Mennonite Church (VMC) building and the adjacent home of its jailed pastor, while his wife and small children watched in agony, news reports said Thursday, July 21. Compass Direct, a Christian news agency investigating persecution, said 70 workers used sledge hammers and electric saws to tear down the apartment of Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang and his family, which was part of the VMC center in Ho Chi Minh City.
Rev. Quang is in prison for allegedly resisting an officer during an earlier raid on the church. His wife, Le Thi Phu Dung, was home alone with two of her three small children when authorities reportedly arrived early Tuesday, July 19. Her cell phone was jammed so she could not alert people, Compass Direct said. "She and her children could only watch and pray in aguish," the news agency said, apparently citing sources in the area.
Human rights workers suggest the latest attack was part of "a campaign of intimidation" by the Communist authorities against the rapidly growing congregation. The workers were apparently ordered to destroy a four-meter addition to the main center, charging that it had been built without a permit — a technicality rarely required in Vietnam, Compass Direct noted.
MEETING HALL DESTROYED
However they also brought down an additional 4.8-meter (16 feet) portion, including the church meeting hall and the apartment of the Quang family, which were never contested, leaving a pile of cement, rebar and wood, the news agency reported.
"Please sympathize with us, we are only hired hands and are only doing this because we need to put food on our tables. We don’t want to destroy the church, and we’ll be very careful not to destroy any of the church’s moveable property," the workers were quoted as saying after Quang appealed to them not to destroy the complete building.
Notified of the event afterwards, a stream of Christian visitors reportedly came to comfort Quang and helped her clear to debris. A United States diplomat came to investigate "and offered assurances to her," Compass Direct said. The US had earlier urged Vietnam to respect religious and political freedom.
DELEGATION ARRIVES
On Wednesday, July 20, a delegation of the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship led by Rev. Pham Dinh Nhan apparently went to visit Quang and her children, despite reported dangers of persecution.
The Mennonites purchased and first built on a piece of land in 1995, but soon expanded its building to accommodate growth in 1999. In July 2002, the fellowship added a four-meter section to the rear of the building, including a baptismal tank. Local officials brought "repressive actions" against the Mennonite church 77 times during the past year, including charges of building irregularities, Compass Direct said.
The Mennonites protested in a petition, but the government reportedly never answered. With three young children, Quang, 31, was elected president of the Vietnam Mennonite Church in June. Her husband, serving a three-year sentence for allegedly "resisting an officer doing his duty," was recently moved to a prison in distant Dak Lak province requiring two days and nights for a visit, human rights groups say. Quang has been quoted as saying that her husband is in failing health, suffering under grueling forced labor.
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
Rev. Quang has a history of high blood pressure and gastrointestinal problems and has passed out several times while at work, unable to get enough nourishment and rest during a 30-minute break at midday, Compass Direct reported.
The apparent pressure on the Vietnam Mennonite Church, a house-church organization, continues despite promised liberalized legislation on religion. Quang has written two appeals to Prime Minister Phan Van Khai asking how the Mennonite Church might become legal but has received no answer. Police regularly raid small, quiet prayer and Bible study sessions at the Mennonite center and forcibly escort participants to the police station for hours of interrogation, human rights groups reported.
Last month in a testimony submitted to the House Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Vietnam on June 20, Mennonite missionary Truong Tri Hien, who fled Vietnam last year, documented how local officials "consistently abused" administrative powers "to harass" the Mennonite church. He told Compass Direct that Tuesday’s "razing of the Mennonite center is another clear example of this administrative abuse.”
"HIGHLY SKEPTICAL"
House church leaders in Vietnam reportedly remain “highly skeptical” of Vietnam’s promises to invite unofficial churches to register. Since the announcing the Ordinance on Religion in November 2004, no churches have accepted the invitation to register as they are waiting for a cessation of "repressive actions" such as those taken against the Mennonite church.
They also question whether the US-Vietnam agreement in May on improving religious freedom will produce any benefits for Vietnam’s large and growing house church movement, Compass Direct reported. (With Compass Direct and reports from Vietnam and the United States).
