[Vacets-local-dc] [Vietnam: Sane Pastor Held Captive in Vietnamese Mental Hospital]

[Hai Tran]

www.religionjournal.com  (6/17/2005)
 
Sane Pastor Held Captive in Vietnamese Mental Hospital


(CSW) Days before the Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai travels to North America on a diplomatic mission, news has emerged of a Protestant pastor being held captive in a mental hospital in Vietnam, despite being completely sane.

The story, which sounds much like a 1950's Soviet-era script, begins when the Rev. Than Van Truong of the Baptist General Conference house church organization, wrote some religious articles and sent some Bibles as gifts to Vietnam's top officials. He was subsequently arrested for "crimes against the state", and imprisoned without trial in May 2003. After his release, he was re-arrested for trying to leave his residence in the south to visit his aging and ailing mother in the far north of Vietnam. Officials had refused to reply to his several requests for permission to visit his mother, which is still required in this communist country.

In September 2004, the public prosecutor of Dong Nai Province diagnosed Pastor Truong as "mentally ill and delusional," and had him committed to the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital in Dong Nai Province. Injected with drugs, he was reduced to a lethargic state. After a time, medication was reduced and he improved. In March, 2005, he began writing lucid petitions about his case and asking for intervention. His case became well known after visitors to Mennonite prisoner-of-conscience Ms. Le Thi Hong Lien, who also was committed to the mental hospital, helped bring his situation to light.

The Rev. Truong's case was initially presented to the EU, to Canada and the United States, after which some countries engaged in quiet diplomacy on his behalf. A lawyer also agreed to help him. The lawyer obtained an admission from authorities that the criminal investigation had found nothing on him and was closed. He also got an agreement from the hospital to stop giving the pastor unidentified psychotic medications. The lawyer requested the hospital to give Pastor Truong an independent medical examination, which would clear him, and then release him. After an American diplomat tried to visit Pastor Truong on May 27, hospital authorities summoned Pastor Truong to a "medical examination" the following week.

The examination took the form of an interview with some eight people, some doctors and others unknown. They questioned the Rev. Truong mostly about his religious beliefs and his credentials as a pastor, which his interviewers refused to accept. The director of the hospital, a Dr. Tho, led the interview.

During an earlier interview, Dr. Tho had confirmed twice to Pastor Truong that he was in the mental hospital because he had "committed a crime [and] broken the law" even though the public prosecutor of Dong Nai had confirmed that the investigation against him had found nothing and was closed.

According to Pastor Truong, Dr. Tho acted more like a public security branch officer than a doctor. In what was apparently sometimes a bizarre argument between several Marxists and a lone Christian that had nothing to do with mental health, the doctors' perspectives dominated the discussion. They decided his firm Christians beliefs and his evangelistic attitude toward them qualified him as being delusional.

During the course of these events over the past several months, one courageous doctor at the mental hospital quietly confirmed to Mrs. Truong on several occasions that her husband had no mental problems. He also informed Pastor Truong that on three occasions he had recommended a new medical examination which would have led to his being freed, but hospital authorities had declined because his case involved "religion and politics."

Having finally caught the attention of the authorities, Pastor Truong is often visited by various doctors and officers, but it seems they cannot make up their mind on what to do with him. The public prosecutor who sent Pastor Truong to the hospital says there are no criminal charges against him. Pastor Truong's long-attending doctor at the mental hospital says he has no mental condition. Yet he remains effectively incarcerated in a mental hospital.

Pastor Truong last saw his usual doctor on June 10, and fears something may have happened to him. After three weeks of not being administered drugs, he was approached that night by another medic and given pills. When he declined to take them, the medic warned him that he would be injected in the morning if he did not comply. Understandably, Pastor Truong and his wife now fear for his safety.

A CSW source on Vietnam remarked, "Even though authorities themselves have confirmed that Pastor Truong is neither criminal nor crazy, they still incarcerate him in a mental hospital. It sounds like the Soviet Union 50 years ago."

Tina Lambert, Advocacy Director of CSW, said, "The release of this story should embarrass the Vietnamese Prime Minister, who is about to go to the U.S. to convince America that all is well in Vietnam. At the same time, a delegation from Dong Nai Province, the location of the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital, is visiting America on a trade mission. It is time the West confronts the reality of Vietnam's flagrant disregard for the religious freedom of her people."






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