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.

An ICC spokesperson said, “He was kept separate from other prisoners and relocated whenever community and international agencies visited to monitor prison conditions. On March 9th, 2010, K’Pa was taken from the prison to a hospital in Pleiku city.

“In the past, Vietnamese authorities have released prisoners just prior to death in order to keep it off the official record.”

Scott Johnson, a spokesman for the Montagnard Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the Montagnard people of central Vietnam — www.montagnard-foundation.org — describes the state that K’Pa Lot was in when he arrived at the hospital.

“His family could not recognize him,” said Johnson. “He was swollen and had bruises all over his body and face. He could not move or eat, and could barely speak.

“K’Pa whispered to his wife in his native language and told her about how he was regularly tortured inside prison, beaten on a daily basis by the authorities. He said they beat him with whatever they had in their hands as if they wanted him to die.”

According to the Montagnard Foundation, security officials forced the family to quickly bury his body. K’Pa Lot, who was 31 at the time of his death, is survived by his wife and two children.

ICC’s Regional Manager, Logan Maurer, told ANS, “K’Pa’s torture and death exposes the true state of religious freedom in Vietnam. In 2006 the US State Department removed Vietnam from the Country of Particular Concern (CPC) list, citing progress in religious freedom.

“Clearly events like this show what really is happening behind closed doors; religious freedom in Vietnam is a convenient falsehood. We urge the US and other governments to exert influence all on Vietnam to improve its treatment of religious minorities.”

To find out more about the documentation of “Ethnic Cleansing” implemented against the indigenous Degar Montagnard People by the Vietnamese communist government, go to: http://deathinthehighlands.com

ICC is a Washington-DC based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC provides Awareness, Advocacy, and Assistance to the worldwide persecuted Church. For additional information go to: www.persecution.org.