Washington (AsiaNews) – The Vietnamese government is trying to force Christian members of the country's Hmong ethnic population to renounce their faith while torturing them with painful injections of drugs. This is what was reported by the Center for Religious Freedom (CRF), a section of the US-based human rights organization, Freedom House.

Zong Xiong Hang, a Protestant of ethic origin, sent a letter to the group. In his January 30 letter he informed CRF of the torture methods used against Hmong Christians in the village of Na Ling (in Song Ma District, Lai Chau Province).   

In his letter, Zong Xiong admits that he breaks down crying every time he speaks about the persecutions occuring in his county and says, "I became a Christian about 10 years ago. I have served the Lord for nine years, until now, always under persecution. All believers in our village in Lai Chau Province faced persecution."

Zong Xiong Hang says he was targeted by authorities, because he was in charge of forming pastors and distributing Christian literature. In the letter he wrote he recounts the brutal tortures he himself underwent:

"I would like you to know that on January 17, 2002, the army gave me an injection which almost killed me. They came to force us to not believe in Jesus. We all got sick and it was different from any kind of sickness we had ever had before. Everyone who got sick had pains  in their chests and foreheads. Our legs and arms were cold and numb, it felt like our blood was not flowing through them. The pain came fast and then went away. But the most important thing is this only happened in our area of Lai Chau Province, not in the other areas. In the other villages, where there are no Christians, people did not get this kind of sickness."

According to Zong Xiong Hang, Christians who haven't renounced their faith are expelled from Na Ling: "The government forced us to leave our village if we would not deny Christ. They wouldn't let us stay in our village in Lai Chau Province. They say that wherever we want to go is fine. 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."

For this reason Zong Xiong Hang moved to the province of Son La. Yet persecutions started up there again, when Lai Chau authorities told Son La officials to force Christians to participate in a new form of ancestor worship and to punish them on returning to the province of Lai Chau. "Some believers who go back may have to deny their faith, and some will be arrested. We don't want to go back. If we have to go to another place we don't have enough money for transportation because we are so poor. We don't know what to do."

Zong Xiong Hang says the government recognizes only Hmong tribals who converted to Christianity before 1954, prior to the French occupation. Villagers residing in Na Ling, however, converted after 1954: "We wrote many letters asking for permission to believe, but we have received no answers for permission."

There are more than 6.5 million Christians in Vietnam – 8% of the entire population. The government has enforced serious restrictions on religious expression, especially against Christians and ethnic minorities.  

Around 250,000 of Vietnam's 600,000 Hmong population living along the northern Chinese border are Protestant. The government's persecution of their faith has become ever the more brutal. According to the NGO, Helping Suffering Churches, in 2002 many Hmong Christians from the provinces of Lai Chau and Lao Cai were beaten, arrested and ordered to deny their faith. Moreover, they told not participate in any Christian gatherings.  

In its 2003 annual report, Human Rights Watch cited the case of Mua Bua Senth (Lai Chau Province) who was beaten to death by police for not having denied his faith. A commission of the American NGO, International Christian Concern, reported that Hmong pastors were being kidnapped from their homes at night, imprisoned, sent to forced labor camps and forbidden to contact family members. The organization further reported that the pastors were not fed if they didn't work.   

Some provincial authorities had said they wanted to eliminate all Christian activities by 2002, stating that they would have sent Christians who escaped persecution into the jungle. (MR)