Vietnam: End “Evil Way” Persecution of Montagnard Christians
US, International Donors
Should Insist on Respect for Freedom of Religion
Human Rights Watch
June 26, 2015
(Bangkok) – The
Vietnamese government’s persecution of ethnic Montagnard Christians in
Vietnam’s Central Highlands reflects broader rights violations against religious
minorities in the country, Human Rights Watch said today in a new report. The
head of Vietnam’s ruling party, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, is slated to
visit Washington, DC, in early July.
The 33-page report, “Persecuting
‘Evil Way’ Religion: Abuses against Montagnards in Vietnam,” is based on
official Vietnamese media reports and Human Rights Watch interviews with
Montagnards seeking asylum abroad. It describes religious and political
persecution of Montagnards, highlanders who practice De Ga and Ha Mon forms of
Christianity that the government calls “evil way” religions.
“Vietnam’s official media make it shockingly clear that persecution of religious
minorities is state policy,” said
Brad Adams, Asia director. “The government should discard its Cold War
mentality of treating people of different religions as the ‘enemy within’ and
respect their basic right to religious freedom.”
Human Rights Watch said that Vietnam’s international donors should press the
government to end abusive policies and practices that have caused many
Montagnards to try to flee to neighboring Cambodia.
Official Vietnamese media reveal a high-level policy to end the practice of De
Ga Protestantism and Ha Mon Catholicism. A January official media report stated
that local Vietnamese officials have organized “many waves of search and hunt”
actions against unofficial religious activities among minorities to “deal
seriously with their leaders and core members.” Another explained how under the
guidance of provincial authorities, the “entire political system” down to the
village levels is deployed to carry out coordinated “propaganda, proselytization,
and struggle” against unauthorized forms of Christianity. The government has
conceded that a main reason that highland Christian minorities are seeking
asylum abroad is to reach a place where they can “freely practice” their
religion.
Montagnards interviewed by Human Rights Watch described how people accused of
belief in religions the government declares not “pure” and of having politically
“autonomous thoughts” have been subjected to constant surveillance and other
forms of intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and mistreatment in security force
custody. In detention, the authorities question them about their religious and
political activities and possible plans to flee Vietnam.
Government violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief in the
Central Highlands reflect abuses also occurring in other areas of Vietnam. The
authorities frequently monitor, harass, and at times violently crack down on
religious groups that operate outside official government-registered and
controlled religious institutions. Vietnam implements onerous regulations on
religion that have been strengthened since 2013 with the promulgation of Decree
72, which prohibits “manipulation” of religion to “conduct propaganda against
the state” or “undermine … national unity.” The campaign in the Central
Highlands was given authoritative impetus in a January 2014 speech by General
Tran Dai Quang, Vietnam’s minister of public security. He called on security
forces there to “actively fight” evil way Christianity.
“Top Vietnamese officials are visiting Washington DC and other global capitals,”
said Adams. “They should hear from the Obama Administration that Vietnamese
people alone should decide how they want to practice their religion, whether at
home or in groups of like-minded people.
Vietnamese authorities have responded to the flight of Montagnards into Cambodia
by pressuring Cambodian authorities to prevent border crossings and deny those
who do cross the right to seek asylum. On January 16, Vietnamese Minister of
Public Security Tran Dai Quang visited Phnom Penh and met with Cambodian
Minister of Interior Sar Kheng, during which they signed a set of agreements
including provisions on security force cooperation in border areas to “struggle
against people” who had “fled across to the other country for refuge.” From late
2014 through late June 2015, Cambodia forcibly returned at least 54 Montagnards
to Vietnam without allowing any opportunity to seek refugee status, and had
denied at least another 118 the possibility of registering in Cambodia as asylum
seekers.
Human Rights Watch called on the Cambodian government to ensure that all
Montagnards and other asylum seekers from Vietnam have the opportunity to lodge
refugee claims and receive a fair determination of their claims for protection.
Should Cambodia fail to do so, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
should exercise its mandate to conduct refugee status determinations for asylum
seekers in Cambodia and to protect all people of concern from forced return to
threats to their life or freedom.
“Montagnards and others fleeing persecution in Vietnam should be allowed to make
claims for asylum in Cambodia and other neighboring countries without being
illegally forced back,” Adams said. “Donors and other governments need to make
ending these abuses a priority instead of seeing them as part of their ‘business
as usual’ approach to a one-party state that refuses to engage in serious human
rights reforms.”