By Andy Soloman
HANOI, Jan 19, 1999 (Reuters): Vietnam is cracking down on what it terms ``illegal Protestant evangelism'' which has burgeoned in the country's northern highlands, media reports and official documents show.
The latest edition of the official Phap Luat (Law) journal, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, expressed concern that Hmong ethnic minority people were switching from traditional animist beliefs to Protestantism.
These conversions, promoted by outsiders, had harmed the people's lives, it said.
The journal said evangelism centred on remote Ha Giang, Vietnam's northernmost province, and focused on a ``disguised'' illegal cult called ``Vang Chu'' with around 6,000 followers.
``The followers demolished their (ancestors) shrines, gave up funeral and wedding ceremonies, and threw dead people into canyons instead of burying them,'' Phap Luat said.
It said a task force had been set up to deal with illegal religious evangelism.
While the climate in Vietnam for worship has eased in recent years, the ruling communist party retains strict controls on religious groups, and does not tolerate dissent.
Some foreign governments and international human rights groups say Hanoi imprisons people for peaceful expression of religious or political beliefs a charge Vietnam rejects.
One source said there were an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 Hmong Protestants in northern Vietnam and around 30 Hmong church leaders had been jailed or detained in the past year.
He said many Hmong had been forced to sign pledges they would not adopt Protestantism.
Ha Giang, a rocky, mountainous area bordering China, is one of the poorest provinces in communist-ruled Vietnam. Its population is made up from 22 ethnic minority groups, many of whom cannot speak or understand Vietnamese.
Official documents seen by Reuters show that Communist Party units and local authorities in Ha Giang and one other province had launched campaigns from 1997 to stop people adopting Protestantism, which is seen as an imperialist tool.
Trieu Duc Thanh, Ha Giang People's Committee chairman, in a letter to nine families said conversion to Protestantism was against party and state laws on freedom of religion.
``Our people shall not be cheated by bad elements to follow religions; please use your right not to follow any religion,'' the signed letter dated October 1, 1997, said. Vietnam does not consider animism to be a religion.
Other evidence suggested heavy-handed tactics.
One letter, written in broken Vietnamese and signed by 40 Hmong men on behalf of 300 people in their village in Ha Giang, complained of bullying, intimidation and threats of torture.
``If from now on (people) ask to follow this religion... it is necessary to beat them for three days so that the followers shall fly to heaven for good,'' the letter quoted a policeman called Toan as saying.
A drunken Toan pulled a gun to force the men to testify about the presence of so-called American priests ``otherwise he would take two units of soldiers to attack... so that everybody would be scared and all run into the forest,'' the letter added.
In the central highland province of Lam Dong, a group of Protestants wrote to Premier Phan Van Khai to complain that their church had been bulldozed by local authorities.
``This is brazen repression of this religion,'' the letter dated December 30, 1997, said.
Abdelfattah Amor, U.N. Special Rapporteur for Religious Intolerance, is due to release a report in February on the climate for religion in Vietnam.
During a visit to Vietnam last October, he complained that officials had prevented him meeting dissident religious figures from outside state-sponsored church groups. U.N. sources said he had described the trip as extremely difficult.