Mennonite leaders in Vietnam have appealed for international help after a church centre in Binh Duong province was attacked earlier this month.
Morning Star News reported that “thugs” wielding hammers and metal cutters ransacked the church centre in Ben Cat before nine Christians, including two pastors and the son of a pastor, were charged with not having proper papers – documents they say were confiscated from them by officials in previous raids. Police had “stood by filming the attack,” reported the news agency.
The attack is the latest in a series of violent incidents targeting the unregistered church which date back to June, a month before the visit of Heiner Bielefeldt, UN Special Rapporteur on Religion and Belief.
Bielefeldt, who visited in July, reportedly cut short his stay in protest after discovering those he was interviewing about religious freedom were being harassed by officials both before and after his visits. His subsequent report was highly critical of the Vietnamese government policies and practices regarding religion.
In an appeal to the international community issued last week, church pastor Nguyen Hong Quang and other church leaders detailed the attacks and injustices faced by church members over the past five months, including the harassment of Christians trying to attend worship or other gatherings, random arrests, and attacks on church property, according to Morning Star News.
The group condemned local police for their “brazen oppression” and called for the Vietnamese Government to conduct an independent investigation into violations of law, threats to life and property and infringements of basic human rights.
They have also called for assistance from international human rights and news organisations to spread the news of their suffering and for “all governments concerned about human rights, and to UN organisations concerned with protecting human rights” to help end the attacks.
Andy Dipper, CSW’s chief operating officer, said the organisation condemned the use of excessive force by police and security agents in the attacks upon the centre and the “continued disruption of their peaceful religious activities”.
Noting that they shared concerns raised by Mr Bielefeldt about the situation facing independent or unregistered religious groups such as the Mennonite church in Binh Duong, he called on the Vietnamese Government to “protect the right to freedom of religion or belief of all religious minorities in Vietnam, both registered and unregistered”.
