<<previous  |  index  |  next>>

II. Religious Persecution Linked to New Regulations

The targeting of Montagnard Christians for persecution, arrest, and mandatory renunciation sessions, while ongoing in the Central Highlands for years, began to intensify in March 2005.  In part this may have been linked to government authorities' fears that demonstrations would break out during Easter (which this year fell on March 27), as they had the year before.¹¹

Another factor appears to be the promulgation of an official directive by the Prime Minister in regard to Protestantism. Instruction No. 01/2005, “Guiding Protestant Religious Organizations,” was issued in February 2005. It contains some positive elements, such as prohibition of attempts to force Protestants to renounce their religion (although, as mentioned above, authorities in the Central Highlands are continuing forced renunciation ceremonies).¹²  In addition, as with the November 2004 Ordinance on Beliefs and Religion, the Instruction advances Vietnam's official stance that religious freedom is a privilege to be requested from and granted by the government, rather than a fundamental human right.¹³

Instruction No. 01/2005 requires religious organizations to obtain government permission in order to operate. Though it has been praised by senior U.S. officials, it states that only churches that have conducted “pure religious activities” since 1975 can register for official authorization. This effectively eliminates Montagnard house churches in the Central Highlands, most of which started in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as any religious Protestant organization that seeks to operate independently of the government-authorized ECVN.

In an ominous tone, the directive instructs officials to “fight attempts by hostile forces to abuse Protestantism to incite people to act subversively” and to publicly expose “those disguised Protestants whose activities go against the nation and sow division among the people as well as their illegal activities and the state's punishments and clemency policies.”  The Instruction opens the door to authorities to force those perceived as following Dega Christianity to abandon their faith, despite other provisions in the Instruction banning such efforts. It also gives legitimacy to government security forces to interrogate, arrest, and imprison suspected Dega Church activists.