Freedom House
releases photo evidence of Vietnamese Christian torture
Freedom House
Thursday,
Nov. 17, 2005
A religious freedom, human rights organization headquartered in Washington,
D.C., released photographs last week supporting evidence of torture of Christian
minorities in Vietnam by the government.
Freedom
House’s Center for Religious Freedom, the nation’s oldest human rights group in
America, made public on Nov. 10 the photographs of two Christian Hmong men, Vang
Seo Dung and Ly Van Dung, who had been severely beaten with electric batons by
border police and local defense forces in an attempt to force them to renounce
their faith. The photos are consistent with a previous report released by the
Center on Nov. 3 indicating that several Hmong Christians were imprisoned and
tortured with electric batons.
“Instead of taking the report seriously, Hanoi is
staging a cover-up,” said Nina Shea, Director of Freedom House’s Center for
Religious Freedom. “It is essential that it conduct a transparent and fair
investigation into credible charges of torture.”
In response to the Nov. 3 report, Vietnam’s Foreign
Ministry Spokesman Le Dung, reportedly denied the allegations, saying, "There is
no such thing that the Hmongs in Chi Ca commune, Xi Man district, Ha Giang
province were beaten by the border patrol soldiers and local paramilitary
because they are Christians," according to the state-controlled Vietnam News
Agency on Nov. 4.
In early October, two Hmong men from the Chi Ca Commune
provided testimonies to the legally-recognized Evangelical Church of
Vietnam-North (ECVN-N) in Hanoi about attacks on Protestants in late August and
early September by police, reported the Center. The testimonies said that seven
local Christians were severely beaten and provided names of six officials who
had authorized the beatings. The two men, Vang and Ly, were the most severely
injured in the attack, with Vang suffering from a broken rib and Ly a fractured
sternum among other injuries as a result of the beating.
“This incident is part of a larger pattern of
persecution against Hmong Christians—for worshipping as Christians—and against
other disapproved religious groups in Vietnam,” said Shea.
Freedom House’s Religious Freedom center reported on
Oct. 28 that local Vietnamese communist party officials have been secretly
implementing policies to force Hmong Christians to deny their faith, based on a
secret document issued earlier this year from a local party office in Dien Bien
Province.
“These new reports directly contradict the government of
Vietnam’s assertion that it has stopped religious repression,” said Shea.
The Center for Religious Freedom is a department of
Freedom House – the oldest human rights group in America, which formed in 1941
by Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie to oppose Nazism and Communism in
Europe. The organization presents the case of persecuted groups to the media,
Congress, State Department, and White House, urging these groups to respond and
defend the persecuted groups. Among the groups the Center is advocating in
Washington are China, Sudan, Vietnam, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.