Vietnamese newspapers have reported the sentencing of eight ethnic Hmong men to between two and two and a half years in prison, followed by two years' house arrest each, following a mass gathering of ethnic Hmong in the northwest province of Dien Bien in May last year.

The men, none of whom were reported to be leaders in the event, were given relatively lenient sentences given the charges of "disturbing public peace" and "helping to organise a mass gathering to push the government to cede land for an independent Hmong country". Vietnamese press reports described the men as "enthusiastic supporters of the incident" who had "earnestly confessed their criminal acts". The reports failed to mention the religious element to the events, instead describing the incident purely as a gathering to establish a separate Hmong country. The men are not thought to be Christian leaders.

The ethnic Hmong group had gathered following the teaching of two cult movements that were active among the Hmong ethnic group in early 2011. A Vietnamese government website erroneously portrayed the followers as Protestant Christians. The US-based Harold Camping cult, which taught that the world would end on 21 May 2011, gathered a following among the Hmong after Hmong-language materials were distributed. In addition, two men, both claiming to be "Messiah" figures appeared in Muong Nhe district. Many thousands of Hmong sold possessions and migrated from other areas of the country, including from as far as the Central Highland region, to follow this teaching. Hmong mythological belief suggests that a messiah will appear and establish a pan-Hmong kingdom.

In May 2011 CSW's sources reported that 130 men were detained and military personnel were sent to Dien Bien province, North West Vietnam to seal off the area where ethnic Hmong had gathered. Two cult leaders reportedly fled into the forest and were beaten by the military. Journalists and foreign diplomats are denied access to the Muong Nhe area and all telephone communications were cut.

At the time, church leaders within Vietnam told CSW they were concerned that the Hmong Protestant Christians who were not followers of the cult would be falsely identified as such. Since May 2011 security has been very tight and it has proven difficult to get information from the area.

The North-West mountainous region has suffered some of the most egregious abuses and restrictions on religious freedom in Vietnam. Up to 350,000 Hmong have converted to Protestantism since the late 1980s on hearing short-wave radio broadcasts in local languages. Several worrying developments in 2011 have led religious freedom experts to express concern that the religious freedom of ethnic minorities will be further restricted in 2012.

CSW's Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said, "CSW calls upon the Vietnamese government to uphold religious freedom for all its citizens including members of ethnic minorities. We encourage the authorities to allow access to the Muong Nhe area by independent observers to allow the international community to see the situation firsthand and to interview others detained in May 2011, about whom there has been little information."

For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Kiri Kankhwende, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0)20 8329 0045 / +44 (0) 78 2332 9663, email kiri@csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.

Notes to Editors:

1. The Vietnamese government has long been suspicious of the Protestant religion. According to Compass Direct, an official Vietnamese government website began a disinformation campaign against the Vang Chu religion (the name used by Hmong to describe their Protestant faith) accusing Hmong Protestants of drug smuggling, stealing land, destroying forests and being a threat to national security. The website also tied the Vang Chu religion to the recently-deceased Hmong General Vang Pao, who led CIA-supported Hmong forces in Laos against the communists during the Vietnam war, and supported a resistance movement in the years following. It suggests that the Vang Chu religious is a perversion of Protestantism and that it is being exploited by "enemy forces" to subvert communism.