Vietnamese authorities are continuing to repress Christians within the country and attempting forced conversions to the state Church.

A peaceful and nonviolent demonstration is currently underway throughout the Central Highlands at this moment, and the Vietnamese authorities are, moreover, continuing to arrest […] indigenous Degar demonstrators. Vietnamese soldiers are now blocking roads, making arrests and attacking our people. Degar villagers throughout the Central Highlands report that they are fed up with racism and religious persecution, and that they want their relatives released from prison.

The following details how the demonstration was sparked:

On Wednesday April 9, 2008 at around 6:30pm, four Vietnamese security police came to the house of our Christian sister, Puih H’Bat, in the village of Ploi Bang and commune of Ia Chia, from the district of Ia Grai in the province of Gialai while she was leading 20 Christian believers in prayer at her home. The security police demanded that all of the Degar believers sign a document agreeing to join the Hoi Thanh Tin Lanh Vietnam (The Evangelical Church of Vietnam), which is the government sanctioned church. Those refusing to sign this document would be arrested […] and imprisoned. All Christian believers at the home of Puih H’Bat that night refused to sign the document.

The next day, on April 10, 2008, at around 8:00pm in the evening, many more security police supported with Vietnamese soldiers came to the village of Ploi Bang and summoned all the villagers to report to Ploi Bang Elementary school. The soldiers accused the people of following Ksor Kok and worshiping him. […] The security police continued to threaten and intimidate the villagers, attempting to coerce them into signing the document joining the official government sanctioned church. When everyone refused, they dismissed the meeting at around 10:00pm.

On the day after that, on April 11, 2008, at around 4:00am in the morning, 8 Vietnamese security police stormed into the house of our Christian sister, Puih H’Bat, and arrested her. They put her in a truck and took her to the prison facility in the district of Ia Grai. On that same night, the security police also arrested two other Christian brothers, Ksor Sim and Rahlan Don. At the arrest of Ksor Sim, police sprayed some kind of dreadful chemical inside his house in order to force the whole family out in the open. Once outside, the security police shocked Ksor Sim with electric batons until he collapsed to the ground. His wife and 16 year-old daughter ran over to see if he was alive or dead, and the ruthless security police then beat and shocked them with their electrical batons until they also collapsed.

On this same day, April 11, 2008 at around 2:00pm, more than 50 Christian believers from the villages of Ploi Bang, Ploi Beng and Ploi Kom went with their children to the communal office of Ia Chia to demand the release of Puih H’Bat, Ksor Sim and Rahlan Don. They could not enter the communal office, however, because security police became aggressive and violently pushed them back. When they refused to leave the vicinity, the security police arrested 2 more of our Christian brothers, Ksor Ien and Rahlan Toi, and also imprisoned them at the Ia Grai facility. The remaining believers still refused to leave and, therefore, security police and soldiers used their men to physically drag villagers back to their homes. Eventually, all of the Christian Degar believers were forcibly returned to their villages at around 9 pm.

The Degar Christians state that they will not stop asking for their basic human rights and rights as an indigenous people to be respected. Furthermore they will not stop protesting, albeit peacefully and nonviolently. […] Currently, Degar believers in other provinces also have begun peaceful protests, demanding that:

• the Vietnamese government release all Degar prisoners who have been imprisoned from 2001 until the present time, including the 350 identified in the Human Rights Watch Report on the 14th of June, 2006 and the five Degar Christians described in this press release who were arrested last week [Week 15, 2008].
• · the Vietnamese Government cease persecution of Degar Christians and allow them to worship in peace and to govern their own independent churches the Vietnamese Government stop confiscating Degar Ancestral Lands, which are necessary to the survival of our people
• The Degar people cry out to the international community to come to our aid. We ask that world leaders exert economic and political pressure on the Vietnamese government in order to coerce them into dealing more humanely with our people. After all, the Degar people only want their rights as citizens of Vietnam.

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