New Documents Highlight Ongoing Oppression of Hmong Christians
Newly released documents by Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom report that the Vietnamese government continues its oppression of Hmong Christians despite reports of progress in religious freedom.
Newly released documents by Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom report that the Vietnamese government continues its oppression of Hmong Christians despite reports of progress in religious freedom.
The religious persecution division of the nation’s oldest human rights group released documents and information for the first time on Tuesday reporting that Hmong Christians in the northwest provinces of Vietnam continue to be repressed by the government despite claims of liberalization.
An official document titled “The Plan on Assigning Forces to Fight and Control the Individuals Who Lead Illegal Religious Propagation” was given to the Center by “reliable sources” in Vietnam and listed the names and addresses of 22 Christian leaders being sought by local authorities. The document from Bac Quang District in Ha Giang Province was dated Dec. 9, 2005.
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In addition, the Center received reports that in certain places in the northwest provinces, Hmong Christians are denied important family registration papers if they write “Christian” in the religion space of the application form.
According to the religious freedom group, registration papers issued in November 2005 to Christians in Ma Sao Village, Bat Xat District, Lao Cai Province, was marked “TLTP,” meaning “Illegal Protestant” in the religion space.
Vietnam has long drawn concern for its religious freedom violations and is listed as a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. State Department. It also ranked seventh on the list of the world’s worst Christian persecutors, released by Open Doors on Mar. 1.
Last November, Freedom House released photo evidence of Christian Hmong tortured by Vietnamese police who had forced them to renounce their faith.
The Center states that the recent documents, along with the 2005 reports of torture in Dien Bien Province show that Vietnam continues to violate the Prime Minister’s Feb. 4, 2005 “Special Instruction Regarding Protestantism,” which specifically “outlawed attempts to force people to follow a religion or deny a religion.” This was also a key commitment Vietnam made in its May 2005 agreement on religion with the United States.
U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Marine on Mar. 16 said the United States was considering removing Vietnam from the list of Country of Particular Concern, citing that the country had freed some prisoners held for religious beliefs and allowed some banned churches to reopen.
“These reports contradict Vietnam’s assertion that it has stopped religious repression,” said Paul Marshall, Senior Fellow at Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom. “Until Vietnam actually follows through on its promise to stop forced recantations, punishes officials who violate this commitment, and extends legal recognition to the hundreds of Hmong churches in the northwestern provinces, the State Department should resist attempts remove Vietnam from the CPC list.”
