Intense Persecution Revealed in Vietnam
Documents Expose Official Discrimination Against Christians
Special to Compass Direct
BANGKOK (Compass) — A researcher who is analyzing new materials just received from Vietnam says he has found a “smoking gun” that shows religious rights are still restricted in the Southeast Asian country, despite official claims to the contrary.
The researcher came across the original copy of a request from a Christian family of the Hre minority in Quang Ngai province asking for residence papers. The request was returned to the applicant stamped with an official seal over the words: “The People’s Committee of the commune recommends that only when the applicant signs an affidavit recanting his religion will we consider granting official residence.”
The statement, dated August 4, 2003, appears on the document bearing the Son Thuong commune seal and is signed by the commune’s vice-chairman, Dinh Tran Ben.
“It would be impossible to have a clearer expression of discrimination based on Christian belief than this,” the researcher, who asked to remain anonymous, told Compass.
“What makes this even more poignant is that this refusal to grant a family a residence paper comes after six years of brutal persecution of Dinh Minh Hoang’s family and numerous previous attempts to force the family to give up Christianity.”
Along with the application and the incriminating government reply, researchers obtained a detailed testimony of the Hoang family’s experiences since 1997, when they became Christian believers. Signed by Hoang and witnessed by four other Christian men, the account details various abuses. The incidents are carefully dated and officials who perpetrated them are identified.
The list of mistreatment includes several public people’s court “trials” where Hoang was humiliated and beaten; at least four forced moves of residence, and imprisonment without charges or trial. He and his wife were forced to drink pig’s blood in an animistic ceremony and their home was invaded. Their children were beaten and Hoang underwent numerous interrogations. Twice, officials ordered his home burned.
In one incident, Hoang recalled being summoned by officials on May 16, 2002. He said all the village elders and war veterans were there. Before they began the interrogation, officials drank until they were completely intoxicated.
“They beat me and my wife until there was blood all over the place. In spite of this, my wife and I and our children faithfully believe in the Lord and have asked Him to help us and heal our wounds.”
“They asked my wife and me if we were ready yet to abandon our religious beliefs. My wife, Dinh Thi U, answered, ‘No!’ I, Dinh Minh Hoang, answered, ‘No.’ Then they beat me and my wife until there was blood all over the place. In spite of this, my wife and I and our children faithfully believe in the Lord and have asked Him to help us and heal our wounds.”
Hoang reported that on July 6, 2002, commune and district officials and military and police officials gathered to take action against him.
“Mr. Cao Trong Tin, secretary of Son Tay district, and Mr. Dinh Van Quang of the Son Tay district police ordered my house burned. It was burned clean to the ground — not a thing left. While they burned our house, they cheered, ‘Burn the house! Burn the house! This is the Christian religion which is causes problems and wants to overthrow the government.’
“After our house was burned there was nothing left – absolutely no possessions and household essentials. Then, two of them, Dinh Van Cung and Dinh Van Vo, asked my wife and me again if we were ready to abandon our faith.
“I, Dinh Minh Hoang, answered, ‘Absolutely not. I will not abandon my faith in God. My family has been believers for six years now and this has had no (negative) influence on the Party, the people or on myself. I, my wife and children will accept death before we abandon the Lord.’
“Dinh Van Vo, commune cadre and deputy commander of the local militia, incited young thugs to drive us away and to not let us live in Son Tinh Commune anymore. So we returned to a plot of land in Son Thuong Commune, my wife’s native home.
“But the cadre of Son Thuong commune also did not let us stay there and build a home. They would not let us have any land. Until now, we have no home and have not been granted legal residence papers.”
Mr. Hoang concludes his testimony by appealing to God and to Christians everywhere to “please help us in love.”
Vietnam continues to consistently deny well-documented incidents of religious persecution. In July, Freedom House released details of the beating and murder of a Christian Hmong leader in northern Ha Giang province on October 1, 2003.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs insisted to an AFP reporter in Hanoi who inquired about the story that the murdered man, Mr. Vang Seo Giao, had drowned “while crossing a stream at night while drunk.”
According to an October 6 article in the Bangkok Post, Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs insisted to an AFP reporter in Hanoi who inquired about the story that the murdered man, Mr. Vang Seo Giao, had drowned “while crossing a stream at night while drunk.”
Compass has since acquired a taped interview in which the murdered man’s brother, Vang Seo Su, clearly describes the murder. Su also details several attempts by officials over a period of time to get his brother, an influential Christian leader, to abandon Christianity.
Giao was a former member of the Communist Party who converted to Christianity.