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Vietnam tightens control on religion
By Alan Boyd
Asia Times (03.10.2003)/ HRWF Int. (06.10.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net/ - Email: info@hrwf.net - Activists and Western governments are turning up the heat on Vietnamese authorities ahead of the trial of a dissident monk whose apparent abduction while traveling abroad has tested the limits of Hanoi's self-proclaimed religious tolerance.
Buddhist groups claim that Thich Tri Luc was kidnapped by secret police in Cambodia in July and bundled back across the border to silence his outspoken human-rights views, even though he had refugee status.
Thich Tri Luc's trial was originally scheduled for August 1, but the hearing was postponed after a clamor of protest from the European Commission, human-rights activists and the United Nations, which earlier brought the monk under its official protection. The trial is now expected to commence by the end of October, and will probably be conducted under internal-security laws in a closed court. Thich Tri Luc faces a jail term ranging from three years to life if he is convicted.
In an effort to strengthen religious tolerance, prominent Buddhist leader Thich Quang Do stepped up pressure on political authorities this week by appealing directly to Prime Minister Phan Van Khai to stop harassing the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), which has been banned since 1981. In a rare display of criticism against the ruling Communist Party, Thich Quang Do, 75, implied that Phan Van Khai had reneged on pledges made earlier in the year for a more liberal attitude toward religion.
"Your frank declarations gave Buddhists the hope that we might at last begin to heal the wounds inflicted upon our community throughout years of unceasing repression, not only since reunification [in 1975], but also when our country was partitioned" into North and South Vietnam, he said. Instead, believers had been subjected to "grave violations of human rights and democratic freedoms ... [including] interrogations, harassment and intimidation".
Thich Quang Do and Thich Tri Luc - whose secular name is Pham Van Tuong - are the public faces of a movement that has created a dilemma for Hanoi as it strives to present a more humane image abroad while maintaining the political status quo at home.
Vietnam's 30 million Buddhists and 7 million Christians do not threaten the party's grasp on power; they are splintered, have limited access to finances and are not usually viewed as militant. Hanoi contends that 22,000 temples, churches and other religious venues have been allowed to operate openly throughout the country with a minimum of supervision, attracting crowds as large as 200,000 for festivals. Two years ago the communist state actually lifted a ban on the activities of Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV), a Protestant grouping.
The sting is that this massive community has been used, according to the Government Religious Board, to galvanize support for human-rights positions and even lobby for increased democratization. As a result, hundreds of monks and priests have been detained during the past decade under Article 91 of the Criminal Code for allegedly trying to "contact outside organizations in order to undermine the Vietnamese government".
Thich Tri Luc was first placed under "pagoda arrest" during a government crackdown in 1992 after the UBCV protested against the treatment of Buddhists and called on the state to respect religious freedom, according to Amnesty International (AI).
He was detained again in November 1994 for assisting a flood relief effort in the Mekong Delta that used sandbags printed with the UBCV logo, serving 30 months in prison and a subsequent five years under house arrest.
Required to report monthly to the security police, restricted from traveling, forced out of the pagoda where he lived and deprived of a range of other personal rights, Thich Tri Luc fled to Cambodia in April of this year seeking political asylum.
Police said he was stopped at the border while trying to "undermine the government"; but the UBCV claims he was taken from a guesthouse in Phnom Penh and forced to return to Hanoi, despite being under the care of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"It became clear to me that there was no way for me to continue living in Vietnam. My rights and daily way of living were being trampled by the authorities. Please help a member of the Buddhist church who has just escaped from Vietnam's harsh yoke," Thich Tri Luc wrote in a letter to New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) when he was in Phnom Penh.
Prior to Thich Tri Luc's arrest, Thich Quang Do, the deputy leader of the UBCV and Vietnam's most famous dissident, was placed under "probationary detention" in June 2001 for launching an "Appeal for Democracy in Vietnam", but restrictions were lifted in June. In April he helped arrange the landmark meeting between Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, 86, the patriarch of the UBCV, who has been held under house arrest without trial for more than 20 years.
According to the UBCV's version of the meeting, which is accepted by Western diplomats, Phan Van Khai acknowledged that mistakes had been made in the handling of the religious issue and gave an undertaking to ease state controls.
