Prisoners of conscience in Vietnam not allowed to go to Mass or even have a
Bible
by NH - AsiaNews
03/20/2014
No health or spiritual care for 61 prisoners of conscience. No decent food
and their human rights are not respected. Many of them are sick and in some
cases their condition is serious. The cases of Lê Quŏc Quân and Maria Tạ Phong
Tần.
Hanoi ( AsiaNews) - They can not go to mass, have the spiritual comfort of a
priest nor even a Bible. This is the condition of 61 (data dating to 2013 )
prisoners "of conscience" in Vietnam, a situation that becomes even more
unbearable during Lent, confirmed by a letter from a blogger.
Prison
guards in Hanoi and Thanh Hoa province, in a clear violation of human rights and
religious freedom will not allow the lawyer
Lê Quốc Quân, or bloggers Maria Tạ Phong Tần and
Paul Trần Minh Nhat receive a Bible from their relatives.
The
latest denunciation of the situation is contained in a letter written by blogger
Paul Trần Minh Nhật to the former Archbishop Nguyễn Văn Nhơn, who was also
president of the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam. " ... We could not even attend
Mass on Sundays, nor read the Bible. We had a great desire to receive the
sacraments and spiritual support from a priest, but the prison heads forbid us
this".
The
case of
blogger Maria Tạ Phong Tần
is of serous concern. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison and is now
imprisoned in Yên Dinh camp no. 5, Thanh Hoa province. It is renowned as one of
the harshest labor camps. She would like to have a Bible to hear the Word of
God. Her younger sister reports: "The guards used activist prisoners to beat my
sister. They insulted my mother, though my mother died, setting herself on fire
in front of the People's Committee in Bac Lieu province, July 30, 2012 , to
protest against this injustice".
Currently prisoners of conscience are denied health care and spiritual care,
they are denied decent food and their human rights are not respected. Many of
them are sick and in some cases severely so. Miss T., a relative of a prisoner
of conscience is called "crushed by the regime. The mother is dead, but still
they will not leave her in peace. Perhaps they fear the truth and prisoners of
conscience". "It's really horrible - reports the blogger Thanh Nghien - when
someone offends the dead. This is the dirty work of prison guards and managers
of local prisons. A while ago I was in jail and I know that the guards admire
and fear the prisoners of consciousness".
Why? Maybe because they don't need permission to believe in God