Vietnamese security forces as part of ongoing military operations to prevent Christmas celebrations in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, church sources said.
The Degar, referred to by French colonists as Montagnard or "mountain people" are the indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands, but have been accused by Communist authorities of following "an American religion" and of cooperating with American troops during the Vietnam War, human rights groups say.
The US-based advocacy organization Montagnard Foundation Incorporated (MFI), which has close contacts with Christians in the Central Highlands, told BosNewsLife that at least 27 people have been detained and tortured there since last month, including at least one woman, while Vietnamese troops reportedly occupied over 60 villages in the region.
Among other alleged brutalities, the group claimed that a 17-year old boy, identified as Huien from the village of Plei Grak in Gialai province, was nearly beaten to death after being arrested on November 11 for having a telephone conversation with his father who lives in the United States.
BLOOD FROM EARS
The police "used both hands to slap his ears until blood came out from his ears. They stomped on his chest with military boots and kicked and beat him with their batons until he passed out unconscious. He was thrown in a prison cell, but after a few days the police saw he could not get up to eat or drink. [The police] became afraid he might die in prison, so they took him back to his village on November 16, 2005," MFI added.
"Now, Huien is at his home suffering medical problems from the brutality of the beating and dares not go to the hospital for fear of being injected with some lethal drug." MFI reported similar attacks against dozens of other Christians detained in recent weeks for interrogation.
Most of them were reportedly still in detention Friday, December 23. "This is the latest information we have from the Central Highlands," MFI Spokesman Scott Johnson told BosNewsLife. His organization added that Vietnamese Communist authorities continue to persecute Montagnard Degar Christians because they observe "an American religion."
It said security forces released recently six Degar Montagnards from the village of Plei Grak after they were tortured for "being pro-American because they follow the religion of the United States." These are no isolated incidents. There have been reports in recent years about executions and police raiding Montagnard churches and prayer meetings, human rights investigators say.
GOVERNMENT DENIAL
The Vietnamese government has denied claims of human rights abuses made by MFI and other secular organizations such as Amnesty International. "The Vietnamese Government always respects and protects human rights including the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of press and freedom of religion and beliefs," said the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Dzung when asked by reporters about persecution allegations.
Despite the apparent difficulties, a MFI survey said that over 30,000 registered Degar Montagnard Christians in the area of Pleiku alone "have vowed they will defy Vietnamese Communist authorities and will not renounce Christ." MFI said it has appealed to the US government, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human rights, the European Commission for Human Rights and "all the democratic countries in the world to please help our people to co-exist with Vietnam on a equal basis."
It stressed it was important that international monitors have access to the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Most of the estimated one million Degar Montagnard people in the area are Christians, and at least hundreds are believed to be in Communist-run detention centers, MFI and other human rights groups say. (With BosNewsLife Chief International Correspondent Stefan J. Bos and reports from Vietnam).