"There were some subtle improvements in treatment of religious dissidents after the Khai meeting, though I would have to say that the Pham Van Tuong [Tri Luc] incident could not have come at a more unfortunate time," said a European diplomat. "I think the message from the Khai session was that Vietnam regards the religious issue as an annoying distraction and is happy to leave the monks to their own devices as long as they keep their noses clean of politics."
But the US State Department noted in its latest International Religious Freedom Report that most restrictions were being retained, because "the Communist Party fears that not only organized religion but any organized group outside its control or supervision may weaken its authority and influence".
The report said the authorities mistrusted small non-conformist religious sects, especially those involving ethnic minorities such as the highland Montagnard Protestants, because they had evolved into social lobbying groups.
"Many of these Protestant ethnic minorities ... were not protesting for religious reasons, but rather were protesting against the loss of traditional homelands to recent migrants, mostly ethnic Vietnamese, and abusive police treatment in the provinces," the department noted.
Washington has officially protested at Hanoi's refusal to recognize the refugee status of Thich Tri Luc, while liberal members of the European Commission are pressing for a halt in the EC's aid to Vietnam until he is released.
But some Vietnamese observers believe that Phan Van Khai's more liberal stance is not supported by the hardline security branch, which has sought to remove potential risks by herding Buddhists into one tightly regulated congregation. In mid-September, police brutally broke up a UBCV rally in Binh Dinh province, where patriarch Thich Huyen Quang is under detention, apparently with the aim of preventing contact with the supreme leader.
While some prominent dissidents have been released from house arrest or given more lenient terms, there has been no evident change in the number of Vietnamese being held for alleged violations of religious decrees - believed to be between 40 and 50.
"I don't think we are going to see any real loosening up as long as religion is treated as a political rather than a human-rights issue," said another diplomat.
"[But] a tough sentence for Tri Luc could send the wrong message, for they have to be careful that the Tri Luc affair doesn't blow up in their faces by providing a martyr to the cause."
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Sentence of Vietnamese Catholic priest reduced from 20 to 15 years
Zenit.org (28.07.2003)/ HRWF Int (11.07.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Catholic priest Father Nguyen Van Ly, sentenced by a Hanoi court in 2001 to 20 years in prison, might receive a reduced sentence.
The information, reported by a Vietnamese newspaper on July 16, stated that judge Tran Cong Quyen had reduced the priest's sentence by 5 years, previously established at 15 years of prison and 5 of house arrest.
According to international observers, the clemency shown Father Ly, who has suffered repression from the government on other occasions because of his constant struggle in defense of freedom of religion, might be to improve Vietnam's image, which has been at the center of international criticism for civil rights abuses, MISNA agency reported.
In 2002, the European Commission mobilized in defense of the priest, and Amnesty International included him in its list of "prisoners of conscience."
Hanoi's more conciliatory attitude may also be due to Washington's decision made earlier this month, to implement an agreement with a "social clause" linking financial assistance to Vietnam -- of a non-humanitarian nature -- to respect for human rights.
Accused of undermining national unity and of violating the norms of religious freedom, Father Ly might be the second religious in recent times to benefit from the clemency of the Vietnamese magistracy.
In fact, at the end of June, two months ahead of time, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Do was released from house arrest, to which he was condemned in 2001.
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Monk in Vietnam presses for human rights
by Tini Tran
AP (10.07.2003)/ HRWF Int (11.07.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Vietnam's most celebrated Buddhist monk has spent a lifetime in and out of jail and house arrest for promoting religious freedom and democracy. Freed again two weeks ago, Thich Quang Do remains as feisty and outspoken as ever.
"People are very afraid of the government. ... Only I dare to say what I want to say. That is why they are afraid of me," the 74-year-old Nobel Peace Prize nominee said during an interview at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery where he was confined for two years. It was his first meeting with a foreign journalist since his June 27 release.
Shaven-headed, with a disarming gap-toothed smile, Do cuts an elfin figure in his brown robes. Yet as deputy head of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, his words carry weight.
As communist Vietnam embraces the free market and seeks foreign aid and investment, its weak human rights record is under increasing international scrutiny. While welcoming Do's release, Western diplomats and human rights groups remain wary of whether it signifies a true change of heart.
"Given the number of people who are coming in (to prison), a high-profile release, in and of itself, is not necessarily a big improvement," said Brad Adams of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Do's early release was a singular bright spot in a year that saw an intensified crackdown on political dissidents and continued persecution of ethnic minorities.
