The Vietnamese government is giving ethnic minority Christians pain-inducing drug injections to persuade them to abandon their faith, an American rights group claimed today, citing testimony from an alleged victim.
The US-based Centre for Religious Freedom said it had received a letter dated January 30 detailing the plight of Hmong Christians in Na Ling village, Song Ma district in the northwestern province of Lai Chau.
The letter, written by Zong Xiong Hang, a Hmong Christian forced to flee the village to neighbouring Son La province, describes the use of painful drug injections administered by Vietnamese military personnel.
"I would like you to know that on January 17, 2002, the army gave me an injection, which almost killed me. They came to force us not to believe in Jesus," Zong said.
"Everyone who got sick had chest pains and pain in their forehead. Our legs were cold and numb ... The pain came fast and then went away," he said.
His claims reported by the centre -- a division of America's oldest rights group Freedom House -- could not be independently verified.
The Vietnamese foreign ministry was not available for comment.
The communist regime's treatment of religious groups not officially recognised by the state was condemned in December by the US State Department.
In its annual report on religious freedom, Vietnam was grouped in a worst offenders category of totalitarian and authoritarian states that view religious groups as "enemies of the state".
"Pain-inducing drug injections are a horrific violation of the integrity of the person," Nina Shea, the centre's director, said in a statement accompanying an English translation of Zong's letter.
"This shocking form of torture has been used in some of the world's most sinister regimes, including Nazi Germany and the USSR."
According to the letter, Christians in Na Ling village also faced expulsion if they did not abandon their religious beliefs.
The centre said the allegations of torture followed a pattern of reports of an anti-Christian wave of persecution in Lai Chau.
It called on the US government to designate Vietnam among the list of "countries of particular concern" for egregious religious freedom, a move that could ultimately lead to the imposition of sanctions.
Last year, the Washington-based organisation reported that police and soldiers had been sent to villages in Lai Chau to monitor and harass Christians and to pressure them to sign statements recanting their faith and pledging to re-establish ancestor worship.