The incident took place last Monday night, in the south of the country. The attack, which was carried out without a warrant, saw uniformed and plainclothes police officers raid a private prayer house, beat up and arrest those present. Women and children were among the victims. Although the arrested were released, their papers and personal effects were withheld.

Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews/EdA) - Vietnamese police raided a private prayer home without a warrant. A group of 76 members of the Mennonite Church were present.

The raid took place on Monday night in Thai Hoa, Ben Cat District, in the southern province of Binh Duong, north of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). However, reports about it filtered through government censorship and reached Églises d'Asie (EdA) only now.

The study group - made up of pastors, missionaries, students and teachers - was spending the night in a chapel that belongs to the local Mennonite community.

Local sources said that at around 11.30 pm, at least 300 police officers, members of the security and plainclothes agents broke into the building.

Without any warning, the attackers forced the front door to get inside, brutally beating those present, then arrested them without any specific cause.

Previously, participants in the prayer meeting had asked the local authorities all the permits required by law, so there were no reasons for the raid that ended in violence and arrests.

Rev Dieu Dua said that the participants in the prayer meeting were sleeping at the time of the attack. They were awakened abruptly by police officers who, without a warrant, stormed the placed and began hitting everyone.

The violence did not spare anyone, neither priests, nor women or children. The group included 29 pastors and 47 other members, including theology students and teachers. All were crammed into three lorries and taken to a secret location.

They were released on Tuesday morning, but the authorities withheld their papers and personal effects.

The Mennonites are the largest Anabaptist Church, which has more than one and a half million members throughout the world, especially in the United States, Canada, Africa and India. In Vietnam, they are not officially recognised.

For some time, the Vietnamese government has pursued a campaign of attacks and abuses against religious believers and leaders; one case in point is that of Rev Nguyên Công Chin, a 44-year-old clergyman who was sentenced in March 2011 to 11 years in prison for trying to undermine "national unity" and "defaming the authorities."

In fact, the only thing he did was to ask for respect for freedom of religion and belief; in prison, he has been placed under a harsh regime and has often been ill-treated.

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• mennonites
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