He credits international pressure, particularly from U.S. and European legislators, with helping shorten his detention, but believes it was a token gesture.
The Vietnamese government "wants to join the (World Trade Organization). That's important to them. So they have to ease up on human rights and religious freedom... But this is only temporary. In reality, they haven't opened up at all," he said.
Last month, Vietnam provoked an international outcry by sentencing dissident Pham Hong Son to 13 years in jail for circulating pro-democracy materials over the Internet. His major offense: translating a U.S. State Department essay titled 'What Is Democracy?'
Carlyle Thayer, a Vietnam expert with the Australian Defense Force Academy, believes Do's release one week later was an attempt to salvage international good will and perhaps mend fences with the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, whose leaders are seen as less threatening than political dissidents.
"The Buddhists have been arguing for religious freedom and the ability to control religious affairs. They're not trying to overthrow the Communist Party," Thayer said.
Vietnam maintains that its citizens enjoy freedom of speech and religion and only punishes lawbreakers. But its definition of crime raises questions.
In 1995, when Do was sentenced to a five-year prison term, the charges included sending two faxes to overseas Buddhists accusing the government of obstructing a church-sponsored flood relief mission.
During his latest confinement, Do was kept behind the red wrought-iron gates of the pagoda. His phone line was cut, he was denied visitors and letters, and security police were on duty round the clock.
Even now, "on paper, I am free, but they are always watching," Do said, bursting into peals of laughter.
After greeting guests in a small sitting room upstairs, he spoke at length about freedom, human rights and democracy. "In my opinion, these are more important than economic development," he said. "If we don't have it, we cannot make any progress in the real sense."
Do expressed particular concern over the heavy prison sentences meted out to several "cyber dissidents," and urged foreign governments to campaign privately and publicly on their behalf.
"They are simply asking for democracy and human rights, but the government is afraid of losing control, and tries to silence them," he said.
He could have been describing himself. His defiance of repressive governments predates the 1975 communist takeover of South Vietnam and the former Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. He was first jailed under Catholic leader Ngo Dinh Diem.
In 1981, the government created the Communist Party-controlled Vietnam Buddhist Church and forced Do into "internal exile."
International outcry led to early release from his 1995 sentence but he was again placed under house arrest in 2001.
In recent years, Vietnam has become more tolerant of public worship, and the faithful crowd into incense-filled Buddhist temples and Catholic churches.
But for Do, religious worship does not equal religious freedom and he plans to pick up where he left off.
"I must speak the truth and do what I believe is right. If it means being arrested again, well, I will accept it," he said with another defiant laugh.
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200 police halt church construction
Cooperation growing between Protestant and Catholic religious liberty advocates
Compass (30.06.2003)/HRWF Int (01.06.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - For the second time in three years, authorities in Thu Thiem district of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) halted the construction of a church building. This time, however, they did not destroy the initial construction, as Christians involved showed increased sophistication in their organization of the building project and in subsequent protests against government interference.
At 4 a.m. on June 9, building materials were transported to the building site. One group of Christians, wearing on their heads a white mourning cloth emblazoned with a red colored cross, gathered to pray at the site, while another group constructed the buildings frame. By 5 a.m., the frame of the temporary building had been completed.
At 7 a.m., an estimated 200 police arrived on the scene. The pastor of the church, Truong Van Nganh, and Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, a Vietnamese Mennonite activist, peacefully engaged the authorities. The police left after realizing they could not legally stop the building project. However, officers apparently sent a gang of trouble-makers to the scene to cause problems. The gang tried unsuccessfully to provoke the praying Christians.
The Christians called high police authorities, who eventually sent police to call off the trouble-making gang. Authorities then ordered electricity to the area cut, but the Christians had brought their own generator. An officer from the U.S. Consulate also appeared at the scene.
The incident ended when authorities seized and hauled away all the building materials but did not destroy the frame.
On June 16, the churchs building committee chairman, Mr. Le Thanh Dung, and treasurer, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Cuc, were summoned for police questioning. Police also called on the home of Rev. Quang on June 18. Investigations continue.
The Thu Thiem congregation belongs to the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), which was legitimized by the Vietnamese government in April 2001. Nevertheless on June 19, authorities ordered the ECVN (S) executive committee to work with Pastor Nganh and his congregation to dismantle their church building. This will likely prove an impasse, sources said, because the Thu Thiem church members have declared they will defend their church to the death.
