Being a member of a Christian house church in Vietnam can be a death sentence and no one in Washington or Hanoi seems to careSunday, November 22, 2009
By Scott Johnson
Canadian Free Press
The US State Department’s October 2009 report on Vietnam’s religious freedom sheds little light on the realities facing America’s former allies, the Montagnards. In fact the report stands out as a testament of betrayal.
Puih Hbat for example is a Christian woman who was arrested by Vietnamese authorities in 2008 for the “crime” of conducting unauthorized prayer services. She is from the indigenous Montagnard ethnic group (a people also referred to as hill tribes or Degar people) who reside in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and also a mother of four children.
To this day in 2009 however, her family have no idea whether she is dead or alive. In January the European Commission (with information from the US Embassy) confirmed she was imprisoned after “leading prayer services for Christians in her house”. Vietnam has kept silent on her fate and unfortunately her case, like the hundreds of other Montagnard prisoners in Vietnam, brings little resonance to their former ally in Washington.
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