Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017
Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliament Religious Inquiry 2017
Bloc 8406 is one of the pro-democracy movements in Vietnam. Bloc 8406 was formed on the eighth of April, 2006 in Vietnam by 118 prominent Vietnamese people one of whom was the Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, a nominee for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize. Since then its membership numbers worldwide have increased significantly.
Even though Bloc 8406 is not legalised by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) Government, it has been a driving force in promoting democracy and fighting for human rights in Vietnam.
On behalf of all Vietnamese people including political and religious prisoners we are submitting the following facts and recommendations.
Acknowledgments
This submission is edited and contributed by the Bloc 8406 executives and team members as well as by Dr Thang Dinh Nguyen, CEO & President of BPSOS and Mr Thong Nguyen of Friends of Dong Yen Parish. We sincerely thanks Mr Thap Kim Tran and Dr Ky Hung Nguyen for their advices.
Our contact details:
Mr Anh Tuan Francis Pham
1 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Whilst Vietnam's 2013 constitution states that all people have the right to freedom of belief and religion, the SRV Government continues to limit and suppress religious activities. Many religious groups reported various forms of governmental oppression in the past forty years. In particular, the increased frequency of harassment over recent years was alarming. These include monitoring, restrictions on travel, physical assault, short-term detention, imprisonments, and denials of registration and permissions. This is particularly the case in the Northwest and central highland areas. At the height of all the government's oppressing activities are the demolitions of Lien Tri pagoda and the Dong Yen Parish's Catholic Church premise despite the protests of corresponding abbots and followers.
The current justice system appears to be a political apparatus of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) being used for trialling political and religious dissidents. The system fails to meet fair international standards. The main goal is to punish any dissenting voice from the people and to prevent any challenge to the Party's political monopoly.
The violation of freedom of belief and religion by the SRV Government was so severe that in its 16th report on religious freedom, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)1 recommended the US Government to put Vietnam back on the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC).
We believe that without active involvement and appropriate pressure from the international community and democratic governments such as the Australian Government, it is unlikely that the SRV Government will seriously fulfil its obligations in relation to freedom of belief and religion under international human rights treaties.
This submission comprises of the followings:
1. The religious eradication system;
2. The legal framework;
3. The national director;
4. The containment;
5. Religions of Viet Nam;
6. Means of oppressing and persecuting religions;
7. Examples of suppression;
8. Case studies of violation since December 2000;
9. Australia's policy towards Vietnam's human rights violation ;
10. Recommendations.
1 US Commission on International Religious Freedom , 2016 Annual Report.
2 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017
The religious eradication system
The destructive religious eradication plan began as soon as the communists started their roots. The plan is simply brutal but effective: confiscation, spies, invasion, forced eviction, forced renunciation, frame clergy of wrong doing, infiltrate, murder, poison. In the name of the people and revolution all religious properties are confiscated, all religious clergies and practitioners must obey CPV, and all Vietnamese must worship the late CPV leader, namely, Ho Chi Minh. Slowly old religious clergies die and the new generation of religious clergies are either spies, or bowed to CPV. Every step in the path to become a clergy is faced with conditions and challenges from both the religious belief and from the CPV. One cannot become a clergy without agreeing to certain CPV’s conditions. All the resistant parishes/pagodas are either broken into pieces and/or relocated to remote areas. All resistant religious figures are faced with criminal charges and jailed. Newly formed religious branches are formed and under controlled by CPV.
The plan was enforced by a deadly butcher: the specialised police force (A41) and thugs. A41 suppresses all religious activities and thugs destroy religious properties as well as bodily harm religious figures and followers.
To deceive the population and international community the SRV Government allows religious institutions to exist under the management of the Committee of Religious Affairs (CRA). Religion institutions provide training ground for A41 members and new generation of clergies. CRA implements CPV policies. Religion institutions and CRA religious figures become the mouth piece of the CPV at national and international events. These figures replace temple abbots, sit at government tables, become members of parliament and run the smear campaign against their own religions, harass and intimidate unsanctioned religious groups.
As the pressure of integration into international community for economical reason increases the system of religious eradication slowly changes to containment, and the speed of religious invasion becomes more urgent and ruthless. In all, the rights of religion and belief - through various decrees, ordinance and long-awaited law - has become less and less respected and protected. All the substances of true religion - justice, charity and a humble walk with God - are forged, fraud and deceit reign in the people and international community.
The legal framework
Since 1975, religion has been governed by a series of arbitrary government decrees. A shift from eradication to containment occurred in March 2005 when in 2004 the National Assembly passed an “Ordinance on Belief and Religion,” a measure one rank higher than a decree. The ordinance was followed by an implementing Decree 22 in 2005, which was replaced by a revised Decree 92 in January 2013. A special prime ministerial directive concerning Evangelicalism was also issued, in March 2005. Together, these documents were called the new religion legislation2.
The ordinance and related implementing documents were issued largely in response to strong US
2 US Commission on International Religious Freedom , 2013 Annual Report.
3 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 leverage and pressure surrounding Vietnam’s compelling need to join the World Trade Organization for economic betterment. To qualify for membership, Vietnam first had to be removed from the US’ blacklist of the world’s worst religious liberty offenders, so Vietnam had to do something significant. In preparation for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, Vietnam Constitution 2013 was harshly passed by the National Assembly followed by the law on Belief and Religion in mid- November 2016 (more than 15 percent of the assembly declined to support this legislation, unheard of in a parliament with a reputation for simply rubber stamping CPV’s policy).
Article 24 of Vietnam’s 2013 constitution states:
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of belief and religion, and has the right to follow any religion or to follow no religion. All religions are equal before law.
2. The State shall respect and protect the freedom of belief and religion.
3. No one may violate the freedom of belief and religion, nor may anyone take advantage of a belief or religion in order to violate the law.
Article 14, section 2 of Vietnam’s 2013 constitution defines the limitations on religious and other freedoms. The section implies it narrows the grounds for restrictions, but in fact they remain wide and allow for much arbitrary interpretation:
2. Human rights and citizens' rights may not be limited unless prescribed by a law solely in case of necessity for reasons of national defence, national security, social order and safety, social morality and community well-being.
This section provides the basis to derogate all rights and freedoms, including religious freedom.
