PRESS RELEASE FROM JUBILEE CAMPAIGN U.K

November 15th 2002

VIETNAMESE EXECUTE 3 MONTAGNARD CHRISTIANS BY LETHAL INJECTION

3 Christians have been executed by lethal injection amidst a massive crackdown by the Vietnamese authorities against the Montagnard Christians of the Central Highlands, according to the human rights group, the Montagnard Foundation. The Montagnards are the indigenous hilltribes people of the country and have a different culture and language from the majority ethnic Vietnamese.

On October 29, 2002 the Vietnamese Security Forces (Cong An) executed by lethal injection in their prison cells 3 Montagnard Christians from the Central Highlands. The victims were Y-Suon Mlo, from Buon Kuang village, Y-Het Nie Kdam, from Buon Ea Tieo village and Y-Wan Ayun, from Buon Gram village. All these villages are in Dak Lak province.

The 3 Christians were executed simply for taking part in peaceful demonstrations in February 2001. These demonstrations were sparked off by the arrest and torture of 2 Montagnard Christians. The Vietnamese security forces responded by imposing martial law. Entire Montagnard villages were put under arrest and travel prohibited. Hundreds of Montagnards were arrested, beaten and tortured with electric prods. Vietnamese military patrols have also prevented Montagnard villagers from obtaining food and water.

The Montagnards of the Central Highlands – also known as the Degar people – have been suffering severe persecution from the Vietnamese government ever since the Communists took power in South Vietnam in 1975. The Degar people are indigenous hilltribes comprising over 30 tribal groups based in the Central Highlands and numbering about 600,000 in total. About 400,000 or more of them are Christians comprising both Protestants and Catholics.

The Vietnamese security police tried to force a nurse to administer the deadly injections on the 3 imprisoned Christians. The nurse refused, so the police pushed her aside and injected the 3 Montagnards with an unknown drug. They died in convulsing spasms within minutes.

These summary executions are just one aspect of the massive crackdown against Christians in Vietnam. The brunt of this crackdown is being borne by ethnic minority hilltribes such as the Montagnard Christians of the Central Highlands and by the Hmong tribal Christians. At least 20 Hmong Christian leaders are known by the British human rights group, Jubilee Campaign, to have been arrested. By the end of September this year, 354 of 412 churches had been forcibly disbanded in Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands alone. By mid-October, about 50 Christians pastors and church elders in this province had been arrested or had “disappeared “.

It is expected that the remaining 58 churches in the province will soon be shut down. Local Dak Lak television is reported to have broadcast “Ceremonies of Voluntarily Renouncing Christianity” and has shown pictures of Christians “voluntarily” giving their Bibles and songbooks up to be burned.

Jubilee Campaign is lobbying the British government and mobilising British Parliamentarians to campaign for an end to the crackdown against Vietnam’s Christians and to urge the Vietnamese authorities to apprehend and punish those security police responsible for the murders of the 3 Montagnard Christians. Jubilee’s Parliamentary Officer, Wilfred Wong, says, ” For many years Christians all over Vietnam have been persecuted for their faith. However, this must be one of the darkest periods ever of anti-Christian persecution and the ethnic minorities such as the Montagnards of the Central Highlands and the Hmong are bearing the brunt of this appalling brutality. The British government has given millions of pounds in development aid to Vietnam and continues to do so. It is disturbing that the British government do not use this aid as leverage to put strong pressure on the Vietnamese government to end its persecution against ethnic minorities and Christians.”

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Jubilee Campaign is an interdenominational Christian human rights campaigning organisation which has worked with over 150 British Parliamentarians.