The Persecution Times » Vietnam
Vietnam intesifies repression of indigenous minority Christians
By Dan Wooding Founder of ASSIST Ministries VIETNAM (ANS) — The Vietnamese government has intensified repression of indigenous minority Christians from the country’s Central Highland provinces who are pressing for religious freedom and land rights, Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org) has said in a just released report. The 46-page report, “Montagnard Christians in Vietnam: A Case Study in Religious Repression,” details the latest government crackdowns on these indigenous peoples, known collectively as Montagnards. The report documents police sweeps to root out Montagnards in hiding. It details how the authorities have dissolved house church gatherings, orchestrated coerced renunciations of faith, and sealed off the border to prevent asylum seekers from fleeing to Cambodia. Human Rights Watch found that special “political security” (PA43) units conduct operations with provincial police to capture, detain, and interrogate people they identify … Read entire article »
Filed under: Assist News Service, Christian, Persecution, Vietnam
Degar Christian Dies After Being Tortured by Vietnamese Security Police
By Michael Ireland Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service SPARTANBURG, SC (ANS) — Vietnamese security police have been implicated in the torture and death of a Montagnard Degar Christian believer. Siu Wong, who was born in 1972 in the village of Bon Broac II, commune of Hdok, district of Dak Doa in the province of Gia Lai, married a woman named Ksor H’Boan, and was living with her at the village of Ploi Ksing, commune of Ia Piar, district of Phu Thien in the province of Gia Lai. They have six small children. According to the Montagnard Foundation, Inc. (MFI), www.montagnard-foundation.org , which is dedicated to the preservation of the indigenous people of Central Vietnam, at around 7 a.m. on the morning of September 25, 2009, a security police officer from the communal village of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Assist News Service, Christian, Persecution, Vietnam
Montagnard Christian Beaten to Death in Vietnam
By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries PLEIKU CITY, VIETNAM (ANS) — International Christian Concern (ICC), Christian human rights group, says that it has discovered that an imprisoned Montagnard Christian died in Vietnam on March 11, 2010, from internal bleeding after a “long period of abuse and torture.” ICC told the ASSIST News Service (ANS) that K’pa Lot, a Montagnard believer, was originally arrested on May 20th, 2007, for “publicly expressing his Christian faith,” and imprisoned in Phu Yen province. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Assist News Service, Christian, Vietnam
Vietnamese Authorities Raid House Churches and Threaten Attendees
Compass Direct News reports HANOI – Local authorities in Vietnam have balked at registering house churches, contributing to a recent uptick in sometimes violent harassment of congregations. Four police officers and two government officials broke up the Sunday morning worship service of a house church in Tran Phu Commune in Hanoi on July 26, announcing that it was illegal to worship and teach religion. The police chief of Tran Phu Commune in greater Hanoi, Dang Dinh Toi, had ordered the raid. When Christians under the leadership of Pastor Dang Thi Dinh refused to sign a document admitting they were meeting illegally, an angry police officer shouted, “If I find you meeting here next Sunday, I will kill you all like I’d kill a dog” Read the full report at Compass Direct News. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Christian, Compass Direct, Persecution, Vietnam
Police Attack House Church in Vietnam, Leaders Jailed
Compass Direct News reports HANOI – Police invaded the Sunday service of the Agape Baptist congregation in Vietnam’s Hung Yen Province on June 7 and beat worshippers, including women, and arrested a pastor and an elder. Christian sources said police put the two church leaders into separate cells, and each man was beaten by a gang of five policemen. Pastor Duong Van Tuan of the house church in Hamlet 3, Ong Dinh Commune, Khoai Chau district said that officers beat them in a way that did not leave marks: hard blows to the stomach. The beatings came in retaliation for Pastor Tuan refusing to leave the area as police had ordered, Christian sources said. He and the church elder were released later that evening. Read the full story at Compass Direct News. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Christian, Compass Direct, Persecution, Vietnam
