04515
November 22, 2004

Mennonites in Vietnam face new hounding, says rights group  

by Michael Mettason

BANGKOK — Human Rights Watch has charged Vietnam with a disregard for religious freedom after Vietnamese government officials set fire to and flattened a Mennonite chapel and the house of its pastor.

      Details of the Sept. 24 attack against the Mennonite church, a Protestant denomination not recognized by the Vietnamese government, emerged in a statement on Oct. 22 by the New York-based watchdog organization.

      Human Rights Watch said more than 200 officials raided the property of Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh in Kontum province in the Central Highlands last month, the second time this year.

      “Bulldozing a Mennonite chapel is just one aspect of the Vietnamese government’s crackdown on freedom of religion,” said the executive director of the Human Rights Watch Asia Division, Brad Adams.

      The government tolerates only officially recognized churches and organizations with governing boards that it approves and controls. The Mennonite Church is not officially sanctioned by the government.

      Vietnam was branded one of the world’s worst offenders of religious freedom in  the 2004 Report on Religious Freedom published in September by the U.S. State Department.

      Buddhists constitute half of the country’s population of  about 80 million, Roman Catholics up to 10 per cent, and two state-recognized Protestant organizations account for up to two per cent. Many believers belong to organizations not officially recognized by the government, and as a consequence face constant harassment.

    A new law on Religious Beliefs and Religious Organizations will go into effect in November. “Its first article, quoting Vietnam’s Constitution, pays lip service to freedom of religion, but most of the remaining articles restrict that freedom andexpand government controls over religion,” Human Rights Watch said.

      In late September, leaders of Vietnam’s unregistered house church organizations, including some of the Mennonite churches, petitioned the head of the National Assembly and other officials about their concerns that the new legislation will provide a legal basis to permanently outlaw their activities.

       “Thousands of Vietnamese citizens are being persecuted simply because they want to worship outside government restrictions,” Adams said. “The government has not made any credible charges that the Mennonite church constitutes a threat to national security. This is just about control over public life.”