January 7, 2009
“Let my people go” (Exodus 9:1c)
THE CASE OF PASTOR NGUYEN THI HONG UNDER TRIAL AGAIN
According to the notice from family and the office of attorney Tran Vu Hai, the trial of female Pastor Nguyen Thi Hong will take place at 7am, 01/15/2009 at Saigon Municipal Courthouse at no. 131 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia street, district 1.
We have a few descriptions of Pastor Nguyen Thi Hong as follows:
Graduated civil engineering from the Polytechnic University of Saigon class of 84, she was the owner of Van Thanh cooperative and director of Tu Tri construction company, specializing in construction during the economic crisis of 1996. The company went bankrupt, at the time, there were no bankruptcy laws. Pastor Hong exhausted all efforts to overcome company losses. She sold two housing buildings on Le Van Sy street number 412 and all of her assets to repay the debt, but a small amount of debt remained and there was nothing else left to cover it. Moreover, Pastor Hong’s husband had just passed away in a traffic accident. Pastor Hong had five small children and she no longer had the ability to raise them and she turned them over to her mother. Without a place to stay, Pastor Hong returned to live at her cousin, Ms. Chin’s house, who is a Mennonite. Seeing the lost of faith and desire to live of Pastor Hong at the time motivated Ms. Chin to invite the Mennonite Church to witness her acceptance of the faith and Pastor Hong became a Christian. Faith helped Pastor Hong rise again, studying at the Calvery Bible School in Singapore and Union College of California (Vietnamese Theology) in Cambodia. Pastor Hong graduated with a degree in theology and became a pastor on September 22, 2007 and an educational assistant of the Mennonite Church of Vietnam.
As a way of repaying the Lord for saving her life, Pastor Hong used all of her energy and effort to serve God and the people. She instilled faith in thousands of workers. As an intellectual and someone experienced in life, Pastor Hong is simple in nature, loves to learn, and sincere, helping everyone without any distinction or any intention to damage national security.
Pastor Hong and her children often provided food for poor individuals who petitioned the government and staged a sit-in outside the National Assembly building in the south in 2007; visited and sent gifts to families of prisoners of conscience like Attorney Tran Quoc Hien, Truong Quoc Huy; collected research documents on ideology, history, society, religion, culture, laws; and even helped the people whom the government of Viet Nam bode ill will.
Perhaps because of all this that old stories, which should have been a normal civic responsibility as a result of economic downturn, became the excuse for the government of Vietnam to unreasonably pursue criminal responsibility in order to place under arrest Pastor Nguyen Thi Hong for the past 14 months!
In fact, the security investigation agency should consider the background of Pastor Hong and suggest eliminating suppression measures, or place her on bail awaiting trial, but they coldly imprisoned a homeless woman, and an intellectual full of energy, and also a faithful individual. They should have helped her in the name of a government for the people, a revolutionary government like they have advertised to the poor people of Vietnam for the past 70 years!
In this ninth plenum of the central committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, if the issue of prisoners of conscience is not brought forth for discussion in order to return their freedom, indeed no single accomplishment from this meeting can be more meaningful in the eyes of human conscience!
