~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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[Year 2002]

Church opens its doors to Hmong

In a sign of increasing independence from the communist authorities in Hanoi, the Protestant church in northern Vietnam has begun admitting parishes of the frequently persecuted Hmong ethnic minority. A recent Western visitor to Hanoi says church officials told him that 227 Hmong parishes in northern Vietnam had been admitted into the Evangelical Church of Vietnam by mid-October and that the applications of another 100 were pending.

Ethnic Vietnamese and Hmong church leaders have long said that government officials opposed this integration of churches. Analysts believe the communist government is anxious at the rate of growth of the Hmong church in the past 15 years. Hmong converts to Christianity, particularly in the northern provinces of Lao Cai and Lai Chau, have complained since the late 1980s that they are harassed, imprisoned and pressed to abandon their religious faith by provincial officials. Hmong church leaders hope their closer ties with the ethnic Vietnamese church in Hanoi will give them some protection against persecution, the visitor reports.

The Far Eastern Economic Review - October 31, 2002.