---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nguyen, The-Vu <The-Vu.Ngu
...@sanjoseca.gov>
Date: Apr 14, 2008 11:34 AM
Subject: FW: BosNewsLife: Vietnam Christian prisoners tortured to death
To: vaca
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fyi
------------------------------
*From:* Nguyen, Khoa
*Sent:* Monday, April 14, 2008 11:15 AM
*To:* Nguyen, The-Vu
*Subject:* FW: BosNewsLife: Vietnam Christian prisoners tortured to death
FYI
*Khoa C. Nguyen*
Policy Analyst, Office of Mayor Chuck Reed
San Jose City Hall | 200 E. Santa Clara St., 18th Floor | San Jose, CA 95113
**
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@sanjoseca.gov<http://khoa.Nguyen...@sanjoseca.gov/>
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*Subject:* FW: BosNewsLife: Vietnam Christian prisoners tortured to death
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*Subject:* BosNewsLife: Vietnam Christian prisoners tortured to death
*Vietnam Christian prisoners tortured to death*
*VietCatholic News (ThĆ°Ě SaĚ u 11/04/2008 19:54) *
*Degnard Christians are persecuted in Vietnam, according to MFI. Via MFI
HANOI, VIETNAM (BosNewsLife)-- A Vietnamese Degar Montagnard Christian who
refused to join the Communist-backed church in Vietnam’s Central Highlands
has been tortured to death in prison, while other detainees were beaten for
declining to renounce their faith in Christ, representatives told
BosNewsLife. *
In a statement seen Monday, April 7, the Montagnard Foundation Incorporated
(MFI), which represents Christians in the Central Highlands, said Rahlan Hen
from Ploi Beng village in Giala Province, died last month while serving a
six year jail term, “for refusing to join the church of [local Communist
official] Siu Kim.
"Many Degar Montagnard Christians disagree with the practices of this church
and feel that Siu Kim is actually teaching people to worship the government
and not God," MFI explained. “This is why Rahlan Hen refused to join.
Because of this, the government decided to arrest him» on June 14, 2006.
"The Vietnamese government sent security police along with riot police to
his house and arrested him. They handcuffed him and began to beat and kick
him severely," said MFI. "They dragged him from his house, stomping on him
with their heavy military boots until he lost consciousness…Then they
threw his body in their jeep and took him to the district of Ia Grai
prison," where torture apparently continued.
*REPEATEDLY TORTURED*
"At this prison facility, the security police repeatedly beat and tortured
him; they kicked, punched, stomped on and shocked him with electric rods."
He was reportedly transferred to several other prison facilities, including
in the province of Phu Yen.
The Vietnamese government supports a policy “transfer certain prisoners
frequently, beating and torturing them with each move, keeping them away
from their families and causing them fatal injuries…†MFI claimed.
The Vietnamese government has denied wrongdoing and accuses MFI of spreading
propaganda. MFI has said however that several other Degar-Montagnard
Christian prisoners are also known to have died in recent years.
"The government will deny murdering a Degar-Montagnard victim, and will
claim that the person simply died in prison. In Rahlan Hen’s case, each
time they moved him, they tortured him mercilessly, and when he did not die,
they tried to feed him poisoned food…He was aware of this trick and so he
refused to eat."
*LEGS PARALYZED*
Before he died, his wife visited him at the Phu Yen Province prison, and saw
that "one of his legs was paralyzed and that he could barely walk," MFI told
BosNewsLife." She was overcome with sorrow, but could do nothing to help
him. All she could offer him was her tears."
On March 17 she was summoned to visit her husband in prison, "but when she
arrived, the security police informed her that he was already dead," MFI
said. "They took his wife to the burial site and opened the coffin so that
she could see her husband’s face for the last time." She apparently begged
security officials to allow her to take her husband’s corpse back home "so
that his relatives could also see his face for the last time," an important
part of the Degar Montagnard culture.
Officials allegedly refused saying: “He has been sentenced to 6 years in
prison so you can come back and pick up his bones in three more years after
he had finished his prison term.â€
Elsewhere in the Central Highlands, Degar-Montagnard Christians have also
been targeted by security forces in recent months, including in Ploi Kuk Tu,
in Gialai Province, where 44-year-old Dinh Plok lost his farmland and
belongings for “refusing to sign a document renouncing his Christian
faith,†MFI said.
*FARMLAND SEIZED*
"Dinh Plok, a Catholic, had his home, his farmlands and all his belongings,
including his motorcycle, a Honda Dream, confiscated by the Vietnamese
government…" in February.
He apparently converted to Catholicism last year, and shortly after, his
whole family as well as many of his wife’s relatives, followed his lead
and also converted to Catholicism.
"They became the most devoted Christians in the village of Ploi Kuk Tu, and
so the Vietnamese government became nervous that these people would cause
Catholicism to spread," MFI stressed. "Vietnam desires for villagers to
worship [Communist leader] Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese Communist Party as
their god. This is why they only allow Degar Montagnards to join certain
churches, which they control and oversee."
In a related incident, two other Degar Montagnard Catholics were beaten and
imprisoned in February because they refused to sign a document renouncing
their faith, MFI explained.
*DETAINEES BEATEN*
The detainees were identified as two Christian men, A Plit, 35, and 25-year
old A Um. They were allegedly beaten, with A Plit apparently collapsing
after being struck on his faith and kicked with heavy military boots.
"The security police handcuffed both Catholic men and took them to the Hoa
Binh prison facility, where they continue to be incarcerated. The families
of A Plit and A Um are all terribly worried about them because they know
what the Vietnamese security police usually do to Degar Montagnard
prisoners.
MFI criticized American Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill for
recently telling the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee
on East Asian and Pacific Affairs "religious freedom in Vietnam has expanded
significantly."
Hill has reportedly defended Washington’s view that "Vietnam no longer
qualifies as a serious violator of religious freedom." Human rights groups
have said that although the Communist Party has allowed economic reforms, it
remains concerned about unrestricted freedom of speech or the spread of
Christianity, which is seen as undermining its ideology.
*BosNewsLife *
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