Vietnam police detain 18 Catholics after clashes

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

HANOI, Vietnam — Clashes broke out after Catholics erected a makeshift place of worship in central Vietnam on a site where American bombs destroyed a church during the Vietnam War. Communist authorities detained 18 people.

The confrontation started Monday when about 150 Catholics built the structure intended for religious services on the site of the Tam Toa church, which was destroyed by U.S. planes in 1968, Father Pham Dinh Phung said Wednesday by telephone from Quang Binh province.

"The police beat the Catholics, and some of them were bleeding," Phung said, adding that officers dismantled the makeshift church and took away the cross.

Police released two 15-year-old girls but the 18 others remained jailed, he said. "We strongly protest the beating and arrests of the Catholics and demand their immediate release," Phung said.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gWy6BiN1zxOVkwN1mV6s9-5M9H6gD99JDTTG0

[imdjh]

1. Catholics were among the first to be driven from North Vietnam.

[provis99]

2. like the Puritans were "driven" from the Netherlands?

Come on, dude. Don't insult the intelligence at DU.

[imdjh]

3. Probably not, since I am referring to Vietnamese Catholics