The containment
Article 5 of the Law on Belief and Religion (2016)3 states that the abuse of freedom of religion to sow division among “the national great unity, harm state defence, national security, public order, and social morale” is prohibited. Wordings like “national great unity,” “national security,” and “social morale,” are vague and can also be arbitrarily used by the SRV Government to punish bloggers and human rights activists. Under article 32, candidates for religious appointments must “have the spirit of national unity and harmony” while under Article 22 religious education must include “Vietnamese history and Vietnamese law” as core subjects. Article 12 requires religious groups to register with the SRV Government for routine events like annual religious festivals, conferences, and conventions. It also requires government approval for going to the seminary, going to be ordained, going to be hired at a house of worship — a monk in a pagoda, a priest in a church or an imam at the mosque.
Prior to the promulgation of the Law on Belief and Religion (2016), the draft of this law was ill- received by the worshipping public and encountered a strong protest from the Interfaith Council of
3 Quố c H ộ i, C ộ ng Hoà Xã Hộ i Ch ủ Nghĩa Vi ệ t Nam, Lu ậ t Tìn Ng ưỡ ng và Tôn Giáo 2016 (Luậ t s ố : 02/2016/QH14)) (National Assembly, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Law on Belief and Religion 2016 (Law number 02/2016/QH14)).
4 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017
Vietnam. The Council claimed that:
"As the spiritual leaders who are struggling for the freedom and independence of the religions as well as the human rights and civil rights of our people, we totally rebut the whole text and every article of the Draft of the Law on the Religions that the Vietnam government has composed with the purpose of using administrative violence to eliminate religions so that they can consolidate the dictatorship of the Vietnam communist party"4.
The UN Special Rapporteur for belief and religion, Heiner Bielefeldt, said in his 2105 report to the UN Human Rights Council “The exercise of freedom of religion or belief cannot be rendered dependent on any particular act of administrative approval; as a universal human right, it is inherent in all human beings, prior to any acts of registration or official recognition.”5 And the Vietnam Law on Belief and Religion was designed to closely monitor and tightly control all religions and religious activities, not to promote and protect rights of religion and belief.
The national director
The task of managing religious affairs was delegated to Committee on Religious Affairs (CRA); a large bureaucracy created by the CPV and is the director of religious activities in Vietnam. Its function and role was unclear in the past until 2015. The Prime Minister’s Decision 06/2015/QD- TTg defines the functions, responsibilities and authority, and the organizational structure of the CRA within the Ministry of the Interior.
The director of the CRA is required to be a deputy minister of the Ministry of Interior. The current head is Mr. Pham Dung, a general from the security services. There are three vice-directors. The most well-known is Dr Bui Thanh Ha, a no nonsense colonel who also came from the Ministry of Public Security. Another, Ms. Hoang Thi Thao, in charge of the Evangelical Christianity department of the committee, recently was promoted to a higher rank in the security services. The Committee on Religious Affairs’ relationships to public security organs are not subtle. It has 15 departments including separate ones for Catholicism, Buddhism, Evangelicalism, and Caodaism.
The prime minister’s five-page decision makes clear that the CRA is the chief agency to strategically advise the interior ministry and the entire government on religion policy and manage all religious affairs. It is a legal entity, endowed with the seal of the CPV, and has its own budget. It reports to the Minister of the Interior and to the Prime Minister. It drafts and proposes laws and regulations to the same.
Among more than 20 “responsibilities and authority” items, the CRA organises the implementation of all religion laws and regulations. It prepares and promulgates all directives to guide the implementation of religion policy. It publicises, propagandises and leads in the implementation of constitutional provisions for religious freedom and abuse of religious freedom. It solves all religion problems “according to the law.” It coordinates on religion matters with all other concerned government agencies. It controls the publication of all religious literature. It is responsible for the
4 The Interfaith Council of Vietnam, 2015. Letter of Protest against the Law on the Religion 2015. 10 May 2015. 5 Reimer, R., 2015, An Analysis: The “Great National Unity” requires a great big bureaucracy.
5 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 scientific study of religion policy. It trains staff to specialise in religion work.
In order to carry out all these functions, the CRA maintains a huge bureaucracy that parallels Vietnam’s administrative structure. Its broad scope insures it will be strongly self-perpetuating.
Religions in Vietnam
Despite Vietnam is an atheist state as much as 99% of its citizens are religious. Religion has exerted a deep influence on Vietnamese culture and the Vietnamese concept of life. The attitude towards life, death, and the world beyond bears a deep imprint of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Vietnam has six major religions, namely Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Caodaism and Hoa Hao Buddhism.
Buddhism: Buddhism was first introduced into Vietnam by Indian preachers and later by the Chinese. Buddhism became the state religion of Vietnam under Ly Dynasty (1010-1214). Several kings took the cassock or retired into a pagoda after their abdication. Buddhist monks served as counsellors to the king at court. Since the Tran Dynasty (1225-1440), Buddhism has lost the status of a state religion but nevertheless remained the dominant religion in Vietnam and a major cultural force. Theravada Buddhism was first introduced in southern Vietnam in the 4th century. Most Theravada Buddhist followers are Khmer people living in the Mekong Delta, thus called Khmer Theravada Buddhism.
Catholicism: Historians believe that Catholicism was first introduced in Vietnam in 1533. From 1533 to 1614, priests of Portuguese Order of St. Francis and Spanish Order of Preachers accompanied merchant ships to Vietnam. From 1615 to 1665, priests of Portuguese Society of Jesus entered Vietnam from Macau (China), both in Dang Trong (south of Gianh River) and Dang Ngoai (north of Gianh River). About the middle of the seventeenth century, preaching of Christianity was banned in Vietnam. Despite the proscription, Catholic missionaries continued their evangelization of Vietnam. Under the Nguyen dynasty, especially under Kings Minh-Mang, Thieu Tri, and Tu Duc, the Christians were persecuted and labelled "perverse to the public order." Using the persecution of Christians as a pretext, the French conquered Vietnam in the second half of the nineteenth century. Under the French administration, the Catholics enjoyed the support of the government. It was during the Ngo Dinh Diem Government that the Catholics filled key positions in the government, the army, and the police. Today there are about three million Christians in Vietnam, most of them Catholics. Although they represented a small percentage of the population, the Catholics played an important role in the political life of Vietnam during the last three decades prior to the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Protestantism: Protestantism was first introduced in Vietnam in the late 19th and early 20th century by the Christian and Missionary Alliance – CMA, later than other religions.
