JUBILEE CAMPAIGN

For immediate Release, 4th March, 2003

SEMINARIAN’S PROTEST FOR IMPRISONED VIETNAMESE PRIEST

An American seminarian, training for the priesthood in Britain will go on a 24-hour fast on Ash Wednesday in protest against the unjust imprisonment of a Vietnamese priest, Fr Van Ly. Fr Van Ly is serving a fifteen-year prison sentence having been jailed by the communist government for speaking out in favour of religious liberty and social change. Jubilee Campaign has launched a lent campaign asking people to give up some of their time and to take some positive action to help Fr.Van Ly. The Campaign was started following an investigative mission to Vietnam earlier this year by Lord Alton of Liverpool where he learnt about Fr Van Ly ‘s ordeal.

Jim Snyder, who formerly served in the US Navy before training for the priesthood, has decided to go without food on Ash Wednesday in a symbolic act of solidarity with Fr Van Ly. He said, ‘Fr Van Ly’s imprisonment is a shocking example that communism’s dying but cruel grip on countries like Vietnam is preventing genuine religious freedom. Fasting for one day is a simple act of protest but I hope many others will join in this campaign to achieve Fr Van Ly’s release.’ Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly (pronounced Lee) is aged 56, and was arrested in May 2001 and after a trial without a defence lawyer or public audience. He was sentenced to 15 years in solitary confinement followed by five years on probation.

According to the official Vietnam News Agency he was arrested at An Truyen church, Phu An commune, in central Thua Thien-Hue province, for his alleged ‘failure to abide by the decisions on his probation issued by authorized State agencies’ .

For more than 30 years Father Van Ly has peacefully campaigned for improved religious freedom in Vietnam. In a written testimony submitted to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom in February 2001, he called on the Communist Government to make significant improvements to religious freedom. He called on officials to allow the churches to appoint their own priests, to stop listing a person’s religious affiliation on their ID card, to return confiscated property and to release those held for their religious beliefs. He had urged the Congress to postpone the ratification of a bilateral trade agreement while religious persecution persisted.

In solitary confinement in Nam Ha province, Fr. Van Ly is barred from speaking to the guards who bring him his food and drink twice a day. During a rare visit from relatives, he said : “My duty and my conscience required me to fight for the freedom of our Church. If I had realized those terrifying situations for our Church and had not done anything, I would have been guilty before God. Now I think I have accomplished my duty, I do not feel sorry for myself.”

During a visit on behalf of the Jubilee Campaign to Hanoi, Lord Alton and US Congressman, Joseph Pitts Pennsylvania , raised Fr.Van Ly’s case with Le Quang Vinh, head of the Vietnamese Government Committee on Religion and other government officials.

Quang Vinh told the delegation that they could not visit Fr.Van Ly but he did promise to place a plea for clemency before the Prime Minister, Phan Van Khai. Wilfred Wong, Jubilee’s Researcher and Parliamentary Officer, says, “Father Van Ly has been punished for courageously challenging the Vietnamese regime’s policy of religious persecution. He is one of numerous Christians imprisoned for their faith in Vietnam, including those from the Hmong, Degar and Mien ethnic minorities. Some have even been executed by lethal injection, and we know that this has happened to Montagnard Christians in the Central Highlands. The ethnic minority tribal Christians in Vietnam are bearing the brunt of anti-Christian persecution. Jubilee is campaigning for an end to the executions of Montagnard Christians and for the release of all Christians imprisoned for their faith including Father Van Ly.”

******************* Notes to the Editor

1. “Montagnard” means “Mountain People” and is the general term popularly used to refer to the tribal ethnic minorities in Vietnam. 2. You can request a campaign pack by E-mail at: