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While Christian minority peoples have many legitimate grievances over religious persecution, they share with all minorities another major injustice—the wholesale confiscation of their lands, with official complicity, by ethnic Vietnamese coming to the region to try to capitalize on Vietnam's coffee boom.

"It seems that the injustices the minority people have suffered have finally boiled over," the observer said.

The ECVN conference seems to be a positive step for Vietnam's Protestants. But so many difficulties remain it's certain that persecution will continue in the near future at least.

Copyright © 2001 Compass Direct

Other media coverage of Vietnam's recent religious persecution includes:

Exiles criticise Vietnam over religion — Radio Australia

Exiles slam Vietnam over religious rights — BBC (Feb. 14, 2001)

Vietnam denounces U.S. Hearing on Vietnamese religious freedom — Bloomberg (Feb. 13, 2001)

Vietnam religious rights cited — Associated Press (Feb. 13, 2001)

Vietnam suspends treason probe — Associated Press (Feb. 12, 2001)

Vietnam war-era group accused — Associated Press (Feb. 10, 2001)

Read the U.S. State Department's 2000 Report on International Religious Freedom section on Vietnam.

Previous Christianity Today articles about Vietnam include:

Vietnam Jams Hmong Christian Radio Broadcasts | Government tries to curb spread of Protestant Christianity along Chinese border. (Sept. 1, 2000)

Authorities Destroy 'Church' in Vietnam | Crude structure in Ho Chi Minh City slum had been erected only hours earlier. (July 27, 2000)

Napalm Victim Now Agent for Peace | Canadian Christian remembers tearing burning clothes from her flesh. (Feb. 8, 1999)

Jesus Can Still Mean Jail | The plight of Vietnam's 700,000 evangelical Christians. (Nov. 11, 1998)

House Pastors Jailed in New Crackdown | Seven Vietnamese pastors imprisoned. (Jan. 6, 1997)

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February (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45