Read RFA coverage of this story in Vietnamese.
Two pastors of the Ede ethnic minority who lead independent Protestant house churches in the highland province of Dak Lak were shot in their legs in recent months.
The first one, Pastor Y Hung Ayun, 62, who oversees house church in Tara Puor village, was shot in his knee while riding a motorbike home on Dec. 1.
Along the way, two men with fully covered faces rode a motorbike close to his, the pastor said. The man sitting behind the driver pulled out a gun, shot him twice with rubber bullets in the left knee, and then they sped away.
The shooting left his knee bruised and swollen, Y Hung said.
The pastor said the attack was a warning because he didn’t have any conflicts or feuds with anyone.
“They attacked me to warn that I should withdraw [from the independent house church] and return to the [government-approved] Evangelical Church of Vietnam,” he told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.
Authorities closely monitor independent Christian house churches, which are unsanctioned by the Vietnamese government, and harass and intimidate their leaders.
They also disrupt or restrict their religious activities, at times confiscating Bibles, hymn books, cell phones, computers and cash owned by leaders, according to a 2024 report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Y Hung said he did not report the incident to the local police, though local officers dropped by his house the day after the attack to “to visit him,” but he was away.
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Y Hung previously served nine years in prison for “undermining the national solidarity policy.” After completing his probation, he participated in a training class in 2017 to become a pastor.
Since then, he has been closely monitored by police who have installed security cameras to monitor his home and require him to notify them when he goes away on long trips.
Shot in coffee field
Pastor Y Pho Eban, 57, who leads an independent house church in Cue village, was shot in leg on Sept. 25 while cutting grass in his coffee field.
Y Pho said three people in camouflage outfits approached him and told him in Kinh, Vietnam’s official language, that they were hunting civets, small mammals that live in Southeast Asia countries.
Later, while still working in the field, the pastor was shot and fell to the ground, though he didn’t know who shot him.
The attack left him with a bleeding wound, a deep hole in his leg and a chipped bone, he said.
Y Pho’s family sent him to a hospital so a doctor could remove the bullet and treat the wound, but he said he still can’t walk.
Y Pho, father of activist Y Quynh Bdap, said he did not report the incident to the local authorities.
“They hate me because I worship at a house church, which they absolutely forbid,” he told RFA. “They said we were not allowed to gather. Every time they summon me to the commune [headquarters], they threaten to ‘handle’ me and my family. That’s what they always say.”
Y Pho said he believes he was shot because he is the leader of an independent Protestant house church with 200 followers in his village.
He told RFA that two weeks ago, district police summoned five followers, threatening and forcing them not to go to Y Pho’s home to worship, saying, “He is a bad person and is about to be arrested.”
Later, police summoned other adherents, but the pastor said he told them not to go since “the invitations are only sealed, not signed.”
Y Quynh Bdap, 32, founder of the group Montagnards Stand for Justice, was tried in absentia by a Vietnamese court in January in connection with a June 2023 attack on two government offices in Dak Lak province that left nine people dead. He has denied involvement in the incident.
Vietnam has called on neighboring Thailand to extradite the Ede activist, despite concerns that he will face torture or death if sent back.
Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.