Authorities confiscate a banner and beat the church pastor.
RFA | 2021.12.29
Authorities harassed about 60 followers of the Montagnard Evangelical Church of
Christ as they prepared to celebrate Christmas in Phu Yen province on Vietnam’s
south-central coast, confiscating a banner and beating the pastor, members of
the church in Ea Lam village said.
The authorities have accused the church of wanting to overthrow the government.
though church members deny the allegation.
Police first assaulted and detained Y Cuon Nie, the church’s pastor and a
missionary, on Dec. 22 while he was at a printing shop to make the celebratory
banners.
“When I was at Viet Long Printers to make a Christmas banner costing 240,000
dong [U.S. $11], they came, confiscated it, and hit me on my back. They took me
to the headquarters of Tan Lap town’s police, saying it was not permitted,” he
told RFA on Monday.
Authorities, who arrested Nie at 2:30 p.m. that day, did not release him until
five hours later, he said.
On Christmas Eve, when Nie and church members were holding a Christmas ceremony
in his home, police led by Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Ngoc Dan entered and demanded
that they stop.
“At around 10 p.m. Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Ngoc Dan came to my place and said,
‘Stop it all! What are you doing? Who allowed you to do this?’” Nie said. “He
shouted. He did not respect the host, and he noisily disrupted our ceremony.”
The police official threatened Nie and took him to the Song Hinh district
station for questioning.
When contacted by RFA, the Song Hinh district police denied harassing the
members of the church.
“You’d better contact the People’s Committee,” said an officer who did not give
his name, referring to the provincial subordinate of the Communist Party of
Vietnam.
“We police did not carry out any crackdown at all,” he said. “Not only in Song
Hinh district but also in the whole country, our religious policy is very clear
and favorable for religious practitioners. If they want to make complaints or
petitions, they should write to the [relevant] agencies.”
RFA contacted To Van Giang, chief of staff of Song Hinh district’s Fatherland
Front Committee, an umbrella group of mass movements in Vietnam aligned with the
country’s Communist Party, but he said he was busy with a meeting. He could not
be reached again later in the day.
Vietnam’s constitution mandates protection for religious freedom and states that
citizens can follow any religion or none. But it also permits authorities to
override rights including religious freedom for purposes of national security,
social order, social morality and community well-being.
The country’s Law on Belief and Religion, which went into effect in early 2018,
requires religious communities to formally register their organizations and
places of worship, though only organizations that have operated for at least
five years can apply for registration. Once registered, the organizations are
granted status as legal entities.
Nie said that his religious group tried to meet the requirements for registering
under the law, but that he had not received any responses from authorities
during the past few years.
In the meantime, police had pressured church members to renounce their religion,
he said.
RFA reported in January that local authorities from the Ea Lam commune and Song
Hinh district forced members of the church to publicly denounce their faith in
front of other villagers.
A Dao, a former pastor of the Montagnard Evangelical Church of Christ, was
arrested in August 2016 when returning from a conference on East Timorese
religious freedom. He was tried and sentenced to five years in prison in
neighboring Gia Lai province for helping individuals to escape abroad illegally.
In September 2020, he was released to exile in the United States after serving
nearly four years in prison.
“Authorities continued to actively persecute independent religious minority
communities, including Protestant Hmong and Montagnard Christians, Hoa Hao
Buddhists, the Unified Buddhists, Cao Dai followers, Catholics, and Falun Gong
practitioners,” said the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
about Vietnam in its annual report issued in April.
“Ethnic minority communities faced especially egregious persecution for the
peaceful practice of their faith, including physical assault, banishment,
detention, imprisonment, and forced renunciation of faith,” the report said.
By the end of 2020, the Vietnamese government officially recognized 16 religions
and 43 religious organizations, although many groups refused to register out of
fear of persecution or concern for their independence, the commission said.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English
by Roseanne Gerin.
[Home] [About us] [Bills of Rights] [Documents] [H R Reports] [VNHR Awards] [HR Forum] [Links]
|