Islam: In Vietnam, Muslim followers are mostly Cham people. According to historical records, the Cham were converted to Muslim in the 10th and 11th centuries. There are two schools of Islam in Vietnam: the older one (Cham Ba Ni) with followers in Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan Provinces; and the newer one (Cham Islam) with followers in Chau Doc (An Giang Province), Ho Chi Minh City,
6 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017
Tay Ninh and Dong Nai Provinces.
Caodaism: Caodaism is a synthesis of different beliefs, including the teachings of Buddha, Jesus, Confucius, Lao-Tse, Victor Hugo, and other prominent figures of the world. It was founded in 1919 by Le Van Trung who established a priestly hierarchy modelled along Roman Catholic lines. The seat of Caodaism is in Tay Ninh, about 60 miles from Saigon. The adherents to Caodaism have been estimated at about one million.
Hoa Hao Buddhism: Hoa Hao Buddhism is a Buddhist sect modified from the Theravada tradition. It was founded by Huynh Phu So on July 4th May 1939 in Hoa Hao Village, An Giang Province. Huynh Phu So was killed by the Communists in 1947. Hoa Hao Buddhism is concentrated in the Mekong Delta with a membership estimated at about two million.
Means of oppressing and persecuting religions
1. Using thugs to destroy worshipping properties and bodily harm patron;
2. Forcing Churches to provide the authorities with details of their programmes a year in advance;
3. It's technically illegal to share about Jesus outside of a church building, but believers do – carefully;
4. Beating patrons for refusing to deny faith;
5. Recruiting Government spies among followers;
6. Forcing followers to renunciate their faith;
7. Establishing fake Churches and fake religious leaders;
8. Destroying or confiscating religion property;
9. Targeting ethnic and religious minority groups.
10. Promote and enforce the use of sanctioned religious groups against unsanctioned religious groups by allowing the sanctioned group leaders to perform religious teaching, ceremonies, occupying religious properties and denying the unsanctioned group leaders all of the aforementioned entitlements; 11. Brain washing religious students and general public via faked religious teaching; 12. Control and manipulate the internal affairs of religions. It should also be pointed out that one inherent policy towards human rights activists by the SRV Government is to pursue an arrest-jail-release strategy conditional on the government's commercial and economic interests at each stage of their bargaining with the western world. For example, to facilitate its joining to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), there was a need to have its name removed from the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC). A perfunctory gesture prior to its
7 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 membership was to release a number of prisoners of conscience. Afterwards, refilling stock of prisoners of conscience was then carried out for the next bargaining subject. Human Rights Watch6 report that "On February 18, dozens of police in Hue raided the parish home of Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest and former prisoner of conscience. They confiscated computers, telephones and more than 200 kilograms of documents. The authorities moved him to a remote location, where he remains under house arrest". And again "On March 6, police arrested Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan in Hanoi. Nguyen Van Dai, one of Vietnam's few practicing human rights lawyers, founded the Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam in 2006". This is in a time span of less than two months after joining World Trade Organisation on 11 January 2007.
Examples of suppression
Following are some well-known examples of suppression:
1. Father Nguyen Van Ly remains under the home detention order.
2. The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, Supreme Patriarch of the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam, remains under “pagoda arrest.”
3. In March 2012, eight Hmong Protestants were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for “partaking in a separatist ethnic movement.”
4. In February 2012, Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh was sentenced to five years for “distorting the domestic situation, criticising the Government, and the army with foreign media.”
5. In May 2012, Hoa Hao activist Bui Van Tham was sentenced to 30 months in prison for “resisting officials in the performance of their official duties.”
6. In January 2013, a court sentenced 22 members of the Buddhist Council for the Laws and Public Affairs of Bia Son Mountain to jail terms ranging from 12 years to life for “aiming to overthrow” the State.
7. In April and June 2012, three Protestants from Gai Lai Province in the Central Highlands, Kpuil Mel, Kpuil Le,and Nay Y Nga, were sentenced to a combined 22 years in prison for practicing Dega Protestantism.
8. In May 2013 eight Protestants from Gai Lai Province were sentenced to a combined 63 years in prison.
9. There are many more sentences, such as the sentencing of the 17 Catholic youths, the Muong Nhe incident, the “Con Cuong” incident, etc.
6 Human Rights Watch, Vietnam: Crackdown on Dissent in Wake of WTO and APEC. 9 March 2007.
8 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017
Indeed, the violation of freedom of belief and religion by the SRV Government was so severe that in its 16th report on religious freedom, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom once again made a recommendation to the US Government to put Vietnam back on the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC)7. Earlier in its 2013 Annual Report, the USCIRF also recommended the US Government to be designated as a CPC country8.
CASE STUDIES OF VIOLATION
Unified Buddhist of Vietnam [UnifiedBuddistPersecution.pdf]
Buddhism is the largest and oldest religion in Vietnam comprises of more than 80% of the population and hence has been the most to suffer. The persecution of Buddhists in Vietnam is very systematic and widespread by means of re-education, isolation, false teaching, fake religious leaders and pagodas and brain washing. The persecution of Buddists dated back as far as 1940’s when the Communists saw the golden opportunity of controlling and manipulating the populate through the mercy and merciful teaching of Buddhism. The reported cases so far are only the tip of an enormous iceberg.
Lien Tri Pagoda [LienTriPagoda.pdf]
Lien Tri Temple situated on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City for over 70 years and was forced out of existence by the SRV Government in September 2016.
On the 6th August 2012, the SRV Government stopped unsanctioned Buddhist monks from distributing food to veterans.
On the 17th September 2014 the SRV Government threatened to demolish the temple.
On the 26th September 2015, bulldozers are idling outside the Lien Tri Temple.
On the 8th September 2016, the SRV Government evicted monks from their temple.
On the 12th September 2016, the SRV Government demolished the temple.
In September 2016 a petition was organised by Vietnam Human Rights Network and sent to UN Human Rights council with over 5,000 signatures.
Christian persecution in Vietnam [ChristianPersecution.pdf]
The persecution of Christianity dated back as far as 1959 when a combination of destructive methods, including using thugs and police force, were employed.
