Two Evangelists in Vietnam Sentenced to Prison

Christians
receive six and four years respectively for ‘undermining national
unity.’

Two Christian evangelists, Ksor Y Du, 47, and Kpa Y Co, 30, were
sentenced this month to six and four years in prison respectively for
“undermining national unity.”

Ksor and Kpa, of
the Vietnam Good News Mission (VGNM) church, received the harsh sentences on
Nov. 15. House arrest of four and two years respectively also was added to the
sentences, according to church sources and Vietnam’s Phap Luat (Law)
newspaper. Both evangelists, who are of the Ede minority, live in Song Hinh
district of Phu Yen Province, where there are some 20 VGNM congregations.

Ksor was one of
many thousands of ethnic minority people in Vietnam’s Central Highland that
participated in demonstrations in 2004 against religious oppression and illegal
confiscation of their traditional lands. Many of the demonstrators were
Christians. Along with hundreds of others, he was caught trying to flee to
Cambodia following the harsh military crackdown after the demonstrations. He
spent four years in prison and another year under house arrest.

In May of 2009,
Ksor joined the VGNM, a house church network that has grown from 14
congregations meeting in homes in 2007 to 360 today. In spite of many attempts
to register house churches, as provided by Vietnam’s religion regulations, only
three congregations have been given local permission to carry on religious
activities.

In September
2009, Ksor underwent three weeks of interrogation, and authorities pressured him
to refrain from making international phone calls. His imprisonment had left him
destitute and in poor health, and he has said he told authorities that he only
called a relative in the United States three times to ask for funds for medicine
and to repair his dilapidated house.

Phap
Luat reported that
he made 58 international phone calls, a gross exaggeration according to Ksor’s
family. The newspaper reported that Ksor made the calls to take orders from
abroad to incite people to join the illegal “Dega” church, which allegedly aimed
to cause political unrest and demand independence for ethnic minorities in the
Central Highlands.

Vietnamese
authorities remain extremely suspicious of anyone who has dared to participate
in demonstrations, especially if they become church leaders.

The two
evangelists were arrested on Jan. 27. Ksor was on his way to the police station
to answer yet another summons when he was intercepted by police, who tied his
hands and dragged him behind a motorcycle to the station, according to village
sources. He fell many times and arrived bloodied and bruised.

Both men were
held 10 months without charges until their Nov. 15 trial, the area sources said.
Authorities brought Ksor’s teenage daughter to prison and told her to testify
that her father had made many overseas phone calls, according to VGNM leaders.
When she refused, a female officer twice slapped her hard across the face before
sending her away, the church leaders said.

During
interrogation, authorities ordered both evangelists to accuse VGNM leaders of
illegally starting the organization and to accuse Pastor Mai Hong Sanh of
opening an illegal Bible school in Buonmathuot, sources said. The authorities
grew angry when they refused.

During Ksor’s
pre-trial incarceration, police from the commune, district and province visited
his wife many times and pressured her to renounce her Christian faith, sources
said. She steadfastly refused. They tried to entice her by telling her that if
the family recanted they would be provided a monthly sack of rice, a new house
and that her husband would be released immediately.

Ksor’s wife, A
Le H’Gioi, attended the trial even though she had not been provided permission
as required by Vietnamese law. She told church leaders that the presiding judge
of the People’s Court addressed the matter of their faith directly, asking her
husband, “Do you still insist on following the religion?” The judge also asked
him, “After serving in prison already, do you still insist on staying with the
Vietnam Good News Mission?”

She said her
husband answered that he
would not give up his faith in God even if it meant death. Christian leaders
said the line of questioning contradicted assertions that the conviction and
sentencing of the two evangelists had nothing to do with religion.

VGNM leaders
said there were many other irregularities in the arrest and trial of the two
evangelists, such as authorities’ failure to provide legal papers to their
families as required by law.

Land
Seized

In another
incident against Protestants this month, some 200 police, local defense forces
and young thugs seized church land in Quang Ngai city in Central Vietnam on Nov.
11, assaulting the pastor’s wife in the process.

The property
belongs to the Vietnam Christian Mission, a church with full legal recognition
since 2007. Though the Quang Ngai congregation has complete legal papers for the
property, local authorities have been threatening to seize it for some time,
according to the long-time pastor of the church, Nguyen Luan Ke.

Pastor Nguyen,
in his early 80s, reported that the assailants assaulted his wife, causing her
to faint and fall. Details and photos were posted on the Nguoi Viet Web
site. Authorities seized two of Pastor Nguyen’s sons and put them in a paddy
wagon but left the door unlocked, a church source said.

The two men
escaped, taking refuge in the parsonage along with other members of the pastor’s
family, and frantically phoned for help. One call reached a Christian leader who
was in Hanoi. This leader alerted central government authorities, who promised
to look into the incident. Pastor Nguyen said the mob withdrew at the end of the
day, having terrified him and his family.

Vietnam has come
under heightened international scrutiny for the confiscation in May of a
century-old Catholic cemetery in Con Dau, near Danang in central Vietnam, that
resulted in one death. Authorities reportedly intend to turn the property over
to a private company to build a tourist resort. The incident led to the flight
of more than 40 Catholics to Thailand.

On Oct. 27, six
parishioners were sentenced to prison, some for 12 months and some for nine.
This event has garnered much more international publicity than the Protestant
ones above.

In its annual
report on religious freedom released on Nov. 17, the U.S. State Department’s
Office of International Religious Freedom pointed to some progress in Vietnam
but devoted several pages to religious liberty violations, noticeably against
Protestants.

Vietnam’s
state-controlled media reacted strongly. The Nov. 20 issue of Lao Dong
(Workers) newspaper published an article entitled, “Abusing Religion Issues to
Sabotage Vietnam.” It described religion as connected with “imperialist and
hostile forces.”

The same day,
Nhan Dan (People’s Daily) accused the state department report of being
based on “distorted information.” It called on U.S. officials “to verify the
events right in Vietnam,” the very thing many observers say U.S. diplomats in
Vietnam do.

On Nov. 22, a
Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People’s Army) article described critics of religious
liberty abuses as “black hearts under the name of angels.”

Some observers
believe that the Five-Year Communist Party Congress to take place in early 2011
is contributing to an uptick in harsh measures against religions and human
rights activists.

Protestant
church leaders in Vietnam lament that no officials who have taken heavy-handed
actions against religious groups and their leaders have ever been called to
account, thus violating Vietnam’s own laws and regulations.