Original title, Vietnam's ethnic cleansing: "It's déją vu all over again"
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/what_religious_freedom_means_in_vietnam.html
June 12, 2011
June 12, 2011
What Religious Freedom Means in Vietnam
By Michael Benge
For many Vietnam veterans, Memorial Day was for remembering not only those
Americans who died in the Vietnam War, but also our counterparts -- the
Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians who died fighting for freedom, and for
all who still suffer persecution under the brutal communist regimes of those
countries.
It seemed that Vietnam's wave of human rights violations and religious
persecution might have peaked with the arrest and detention of over 1,500
activists for democracy, human rights, and religious freedom prior to the
nation's 11th Congress of the Communist Party, but the brutal communist
regime may have outdone itself with last month's reported slaughter of over
75 ethnic Hmong Christians. Hundreds more were wounded and/or arrested and
taken to undisclosed locations.
An estimated 9,000 Hmong, mainly Catholics and Protestant Christians,
gathered in the Muong Nhe district in North Vietnam's Dien Bien province on
May 1 to honor the beatification of Pope John Paul II. According to
Catholic sources, the late "Polish Pope," who had opposed both fascist Nazis
forces and communist totalitarianism, is a source of inspiration to many
Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, and Hmong Christian believers due to the
courageous moral conduct of his life and his powerful call to "be not
afraid" in challenging social injustice and Stalinist-type regimes around
the world.
The religious services honoring the pope evolved into peaceful protests by
Hmong seeking religious freedom and the cessation of human rights abuses,
institutional corruption, social injustice, and land-grabbing. Dien Bien is
one of Vietnam's poorest provinces, located in the remote and mountainous
area bordering Laos and China. The province's estimated 170,000 Hmong
represent 35 percent of its population (1.24% of VN's total), with the Hmong
earning less than a tenth of the average annual income of the Vietnamese.
As was the case during similar protests by Montagnard Christians in 2001 in
the Central Highlands, and in true fascist form, communist officials
overreacted by deploying thousands of troops, special police, and MI-24
"Hind" helicopter gunships. All outside communication was shut down, the
electricity was cut off, the province was cordoned off to prevent anyone
from entering or leaving, and all news media and foreigners were banned from
the area. Some Hmong demonstrators were able to escape into the nearby
mountains, where they were hunted by heliborne "Dac Cong" Special Forces
units. Some of the fleeing Hmong are reported to have been summarily
executed when caught. At least two Hmong mountain villages and several
enclaves suspected of harboring fleeing protesters were attacked by the
gunships armed with rockets, cannons, and Gatling guns. It is not known how
many were killed or wounded.
Ethnic cleansing "is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious
group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian
population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic
areas" (Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to United Nations
Security Council Resolution 780). With the Montagnards in 2001, and
currently with the Hmong, the Vietnamese communist regime is guilty as sin
of ethnic cleansing.
Article 70 of the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
provides that "the citizen shall enjoy freedom of belief and religion; he
can follow any religion or follow none. All religions are equal before the
law. The places of worship of all faiths and religions are protected by the
law. No one can violate freedom of belief and of religion."
However, Article 70 contains this caveat: "nor can anyone misuse beliefs and
religions to contravene the law, and State policies." This caveat is
further defined in the Ordinance on Beliefs and Religions, not to mention
the Constitution (Government Decree 22/2005) and Government Decree 26/1999
that is based on a directive of the Communist Party (No.37 CT/TW).
The laws cited above are full of ambiguities and contradictions and provide
no criteria as to what is considered "misuse," but they fundamentally state
that all religions, religious denominations, churches, clergy, and religious
activities must be approved by the central government in order to be legal.
Ethnic minority Christians are regularly harassed, beaten, and tortured in
attempts by communist officials to force them to renounce their beliefs in
God. The Vietnamese government is now proposing amendments to the already
harsh existing laws that will further restrict freedom of worship and all
church-related activities.
Vietnam requires that the bestowal of religious titles ("Bishop" and
"Cardinal" in particular) must be approved by the government, which on
several occasions has rejected candidates proposed by the Vatican.
Vietnamese officials will not allow Catholic priests to serve the four
Catholic communities in the Dien Bien region in what is called a "white
zone," in which the level of religious restriction is the highest in the
country.
Anyone who participates in unauthorized religious activities, including
outdoor prayer services, protests, or demonstrations, is guilty of
"undermining Vietnam's national unity," a crime that carries a prison
sentence of ten years or more. Even if the Hmong Christians had not held
peaceful protests, the mere fact that they conducted open-air prayer
services to honor the beatification of Pope John Paul II makes them subject
to arrest and imprisonment.
During the Hmong protests, the Vietnamese communist propaganda machine had
agitprop specialists, communist church clerics, and secret police out in
force mingling with the protesters. Some propagandists declared that they
were "awaiting God to take them to the Promised Land," while others claimed
to advocate the establishment of an autonomous Hmong kingdom. These
disinformation themes gave Vietnamese authorities an excuse to label the
protestors as "cult members," "irredentists," "extremists," and
"anti-revolutionary activists," thereby justifying the use of armed force
against Hmong Christian believers.
These themes have been repeated over and over again by Hanoi's state-run
media and, unfortunately, many foreign news media willing to parrot their
propaganda. The Vietnamese communists subscribe to Nazi propagandist Joseph
Goebbels' theory that if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,
people will eventually come to believe it.
Human rights groups have called for investigations into the atrocities, and
the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi has also vowed to investigate the matter.
However, the truth may never be known. A trickle of information has come
from VietCatholic and Vatican news services, and from some local NGOs that
somehow circumvented the shutdown of communications. The Vietnamese
communist apparatus restricts free travel and controls all media, and the
communist officials and their puppet clerics are the only ones allowed to
speak to foreign officials and news reporters. Outsiders are closely
watched by the police. Foreigners are not allowed to freely travel in the
area and must always be accompanied by government chaperones.
The State Department will no doubt mention the persecuted Hmong Christians
in its Annual Report on Human Rights. Yet State has continually refused to
do anything that might be deemed punitive, such as designating Vietnam as a
Country of Particular Concern regarding religious persecution, which might
upset the delicate feelings of the communist regime. Needless to say,
President Obama seems oblivious to the ongoing religious persecution and
human rights abuses.
In other words, the band plays on.
Michael Benge spent eleven years in Vietnam as a Foreign Service Officer and
five years as a POW. He is a student of Southeast Asian politics. He is
very active in advocating for human rights and religious freedom and has
written extensively on these subjects.
Following internatioan human rights provisions, Vietnamese is
Vietnam's inhabitant, whom is namely designated in relevence to the
country name Vietnam, like wise Cambodia's inhabitant is Cambodian.
So all nationalities living in Vietnam are Vietnamese, and in Cambodia
are Cambodian no matter of Khmer, Chen, Champ, Yuon in both countries
or in Thailand are thai.
This is the way the whole world has been done for not discriminating
of origin of birth or of race for the purpose of peace and prosperity.
If one polilitian of one country, like Cambodia, has a platform of
lifting one natinal such as Khmer..Khmer and Khmer among others, he is
becoming Separatist.
So Sam Rainsy is a separatist leader.
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