Release International

MENNONITE SIX - SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER RELEASED AFTER TORTURE AND MENTAL BREAKDOWN

Nov 02 2007

The Vietnamese authorities have finally released 22-year-old Sunday School teacher Le Thi Hong Lien, after beating, abusing and torturing her until she suffered a mental breakdown. Lien was classified as a 'political prisoner'. All she wanted to do was teach Bible stories to children.

Lien had been imprisoned for ten months as part of a crackdown on the Mennonite Church of Vietnam. Six members were jailed for allegedly resisting arrest after challenging men acting suspiciously around their church. They turned out to be plain-clothes police officers who were keeping the church under surveillance.

The Sunday School teacher was released under an amnesty to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the capture of Saigon by North Vietnamese troops.

During her ten-month ordeal, Lien was subjected to drug injections, severe beatings and food deprivation. Her jaw was broken during the beatings and remains painful because she was denied proper medical treatment. She also suffered a mental breakdown, became doubly incontinent and had to be transferred to a mental hospital.

''All that just for being a Christian in Vietnam,' says Eddie Lyle of Release International, which supports the persecuted church worldwide.

Finally Lien has begun to speak again and to recognise her parents. Her first words to her father, Le Quang Du, were: 'I am in great suffering from the top of my head to the extremities of my body. Father, please pray for me. I am very tired.' A source close to Lien says 'Without God's help, she will never be the same again.'

Earlier her father refused to sign an amnesty paper that would have confined Lien to house arrest, insisting instead on her complete release. Ignoring a warning to keep his daughter away from the Mennonites, he affirmed that his family would continue to worship God and participate in the activities of the church.

Before Lien was released her father Le Quang Du said he forgave the prison guards who had driven her out of her mind.

Release International has been calling on the Vietnam authorities to free Lien and the Mennonites who remain behind bars. The Mennonite Church believes Lien was released because of the considerable pressure brought to bear by the international media, foreign governments and human rights organisations.

Two of the original Mennonite Six remain in jail. They are church worker Pham Ngoc Thach, and Mennonite leader Rev Nguyen Hong Quang. Rev Quang is a human rights lawyer. Observers believe his arrest was engineered to try to silence his calls for religious freedom in Vietnam.

'Every day Pastor Quang remains behind bars his cry for religious freedom goes out around the world,' says Release International Chief Executive, Eddie Lyle. '30 years have passed since the fall of Saigon. Vietnam must show the international community it now has the confidence and maturity to allow those most basic of human rights - freedom of association and religion. Vietnam must release the last of the Mennonite Six and allow freedom of worship.'

Go to all news on Vietnam