Three years ago on July 1, 2000, authorities destroyed a similar church construction attempt. As a result, Pastor Nganh, along with Mennonite Pastor Quang, determined to obtain official approval for the churchs construction by carefully following and testing existing laws. In November 2001, with authorities stalling on the building permit request, Christians threatened a hunger strike on front of city hall. Because the hunger strike occurred on the eve of a visit from former U.S. president Bill Clinton, a building permit was immediately provided.
The building permit, however, included a requirement for an additional engineering permit. A year and a half later, that permit still had not been issued. In May 2003, Pastor Nganh requested a permit for a temporary building. According to law, applicants may proceed if officials do not respond within 20 days. When that period passed, the Christians proceeded with their early morning construction.
On June 13, four days after construction was halted, an account of the incident was distributed worldwide by the Vietnamese Catholic Conscience in San Jose, California. It was sent to human rights organizations, leaders of Western governments, and Protestant and Catholic advocacy groups.
The news was also circulated in Vietnam. On June 24, two Catholic priests in Hue, Peter Nguyen Huu Giai and Peter Phan Van Loi, published an unprecedented Letter of Solidarity with the Protestant Church in Vietnam. The two priests are supporters of well-known Father Nguyen Van Ly, recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for saying Vietnam lacked religious liberty.
In the letter, the priests thanked Pastor Quang for his courageous support of Father Lys three relatives, who are charged with treason. They also expressed strong support for the persecuted Montagnard Protestant Christians and for the Thu Thiem Christians involved in the church building project.
Cooperation between Catholic and Protestant religious freedom activists appears to be growing. The Catholic bulletin, Thu Nha (Letter from Home) connected to activist Father Stephen Chan Tin, recently published details about the persecution of Hmong Protestants.
In April, the prestigious Catholic journal Eglises d Asie (Churches in Asia) of the Paris Missionary Society published a French translation of Distinct and Conflicting Policies: Religious Human Rights in Vietnam -- The Protestant Experience, a paper authored by the Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
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Vietnam's war against Christianity
A dilemma for American foreign policy
by Scott Johnson
Assist News Service (21.05.2003)/ HRWF Int (27.05.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Communist regimes like Vietnam have never been known for their tolerance of religion but recently in 2003 Hanoi has escalated the persecution of its hill tribe Christians to an unprecedented level. In the Central Highlands of Vietnam the indigenous Montagnards or Degar Peoples are facing arrest, beatings, torture and even murder at the hands of Vietnamese security forces. This persecution did not go unnoticed this month in a damming report released by the US International Commission For Religious Freedom that stated, the increased repression of religious freedom has been reportedly sanctioned at the highest levels of the Vietnamese government.
Today in Vietnam the Montagnards ancestral homelands are currently sealed off from international observers as secret police enforce a campaign to crush the spread of Christianity. This repression is the culmination of years of systematic persecution of Vietnams highland peoples who were once allied with American forces during the Vietnam War. Over 40,000 Montagnards had served alongside US troops during that conflict where their loyalty and fighting prowess became legendary. It was however, a loyalty not appreciated by the victorious communists.
The Montagnards have been repressed by Vietnam for decades. This has got to stop, reported Human Rights Watch in April 2002. But the persecution has not stopped. One year later in April 2003 Human Rights Watch reported an escalation of repression, with the release of secret government documents ordering further repression of Christians. Churches have been destroyed while authorities force Montagnards to renounce Christianity. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also documented hundreds of political prisoners and even killings of Montagnard refugees who have tried fleeing to Cambodia. In fact, the Vietnamese/Cambodian border is patrolled by soldiers, where Cambodian authorities hunt down and sell refugees to Vietnamese police for bounties.
On the diplomatic front, the Vietnamese government has tried to hijack the Human Rights Commission by accusing those who speak in the UN against this brutality, of being terrorists. Kok Ksor, a committed Montagnard Christian and president of the US-based Montagnard Foundation has not only been declared a terrorist last year by Hanoi but has had his relatives in Vietnam tortured in retaliation for speaking out. Hanoi even demanded the United Nations kick the rights group that sponsored him to speak at the UN - the Transnational Radical Party - out of the UN for good, as a warning to other groups who try bringing such issues to world attention. Kok Ksor has however vowed, We will continue letting the world know how the Vietnamese communist government is committing genocide against our people. Courageously the Transnational Radical Party also has refused to buckle under threats from Hanoi.