Official SRV Government documents give local authorities in the northwest the mandate to compel Christians to recant their faith. In November 2012, the SRV Government approved a new decree that rendered most house churches illegal as of Jan. 1, 2013. The USCIRF has designated Vietnam as a Country of Particular Concern since 2001.
7 US Commission on International Religious Freedom , 2016 Annual Report 8 US Commission on International Religious Freedom , 2013 Annual Report
9 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017
In some urban areas, religious activity is permitted within government-approved parameters. But in rural areas, local authorities view Christianity as a foreign threat and often use discrimination, intimidation, property destruction, detentions, beatings and forced renunciations of faith to halt church growth. Many of Vietnam's more than 50 ethnic minority groups face persecution because of both their ethnicity and Christian faith. Several ethnic Christians have died while being tortured. Persecution is more severe in the north than in the south. VOMC sources report an increase in arrests and interrogations of Christian leaders in the past year.
Century-old Dong Yen Parish [Dong Yen Parish – Case Summary.docx and Submission to UN Special Procedures (without names of victims.pdf]
Formally founded in 1930, Dong Yen Parish has developed a strong cultural identity and its own way of life. In March 2011, all Dong Yen parishioners staged an anti-Formosa protest. The district government ordered the relocation of the entire parish to a remote mountainous area.
While about 4000 parishioners reluctantly moved, some 158 families dug in. To put pressure on them, in 2014 the government of Ky Loi Commune ordered the eviction of all 153 children of the parish from its public school. Seeing that parishioners set up substitute classes at the parish's bible school, on March 17, 2015 the government demolished this school, destroyed homes including the chaplain’s house, and brought down many religious offices. As parishioners used themselves as human shield to protect their church, the police indiscriminately attacked them including a pregnant woman and several resident nuns.
At the relocation area designated by the government, parishioners would be split into smaller communities. There would be no space for them to build religious edifices and monuments as in Dong Yen Parish. As a matter of fact, when those parishioners who had moved to this new location attempted to build the base for a future statue of the Virgin Mary, the police destroyed it. The relocation order is in essence the government’s attempt to entirely wipe out a close- knit community steeped in cultural traditions.
Hoa Hao Buddhist Persecution [HoaHaoBuddhistPersecution.pdf]
Over the years, Hoa Hao Buddhists were under constant harassment and intimidation by local authorities. In particular, when they commemorate the anniversary disappearance of the founder of their sect. For example, during 2015 worshippers' homes and businesses in Dong Thap Province were repeatedly vandalised and surveilled, causing undue stress to worshippers and their family9.
Australia's Policy towards Vietnam's Human Rights Violations.
9 USCIRF 2016 Annual Report.
10 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017
While Australia-Vietnam relationship continues to grow with the signing of the Declaration on enhancing Australia-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership in March 2015, it is a sad fact that Australia pays little attention to violations of religious freedom by the SRV Government.
In 2006 the Australian Government launched the Human Rights Technical Cooperation Program to help improve the human rights situation in Vietnam. The program was aimed to assist the building of the capacity of relevant Vietnamese agencies with regard to the promotion and protection of human rights in Vietnam in agreed key areas, including10:
Developing fairer and more accessible systems for the administration of justice; Strengthening mechanisms for citizens to seek review and redress for decisions affecting them; Raising awareness of citizens about their rights under Vietnamese law and the avenues available to them for protecting those rights; Developing models of legal advice and assistance for disadvantaged groups at grass-roots level. Promotion of gender equality through improved delivery of legal services for women;
Whilst the program has achieved some progress in several "technical" areas of human rights there has been no sign of attenuation of suppression in the area of freedom of religion and belief.
It is useful for the two countries to continue to have annual human rights dialogue, however, these dialogues - albeit sound good in paper, have not been effective. Violations of human rights committed by the SRV Government have been on the rise in recent years and they are carried out whenever it sees fit.
The main reason for the failure of the program is that both the co-operator and the violator of the program are the same. Indeed, given that the lead agencies for this program in Vietnam is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other partners agencies such as Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Security, Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuracy being integral apparatuses of the ruling party it is not difficult to envisage that any attempt to deal with violations of human rights by the SRV Government is a tremendous challenge.
In contrast to the activities of the American Embassy and European Union representatives in Vietnam, we observe that officials of Australian Embassy in Hanoi rarely make any visit to prisoners of conscience. This is not an encouraging sign of care by Australian Government.
RECOMMENDATIONS We recommend that the Australian Government to implement strongest measures possible to get Vietnam to respect its international human rights obligations including:
1. The use of its diplomatic and economic resources to advance religious freedom in Vietnam. The Australian Government should demand a high level of engagement from the SRV Government to fulfil its obligations to international treaties on freedom of religion and belief.
2. Propose a bill similar to Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability bill which has been recently passed by US Congress and legalised by President Barrack Obama. 10 Australian Human Rights Commission, October 2015, Vietnam-Australia Human Rights Technical Cooperation: Overview of the Program.
11 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017
3. Visit areas where those religious churches were receiving ill-treatment from the SRV Government, especially the areas in the Northwest and Central Highland.
4. The Australian Government should make it clear or at least stress to the SRV Government that progress on religious freedom was crucial to bilateral relationship between Australia and Vietnam.
5. Link AusAID program to measurable progress in human rights areas.
6. Make regular visits to prisoners of conscience to show Australia's concern to human rights issues in Vietnam.
In addition, Australia should publicly and privately call on the Vietnamese government to: 1. Amend the new Law on belief and religion (2016) conforming with international human rights law, in particular, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
2. Allow an independent national human rights institution similar to Australian Human Rights Commission to be established in Vietnam;
3. Release all religious prisoners immediately and unconditionally;
4. Return of all religious worship properties immediately;
5. Declare Human Rights Violator free zones in Vietnam.
6. Made available publicly all reports conducted by Vietnamese agencies in the area of human rights.
7. Allow international human rights organisations and non-governmental organisations to have access to geographical areas of concern and visit prisoners of conscience without hindrance.
REFERENCES:
Australian Human Rights Commission, 2015, Human Rights Technical Cooperation Program: An Overview.
