Sit-down protest in Vietnam
Sit-down protests can work even in authoritarian places like Vietnam.
After
police in the southern province of Dong Nai arrested a "house church"
pastor
in early July, a few dozen Protestant Christians tried to visit their
detained leader, Nguyen Dang Chi.
When security officials prevented their visit on the morning of July 7,
the
parishioners sat down outside the prison in Phu Ly commune and refused
to
leave. Finally at around midnight, more than 12 hours after the sit-down
protest began, Chi was released, according to religious-rights activists
overseas who were informed of the incident by members of the church.
Chi,
leader of a rapidly growing house-church flock in Phu Ly commune, had
been
questioned and fined several times before his arrest on July 6 for
preaching
without formal permission.
Vietnam has an estimated 3,000 house-church congregations that meet
outside
the formal Protestant or Catholic church structure recognized by the
government in Hanoi.
The Far Eastern Economic Review - July 18, 2002.
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