But how does this persecution relate to foreign policy of the United States? Well for starters, the Montagnards were loyal allies to the US military during the Vietnam War. Thus the question arises - Is there a historical debt owed to these people by the United States?
Certainly many Vietnam Veterans think so. Some Special Forces veterans have launched a lobbying effort and website (Green Berets 4 Human Rights at www.gb4hr.net/) to assist in the passing of the Vietnam Human Rights Act. Having fought alongside the Montagnards these Green Berets understand what loyalty means. The act was re-launched this year in Congress by Rep. Chris Smith along with 30 bi-partisan colleagues The legislation calls for the halt of US non-humanitarian aid to Vietnam unless the Vietnamese government makes significant progress in improving human rights for all Vietnamese citizens. President Bushs administration too, has recognized the duty owed to the Montagnards and last year granted asylum to over 900 Montagnard refugees who had escaped the persecution in Vietnam.
But there are others in the United States who have forgotten or deliberately ignored the debt owed to the Montagnards.
Senator John Kerry is one of these. Last year he placed a hold on the original Vietnam Human Rights bill from coming for a vote to the Senate floor. While the House of Representatives had voted overwhelmingly in favor of it (410-1) Senator Kerry buried the act, along with the hopes and dreams of thousands of Montagnards and Vietnamese people. Unfortunately Kerry demonstrated that human rights are secondary concerns when it comes to doing business with Hanoi. The astounding thing about this is that Kerry himself is a Vietnam Veteran. He is also currently seeking the Democratic nomination for President.
True, the United States however, has strategic interests in dealing with Vietnam. Trade is one and the US/Vietnam Trade Council has lobbied very hard for entry into Vietnams markets. Vietnams ports and its strategic position in the South China Sea, not to mention offshore oil interests too have all had a hand in influencing US foreign policy with Hanoi.
For the Montagnards in Vietnam however, this is little comfort
On March 13, 2003 a Montagnard was shot and wounded by Vietnamese security forces while washing at a rivers edge. A few days later the police returned his battered corpse to his family. Human Rights Watch reported his skull had been crushed from apparent beatings whilst in custody.
On February 27, 2003 the villagers in Dak Lac province were paraded in front of three executed Montagnards - whose eyes had been cut out. The authorities threatened the villagers not to follow Christianity - or else. Over the past year Human Rights Watch documented numerous incidents where authorities conduct mass ceremonies forcing Montagnards to renounce Christ, sometimes while drinking sacrificed animals blood.
One thing is certain - no civilized nation treats its indigenous citizens in such a barbaric manner. It should also be certain that civilized nations today do not contribute further to such barbarity by collaborating with repressive nations like Vietnam.
Referring to Americas role with Vietnam Rep. Frank Wolf, R C VA, recently commented on those who worship at the shrine of trade. A courageous statement, he was hitting out on those who abandon justice in favor of trade. He was condemning those who practice economic prostitution with repressive governments like Vietnam.
And thus the United States must consider the debt owed to the Montagnards and to all the oppressed people of Vietnam. Particularly now, after the Iraq conflict has officially ended, for there exists the opportunity for the United States to change the destiny of not only Arab-Western relations for generations, but the destiny of the world. Potential future allies will be watching America and its role in upholding ideals and standing by the oppressed peoples of the world. For the Montagnards sake, lets hope todays leaders cast down - the idols worshipped at the shrine of trade.
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Priest imprisoned for urging freedom
Critique 'hurt the morality, ideas and soul of 80 million Vietnamese'
by Art Moore
WorldNetDaily.com (30.04.2003)/ HRWF Int (05.05.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Western groups are pressing the Vietnamese communist government to reconsider its imprisonment of a Catholic priest sentenced for speaking out in favor of religious liberty and social change.
The Rev. Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly, 56, was arrested in May 2001 after a trial without a defense lawyer or public audience, said the British charity Jubilee Campaign. The priest was sentenced to 15 years in solitary confinement and an additional five years probation.
In solitary confinement in Nam Ha province, Van Ly is barred from speaking to the guards who bring him his food and drink twice a day, Jubilee Campaign said.