BPSOS, Dong Yen Dossier, 2016. Taiwanese plant’s toxic dumping threatens the health and livelihood of millions in Vietnam: Century-old Dong Yen Parish faces disappearance. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, US Department of State, 2016, "International Religious Freedom Report for 2015 - Vietnam".
Human Rights Watch, Vietnam: Crackdown on Dissent in Wake of WTO and APEC. 9 March 2007.
Human Rights Watch, Submission to Australia-Vietnam Dialogue, August 2016.
Quố c H ộ i, C ộ ng Hoà Xã Hộ i Ch ủ Nghĩa Vi ệ t Nam, Lu ậ t Tìn Ng ưỡ ng và Tôn Giáo 2016 (Luậ t số : 02/2016/QH14)) (National Assembly, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Law on Belief and Religion 2016 (Law number 02/2016/QH14)).
12 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017
Reimer, R., 2015, An Analysis: The “Great National Unity” requires a great big bureaucracy.
The Interfaith Council of Vietnam, 2015, Letter of Protest against the Law on the Religion 2015. May 10, 2015.
US Commission on International Religious Freedom, Annual Reports 2013 and 2016. US 114th Congress (2015-2016), S.284 - Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
United Nations Human Rights Council, 2015, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Heiner Bielefeldt.
13 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Christian Persecution
Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliament Religious Inquiry 2017
Christianity was first introduced to Vietnam in the 16th century and established a position in Vietnamese society since the 19th century. Roman Catholics and Protestants today constitute 7% and 1% of the country’s population respectively. Christian foreign missionaries are not allowed to proselytise or perform religious activities without government approval.
An elderly Montagnard woman sits at the door of a “house church” in Kret Krot village in Vietnam’s Central Highlands on September 26, 2013.
© 2013 AP Photo/Chris Brummitt
The persecution of Christianity dated back as far as 1959 when a combination of destructive
1 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Christian Persecution methods were employed. Following are some of the many stories.
Adherents 'Took Their Turn' to Die (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/adherents- 02022011155751.html?searchterm:utf8:ustring=cong+troi)
The ringing of the bell from St. Joseph’s Cathedral normally signaled a call to prayer for the church’s Hanoi parishioners, but on Christmas Eve in 1959, the sound was an appeal for help.
A year earlier, the communist government in Hanoi, eager to show that it valued “religious freedom,” had sent a group of people to decorate the church with lamps and flowers, only to later demand an exorbitant fee for the labor and materials.
This time, the cathedral’s priests were ready.
When the “decorators” arrived again, Father Nguyen Van Vinh blocked their entry while fellow priest Trinh Van Can rang the church bell summoning St. Joseph’s parishioners, and a scuffle ensued.
The two priests and several parishioners were charged with disturbing the peace.
Father Can received 12 months' probation, while Father Vinh was sentenced to 18 months in prison for “illegally gathering, disturbing security, attempting to slander and distort the regime, and scheming to drive a wedge between the people.”
Crackdown
But Father Vinh’s punishment was only part of a religious crackdown initiated in Vietnam in 1959 that led to what religious experts recollect as a systematic suppression of seminaries in northern Vietnam.
“They had a plan that in forty years, there would be no Catholics [left] in Vietnam,” said Father Nguyen Thanh Duong, the priest of Quy Hau parish in northern Nghe An province, who was arrested several times during the purge.
“Priests who listened to the authorities would be left alone. Otherwise, priests would be arrested,” said the church leader.
“Monks at the seminary who didn’t want to get married would be sent to concentration camps for re-education.”
Although religious persecution under communist rule eased a decade later in 1970, rights groups have expressed concern over what they see as a new increase in violations of religious freedom in Vietnam, including harassment and the use of excessive force against congregation members.
Last May, clashes occurred between Catholic Con Dau parishioners near central Da Nang city and the police over the seizure of their land by the government.
2 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Christian Persecution
The parishioners had complained of inadequate compensation and relocation problems and were particularly angered over the government’s decision to reclaim a 10-hectare (25-acre) cemetery, located one kilometer (0.6 mile) from the parish church and believed to be 135 years old.
Religious purge
Christian groups now often point to the persecution of church leaders half a century ago to underscore resilience in the face of repression by the Vietnamese authorities.
Father Nguyen Viet Cuong, who belonged to Vạ n Phan parish in Nghe An province, said the arrest of priests began in earnest following a circular signed in 1960 by Ho Chi Minh, the late president and founder of today’s communist Vietnam.
“At that time, there was an order from the (Communist) Party Central Committee. The instruction didn’t let the offspring of landlords and 'reactionary elements' join the priesthood … I was a victim of that circular,” he said.
“Monks had to get married. But monks didn’t want to get married, and authorities said these monks still wanted to become priests. Therefore, the monks were put in concentration camps without a trial or verdict.”
Prison facility
Father Vinh was initially jailed at a prison that later became famous during the Vietnam War as the "Hanoi Hilton," a facility in which captured U.S. servicemen were interrogated and tortured, but was eventually transferred to a newer jail called Cong Troi (Heaven Gate) Prison.
The majority of prisoners at Heaven Gate were criminals with sentences of 15 years or more. Many had been sentenced to death.
But Heaven Gate Prison was also home to a large number of political prisoners whom Hanoi had deemed unfit to rejoin society, including religious prisoners targeted during the purge.
The prison facility was located at an altitude of approximately 2,000-2,500 meters (6,600- 8,200 feet) in the mountains, about 55 kilometers (35 miles) outside of the seat of Vietnam’s northern Ha Giang province. Quan Ba district, on the border with China, lay to its north.
Cliffs and thick forests surrounded the prison, with a prison cemetery in the back known as Ba Then Hill.
Many of the surviving prisoners were reluctant to speak about their personal experiences at Heaven Gate, but a few who were interviewed by RFA said that now, at their advanced age, they no longer care how the communist government views their activities.
A former inmate, Tran Nhat Kim, recalled his first days at the prison.
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“The day after we arrived at Heaven Gate Prison I met an officer who told me that this would be my last residence. He said I was not to think of my family nor hope to return to them again.”
“[A second officer] told us, “You are free to escape. But I want to let you know that until now no one has been able to leave this camp. You have two choices. One is to stay here. The other is leaving through the back door to Ba Then Hill.’”
