Seven Degar Montagnard Christians are among those being held in a Vietnamese prison after they were detained as part of a major government backed crackdown on ‘illegal’ house churches in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, their friends said.
There was concern Wednesday, September 17, about the whereabouts of possibly dozens of Degar Montagnard Christians who have been detained in Vietnam’s Central Highlands as part of a major crackdown on unregistered worship, friends said.
An active Degar Montagnard Christian remained under house arrest in Vietnam’s Central Highlands Monday, September 8, after he was already forced to sign a statement renouncing Christianity and pledging to stop attending a local church, his friends said.
Vietnamese security forces reportedly murdered two Degar Montagnard Christian men in the Central Highlands after they returned from a protest against the detention of fellow believers, BosNewsLife monitored Monday, August 4.
Vietnamese security police tortured and killed a Degar Montagnard Christian who was jailed for allegedly preaching the Gospel in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and participating in-democracy rallies in 2004, an advocacy group representing him said Monday, February 25.
Imprisoned Christian lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, their sentences reduced by one year due to international pressure, received a rarely granted visit from non-family members when four pastors managed to see them on January 31.
Christians in North-Korea have faced more persecution in 2007 than ever before, according to a major human rights report released Friday, February 1.
A major advocacy group says that hundreds of Degar prisoners remain in prison for standing up for human rights, for spreading Christianity or for fleeing to Cambodia. Many have died from internal injuries caused by beatings. Indigenous rights are routinely violated, and racism and discrimination are serious problems in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
A village church in Laos that once had nearly 2,000 members has shrunk to only a few dozen daring to attend, amid a deadly government crackdown on local believers accused of being “separatist rebels,” a Christian news agency reported Thursday, October 11.
A Degar Montagnard who worshipped in a house church in Vietnam’s Central Highlands was free Monday, May 7, after weeks of imprisonment and torture in March and April, fellow believers said.
Two Degar Montagnard Christians have been detained and tortured in Vietnam’s Central Highlands after security forces discovered they had been collecting names of the most impoverished people apparently to better target aid, fellow believers told BosNewsLife Thursday, May 3.
An influential Christian politician was in hiding in Vietnam Tuesday, April 24, after being harassed by Vietnamese security forces who also attacked other dissidents planning to meet US officials, a leading human rights activist confirmed to BosNewsLife.
Following the March 29 sentencing of Father Nguyen Van Ly to eight years in prison for distributing “material harmful to the state,†two Protestant lawyers charged with the same “crime†are expected to face equally harsh sentences in what Human Rights Watch has called the harshest crackdown in 20 years.
A Christian pro-democracy activist was released by Vietnamese authorities Tuesday, March 13, after spending over 12 hours in police custody, but the whereabouts of a human rights lawyer remained unknown, dissidents told BosNewsLife.
A prominent Mennonite pastor and his wife were recovering Sunday, March 11, from “brutal” beatings by Vietnamese security forces as part of a government crackdown on dissidents, a key activist told BosNewsLife.
A major human rights watchdog accused the Vietnamese government on Friday, March 9 of “flouting” its commitments on human rights by launching “one of the worst crackdowns on peaceful dissidents,” including Christians, “in 20 years.”
There was mounting concern Monday, March 5, about the whereabouts of a key leader of an indigenous house church in Vietnam’s Central Highlands after Vietnamese security forces reportedly raided a village and detained several Christians.
Vietnam’s secret police has apparently “lied” about the release of key dissidents who were still detained late Wednesday, February 21, dissidents and BosNewsLife established.
Persecution of Christians in North Korea “is worse than ever”, amid fresh reports of torture and executions, Christian investigators said Friday, February 2.
Two prominent human rights activist remained in custody Tuesday, January 30, a day after Vietnamese security forces arrested them in Ho Chi Minh City formerly known as Saigon, fellow dissidents said.