By BosNewsLife Asia Service
HANOI, VIETNAM (BosNewsLife) -- Vietnamese security forces reportedly murdered two Degar Montagnard Christian men in the Central Highlands after they returned from a protest against the detention of fellow believers, BosNewsLife monitored Monday, August 4.
The Montagnard Foundation Incorporated (MFI), which represents Degar Montagnards, told BosNewsLife that the killings of Y-Song Nie, 24, and Y-Huang Nie, 23, took place April 14 in District Krong Pac in Daklak Province, but details just emerged, apparently because their family received death threats.
The incident happened after, “they were returning to their village after having participated in a peaceful protest for the release of their two Christian sisters and one Christian brother, who were arrested earlier on April 9 in 2008, at the commune of Ia Ken,†said MFI President Kok Ksor in a statement to BosNewsLife.
"The security police broke both of their legs, both their hands and cracked their skulls. After murdering them, they returned the bodies to (the men's) family village and admitted murdering Y-Song Nie and Y-Huang Nie," Ksor added. There was no response from Vietnamese officials, however the government has in the past described MFI reports as "propaganda."
ONE GRAVE
Ksor made clear his group has reliable information that Vietnamese security police "ordered families to bury the corpses in one grave and provided them with one coffin...as well as 100 kilograms of rice and one million 1,000,000 dong (about $66) in compensation for each family. "
He said security police also families not to reports this incident to the international community or to Kok Ksor, or they would “come and kill†everyone. Both men leave behind a wife and children, according to MFI investigators. MFI and other rights groups have said that persecution of Christians in the Central Highlands not associated to the 'official' churches have continued, despite government statements pledging more religious rights.
Hundreds of predominantly Christian Degar Montagnards are believed to be in several prisons, detentions rights investigators have linked to their Christian faith and their past support for the United States during the Vietnam War.
MFI has criticized the United Nations, United States, European Union, and Japan, for the "deafening silence about our peoples suffering" allegedly not to endanger business and political dealings with the Communist-run nation. "It seems the Vietnamese government is actually granted permission to murder our people," MFI claimed.
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