Vietnamese Christians Face Persecution During Holiday Protest
by Allie Martin
April 16, 2004
(AgapePress) - A protest against religious oppression turned lethal over Easter weekend for hundreds of believers in Vietnam's central highlands, where a crackdown on ethnic Christians by the Communist government of Vietnam has reportedly left hundreds dead.Scores of Christians belonging to an ethnic minority collectively known as the Degar people, or the Montagnards, were arrested during Easter weekend in Vietnam's central highlands. More than a thousand of these ethnic Christians were brutally attacked for protesting against religious oppression and the confiscation of their tribal lands.
Kok Ksor, president of the Montagnard Foundation, says Vietnam's government, which recognizes only a handful of state-sponsored religions, has clashed many times with minority Christians, and persecution against them has been severe.
The Vietnamese Christian leader says the government prevents believers from assembling and forbids even two or three people to come together to worship God.
If caught doing so, Ksor says "they will arrest us and then throw us into prison. You know, it's very hard, and we just can't take anymore. That's what we want to pray, that God will change the minds, and to give us freedom of religion."
Protest organizers claim the police clamped down on the Easter weekend demonstration and sealed off the area to foreigners. Then the violence began. International human rights groups affirm that ethnic Christians have been persecuted for their beliefs, and the police's treatment of the peaceful protestors in this recent incident provided further evidence of the communist government's intolerance.
The Foundation's head says he does not understand why Vietnamese leaders have such animus toward Christians. He says government officials should realize that Christ's followers are good citizens.
"The Bible teaches that you have to respect your government," Ksor says, "and the Christians try to love one another. If many people become Christians, it looks like [the government] would want to have the good people on their side. I don't know why they hate the Christian people."
The Montagnard Foundation's primary purpose is to bring human rights grievances before the international communities and to advocate for the social, political, and human rights of the ethnic Christians in Vietnam.
