Release International

Release International (RI) is calling on the US and the World Trade Organisation to rethink
their decision to welcome Vietnam into political respectability.

As the US removed Vietnam from its religious freedom blacklist, RI staff were in the country on a fact-finding mission -- and found that religious persecution is alive and well. And it is still the unregistered and ethnic minority churches which are hardest hit. They heard of the case of Moi, a Montagnard Christian who disappeared mysteriously one day and was found brutally murdered the next morning. Villagers reported that police had been harassing Moi because he had refused to join the government church.

And in the north-west of Vietnam, RI heard about a seven-year-old Hmong girl who had challenged police harassing local Christian families. When officers took her family's pigs, the girl protested -- and was beaten so badly she could not walk for a week.

RI Chief Executive Andy Dipper warned that letting Vietnam off the hook could have dire consequences for Christians. 'Now Vietnam is no longer considered a "country of particular concern", could they face a fresh wave of repression and imprisonment? Will it be back to business as usual?'

• Continue to pray that the international community would hold Vietnam to account for its religious rights abuses.
• Ask God to bless and strengthen His suffering church in Vietnam over Christmas.

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