86,000+ Ethnic Vietnamese Mourn, Pray for State Persecutors

Tuesday, Jun. 2, 2009 Posted: 8:14:33PM HKT

Catholic priest Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly in a courtroom in Vietnam’s central province of Thua Thien Hue, Friday March 30, 2007. A Vietnamese court sentenced the dissident Catholic priest to eight years in prison for anti-government activities, after a dramatic trial Friday in which a defiant Ly shouted denunciations of the ruling Communist Party and was muzzled in court. He had no representation during his trial. He is one of several human rights prisoners the U.S. would like to see released. (Photo: AP)

In his newly-launched website, which contains documentaries of Degars who had actually experienced persecution at the hands of the communist state, news reports and write-ups on the persecution of the Degar people by the Vietnamese government, Johnson concludes from the numerous reports that “the years of persecution [seem] to [spell] out nothing short of ethnic cleansing and genocide for the Degar Montagnards”.

He also pointed ominously that “few it seems hear their cries for help” but added that Vietnam’s authoritarian rule will not last for long, with “growing” calls for democracy having the potential to bring about a “truly free” Vietnam.

Even so, the Degars face a troubled future as Vietnam fiercely resists human rights reforms and fights desperately to retain authoritarian control of the country, he said.

For its human rights violations, the U.S. State Department designated Vietnam as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) - the watch list of nations that are the worst persecutors of religious freedom - in 2004.

In November 2006, the Department removed Vietnam from the CPC list in response to the latter agreeing to halt the practice of forced renunciations on Christians. But Vietnam's good faith was short-lived, and upon gaining accession to the World Trade Organisation and winning Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the U.S., the state re-commenced its repressive ways.

The resulting crackdown on house church Christians, dissidents and democracy advocates was described as the worst in decades by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In response, the U.S. International Commission for Religious Freedom recommended the U.S. State Department re-designate Vietnam on the CPC watch list in May 2007.

According to Johnson, who has analysed information over the years, there are essentially four reasons for the Vietnam state's persecution of the Degars: namely, historical discrimination/racism, revenge for siding with America during the Vietnam War, environmental/land exploitation and repression for religious and political reasons, exacerbated by the Degars' distrust rooted in generations of mistrust and suffering towards the regime and unwillingness to join the State-sanctioned church, which requires them to pledge allegiance to Ho Chi Minh.

"[It's the] history of [an] indigenous people struggling against outsiders who have done nothing but encroach, persecute and exploit. Much like every other indigenous people," he wrote in an email response to The Christian Post (Singapore).

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Edmond Chua
edmond@christianpost.com