E/CN.4/1999/58/Add.2 page 23 (a) Suspension of religious services by the security service, financial penalties for religious officials and confiscation of all religious literature; (b) Confiscation or even destruction of places of worship (for example, in December 1997, Tanh My church in Lam Dong province, which had been confiscated after 1975, then used as a public library and later abandoned, was bulldozed, despite the submission by a Protestant organization of a request for its return in accordance with Directive No. 500 HD/TGCP); (c) Harassment and arrest of pastors. For example, pastors Lo Van Hoa, Lo Ven Hen and Nguyen Van Vuong were arrested on 14 March 1996 and 13 April 1996 in the Dien-Bien district of Lai-Chau province and sentenced in September 1996 to 36 months' imprisonment; (d) The situation appears even more difficult for ethnic minorities in the north of Viet Nam - the Hmong, Hre, Jeh and Jera - because of a sharp rise in conversions to Protestantism (according to certain information, 120,000 Hmong have turned to Protestantism during the last eight years); (e) Arrest and detention of pastors and faithful, financial penalties, confiscation of religious books, destruction of places of worship and other measures aimed at forcing Protestant believers among these minorities to renounce their faith and desist from all religious activity (for example, according to a Hmong petition of 3 October 1997, in Ho Giang province, 300 Hmong Protestants from the town of Bach Son, the hamlet of Thuong Tan and the district of Bac were arrested and ill-treated simply because of their religion); (f) Protestant religious properties (places of worship, seminaries and educational and health establishments) confiscated after 1975 have not been returned despite requests from Protestant congregations. For example, the Institute of Theological and Evangelical Studies at Nha Trang in Khanh Hoa province, which was seized by the Khan Hoa Peoples' Committee in 1978, was rented out to Australian entrepreneurs for the construction of a hotel complex, despite several requests for its return submitted by the Protestant Church; (g) Since 1975, the authorities have authorized only one class of 13 students to receive Protestant religious training. No Protestant theological training establishment is authorized, thus forcing religious congregations to organize private training for pastors. The ordination of pastors, which the authorities want to supervise, is rarely authorized. F. Muslim community 95. The information below was obtained from the authorities and from the Muslim Association of Viet Nam. 1. Information from the authorities 96. The information obtained from the authorities relating to the situation of the Muslim community, and contained in chapter II, is still valid.