Religion disguised reactionary organisation unmasked in Vietnam

The organisation had been established by a number of exiled members of the outlawed FULRO, a former Montagnard resistance group, under different names such as the Evangelical Church of Christ of Vietnam or Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) Evangelical Church of Christ.

Pursuing the goal of a separate State

This organisation’s activities were originally masterminded by Y Hin Niê, a Protestant pastor of the Ede ethnic group in Dak Lak province who is now living in exile in the United States.

The former Colonel and Foreign Minister of FULRO III had founded the United Montagnard Christian Church (UMCC) with its headquarters in North Carolina and other branches in the US and Canada. Its main goal is to gather forces, incite separatism and self-rule, and plan to establish its own religion and a state of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

Under Niê’s direction, a reactionary organisation was rekindled in the homeland back in May 2017, under the name of the Evangelical Church of Christ of Vietnam (ECCV). Its executive board comprised four members, all of whom were residing  in Dak Lak province.

Between June 2017 and early 2018, police forces in the Central Highlands uncovered this organisation, prosecuting over 30 members in Dak Lak alone. However, FULRO members were able to team up with other hostile forces in exile in an attempt to revitalise this organisation by any means necessary.

At the beginning of 2019, Niê directed some of his key figures based in Vietnam, including his son Yjol Bkrong, to restore and develop the ECCV.

Following this, the group openly operated as a pure Protestant organisation, but behind the scenes, they were secretly collecting religious information and then sent it abroad. The documents, according to competent authorities, were used by Niê and his close aids in an effort to distort and accuse the Vietnamese State of violating democracy, human rights, and religious freedom at international forums.

In the middle of 2019, Niê’s son Bkrong began to drum up his ECCV campaign, by founding a new ECCV executive board comprising of seven members who were linked to FULRO activities, joined demonstrations, and caused social instability against the Government.

Through seized documents, relevant agencies discovered that the ECCV had developed seven branches with roughly 700 followers in the three Central Highland provinces of Dak Lak, Kon Tum, and Lam Dong, and in the two southern provinces of Binh Phuoc and Tra Vinh.

As soon as their plan were discovered, the police kept a close watch and smashed the organisation. In addition, the ECCV itself also found it hard to operate due to mutual suspicion and a conflict of interests in its leadership.

In September, 2019, A Ga, a man born in 1977 and is now residing in the US, set up another organisation in order to continue these activities against the State. A year later he changed the ECCV’s logo and name to the Evangelical Church of Christ of the Central Highlands (CHPC). The CHPC then appointed a provisional representative board comprising five members led by pastor A Dao, a resident of Kon Tum province.

A Ga is now wanted in the nation on charges of organising rings of people to flee the country illegally.

Unmasking the reactionary organisation

The CHPC managed to pass itself off under the disguise of a religious sect based in Vietnam. In fact, it was a reactionary organisation that was tasked with carrying out activities ultimately infringing upon matters of national security.

Similar to the outlawed Dega Protestant Church which was refuted by the country years ago, the CHPC gathered ethnic Protestants and reactionaries in exile to demand an independent state and simultaneously sabotage the State based on their unfolded accusations of religious freedom and human right violations. 

Since September 2020, the CHPC had admitted a number of followers in the five Central Highland provinces of Dak Lak, Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Nong, and Lam Dong, and its neighbour Phu Yen.

After keeping the CHPC under surveillance, the police were able to grasp all illegal activities of this organisation, before seizing a haul of important equipment and documents.

One of the active members of the CHPC in Dak Lak is Y Krec Byă, also known as Ama Guon, a FULRO member who was sentenced to eight years in prison on a charge of undermining the State’s national unity policy.

In 2013, after being released from prison for only a year, Y Krec joined FULRO again and operated in secret. His activities were detected by the police and the man was required to undergo a review in front of the people.

Incited by the CHPC leadership, Y Krec agreed to join the outlawed organisation and was appointed by A Ga as treasurer of the provisional executive board. He had successfully persuaded 15 people, mostly Protestants, to join the CHPC since March 2020, until his plan was ultimately uncovered by the police.

The authorities described the activities carried out by such disguised religious sects in the name of Christ as dangerous, as through their activities they gather and incite followers to cause disturbances, demonstrations, and riots. They tend to sow the ideology of separatism and self-governing with the ultimate goal of establishing a separate State within the UN-recognised Vietnamese State.

Judging from their ideology and activities, the authorities believe that the CHPC is a reactionary organisation operating under the guise of a religious sect aimed at harboring their subversive schemes to infringe upon issues of national security. Though CHPC leaders confessed to their crime, it is unlikely that they will give up their ambitions. As a result, they will receive harsh sanctions according to the law.