Christians Issue Call to Prayer for Detained Vietnam Believers
The Vietnam Mennonite Church yesterday issued a call to prayer and fasting from Feb. 1 to Feb. 3 in support of the two detained Mennonite church leaders whose appeals will be heard on Wednesday Feb. 2, 2005.
The Vietnam Mennonite Church yesterday issued a call to prayer and fasting from Feb. 1 to Feb. 3 in support of the two detained Mennonite church leaders whose appeals will be heard by the People’s Supreme Court in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday Feb. 2, 2005.
“The international community must shine the light of truth and justice on this case at this pivotal moment of appeal,” said Tina Lambert, Advocacy Director of Christian Solidarity Worldwide. “A failure by the Court to grant the appeal will be a damning indictment not only on Vietnam’s respect for human rights and religious freedom but on the legal system itself.’
Reverend Nguyen Hong Quang and evangelist Pham Ngoc Thach of the Vietnamese Mennonite Church, two men among the six Mennonites detained in a series of arrests from Mar. 2 2004 onwards, were convicted for “inciting people to obstruct officials from carrying out their duties” after a half-day trial at the Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Court on Nov. 12.
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However, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a U.K.-based human rights charity working on behalf of persecuted Christians, “the evidence of torture, confiscation of human rights documents, religious persecution and a state-sponsored smear campaign reveal a much darker motive behind the convictions.”
"Co-defendants Nguyen Thanh Nhan and Nguyen Hieu Nghia, who were released in December, have testified of brutal torture against the group, which repeatedly left them unconscious,” CSW reported. “One is now partially paralyzed and the other has conditions which may be life threatening.”
CSW said Nhan’s description of the reaction of fellow prisoners supports this assessment. “The prisoners in the cells talked with each other wondering what kind of crime the person had committed to deserve such brutal treatment,” CSW reported Nhan as saying. “It must have been very bad! How would they know that we had been arrested only because we carry the two words “Tin Lanh” (meaning Gospel or Christian)? How painful, how bitter!”
Meanwhile, Le Thi Hong Lien, the sole woman among the "Mennonite Six," has reportedly suffered a complete mental and physical breakdown due to the torture and abuse that she has endured whilst in prison. Her father, Le Quang Du, reported, after a recent visit, that Le’s right eye was heavily swollen and filled with pus. Two police officers informed him that his daughter had completely lost her mind, constantly urinating and defecating while fully clothed, wherever she happened to be.
"We are deeply saddened by the horrific human cost in this abhorrent campaign against the Vietnam Mennonite Church,” Lambert said. “The depth of brutality exposed by the treatment of the prisoners reveals a very dark side to the motivations of the Vietnamese authorities.”
CSW reports that yesterday’s call by the Vietnam Mennonite Church has been addressed to Mennonite bodies and evangelical Christians around the world. It requests specific prayer for strength and endurance for the prisoners, especially Ms Lien, for Christians to remain faithful under pressure and persecution, and for justice to prevail at the hearing on Feb. 2. The proposed time of prayer and fasting begins from 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 1 to 5:00 p.m. on Feb. 3 in support of the imprisoned Mennonites.
Meanwhile, CSW reports that appeals have been denied to both Nguyen Van Phuong, scheduled for release on Mar. 2, and to Le, who has been declared unfit to stand trial. Phuong is to serve the remainder of his sentence in Bo Vu Prison, Binh Phuoc Province.
