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The communist campaign against Vietnam's Montagnard, Hmong, and unregistered house churches shows no signs of ending. These vibrant Christian movements are calling new attention to Vietnam's effort to repress them. Hmong believers, who number at least 250,000, are showing researchers countless documents spelling out the official campaign against their people. Hmong churches blossomed in the late 1980s as Hmong-language radio broadcasts reached their villages with the gospel. Persecution of Hmong leaders has been cruel. Dozens have spent years in substandard prisons. As of June, twelve church leaders remained in confinement. In the past five years, 14,000 Hmong seeking greater freedom have fled south to Vietnam's Central Highlands.

But recent comments from American mainline Protestants support the view of Vietnam's communists, who say religious freedom is secure in the southeast Asian nation of 79 million. Lonnie Turnipseed, a United Methodist and a retired Church World Service executive with extensive experience in southern Asia, recently told United Methodist News Service (umns), "While isolated incidents of religion-related harassment. … have occurred in some areas, these are not the result of government policy. There is clearly freedom of religion in Vietnam." umns quoted United Methodist John McCullough, chief executive of Church World Service, as praising "the cooperation between government and religious communities."

The government of Vietnam, stinging from the latest reports exposing its persistent abuse of human rights and religious liberty, has launched a propaganda counterattack this year—and some religious leaders are being used as political props in that effort. In mid-May, Vietnam's National Bureau of Religious Affairs (nbra) dispatched a delegation of government officials and religious leaders to visit mainline Protestants, relief agency officials, and other Americans in Washington and New York. Meeting in New York, the delegation (as well as leaders of the hosting United Methodist Church) painted a glowing picture of flourishing religious freedom and warm church-state cooperation, as detailed in a May 13 umns report.

Le Quang Vinh, head of the nbra, tried to "correct certain misunderstandings concerning Vietnam's policy of freedom of religion," according to Vietnam's official news media. "The government is not interfering in religious affairs," Vinh said in the umns article. Vinh added that Vietnam only intervenes when groups press for political independence, as Montagnard protesters did in February 2001. (Montagnard is a collective term for numerous tribal groups in Vietnam's Central Highlands.)

But is it a coincidence that the friendly sentiments of these Christian leaders were echoed in Vietnam's state-controlled media? The English-language Vietnam News reported on May 15: "Vietnam and the U.S. have forged closer ties in the religious arena following a remarkable visit by Vietnamese religious bodies to the U.S."

The visit's big surprise was the participation of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam, South, including ecvn's president, Pham Xuan Thieu, and two colleagues. Some local leaders within ecvn South sharply criticized Thieu for making the May trip. ecvn is the only religious body recognized by the state but not co-opted by communists.

The other religious figures on the trip included four from the Vietnam Buddhist Church, a small organization not at all representative of Vietnam's Buddhists, and one priest from an association of "patriotic Catholics" held in disdain by the large Roman Catholic Church in Vietnam. Catholic sources in Vietnam told me the priest was so embarrassed that on his return to Vietnam he tried to prevent people from knowing about the trip. One of the Buddhists on the delegation is a well-known government "parrot."

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September 9 2002, Vol. 46, No. 10