months against his will, a human rights group said Wednesday, September 21. Than Van Truong, 46, of the Baptist General Conference house church organization in Vietnam was released over the weekend amid international pressure, said UK based Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), which campaigned for the pastor’s release.
He was sent to the high security section of the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital in Dong Nai Province after doctors hired by the Communist authorities officially diagnosed him as suffering from "delusion," CSW and other sources said. However his lawyer, Nguyen Van Dai, and a member of the medical staff reportedly denied Truong suffered from mental illness.
A former officer in Vietnam’s Peoples’ Army, Rev Truong became a Christian and eventually a pastor. His troubles began several years ago, when he sent Bibles to Vietnam’s top officials with an encouragement to consult the Scriptures for truth and wisdom, CSW said. "He was arrested in May 2003, and imprisoned without charges for nine months."
Rev Truong was kept under close surveillance until his second arrest in June 2004, and eventually send to the psychiatric hospital. "On his arrival at the hospital on September 30, 2004, he was injected with unknown drugs and became ill and very lethargic. Later, when he was given oral medication, he managed not to ingest it and his condition improved," CSW claimed.
OPEN WARD
"According to a report written by Rev Truong on 20 June 2005, he was transferred to an open ward of the hospital, which he shares with a number of seriously ill psychiatric patients, a number of whom have attacked him on occasion."
The prosecuting authorities laid no criminal charges against Rev Truong, and the "growing international attention to the case frustrated and angered the Vietnamese authorities," CSW claimed. "The Dong Nai Province prosecuting authorities and the Bien Hoa mental hospital began to blame each other and neither would take responsibility for the situation." They saw no other way than to release him on Saturday, September 17, CSW added.
"We are delighted that Pastor Truong has been released and is back with his family. It is hard for us to imagine the torment he must have experienced simply for standing up for his faith," said CSW’s National Director Stuart Windsor.
INTERNATIONAL ADVOCACY
"On this occasion, international advocacy has borne fruit relatively quickly and this is a great encouragement to us in our work. We will continue to put pressure on the Vietnamese authorities to treat all their citizens with dignity and respect regardless of their religious or political beliefs."
Rev Truong was ‘discovered’ by the international community after visitors met Mennonite Christian prisoner Ms Le Thi Hong Lien who was in the same hospital where she received a Bible from him. Lien, who suffered a mental breakdown after what human rights groups described as "serious abuse in prison" had been transferred to the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital in late February 2005 after intensive international advocacy. She was set free in April this year.
Human rights watchers have accused Vietnam’s government of stepping up its crackdown against religious freedom and believe many more Christians are still suffering in prisons, camps and possible psychiatric hospitals throughout the country.
Hanoi bans independent religious associations and only permits religious activities by officially-recognized churches and organizations whose governing boards are approved and controlled by the ruling Communist Party. (With Stefan J. Bos, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Vietnam).