During a rare visit from relatives, the priest declared: "My duty and my conscience required me to fight for the freedom of our church. If I had realized those terrifying situations for our church and had not done anything, I would have been guilty before God. Now I think I have accomplished my duty, I do not feel sorry for myself."
Amnesty International, which has adopted Van Ly as a prisoner of conscience, noted he had previously spent one year in prison from 1977 to 1978 and a further nine years between 1983 and 1992 for ''opposing the revolution and destroying the people's unity.''
Lord David Alton, a member of the British House of Lords, said he met with Vietnamese officials earlier this year and asked for clemency for Van Ly and his early release.
During a visit to Hanoi with U.S. Rep. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa., Alton said he brought up Van Ly's case with Le Quang Vinh, head of Vietnam's Committee on Religion.
Quang Vinh denies religious persecution occurs in Vietnam and insists people like Van Ly have been arrested for acting subversively against the Communist Party:
"It was not because he contacted the Congress," he said. "Van Ly tried to upset the people. He encouraged their illegal right to own land, he lied that there was no true freedom in Vietnam and he refused to obey the authorities and accept their control. He armed his group to fight the authorities."
Alton said he asked the government official where Van Ly bought his guns and weapons. Quang Vinh replied, "They had sticks and knives, not guns."
Alton insisted "the reality is that a group of about 35 frightened parishioners had gathered for sanctuary in his church" when it was surrounded by 600 armed security officers C a report confirmed by Dang Cong Dieu, chairman of the People's Committee in Phy An.
Quang Vinh later contacted Alton and Pitts to say the number of officers was 200.
The official told the foreign lawmakers they could not visit Van Ly but promised to place their plea for clemency before Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.
"As the Vietnamese prime minister now reconsiders the case we need widespread international pressure," said Alton, who noted that Van Ly has peacefully campaigned for religious freedom for more than 30 years.
Vietnam's official line, as reported by its news agency, is Van Ly was arrested at An Truyen church, Phu An commune, in central Thua Thien-Hue province, for his alleged "failure to abide by the decisions on his probation issued by authorized state agencies." He was charged with defying a state order of confinement and "undermining the state policy of great unity."
Under party control
Vietnamese authorities allow a greater degree of religious freedom than in the 1990s, but the government still keeps all religious institutions in its control under the umbrella of the Communist Party's Fatherland Front. Members of unsanctioned groups frequently suffer harassment, arrest and imprisonment, and the state-approved organizations face many restrictions, including limitations on training and ordination of clergy.
Vietnam has a Roman Catholic minority of about 8 million among its mostly Buddhist population. Protestant churches are growing rapidly, particularly among tribal groups. Other faiths include the indigenous Cao Dai and Hoa Hao movements.
Wilfred Wong, Jubilee's researcher and parliamentary officer, said Van Ly is one of numerous Christians imprisoned for their faith in Vietnam, including believers from the Hmong, Degar and Mien ethnic minorities.
"Some have even been executed by lethal injection, and we know that this has happened to Montagnard Christians in the Central Highlands," he said. "The ethnic minority tribal Christians in Vietnam are bearing the brunt of anti-Christian persecution."
In written testimony submitted to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in February 2001, Van Ly called on the Communist government to allow the churches to appoint their own priests, to stop listing a person's religious affiliation on their ID card, to return confiscated property and to release those held for their religious beliefs.
He also had urged Congress to postpone ratification of a bilateral trade agreement while religious persecution persisted.
In response to his U.S. testimony, the Vietnamese army newspaper Quan Doi Nhan Dan said Van Ly's "move to invite foreign hostile forces to intervene in Vietnam's internal affairs is nothing other than setting the snake to one's own hencoop."
The Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan said: "What a crazy idea he has! He has hurt the morality, ideas and soul of 80 million Vietnamese at home and several million Vietnamese living abroad."
The paper said, "Ironically enough, Ly, passing himself as having acted on behalf of justice and human rights, has said foul, groundless slanders and distortion against his motherland."
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American and European diplomats visit patriarch of banned Buddhist church
AP (17.03.2003)/ HRWF Int (19.03.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Diplomats from the European Union and the United States have met with the hospitalized patriarch of a banned Buddhist church for the first time in more than two decades, a Paris-based Buddhist support group said Monday.
