Vietnam: Thugs harass Christian protestors
Jun 24 2008
Postings >> Vietnam

The Vietnamese authorities are suspected of hiring thugs to harass Christian protestors calling for the return of land confiscated 50 years ago.

Hundreds of villagers from Ke Mui in Ha Tinh province have been protesting outside the People's Committee of Huong Son District, demanding the return of parish lands.

The authorities told them that the local government now owns the land and that it would only be handed over to villagers in return for large sums of money. Refusing to take 'no' for an answer, the villagers continued their protest.

Soon afterwards, gangs of men arrived in police trucks, attacked protestors and forced them to withdraw. When protestors gathered the next day, the same thing happened again. And when the Christians called off their protest, they had some unwelcome visitors back home in Ke Mui: thugs on motorbikes who surrounded and threatened them.

RI sources report that the Christians were forced to take action after the local authorities failed to respond to a series of petitions about the return of their land.

The Vietnamese Communist Party launched a radical land reform programme in the 1950s, seizing land and property from peasants in areas coming under its control. Many land disputes dating back to that era remain unresolved.

Pray for Christian villagers in Ke Mui, Ha Tinh province, who have been harassed by thugs – simply for speaking out about land confiscation.

Pray that countries of influence, such as the US, will continue to pressure Vietnam to clean up its human and religious rights record.