VIETNAM Rubber bullets against Vietnamese independent Protestant churches

And Hung Ayun, from the Tara Puor house church, was ambushed last Sunday: two men with masked faces shot him in the knee. Vietnam’s independent churches, which do not have government approval, are under surveillance by the authorities, who confiscate Bibles and property. In September, Y Pho Eban, 57, from the village of Cue, was also threatened: “We are not allowed to meet.”

Rome (/Agencies) – “They attacked me to warn me that I should withdraw and return to the Evangelical Church in Vietnam [aprobada por el gobierno]». These are the words shared with Radio Free Asia by Pastor Y Hung Ayun, 62, showing the bruise on his knee caused by rubber bullets that hit him in the village of Tara Puor, in the Vietnamese province of Dak Lak, on Sunday, December 1. The cleric, belonging to the Ê-đê ethnic minority, oversees the village church. They ambushed him when he was returning home: two masked men approached him, one of them pulled out a gun and shot him twice with rubber bullets in the left knee, then fled.

It is nothing new that the authorities closely monitor independent churches, intimidating pastors and faithful. Harassment includes interruptions and restrictions on religious activities, confiscation of Bibles, mobile phones, computers and cash, according to the Vietnam section of the US Commission 2024 report for International Religious Freedom.

The violence was not followed by a report to the local police. And Hung stated that he did not report the incident, although the day after the attack, local officers stopped by his house to “visit” him, but he was not there. The pastor had previously served nine years in prison for “undermining the policy of national solidarity.” After serving parole, he attended a training course to become a pastor in 2017. Since then, he has been closely monitored by security forces, who have installed security cameras to monitor his home and have asked him to notify them when he leaves. absent on long trips, reports Radio Free Asia.

A similar incident happened on September 25 to another pastor, Y Pho Eban, 57, leader of an independent church in the town of Cue. He was shot in the leg while cutting grass in his coffee plantation. The shepherd fell to the ground, not knowing who had shot him. The attack left him with a bleeding wound: a deep hole in his leg that also damaged his bones. Y Pho’s family sent him to the hospital to have a doctor remove the bullet and treat the wound, but he still cannot walk.

And Pho also said he did not report the incident to local authorities. “They hate me because I worship in a house church, something they totally prohibit,” he told Radio Free Asia. «They say we are not allowed to meet. Every time they summon me to the commune office, they threaten me and my family. And Pho said he believed he had been shot because he is the leader of an independent Protestant church with 200 followers in his village.

Y Quynh Bdap32, son of Pastor Cue and founder of the group Montagnards Stand for Justice, was tried in absentia by a Vietnamese court in January in connection with the June 2023 attack on two government offices in Dak Lak province, which caused nine dead. He denied his involvement in the incident. Vietnam has asked neighboring Thailand to extradite the activist, despite fears he could suffer torture or die if repatriated.