Abuse led to death
Prisoners at Heaven Gate were routinely subjected to starvation, extreme weather, torture, and solitary confinement as punishment for their “crimes,” former inmates recall. And when they suffered injuries they were refused basic medical treatment.
It was a combination of these conditions, as well as his refusal to abandon his religious beliefs, that led to the death of Father Vinh.
Many others held at Heaven Gate also died, said another former soldier, Captain Kieu Duy Vinh, who was imprisoned along with 71 other people, including some Catholic priests, seminarians, and parishioners, at the facility in 1959.
“There were two priests, Father Vinh from the Hanoi Diocese and father Que from the Nghe An Diocese. The rest were clergymen … The first two to be killed were Father Vinh and Father Que. Then other monks all took their turn to die.”
“[Rights activist] Nguyen Huu Dang … and I were the only two who didn’t make the sign of the cross and because we were not Christians we survived. But all of the other 70 people died,” Vinh said.
Heaven Gate Prison was closed in 1978 and was destroyed during the Sino-Vietnamese War that followed next year.
Reported by Mac Lam for RFA’s Vietnamese service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
The San Chay People of Vietnam (cource: http://www.christianaid.org/News/UPI/SanChay.aspx)
Although the Vietnamese government officially claims freedom of religion, Christians are viewed as enemies and are treated accordingly. Christians in Vietnam face severe persecution. Many Vietnamese pastors are currently imprisoned in brutal labor camps for "re-education."
Approximately 120 people groups live in Vietnam. One of these groups, the San Chay, immigrated to Vietnam from China in the early 1600s. After learning how to grow wet rice, the San Chay settled in small villages. Today, nearly 150,000 San Chay live in Vietnam and speak a variant of the Thai language.
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In addition to rice, the San Chay also raise cattle and poultry for meat and religious sacrifices, gather products from the forests and grow a variety of subsidiary crops. Fish are often raised in the rice paddies.
Villages consist of several families, which are divided into many branches. Although discouraged by communist officials, each San Chay village is ruled by a Khan Thu or headman. The headman's job is to settle differences, maintain harmony and represent the village to the outside world. Despite the privileges and responsibilities attached to his position, the headman is often quite poor.
Prior to the 1945 revolution, the San Chay possessed their own land; however, French colonization caused many San Chays to become tenant farmers.
Outreach
The San Chay worship a multitude of gods associated with nature and famous ancestors. Most villages have temples for the worship of spirit gods. A basket of bran along with a few sticks of incense can be found at the main entrance of each San Chay household in honor of the buffalo deity, who is regarded as the "protector of cattle."
One Vietnamese ministry supported by Christian Aid estimates that 90 percent of the San Chay have never heard the gospel. This ministry is one of the first ministries to target the San Chay for formal missions work, and the only one currently working among them. The ministry is also training more than 1,500 native Christians from other tribes. It is considered the largest ministry effort in Vietnam, with 10,000 tribal house churches in its association.
The ministry began working with the San Chay in 1995, and has since planted 100 house churches, with an average of 50 members per church. The remaining estimated 5,000 believers have not yet been organized into churches.
The San Chay are in dire need of discipleship training. The shortage of pastors is becoming a challenge as more San Chay are becoming Christians. The ministry is training five pastors, but meeting with them is a dangerous endeavor, as police constantly arrest ministry leaders and destroy churches. Many times, the ministry will hold meetings inside of a van driven around the city because no other location is safe.
In addition to training, the ministry also distributes Bibles to the San Chay, and is involved in gospel film showings for those who cannot read. Those who possess Bibles do so at great risk. Several San Chay pastors have been arrested by police who found their Bibles. The wives of imprisoned pastors usually do not know where the police are keeping their husbands. Without a means of income, these families are struggling to survive. The ministry has provided some financial help to these families, but is only able to give a small amount.
Persecuted, but not Forsaken (cource: http://www.christianaid.org/News/ByRegion/SoutheastAsia/NotForsaken.aspx)
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A repressive communist regime has been seeking to stamp out Christianity in Vietnam for decades. As in China, however, persecution has not succeeded in thwarting the growth of zealous, witnessing churches.
Even though the country was closed to foreign missions in 1975, men and women are coming to faith in remarkable numbers today. Indigenous missionaries assisted by Christian Aid are teaching and shepherding hundreds of gatherings of Vietnamese tribal people. They do so with conviction, courage and at great personal cost.
One leader who had oversight of more than 900 churches has paid a steep price for his commitment to the gospel. He has spent more than two years imprisoned in a 4 x 8 foot box with a window for feeding and a hole for a toilet. Brokenhearted, he learned that his wife was subjected to the same indignities in a prison box near his. Her imprisonment, however, actually served to bolster his faith, when he overheard the hope in her voice as she sang, "His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me."
Another pastor and his congregation of over 500 cut their own lumber and built a beautiful meeting hall. But communist authorities tore it down. Within three days the church congregation put up a simple bamboo structure in its place, but authorities have threatened to destroy it, as well.
A pastor of a house church has learned that persecution can come from one's own family. His father is a decorated leader in the communist party. After the young pastor confessed his allegiance to the One True God, his father threw a homemade firebomb into his yard. Although the son desires to honor his father, he remains stalwart in his commitment to preaching the Word.
After spending seven years in prison for preaching Christ, a tribal pastor was finally released. Instead of retreating into the safety of seclusion and anonymity, he chose to reenter a Bible training center to be strengthened. Such training centers supported by Christian Aid, are giving pastors the tools and knowledge they need to fortify Vietnamese Christians to stand firm and share their faith. They are living out what Paul described to the Corinthians: They ". . . are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed," knowing that their affliction is preparing them for an "eternal weight of glory" (II Corinthians 4: 8-9, 17).
4th Sep 2013: Vietnamese Police Open Fire, Crack Down on Christian Protesters (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/church-09042013193713.html? searchterm:utf8:ustring=buddhist+vietnam)
In one of the bloodiest religious crackdowns in recent years in Vietnam, police on Wednesday fired multiple gunshots and lobbed grenades in front of a church as they violently dispersed hundreds of Catholics demanding the release of two parishioners in a North Central Coast province, according to sources.
