, the illegal assembly of the Christians, the reception and
usage of Bibles and religious literature of every kind, the installation of
religious organizations in the hamlets and communes, and the creation of church budget."
Dien Bien
Under strict control, other
H’mong Christians could not escape persecution. Among the first victims was a
H'mong Christian of 36 years of age, Hua
Bua Senh. During May-July 2002, Senh and
his family sent petitions to the central government, complaining about the
atrocity of the public officials of Dien Bien Dong. Senh was brutally beaten
because he had refused to renounce his faith. The family’s petitions
nevertheless came to no answer. In
August 2002, Senh died of the wounds caused by multiple coups felled on him by
the authorities. His family sent a
letter, which was also signed by many witnesses, presenting how Sent had been
tortured while being forced to renounce his faith. The letter was. sent to the
central government, but came to no answer. The local public officials, on their
part, evicted Senh’ s family members and three other Christian families from
their houses without a notice.
In October 2001, the local
authorities published a bilingual Vietnamese- H’mong brochure of 60 pages
entitled "Don't believe the words that distill the venom of the
snake." Among other things, the
official work of propaganda averts on purpose the term God in the H'mong
language by disfiguring the meaning of the term Vang Chu --Kingdom of the Lord
in Heaven,-- and interpreting it for political motive, the Kingdom of
H’mong. The term suggests, in a sense,
the H’mong anticipated to create H'mong
self-administrative territory. On the other hand, the cadres did not hesitate
to sketch grossly the Christian faith and religious practices. The Christian
pastors were portrayed as “ lazy; they
teach people not to work and fulfill civic duties. They believe and make
believe that rocks could be changed into chickens, pigs, or horses and that the
earth would explode in the year 2000.” These rumors were repeated with satiety
without furnishing any proof.
Mass conversions among the H’mong
was already on the move. They grew mostly thanks to the alphabetization of the
H'mong alphabetical script. The H’mong Christians studied Bible and Christian
texts in the Vietnamese and H’mong languages. Due to the contact with the
Vietnamese Christians in Hanoi and also with a touch of freedom, certain H'mong
began to write petitions for their benefits to the local or central
governmental authorities. They denounced the abuses they had suffered, cited the names of corrupt
public officials, and demanded for religious freedom. They wished to practice their faith as foreseen by the
“public policy,” the freedom that their Vietnamese fellow-countrymen in Hanoi
had ever enjoyed.
