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June 14, 2006
Vietnamese officials continue to force Montagnard Christians to sign pledges renouncing their religion, despite passage of new regulations last year banning such practices. Authorities in some areas restrict freedom of movement between villages – in particular for religious purposes not authorized by the government – and ban Christian gatherings in many areas unless they are presided over by officially recognized pastors.

More worrisome, the Vietnamese government persists in criminalizing peaceful dissent, unsanctioned religious activity and efforts to seek sanctuary in Cambodia, by arresting and imprisoning Montagnards who engage in those activities. The most harshly treated are evangelical Christians who belong to independent or unregistered house churches and supporters of a non-violent movement for the protection of, and greater control over, ancestral lands.

More than 350 Montagnards have been sentenced to prison since 2001, largely for peaceful political or religious activities. Most have been charged under Vietnam’s Penal Code with vaguely worded national security crimes. These include “undermining the unity policy,” “disrupting security” and “causing public disorder”. More than 60 Montagnards have been imprisoned after being forcibly returned from Cambodia, where they were seeking asylum.

The arrests are ongoing: during 2005 alone, at least 142 people – some of whom had been in pre-trial detention for as much as a year – were sentenced to prison terms of up to 17 years. This is more than double the number imprisoned during the previous year. At least 30 of those sentenced in 2005 had been arrested in Cambodia or near the border areas, whilst trying to seek asylum. They were apprehended by Cambodian police and turned over to Vietnamese authorities without having a chance to make an asylum claim with UNHCR. The report includes an annex listing Central Highland prisoners.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/14/vietna13542.htm

Assuming you are a Vietnam Veteran, which your followup post implies, you know very well that the problems with the Montagnards has nothing to do with Christianity and it is a tangent issue. They would have the same persecution no matter if they are Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, or any other religion. In this case, religion has been mixed with politics and has been used as a cover for anti-government activities. Given the situation, it is easy to see why the government would prohibit free worship under these circumstances. A very close parallel can be drawn between Islam and western nations. Western nations are not interested in prohibiting the worship of Allah, but when those activities advocate anti-government activities, it is a different story.

In the full HRW report, it goes into a lot of these details. Most interesting is the charges brought against these individuals. They are along the lines of, "Disturbing national security and breaking national unity", "Underming national security, organizing demonstrations, inciting refugees to flee", "Causing security and political instability", and other similar charges. I do not wish to get into the merit of these charges or defend the Vietnamese government, but there is clearly more going on than the simple prohibition of Christianity that many on here want to believe.

There is a very strong revolution going on in Vietnam and that is capitalism. The days of the 'socialist' government of Vietnam are numbered and soon, hopefully, there will not be a need for this type of discussion. The only discussion will be how to properly put on trial those who were responsible for the real re-education camps of the 1970s and early 1980s.