Christians have no right to file complaints

State employees steel from H'Mong Christians - reprisals and abuse

 

Lao Cai/ Frankfurt/M. - 14 January 2005. The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) warns that special measures are taken to destroy the livelihoods of evangelical Christians in the mountainous regions of northern Vietnam. The ethnic minority of H'Mong are usually very poor. Because of their faith, they have been persecuted and disadvantaged for years. Most of them live from agricultural production. Government officials in northern Vietnam continuously find new methods to force Christians with an ethnic H'Mong background to renounce their faith. In the northern Vietnamese province Lao Cai the authorities summoned three H'Mong Christians. While the three H'Mongs were gone, their animals were confiscated by and distributed among the government officials.

In the residential compound Ca Nghe in the province Lao Cai live 40 Christian H'Mong families. On 27 December 2004 at 9 a.m., 12 Vietnamese government officials and militia members forced their way into the flats of three local Christian leaders. The Christians were forced to accompany two officers into the building of the local people's committee in order to participate in a "re-education course". The three H'Mong who converted to Christianity last year where accused of having proselytise the other 37 families in the compound. During the absences of the three H'mongs, the officers stole and slaughtered three of their pigs and distributed the meat amongst themselves. When Thao A Long's the seven-year old daughter and Vang This Ca's 20-year old brother attempted to prevent the slaughter, they were brutally beaten. As a consequence of the maltreatment, the seven-year old daughter has been unable to walk to this very day.

The three H'Mong spent three days in detention. The police threatened to confiscate their oxen and water buffaloes if the men did not renounce their faith. Complaints to the local people's committee were rejected on the grounds that they were Christians.

Between 20 and 25 December 2004, policemen and soldiers in civilian clothes forced their way into the houses of Christian Montagnards in the Central Vietnamese highlands. Upon gaining entry, they moved in permanently without the consent of the owners. In doing so, they successfully prevented Christmas preparations and participation in Christmas masses. In the province Gia Lai the police arrested about 100 priests of different house church communities . They were kept at unknown locations. In many villages a curfew was imposed. The few demonstrations that did take place were dissolved. The official "People's Army Newspaper" reported on 30 December 2004 that the government arrested seven Montagnards in the province Gia Lai, because they allegedly incited "the people of 49 villages to demonstrate against the suppression of religious freedom" during Christmas.