A number of US congressmen have totally fabricated evidence about the
case at the Con Dau parish in the central city of Da Nang at a US
Congress hearing on Vietnam ’s religious freedom situation in front
of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on August 18, 2010.
The fabrication aims to smear Vietnam and to deceive US public
opinion when they say that Catholic followers were attacked by police
during a funeral and local authorities prevented Maria Dang Thi Tan’s
funeral, beat many people, leaving them wounded and causing the death of
Nguyen Thanh Nam as well as detained many local people in a land
dispute over the Con Dau cemetery.
The cased
happened in early May 2010. On the afternoon of May 6, 2010, a
spokesperson of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry stated, “The truth is
that this case (the Con Dau parish) has nothing to do with religion”.
The Con Dau cemetery is to be relocated as part of
Da Nang city’s new residential area development scheme that has
been widely publicised. Now the city is making compensation for site
clearance and the cemetery is not available any longer, said the
spokesperson.
Da Nang city’s Religion
Board said that a number of extremist elements had taken advantage of
Dang Thi Tan’s funeral to cause public disorder and fought against the
police in Con Dau hamlet, Hoa Xuan ward, Cam Le district, but they were
persuaded to stop their acts.
According to the
extremist elements’ statements, they incited the deceased woman’s family
and attacked the police during her funeral.
The
extremists group’s activities during Tan’s funeral on May 4, 2010 caused
discontent among the witnesses. Even many Catholic residents who
attended the funeral expressed their critical protest. Huynh Thi Phan, a
58-year-old resident of Hoa Xuan ward, is one of those lured to join
the extremist group who is now bitterly repenting her wrongdoing.
Fifty-three-year-old Nguyen Truong, another resident of Hoa Xuan
ward, who was head of the Con Dau parish’s dogmas committee for 19
years, said that the extremists did bad things to the deceased old
woman’s soul.
According to Da Nang city’s
Religion Board, Nguyen Thanh Nam, born on Dec. 24, 1967 and residing in
Hoa Xuan ward, Cam Le district, was found dead at home by his family at
13:30hrs on July 3, 2010. His family, which has a history of stroke,
reported to local authorities following his death that he died of
stroke. His family held a funeral for him with due religious ritual at
the Hoa Son cemetery with the assistance of local authorities.
However, US congressmen at the hearing before the Tom Lantos Human
Rights Commission have deliberately concocted a serious situation at Con
Dau parish to distort Vietnam ’s religious freedom and belief
situation to make the US administration put Vietnam back on the US
State Department’s list of “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC).
Their ill intention cannot deceive people and will absolutely fail./.
