Posted on 12/10/2003 6:43:40 AM PST by cutiedieuvan
VIETNAMESE COMMUNIST POLICE ATTEMPTED TO MURDER MINISTER NGUYEN HONG QUANG IN SAIGON, VIETNAM.
At 18:00PM, December 9, 03, Minister Nguyen Hong Quang, Vice President of Vietnamese Mennonite Church in Saigon, Vietnam and Minister Pham Dinh Nhan, President of Association of Vietnamese Christian Communication visited Mrs. JEAN M. GERAN, member of the United States Consulate-General in Saigon, Vietnam (Department of Labor Relations and Human Rights for foreigners in Asia) to discuss issues of religious freedom in Vietnam.
At 21:00PM when Minister Nguyen Hong Quang left Minister Tran Mai's residence at 28 Ho Tung Mau, First District, Saigon, so many Vietnamese plain-clothes police and security officers attempted to murder him. One plain clothes police wearing blue shirt riding on his very big powerful mmotorcycle ran straight over Minister Quang's small motorcycle at inter section of Ho Tung Mau and Ham Nghi streets in First District, Saigon.
Then, many other police armed with rifles, pistols and electric rods fiercely attacked him. Police attacked and subdued Minister Assistant Pham Ngoc Thach, who was transporting Minister Quang on his small motorcycle. Police used electric rods and pistols to strike right on Minister Assistant Pham Ngoc Thach's head. Minister Quang successfully escaped the police's surrounded circle and ran on his feet to Minister Tran Mai's residence, which are about 300 meters away from police attacking zone, to hide himself.
Minister Quang made urgent phone calls to other Ministers of the Association of Christian Communication to urgently inform the attempted murder on him. Minister Assistant Pham Ngoc Thach was taken by police into police custody at Nguyen Thai Binh Precinct, First District for interrogation. He was reportedly badly tortured by the police.
Minister Nguyen Hong Quang, 16 Minister Assistants and staff o f the Vietnamese Mennonite Church in Saigon have been being under their hunger strikes and prayer sessions at Nguyen Thai Binh Police Station in Saigon to protest the arrest of Minister Assistant Pham Ngoc Thach. Minister Assistant Truong Tri Hien also has started his hunger strike since 23:30PM on December 9, 2003.
Minister Tran Mai and Minister Le Quang Son have been missing after the police attack. We do not know their current whereabouts under police custody. Our Churches have been extremely concerned and been praying hard for our Religious Leaders' safe returns.
We urgently request your immediate assistance and cooperation by every possible means to support and assist Minister Nguyen Hong Quang, Minister Assistant Truong Tri Hien and other Ministers to continue their heroic campaign for TRUTHFUL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN VIETNAM.
Thank you very much. May God always bless you and your loved ones. We have been praying for our poor and unfortunate religiou s leaders and followers in Vietnam who have been being under fierce religious destruction.
Empty Legal Rights By Jeff M. Sellers
Vietnam showed in October why it's ranked as one of the world's most repressive regimes. That's when it sentenced a Roman Catholic priest to 15 years in prison for providing written testimony to the U.S. Congress about breaches of religious freedom.
Hanoi found Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly guilty of "undermining national unity" by "publicly slandering" the Vietnamese Communist Party. Open Doors with Brother Andrew ranked Vietnam the eighth worst religious persecutor in 2001, ahead of Sudan and Pakistan, for its harsh controls on religion.
"This kind of behavior does not help the Vietnamese government make its case that it deserves additional trade benefits and international loans," says Michael K. Young, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). "In order to have credibility on other issues, Vietnam must uphold its international human rights and religious freedom commitments."
Vietnam's constitutional guarantees of religious freedom are empty, according to Operation World. Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom notes that Vietnam denies legal standing to many independent entities and that most Protestant congregations operate underground. Underground leaders tell of police raids, church closings, and torture. According to USCIRF, Hanoi has excessively fined, imprisoned, and kept under surveillance those not affiliated with one of the six recognized religious entities.
More than 54 percent of the population is Buddhist (22 percent is nonreligious, 8 percent is Christian). Yet the government has banned the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam for refusing to submit to state controls.
The government usually reserves torture, harassment, and church closings for ethnic Christians living in remote villages, such as the Hmong, according to Freedom House. The rights organization has obtained four official documents showing that the government intends to eliminate Protestant Christianity in a district of Lao Cai Province.
Operation World estimates that dozens of Christian leaders languish in Vietnamese prisons. Among them is Nguyen Hong Quang, a former lawyer who pastored a Mennonite church in Ho Chi Minh City before his arrest last August. The government has detained him many times for evangelizing and documenting attacks on Vietnam's Protestant community.
Police reportedly raided services in Quang's church four times during the first six months of 2001. They severely beat him on at least one occasion. In an appeal to the West last June, Quang urged Christians to "raise their voices and pray and protest the actions" of Vietnamese authorities.
READ ALL TEXT AT : http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/001/35.50.html
Thank you for the Article.
We must stand up against the Communist Regime, and petition our government officials in Washington D.C. and contact the United Nations.
I support you !
I agree with you 100%, lets just hope that the Government of the United States does not leave the Iraqis and Afgans like they did the Vietnamese Government in Vietnam.
We know very well the United States Military will succeed, but when the Politicans are making limitions like they did in Vietnam, the United States Military cant do the job that they were trained to do.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.