ICC Note: Four more ethnic Hmong Christians have been sentenced to several years in prison for participating in a large gathering of Hmong Christians last year. They join eight other Hmong Christians who were arrested for participating in the event. Vietnamese authorities have long been working to discourage the growth of Christianity among the Hmong ethnic group, which has experienced something of a revival over the past thirty years. Tactics include arresting or intimidating new converts and pressuring them to renounce their faith in Christ. 
12/13/2012 Vietnam (UCA News) – Vietnam has jailed four people from the mainly Christian Hmong ethnic group for their roles in an alleged separatist plot to overthrow the communist government, state media reports today.
The men, aged between 27 and 38, were given sentences of between three and seven years at a one-day trial on Wednesday at a court in the northwestern province of Lai Chau, the Communist Party mouthpiece Nhan Dan said.
One of the men, Trang A Cho, had been sought by police since July 2011 for carrying out “propaganda against the State” and seeking to establish a “Hmong Kingdom” to “replace the State of Vietnam,” the report said.
The four join eight other Hmong men already jailed for “disturbing security” at a mysterious religious gathering last year, which Vietnamese authorities described as an attempted separatist uprising.
In May 2011 thousands of Hmong convened in the remote northwest, apparently awaiting the arrival of a “messiah”. Authorities broke up the gathering in circumstances that remain unclear.
At the time, unconfirmed reports said dozens of Hmong were killed or wounded by troops but Vietnamese officials have not confirmed any military involvement.
A local government leader later claimed that
the Hmong were armed.
Other officials said the Hmong were lured by unidentified “individuals with ill-intentions” who spread rumors that a “king” would arrive and lead them to a promised land.
According to Britain-based religious freedom group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), the Hmong have “a mythical belief in their culture that a ‘messiah’ figure will appear and found a Hmong kingdom”.
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