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A unknown number of people were rushed to hospital with injuries after being beaten by police who also fired in the air in front of the My Yen church in Nghe An province as several hundred parishioners rallied for the release of the parishioners arrested for no valid reason two months ago, the sources said.
State television reported that about 300 people mobbed the Nghi Phuong village people's committee building in Nghi Loc district on Wednesday saying they would not budge until My Yen parishioners Ngo Van Khoi and Nguyen Van Hai are freed. A day earlier, about 1,000 people, some of them carrying large banners, had campaigned for the pair's release.
"They [police] fired 15 [gun] shots in front of the My Yen church. They beat some parishioners with electric batons," one parishioner told RFA's Vietnamese Service. "Some parishioners had to be hospitalized. They also arrested nine to 10 people."
Bloggers Nghiem Viet Anh and Bui Minh Hang shared a Vietnam Redemptorist Church news website showing several people receiving treatment for head, hand, stomach, and neck injuries.
Online reports said up to 3,000 policemen and soldiers may have been mobilized in the crackdown. One report said, "They shot and threw grenades behind the My Yen church."
"At the hospital, police tried to stop people from getting treatment," the report said. "Some patients were in critical situation and have been sent to [the capital] Hanoi for treatment."
State-owned Nghe An TV said the authorities were forced to take action because the protesters had turned violent.
Protesters provoked police?
They provoked the police into taking action by "attacking" officers on duty and pelting them with stones, the TV station reported.
One police officer and several people were injured and a number of protesters were detained, Nghe An TV reported. It called on religious leaders to cooperate with the local government to bring the situation under control.
On Tuesday, the village chairman Nguyen Trong Tao signed a document assuring the release of the two parishioners on Wednesday.
An earlier assurance of a Sept. 2 release had also not been met.
"That is why today we came here to ask them to provide us a written promise," one parishioner said.
"We have gone to the authorities from the provincial to the district level several times but they just kept delaying seeing us. The two parishioners are now in Nghi Kim prison. We don’t know what crime they committed that they [the authorities] have imprisoned them."
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Ngo Van Khoi and Nguyen Van Hai were taken away in June by suspected government security agents in June and have been held without trial since then. Their families were informed they were being held for “disturbing public order,” but no specific incidents were cited.
Expanding religious controls
Vietnam, under one-party communist rule, is expanding control over all religious activities and severely restricts independent religious practice and represses individuals and religious groups it views as challenging its authority, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) said in a report this year.
“The Vietnamese government uses a specialized religious police force and vague national security laws to suppress independent Buddhist, Protestant, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai activities, and seeks to stop the growth of ethnic minority Protestantism and Catholicism via discrimination, violence and forced renunciations of their faith,” it said.
Catholic churches in the country face strict government regulations.
In January, a Vietnamese court convicted 14 activists, including Catholics, of plotting to overthrow the government in a decision condemned by rights groups.
Many of the convicted were affiliated with Catholic Redemptorist churches in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, which have been part of a growing voice among Vietnamese movements for democracy and human rights in recent years.
The USCIRF has proposed that Vietnam be returned to a State Department list of the world’s worst violators of religious freedoms.
The State Department included Vietnam on its list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) in 2004 but removed it from the blacklist two years later and has since ignored repeated calls by the commission to reinstate the country’s designation.
Reported by An Nguyen for RFA's Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
6th July, 2016: Catholic Priests in Central Vietnam go up Against Government in Land Grab Case (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/catholic-priests-in-central-vietnam-go-up- against-government-in-land-grab-case-07062016161033.html? searchterm:utf8:ustring=catholics+vietnam)
The head priest of a Catholic monastery in central Vietnam’s Thua Thien-Hue province has sent a petition to national and foreign officials in the country protesting what it says is the local government’s illegal appropriation of its land, RFA’s Vietnamese Service has learned.
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Antoine Nguyen Van Duc, head of Vietnam’s Thien An Catholic monastery sent the petition dated June 27 to the provincial People’s Committee, the Roman Catholic archdiocese in Hue, the European Union commission in Vietnam, and the U.S. embassy in Hanoi, complaining about the illegal seizure of land and the disrespect authorities had shown to a cross.
Hoang Ngoc Khanh, the director of Thua Thien-Hue People’s Committee office, told RFA that authorities there received the petition on the day it was written and sent an official request to central-level authorities for a meeting to discuss this issue.
“We will arrange a time to invite representatives from the monastery to meet with us to discuss the issue and address it in accordance with the law and the constitution,” he said.
Founded by French missionaries in June 1940, Thien An monastery is home to a community of priests, nuns, and seminarians who carry out pastoral activities in three different churches, according to a May 2015 article on the AsiaNews website.
Hue Archdiocese, which covers both Thua Thien-Hue province and Quang Tri Province, included nearly 70,000 Catholics in 78 parishes as of December 2010, according to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam.
No right to appropriate land
Cao Duc Loi, a priest who lives at the monastery, said local authorities have acted wrongly if the appropriation is measured against the constitution.
“According to the law, the prime minister has no right to appropriate our land,” he told RFA. “Their order to take our land was signed by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Cong Tan in 1998. It is the wrong thing to do because the prime minister has no authority to order the appropriation of our land.”
The priest, who requested anonymity, also pointed out that the government cannot issue two orders at the same time—one to appropriate the land and the other to evict those who live on it, as it has done.
The relevant law specifies that the decision to appropriate land must be made first, and an eviction notice can only be issued if the legal procedures fail, he said.
“Those two wrongdoings have not been addressed fully, but now they have committed another wrongdoing by issuing another order from the state’s inspection office,” Loi said.
Furthermore, the prime minister’s order was to appropriate land not in use, but the order that officials read at the monastery included land in use, he said.
“We will be the winner if this is done according to the law, but we will lose if they ignore the law,” he said.
Marking their territory
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Cao Duc Loi told RFA that the issue began on Jan. 1, 2015 when authorities prevented the priests from placing a roof over an outdoor shrine honoring the Virgin Mary on the pretext of violating the pine forest. Forest rangers set up a tent next to the shrine to monitor it.
The local government administration had planned to seize 100 acres of the monastery’s land and an adjacent structure for the construction of a leisure center and amusement park, AsiaNews reported at the time.
Government administrators hired thugs to try to frighten the Catholics to convince them to leave the area, and police later raided the facility and threatened to occupy it, the report said.
