Catholic Priests in Central Vietnam Still Harassed by Plainclothes Cops

Estimated read time 2 min read

Plainclothes police in the central Vietnamese city of Hue blocked a group of Roman Catholic priests from attending a church service on Thursday, one of the priests said.

Rev. Phan Van Loi told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that local officers resumed monitoring his activities after the five-day Tet holiday, Vietnam’s annual New Year celebration which fell on Jan. 28-Feb. 1 this year.

“I asked them why they were blocking me from attending church services,” he said. “I asked if they were police. Of course, I knew they were police because I had previously seen them around my house.”

“We demanded that they show us their IDs, but one man said they were not policemen,” he said. “I told them that even if they wear plainclothes, they are still Thua Thien Hue province policemen.”

Loi said the police have tightened their watch over his house and monitored him closely for the last two months because he had spoken with people at the Thien An monastery in Hue, whose property has been subject to land grabs during the past few years.

Another reason was that he belongs to a group of three Catholic priests in Hue that the government deems to be dissidents, he said. The other two are Nguyen Van Ly and Nguyen Huu Giai.

Full story: rfa.org

Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Copyright © 1998-2017, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. http://www.rfa.org.

Facebook Notice for EU! You need to login to view and post FB Comments!
TN

The main purpose of Thailand News is to offer our readers all news from the most popular and trusted newspapers in Thailand & Asia in one place.

Get breaking news and the latest news headlines from Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya, Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, Isan, the insurgency-plagued South and Asia.

More From Author

+ There are no comments

Add yours

Leave a Reply