[font=verdana, arial, helvetica]Believers tortured in Vietnam-Sickening
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Vietnam's communist government is torturing Christians of the ethnic Hmong minority into abandoning their faith, according to documentation by a Washington, D.C.-based human-rights group.
A letter written by Zong Xiong Hang, a Hmong Christian, describes the use of painful drug injections administered by Vietnamese military personnel to force Hmong in Na Ling village in northwestern Lai Chau province "to not believe in Jesus," according to the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House.
"We all got sick and it was different from any kind of sickness we had ever had before," Zong wrote. "Everyone who got sick had chest pains and pain in their forehead. Our legs and arms were cold and numb; it felt like our blood was not going through."
The Jan. 30 letter said Christians in Na Ling village faced expulsion if they did not abandon their religious beliefs.
"This shocking form of torture has been used in some of the world's most sinister regimes, including Nazi Germany and the USSR," said the center's director, Nina Shea.
The allegations follow a pattern of reports of an anti-Christian wave of persecution in Lai Chau province, according to the center. Police and soldiers monitor and harass Christians, pressuring them to sign statements recanting their faith and pledging to re-establish ancestor worship.
Zhong said he is a "person the authorities really hate, because I am teaching others to lead the church and I take Christian materials to the believers."
Vietnam's policy, according to Zong, is to recognize as Christians only Hmong who converted before 1954 when French rule ended and communist forces under Ho Chi Minh took control of the North.
Zong's village, which converted after 1954, has made a number of requests to be classified as Christian, but all have been denied.
"The government forced us to leave our village if we would not deny Christ," Zhong wrote. "They would not let us to stay in our village in Lai Chau province. They say that wherever we want to go, to just go there. We can go to America or wherever there are believers. We should go stay with them because we are no longer welcome in our home village."
Vietnamese authorities allow a greater degree of religious freedom than in the 1990s, but the government still keeps all religious institutions in its control under the umbrella of the Communist Party's Fatherland Front. Members of unsanctioned groups -- particularly minorities such as the Hmong -- frequently suffer harassment, arrest and imprisonment, and the state-approved organizations face many restrictions, including limitations on training and ordination of clergy.
Other ethnic minorities facing persecution are Degar, Mien and Montagnard Christians. Members of the latter group, in the Central Highlands, have been executed by injection, say human-rights groups such as Britain's Jubilee Campaign[/font]
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Vietnam's communist government is torturing Christians of the ethnic Hmong minority into abandoning their faith, according to documentation by a Washington, D.C.-based human-rights group.
A letter written by Zong Xiong Hang, a Hmong Christian, describes the use of painful drug injections administered by Vietnamese military personnel to force Hmong in Na Ling village in northwestern Lai Chau province "to not believe in Jesus," according to the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House.
"We all got sick and it was different from any kind of sickness we had ever had before," Zong wrote. "Everyone who got sick had chest pains and pain in their forehead. Our legs and arms were cold and numb; it felt like our blood was not going through."
The Jan. 30 letter said Christians in Na Ling village faced expulsion if they did not abandon their religious beliefs.
"This shocking form of torture has been used in some of the world's most sinister regimes, including Nazi Germany and the USSR," said the center's director, Nina Shea.
The allegations follow a pattern of reports of an anti-Christian wave of persecution in Lai Chau province, according to the center. Police and soldiers monitor and harass Christians, pressuring them to sign statements recanting their faith and pledging to re-establish ancestor worship.
Zhong said he is a "person the authorities really hate, because I am teaching others to lead the church and I take Christian materials to the believers."
Vietnam's policy, according to Zong, is to recognize as Christians only Hmong who converted before 1954 when French rule ended and communist forces under Ho Chi Minh took control of the North.
Zong's village, which converted after 1954, has made a number of requests to be classified as Christian, but all have been denied.
"The government forced us to leave our village if we would not deny Christ," Zhong wrote. "They would not let us to stay in our village in Lai Chau province. They say that wherever we want to go, to just go there. We can go to America or wherever there are believers. We should go stay with them because we are no longer welcome in our home village."
Vietnamese authorities allow a greater degree of religious freedom than in the 1990s, but the government still keeps all religious institutions in its control under the umbrella of the Communist Party's Fatherland Front. Members of unsanctioned groups -- particularly minorities such as the Hmong -- frequently suffer harassment, arrest and imprisonment, and the state-approved organizations face many restrictions, including limitations on training and ordination of clergy.
Other ethnic minorities facing persecution are Degar, Mien and Montagnard Christians. Members of the latter group, in the Central Highlands, have been executed by injection, say human-rights groups such as Britain's Jubilee Campaign[/font]
My prayers will go out for all the people who suffer persecution. 
