Inciting social hostility appears to have become a key way government officials in rural Vietnam try to contain, or at least slow, the growth of Christianity among ethnic minorities, sources said, as ethnic Hmong Christians were the targets of two incidents in February and March in Vietnam’s northwest.
Village officials in Son La Province dragged a couple from their home in late March, and in February authorities in neighbouring Dien Bien Province incited a mob to beat a Christian family – including a 9-year-old girl – and drive them from the village.
In the latter case in Dien Bien Dong District, public security officers Hang Da Sinh and Cu Ninh Vang recruited some 30 villagers of Trun Phu Village, Na Song Commune, to accompany them to the home of Hang A Khua. Backed by an intimidating mob, the officers ordered Khua and his family of nine to recant their Christian faith and immediately and publicly signify their sincerity by re-establishing a family altar and worshipping their ancestors.
