Vietnam: Government Designates As “terrorists” Two Rights Groups Which Support Christian Montagnard Community
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Vietnam’s ruling Communist party has designated as terrorist organizations two human rights groups which support the country’s largely Christian Montagnard minority indigenous community, Premier Christian News (PCN) reports.
The 2.5 million-strong Montagnard live in Vietnam’s central highlands, and include numerous diverse groups of indigenous peoples. This mountain community has a long history of conflict with the government, whose policy of sedentarization has led to the isolation and impoverishment of the Montagnard.
In a press release, the Vietnamese state announced that the US-based Montagnard Support Group Inc (MSGI) and the Montagnard Stand for Justice (MSFJ), which was founded in Thailand, are terror organizations, PCN reports. The MSGI and MSFJ have long defended the rights of Montagnard facing intense persecution by the government.
In a statement about the government decree, Mervyn Thomas, founder of the Christian Solidarity Worldwide non-profit said: “The government of Vietnam is endangering the lives of human rights defenders by naming them and sharing their addresses on state media, which poses an immediate security concern and is clearly intended to silence, harass and intimidate.”
“The government of Vietnam is an authoritarian state that is paranoid that the world will know the true nature of their control and repression of religious and ethnic minorities, and this is further evidence of its lack of inhibitions in participating in transnational repression against activists who are simply exercising their right to freedom of expression,” Thomas said.
Ruled by an oppressive one-party regime, Buddhist majority Vietnam ranks 35 on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2024 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
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