On March 26, 2024, Pastor Y Cuah Hdok of ECVN-South declared in a video broadcast on the Public Security website of Dak Lak Provincial Police that “Freedom of belief and religions must be within the framework of the Party, the State. We must obey whatever the State allows,” [1] denounced Evangelist Y Krec Bya and Pastor A Ga of the ECCCH, and declared that its members were guilty of disobeying God and would not go to Heaven because its members refused to join the ECVN-South..[2] Two days later, the People’s Court of Dak Lak Province sentenced Evangelist Y Krec Bya to 13 years in prison followed by 5 years of house arrest on charges of violating Article 116 of the Criminal Code. In November 2023, the MPS had issued an arrest warrant against Pastor A Ga who resides in the U.S. as a permanent resident.
ECVN-South pastors have been found to take part in public denunciations, leading the way for government officials and some villagers hand picked by the police to verbally abuse and humiliate leaders of independent house churches.
On 21 October 2022, Evangelist Y Krêc Byă (sentenced in late March 2024 to 13 years in prison) was forced to attend a public denunciation session at his village. The government convened over 200 villagers for the denunciation against the Evangelical Church of Christ of the Central Highlands. Ms. H’Kao Knul, an officer of the Security Police of Buôn Đôn District, falsely accused the Evangelical Church of Christ of the Central Highlands of being a front for establishing a separate Montagnard State. She then condemned Pastor A Ga, this church’s founder who lives in the United States, for being the instigator. She warned that the government will use the law to punish those who joined this church, and declared that Evangelist Y Krêc Byă was being investigated by the police for this. Pastor Y Čuah Hđơ̆k of ECVN-South said that the Evangelical Church of Christ of the Central Highlands was guilty of disobeying God and the Vietnamese government and that its members who refused to join ECVN-South would not be accepted by God in Heaven. He went on to claim that only ECVN-South is loyal to the Vietnamese government and never collaborates with foreign opponents of the Vietnamese State.[3]
[1] An Ninh Trật Tự Đắk Lắk, 2024
[2] Report from Y Krêc Byă to UN Special Rapporteur, 2023
