Montagnard History
The St. Paul’s Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) family includes a growing membership of Montagnard refugees from Vietnam. The Montagnards at St. Paul’s began coming to the United States in 2002, starting with four of 81 men who had fled religious persecution in their central Vietnam mountain village, Plei Grak. Through Lutheran Family Services, St. Paul’s sponsored the four—helping acclimate the men in a variety of ways, including finding homes and jobs—and has subsequently worked with the U.S. and Vietnamese governments to help many additional members of their families to come to Raleigh.
Glun’s Story: Now I See
Our preacher today—in recognition of World Refugee Day—will be Glun Siu, a refugee. Glun was born in 1969 in Plei Grak, a hamlet in the mountainous area that separates former North and South Vietnam. He is a member of the Jarai tribe of the indigenous Dega peoples of the Indochinese peninsula. French colonists and missionaries dubbed the Dega people, “Montagnards” (mountaineers).
Montagnard tribes have experienced varying degrees of autonomy over the centuries, but, since their assistance to the South Vietnamese and U.S. forces during the civil war there, their religious freedom and property rights especially have been curtailed. Following the beatings and disappearances of several Montagnards in the wake of Easter 2004 protests in the central highlands, Human Rights Watch issued a report that stated, “During the last year, the Vietnamese government has increased its persecution of Montagnard Christians, particularly those thought to be following ‘Dega Protestantism.’ This is a form of Evangelical Christianity banned by the Vietnamese government, which links it to the increasingly popular Montagnard movement for return of ancestral lands and religious freedom. Prior to the Easter protests, authorities had dispatched hundreds of additional police and military to the region—often placing police officers in the homes of villagers suspected of political activity or returnees from Cambodia—and established military checkpoints along the main roads.”