Thich Huyen Quang of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam was visited last Wednesday by two members of the European Union delegation of the European Commission to Vietnam and a representative from the U.S. Embassy, the International Buddhist Information Bureau said.
Quang, 86, has been under house arrest since 1992. He was sent to Hanoi from central Vietnam to undergo surgery on a growth near his eye following international pressure to move him after it was determined local medical facilities were inadequate.
Quang was too weak to attend a meeting the following day, but he sent another member of the church who met with eight diplomats from Austria, Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Sweden and Italy, the Paris group said in a statement.
They discussed the ban on some religions and the detention of Quang and Thich Quang Do, the second-highest member of the Unified Buddhist Church, who is also under house arrest, the statement said.
In 2001, the European Parliament passed a resolution directing a delegation to meet with detained religious leaders and appraise religious freedom in Vietnam. However, that request was turned down by the Vietnamese government.
Quang's Unified Buddhist Church is one of a number of independent religious groups banned by Vietnam's Communist government, which permits only seven religious organizations to practice. The church has refused any leadership imposed by the government.
Vietnam says its citizens enjoy religious freedom and insists it holds no prisoners of conscience. But it forbids any independent organizations that might challenge its political and social control.
Vietnamese officials were not available for comment Monday.
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Vietnam pressured to release religious leaders
Radio Australia News (18.03.2003)/ HRWF Int (19.03.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Members of the European parliament have urged Vietnam to immediately release two aging Buddhist leaders.
Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do, who lead the banned Unified Buddhist church in Vietnam, are both under house arrest.
In a letter to Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, the European leaders said the pair was being detained solely for non-violently advocating religious freedom and human rights.
Thich Huyen Quang, 86, has been kept under effective house arrest since 1982.
Thich Quang Do, 74, was sentenced to two years' house arrest in June 2001, mainly for having launched a campaign for democracy in Vietnam.
He is currently living in a monastery in southern Ho Chi Minh City.
The Unified Buddhist Church has been banned in Vietnam since 1981.
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Vietnam announces new measures to control religion
Greater Communist infiltration of religious organizations planned
Compass (28.01.2003)/HRWF Int (29.01.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The powerful Central Committee of Vietnam's Communist Party went into its Seventh Plenum on January 13 promising to carefully address the sensitive issues of religion, land and ethnic minority unrest. It emerged nine days later, on January 21, to announce that it had passed four new resolutions, including one to better control religion.
According to Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan, this was the first time the Central Committee has passed a resolution specifically on religion. Usually, religious matters are left to lower, less powerful governmental bodies.
The issues arose because of minority unrest in the Central Highlands two years ago over confiscated land and lack of religious freedom. Vietnam responded to that unrest in a heavy-handed way. It has been accused by organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International of serious human rights violations of Montagnards, a collective name for Vietnam's many minority tribal groups inhabiting the Central Highlands. Compass reported last month that authorities had disbanded over 400 churches in Dak Lak province alone in the fall of 2002, falsely accusing virtually all minority Christians of involvement in a political plot to overthrow the regime.
According to an official communiqu provided to Compass by Vietnamese sources, the resolution on religion appears aimed at Vietnam's six approved religions. It calls for the establishment of cells of Communist Party members within the approved religious organizations.
A January 27 "South China Morning Post" article described the development as "cementing the control of religion from within."
Vietnam observers believe this will cause problems for the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), which received legal recognition two years ago. So far, the ECVN (S) has successfully resisted being controlled by a small number of "government-friendly" leaders who have close relations with the Bureau of Religious Affairs.
Protestant Christian leaders, many of whom belong to groups still considered illegal by the government, express even more alarm. They reason that if "legal" religious organizations will be subject to an "increase of state management and guidance of religious affairs," then pressure will increase on the majority of Protestants, especially Montagnard and Hmong Christians, whom the government considers illegal. These groups have long been subject to Vietnam's internal policy on religion, with its systematic campaigns of harassment, control, repression, and persecution.
Vietnam also calls on religious believers to "volunteer" in the struggle "to foil hostile forces who abuse religious and ethnic minority issues to sabotage the great national unity and act against the political regime." Any questioning of the regime's policies is illegal and considered a hostile activity.
It is certain that the effects of harsher scrutiny of religion will serve to drive even more religious activity underground. This is happening at a time when Vietnam has been severely criticized by governments and by human rights organizations, and has been on a public relations blitz to try to convince the world that it is making steady progress in the area of human rights.
