VIETNAM: Forced Recantations of Faith Continue in Vietnam

Dien Bien Dong District and Na Son Commune police and soldiers took the Christian couple to the Na Son Commune People’s Committee office after police earlier incited local residents to abuse and stone them and other Christian families. After Po and his wife were beaten at 1 am that night, he was fined 8 million dong ($A470) and a pig of at least 16 kilos. Christians Sung A Sinh and Hang A Xa of Trung Phu village were also beaten about the head and back and fined a pig each so that local authorities could eat, according to the reports. Christian sources reported that on 15 December police took Po and his wife to members of their extended family, who applied severe clan pressure on him to deny their faith. When police added their own threats, Po finally signed recantation documents. “I folded – I signed when police threatened to beat me to death if I didn’t recant,” he said. “Then they would seize my property, leaving my wife a widow, and my children fatherless – without a home.”

Source: Compass Direct