Mennonite church leader from prison and re-united him with his family, well informed human rights workers said Wednesday, August 31. Voice Of the Martyrs (VOM) Australia said in a statement to BosNewsLife it learned early Wednesday that Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang was freed late Tuesday, August 30.
"Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang has [now] been united with his family and his congregation at the facility of the Vietnam Mennonite Christian Church in Ho Chi Minh city," Vietnamese American Public Affairs Committee spokesman Dan Duy Hoang, was quoted as saying by news media.
Pastor Quang, 45, is a well-known promoter of religious freedom and human rights who has defended farmers’ land rights cases and spoken out against the arrests of religious and political dissidents.
Vietnamese officials were not immediately available for comment. Pastor Quang was sentenced November 2004 to three years imprisonment and forced labor on what human rights groups described as "false charges" of "interfering with officers doing their duty."
In March 2004, Pastor Quang confronted two plainclothes policemen who church sources said "had harassed" some of his workers. It was not immediately clear under what conditions, if any, the church leader was set free.
"DECLARATION OF GUILT"
On August 9 authorities offered him freedom in exchange of "a declaration of guilt", which the pastor so far refused to sign, several church sources confirmed.
Vietnamese officials first approached "Nguyen Hong Quang [when he] was working at a labor camp machine used to extract cashew nuts on August 9" and told him he "would be moved immediately to another prison," said VOM Australia earlier.
"With no further explanation or time to prepare to leave, Rev. Quang was bundled into a comfortable staff car and driven with guards to" [a prison] in Xuan Loc, Dong Nai Province, about 250 kilometers (156 miles) south of the Dak Lak prison camp where he had been held.
NO BIBLE ALLOWED
"He was not allowed to retrieve even his Bible [and Pastor] Quang soon discovered the reason for this sudden transfer. Officials indicated that he could be set free in connection with Vietnam’s traditional amnesty on the September 2 National Day [if he signed] a paper agreeing that he was guilty of the charges…," the organization claimed.
However the pastor "maintained his innocence from the outset, [and] told officials at the Dong Nai province prison that he would not change his position and admit to guilt now," VOM Australia added.
Pastor Quang’s arrived in Ho Chi Minh City where earlier this year Vietnamese security forces destroyed part of his Vietnam Mennonite Church building and the pastor’s adjacent home while his wife and small children watched in agony, witnesses said.
MENNONITE SIX GROUP
He was one of six Mennonite Christian leaders, known as the ‘Mennonite Six’, who have been jailed on various occasions since 2004 on charges that included "interfering" with officials. Another person of the group, 21-year old Bible teacher Le Thi Hong Lien, was released this year after allegedly being subjected to harsh treatment.
Authorities released Lien during the April 30 Liberation Day amnesty for over 7500 prisoners, two months before the end of her sentence. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, said torture that resulted in her mental breakdown was one of the reasons why she was transferred to a mental hospital.
She was also was pressured to sign an admission of guilt, but refused, VOM Australia said.
AUTHORITIES CONCERNED
Human rights watchers have linked the reported persecution to concern among authorities about the growing number of Christians in the area, as they allegedly see Christianity as a threat to the Communist ideology.
The Vietnamese government however has denied the claims and defended its human rights record, saying those who accuse it of suppressing religious and political freedom were merely trying to blacken the country’s image.
Launching the Southeast Asian nation’s first "White Paper on Human Rights", this month Vice Foreign Minister Le Bang also described groups such as the US-based Montagnard Foundation, which lobbies for the rights of the mainly Christian ethnic minority tribesmen in the Central Highlands, as a "terrorist organization". (With BosNewsLife Research, BosNewsLife News Center and reports from Vietnam and Australia).
