Vietnam –
Persecution Has Not Ended
By
Carl Moeller*
Christian Post
Contributor
Mon, Sep. 03
2007 10:42 AM ET
Vin Y
Het, a young Hroi ethnic minority man who refused to recant his Christian faith,
died from injuries received while under official interrogation by Vietnamese
police, Compass Direct News reported in June.
The death of Het took place when Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet met with
U.S. officials. Triet met with President Bush in Washington, D.C., on June 22
amid protests over Vietnam’s human rights violations.
From Son Hoa district in the costal province of Phu Yen in south-central
Vietnam, Het died from internal injuries suffered when officials beat him
several months earlier for refusing to deny his Christian faith, Compass
reported.
This incident – and others – stoked the heated, on-going debate regarding the
intensity of persecution – better or worse – in Vietnam after the United States
State Department took Vietnam off the “Countries of Particular Concern (CPC)”
list last fall. The list includes counties like North Korea, China and Saudi
Arabia which have the poorest religious freedom records. Vietnam was added to
the list in 2004 for its repression of religious groups, mainly Protestants.
This May the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
recommended to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Vietnam be place back on
the 2007 CPC list, which will be released this fall.
In its recommendation, the Commission stated: “Since the CPC designation was
lifted and Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO), positive religious
freedom trends have, for the most part, stalled, and Vietnam has initiated a
severe crackdown on human rights defenders and advocates for the freedoms of
speech, association and assembly, including many religious leaders who
previously were the leading advocates for religious freedom in that country.
“Given the recent deterioration of human rights conditions in Vietnam and
because of continued abuses of and restrictions on religious freedom, the
Commission continues to believe that the lifting of the CPC designation was
premature. We recommend that Vietnam be re-designated as a CPC in 2007.”
Church leaders of both unregistered and legally recognized groups in Vietnam,
contacted on the eve of their president’s visit to Washington, unanimously
called on their government to resume and accelerate the registration of
congregations and move toward “regularizing” religion.
This process slowed considerably after Vietnam fulfilled its wish list from the
United States – removal from the U.S. religious liberty blacklist, a state visit
by President Bush, and U.S. support for membership in the WTO. Hundreds of
applications by local congregations for registration, all carefully following
government protocol, have gone unanswered in spite of legislative promises to
reply within a set time, according to Compass.
Many believe Vietnam – an emerging economic powerhouse – has opened up to the
world and that there is now little persecution. They may have not have stopped
long enough to look and listen. Vietnam is not just comprised of the cities that
are featured in travel and leisure shows. Hidden to the rest of the world are
the rural villages in the north and in the Central Highlands, and access to them
continues to be denied by the government. This is where most of the persecution
is taking place, according to an Open Doors report.
The situation remains particularly hard for ethnic minority churches along the
borders of Laos and China in Vietnam’s northwest provinces. In these remote
places, lack of registration is still used as an excuse to break up or to
prevent regular worship services.
The Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North) has submitted requests for well over
600 churches, and the Northwest Highlands reports only 31 church registrations.
Only 13 of the 31 church registrations came after Vietnam’s status as a CPC was
lifted last November, according to Compass.
Under pressure from human rights advocates, Vietnam did release three dissidents
in advance of Triet’s U.S. trip. According to a report by the Vietnam Study
Group, 38 dissidents have been arrested since August 2006, and since March 30,
2007, 20 of them have received sentences totaling 80 years.
Perpetrators of religious violations have shifted from the central government to
the local government. This has made the situation more complicated. For one, the
international community does not have as much access to local governments when
it comes to information and accountability.
Compounding this is the convenience of hiding atrocities at the local level.
Cordoning off a village or a community so that people, resources and information
are unable to go in and out results in news blackouts most of the time.
Overall, vigilance is the key – vigilance in prayer, advocacy and all kinds of
support to our persecuted brothers and sisters in Vietnam, especially those that
live in the hidden, inaccessible parts of the country. We should not let down
our guard. They are still persecuted, but the face of the persecutor has
changed.
*Dr. Carl Moeller is president/CEO of Open Doors USA