A Vietnamese pastor who has wrongfully been held and mistreated in a mental hospital has been released on last week, 17 September 2005, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
The Reverend Than Van Truong had been held in the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital in Vietnam’s Dong Nai Province for nearly a year despite calls for his release.
Rev Truong is a former officer in Vietnam’s Peoples’ Army. After becoming a Christian, he became a pastor in the Baptist General Conference house church organisation in Vietnam.
He was arrested and imprisoned in May 2003 without charges for nine months when he sent Bibles to top officials in Vietnam with an encouragement to consult the Scriptures for truth and wisdom.
But his second arrest followed in June 2004 after he was kept under close surveillance by authorities. The Dong Nai Province prosecuting authorities diagnosed Rev Truong as ‘delusional’ after being unable to charge any criminal offence against him, reported a Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) press release.
He was admitted to a high security section of the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital on 30 September 2004 where he was injected with unknown drugs upon arrival. The drugs caused him to become ill and very lethargic. Later, his health improved when he was given oral medication which he managed to not swallow, tell CSW.
Rev Truong wrote a report in 20 June 2005 of how he was transferred to an open ward of the hospital which he shared with many seriously ill psychiatric patients. He had been attacked by a number of patients.On this occasion, international advocacy has borne fruit relatively quickly and this is a great encouragement to us in our work.
Stuart Windsor, CSW's National Director
CSW had campaigned the Rev Truong’s case throughout. Vietnamese authorities grew frustrated and angered as the case increasingly received international attention, tell CSW.
The Dong Nai Province prosecuting authorities and the Bien Hoa mental hospital started to blame each other for the situation, neither taking any responsibility in account, reported CSW.
In addition, CSW revealed that no criminal charges against Rev Truong were brought about by prosecuting authorities and a sympathetic doctor working at the hospital had told his wife that no signs of mental disorder were found in him.
In the past few weeks, Rev Truong’s health improved as a result of having no drugs being administered to him. He took up his evangelistic activity and even managed to baptise fellow patients at the hospital.
According to CSW, the hospital discharge paper states that the diagnoses for Rev Truong was ‘confusion and delusion’ and that the pharmacist has ordered for him to ‘regularly take medication’.
After Rev Truong was discharged from the hospital, he went home to Ho Chi Minh City with his wife who came to collect him. He is currently consulting a Christian lawyer in the country to determine whether he should sue the authorities.
Along with Rev Truong, the total number of Christian prisoners or mental hospital inmates who were prisoners of conscience released this year is eight. Others remain in prison and Vietnam authorities consistently maintain that it has never imprisoned anyone for religious reasons, state CSW.
"We are delighted that Pastor Truong has been released and is back with his family,” said CSW's National Director Stuart Windsor. It is hard for us to imagine the torment he must have experienced simply for standing up for his faith.
"On this occasion, international advocacy has borne fruit relatively quickly and this is a great encouragement to us in our work. We will continue to put pressure on the Vietnamese authorities to treat all their citizens with dignity and respect, regardless of their religious or political beliefs."