"Vietnam is clearly going backwards," is how one long-time Vietnam observer summarized recent events. "When you hear words like 'guidance' and 'control' and 'hostile forces' in connection with religion, you can be sure people of the Christian faith will suffer even more."
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Vietnam targets Christian Protestants in crackdown
Voice of America (21.01.2003)/ HRWF Int. (22.01.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A human rights group has accused Vietnam of persecuting Protestant Christian minorities in its Central Highlands region. Human Rights Watch says more than 100 minority Protestants were arrested last year.
The New York-based group released a 19-page report saying communist authorities in Vietnam are routinely beating and detaining Montagnard Christians in the restive Central Highlands.
It says members of the minority Protestant group are imprisoned without trial, accused of separatist activities.
According to Human Rights Watch, Vietnamese officials had banned Christmas celebrations and outlawed gatherings of more than three people in an intensifying campaign.
Human Rights Watch says the crackdown is targeting church leaders and asylum seekers trying to flee the country.
The crackdown is part of what rights activists call a concentrated effort to stamp out Evangelical Christian churches in the area.
The Evangelical congregations, which often meet in people's homes, represent the fastest-growing religion among the minority tribes in the Central Highlands. But they are also illegal.
Vietnam's communist government allows only religions that submit to state approval of their leadership - a condition the Evangelical Protestants refuse to meet.
Vietnam has blamed the Christian churches for helping stir up anti-government sentiment, which led to mass riots in three provinces nearly two years ago. More than 20,000 hill tribe people reportedly participated in the protests.
Human Rights Watch said the government crackdown that began after the protests has not slowed. It says more than 100 Montagnards were arrested last year, including about 30 in December.
More than a thousand Montagnards have fled to neighboring Cambodia since February 2001. The United States has agreed to resettle most of them. The Montagnards fought on the side of U.S. forces against the North's communist troops during the Vietnam War.
Vietnam did not respond to the report immediately, but in the past has denounced Human Rights Watch for "distorting" the situation in the Central Highlands. The area has been off limits to foreign journalists and monitors for nearly two years.
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Vietnam government to allow Protestant ministerial training
Protestant leaders see permission as a small step towards religious freedom
Compass Direct (16.01.2003) / HRWF Int. (20.01.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Twenty-seven years after forcibly shutting down the Nha Trang Theological Seminary, Vietnamese authorities on January 3 granted permission to the Evangelical Church of Vietnam-South, or ECVN (S), to open a class for training church leaders. Although a few see it as a hopeful sign, most of Vietnam's Protestant leaders see it as a very small step on the road to religious freedom.
The ECVN (S), representing over half of Vietnam's 1.2 million Protestants, received official recognition in April 2001, after some 27 years of existing in legal limbo. Hundreds of thousands of minority Christians historically related to the ECVN (S) are still considered "illegal" by the communist government. Over 400 churches in Dak Lak province were forcibly disbanded in the fall of 2002.
The ECVN (S) had made the opening of a Bible college its foremost request since legal recognition was granted in 2001. For years the church had sought the return of its substantial seminary campus at Hon Chong in Nha Trang, confiscated in 1976.
Authorities told the church that new negotiations to open a school could not include reference to the seized campus. Rather, the church could prepare a temporary facility in Ho Chi Minh City and, pending permission, use it for two years while it built a new seminary. Under this arrangement, the ECVN (S) requested authorization to train 100 students.
The permission, long delayed, came with further conditions. Only one class of 50 male students would be allowed to study. The prospective students would also need approval by the government after being accepted for study by the church. The ECVN (S) hopes to have an opening ceremony for this class of seminarians on February 14, 2003.
While Vietnam's authorities will cite this modest move as evidence of religious freedom, Vietnam's Protestants see this at very best as a glass half empty, rather than half full.
Hundreds of Protestant congregations formed in the last quarter century successfully developed alternate means for the training of pastors/leaders. Those systems will likely continue, even as the church experiments with a legal seminary under the watchful eye of the Bureau of Religious Affairs.
The only other government-approved training of church leaders allowed since 1976 was for one class of 15 students in Hanoi, trained in the early 1990's under the auspices of the small ECVN (North). Until now, the government still has not approved the appointment of some of the graduates of that program to church positions.
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