Free Vietnam Alliance
Press Release
March 2, 2004
According to sources in Saigon, Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang has alerted associates that public security forces have surrounded his residence.
On March 2, 2004, at around 4:15pm, a group of public security officers from two units--public security of Ward Binh Khanh (District 2 Saigon) and public security of a unit reportedly involved in liquidating opponents--surrounded the home of Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang. The public security ordered everyone inside the home, including Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh who just returned from Kontum, to report to the Ward public security station. The situation at the house is currently very tense as people remain inside.
Since September 2003, the Vietnamese Communist government has stepped up attacks against Christians. In addition to the ongoing repression in the Central Highlands, authorities have targeted the Mennonite house churches throughout the southern party of the country.
Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, who serves as vice president of the Vietnamese Mennonite Church and chairman of the Legal Committee of the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship, has been at the forefront of defending the religious rights of victims. Trained as a lawyer, he petitioned against the crackdown by authorities in Ward Binh Khanh (District 2, Saigon) on September 9, 2003. He protested the District 11, Saigon public security’s brutal tactics against church followers and detainment of Pastor Bui Van Ba, general secretary of the Full House Gospel House Church, on August 18, 2003. Most recently in January 2004 when the public security demolished the house church of Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh in Kontum and severely beat Pastor Chinh’s wife and children, Pastor Quang arranged for Pastor Chinh to come stay at his home in Saigon.
The Free Vietnam Alliance urgently calls on the international community to intervene on behalf of Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh and all other Vietnamese being persecuted for their peaceful religious activities.