CSW joins calls for clear and transparent investigation into the suspicious death of Evangelical Christian

CSW has joined calls for an investigation into the death of a Christian belonging to the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ in Vietnam.

On 8 March 2024, the body of Y Bum Bya was found hanging from a tree after he had been summoned to a meeting with public security officers at a cemetery near his home in Ea Tu commune, Buon Ma Thuot District, Dak Lak Province. Villagers discovered Mr Bya’s body after they went looking for him several hours after he left to meet officials and had not returned. They reported that his body showed signs of torture.

The local police have made no comment, nor have they made any arrests in relation to Mr Bya’s death.

Mr Bya was previously arrested and beaten by police in December 2023. He was also forced to recant his association with the church in front of villagers who had been forcibly assembled. It is believed he was targeted because of his failure to register his church with the government.

His death follows a series of arrests and charges against members of the Evangelical Church of Christ of the Central Highlands (ECCCH). In January 2024, Evangelist Nay Y Blang of the unregistered ECCCH was sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for resisting the government’s order to disband his house church and cease holding prayer meetings in his home in Phu Yen Province. On 28 March, his fellow church member, Y Krec Bya, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for ‘sabotaging the national unity policy’, as part of a wider crackdown on Montagnard Christians following a June 2023 attack on provincial Communist party offices in Dak Lak that left nine dead, including local party officials and police.

The ECCCH members belong to the Montagnard minority ethnic group which consists of approximately 30 indigenous tribes. The majority of Montagnards are Christians and live in Vietnam’s central highlands, where they have a long history of conflict with the Vietnamese government. The Vietnamese government requires all religious groups to register and to date the ECCCH has refused to do so.

CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘The death of Mr Bya is no accident. It is clearly a targeted and vicious attack against a prominent member of a religious group that the Vietnamese government has sought to systematically imprison and silence. This brutal act must not be overlooked, and we call on the Vietnamese government to open a transparent investigation into his death. We also urge the international community to hold Vietnam to account for the systematic oppression and silencing of religious or belief minorities, and insist that the Vietnamese authorities must release without condition all those imprisoned or arbitrarily detained for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief.’