A Vietnamese court sentenced two Hmong ethnic minority men to life in prison Wednesday for attempting to overthrow the state and establish a separate state in a rural district of northwestern Vietnam, government media and local police reported.
Sung A Sinh, 37, and Lau A Lenh, 49, were found guilty of masterminding a plan to establish a Hmong state in the Muong Nhe district of Dien Bien province between August 2018 and March 2019, and of manipulating others to achieve their goal. They also sought to issue their own currency and build an army, the court said.
A radio report on the sentencing by the Voice of Vietnam quoted the presiding judge as saying that the pair’s activities were “dangerous to the society, infringing upon the political regime of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” according to Reuters.
The Dien Bien People’s Court also sentenced a dozen of the men’s alleged accomplices to jail terms of 24 months to 20 years for covering for them and attempting to overthrow the people’s administration in Muong Nhe District.
The indictment stated that Lau A Lenh had joined an organization that has sought to create a Hmong state in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam since 2010. He was prosecuted earlier, but fled to escape punishment.
Lenh and Sinh discussed with their accomplices the establishment of the Hmong state in the Muong Nhe district, aimed at overthrowing the local people’s administration and abolishing the political system enshrined in Vietnam’s constitution, according to the indictment.
In late April and in early May 2011, thousands of Christian Hmong in Dien Bien province staged a demonstration for greater autonomy, more religious freedom, and land rights, but local authorities sent in police and army units to quash it.
They sealed off the protest scene to prevent people leaving or entering the remote mountainous region and cut off electricity and telecommunications.
Between 5,000 and 7,000 people were involved in the extremely rare protest, which was the largest-ever of its kind at the time, given Vietnam's communist government's tight control on dissent.
Following the unsuccessful protest, some Hmong went to Thailand to seek refugee status.
Three others apprehended
On Thursday, police in Gia Lai province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands arrested three followers of the group who had eluded authorities for eight years while they were in hiding and in contact by phone with other members.
Police said they found propaganda documents against the state of Vietnam when they apprehended the trio in an area between H’ra and Po Lang communes in Mang Yang district.
Vietnamese authorities say members of the Hmong group have violated the country’s religious laws, and that they are not officially recognized by the state, said a source from the country’s national-level Government Committee for Religious Affairs, who declined to give his name.
Though Vietnam’s constitution provides for freedom of worship, the government has imposed a range of legislation restricting the religious practices of Catholics, Buddhists, and others.
The Hmong have come under fire in recent years for their funeral practices with wakes that last several days to a week.
In October 2019, authorities launched a campaign to limit the length and scale of Hmong funerals, restricting the number of buffaloes and cows slaughtered and the practices of burning fake money and throwing votive paper on roads during processions. The campaign also limits the amount of time that a corpse can remain unburied.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnam Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
There are several points need to be discussed, they are:
1/These communists will arrest anyone vs their policies and governm't let alone the Hmongs
2/It's every patriot duty to overthrow the communist governm't to free our people
3/About the funeral stance and practices: It's insane to have restrictions on this.
Without any hesitation, I would say about 85% the funeral observance, celebration, and procession are the same.
In summary, our cultures (anyone lives w/in the VN border) are almost the same, we have a common enemy and that's the communist party.
That's our greatest threat.
Let's not tear our cultures and border apart before we can eradicate the communist party.
Mar 20, 2020 01:41 PM
After world war II, When the United Nations established all its member states ratified the process of decolonization program around the world and it is due to the present time. Many countries in Southeast Asian follow this process. Nobody wants war like communist Vietnam had chosen war to kill millions of people. Every ethnic indigenous have a right to set up a separated state, why they need to be colonized by others?? Infringe the rights of people is a crime against humanity. This is a criminal act of communist Vietnam regime
the world communities must condemn.
Dear RFA, Remember after world war II, the Central Highlands in Vietnam was granted for Dega people as an independent country by French colonial as to follow up the UN's process decolonization on May 27 of 1946. Teeling the world that communist Vietnam is the genocidal perpetrator and perpetrator of a crime against humanity, they are the one must jail for a lifetime, not these two Hmong Men.
Mar 19, 2020 05:50 PM