“After that we tried to redesign our garden where there is a cross on Calvary Hill,” Loi said, in a reference to an area the monastery named for the site outside Jerusalem’s walls where Jesus Christ was crucified.
“Authorities claimed we erected the cross on their land, and they took it down [while] we all knelt down to pray,” he said, adding that the priests took two photos of the incident—one showing them praying and the other showing authorities stepping on the cross. The priest included the photos with the petition they recently sent.
Then authorities placed a pole on the monastery’s grounds to let people know that the land had been appropriated.
Whenever there is a land conflict, the government erects a pole on the disputed land to avoid any further disputes, Loi said.
“But we have never had any disputes with anyone [over land], so the decision to put a pole on our land is illegal,” he said.
Road to the garden
On June 26, police stopped the priests from building a road leading to the monastery’s garden, Loi said.
But Hoang Ngoc Khanh denied this, saying, “That is what they said, but it did not happen.”
Cao Duc Loi, who accused Khanh of lying, said authorities brought many local women to the monastery when they met with the priests on June 26.
“We asked those women to go outside because they did not have anything to do with our meeting with the government,” he said. “They used women to humiliate us.”
Authorities in the one-party state have long repressed the Catholic church in Vietnam and subjected it to forced evictions, land grabs, and attacks on priests and their followers.
Reported by Gia Minh for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
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July 14, 2016: Christians in Vietnam Face Beatings, Prison (source: http://www.christianaid.org/News/2016/mir20160714.aspx")
Vietnamese authorities have locked up at least 108 pastors for their faith in prisons where they could be killed if they're not careful what they eat, the leader of an indigenous ministry said.
Of the jailed church leaders from villages in Vietnam's Central Highlands, 66 had fled Dak Lak Province to Kampuchea or Thailand in the past 10 months and, after being forced to return, are presumed to be imprisoned; their repatriation to Vietnam has been established, but their actual whereabouts are unknown, he said.
"When the authorities called the approved church leader to say they would take him to see them, they got to the center and there was no one there," said the ministry leader, Su*.
This happened twice - first in regard to 44 repatriated church leaders, and later with another 22 forcibly returned pastors, he said.
Authorities had beaten and/or threatened to imprison the pastors for refusing government orders to consolidate their unregistered house churches into a given area's single, officially approved church, Su said. A cluster of house churches with a combined membership of 3,000, for example, was ordered to merge congregations and meet in a facility holding no more than 500.
"The government wants to combine them to limit their growth and have more control," he said. "If the pastors refused to sign a paper saying they would combine and that their gatherings would not go over 500 people, they would be beaten or thrown into prison."
Prison conditions are harsh and primitive. Failure to comply with all orders and regulations can bring lethal retribution.
In rural areas where authorities control church activity more tightly than they do urban congregations, he said, registered churches are prohibited from meeting in smaller groups: no Sunday school classes for children or adults, no youth groups or other gatherings apart from the congregational worship as a whole. Children can only be taught about Christianity at home. Taking Communion and collecting offerings are forbidden, police monitor sermons to ensure nothing is said against communism, and plural leadership is prohibited; only one leader is allowed for each congregation.
In neighboring Gia Lai Province, which like Dak Lak is on the border with Kampuchea, authorities forced 12,000 Christians in 20 unregistered churches to combine at a single facility accommodating 1,600 people, Su said. Rather than imprison those who resisted, however, authorities in Gia Lai Province imposed fines.
"Last Easter, each church that refused to combine congregations into the one registered church was fined $60," he said, an amount more than half the average monthly income of many Highland tribal people.
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Along with the 66 pastors behind bars, another 42 remain in prison even though the 15-year sentences they received in 2001 for practicing their faith have been completed, he said. The director suspected authorities are refusing to release them because of protests by Christians objecting to the seizing of their lands at the time of the arrests.
Prison conditions are harsh and primitive. Failure to comply with all orders and regulations can bring lethal retribution, said Su, who was nearly killed himself while spending a total of seven years and two months in prison between 1975 and 1985.
"If you do not strictly follow the rules, they can put poison in your food," he said. "So you take a little bit, and if you feel something or want to vomit, you stop eating. A few people have died."
In spite of the risks, Su's ministry teams go to several areas to proclaim Christ and train church leaders. There are 22 tribes in the Central Highlands that have no strong Christian presence, and the ministry has reached out to 10 of them, he said. For years the ministry would select one person open to the gospel from each village, lead him to Christ and send him back to evangelize his tribal villagers. Su stopped the method when police began intercepting the returning evangelists and ordered them to refrain from preaching Christ, though some continued to do so anyway.
Now the ministry brings as many as 10 new Christians at a time from various villages to its urban base for training several times per year, then sends them back to their communities to spread the gospel.
"This keeps the local police from knowing what they were doing and where to intercept them," he said.
Evangelistic Bible studies rotate to different village homes to keep local authorities from finding out about them, he added.
In its efforts to proclaim Christ to unreached tribes, the ministry also arranges for converts from one tribe to reach out to a nearby tribe.
"They know each other as neighbors, and they may speak different languages but understand each other well enough to communicate," Su said.
Central to the discipleship and evangelism/leadership training are 12 books of a series called Theological Education Extension (TEE), which authorities allow to be printed only in Vietnamese. With 7,850 people now beginning to study the second level of TEE (the last six books), including 2,250 tribal-language users, Su seeks assistance to print the second set.
The ministry gives out the books to people in mountain villages who cannot afford to buy TEE, which must be completed in order to enter government-approved seminaries. In order to print 3,000 copies of the second set's first three books, the ministry seeks $13,500. To help indigenous missionaries print the books, you may contribute online using the form below, or
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call (434) 977-5650. If you prefer to mail your gift, please mail to Christian Aid Mission, P.O. Box 9037, Charlottesville, VA 22906. Please use Gift Code: 740VEC.
*Name changed for security reasons.
27 July 2016: Christian beaten for refusing to deny faith (source: http://www.opendoorsuk.org/news/stories/vietnam 160727.php)
Donh*, who has been a Christian for just a year, was beaten by a policeman and a group of youths at the start of July after he refused to give up his faith.
Our local partner, Cang*, who has recently visited Donh, says: "The cop used his baton and assaulted Donh on his head and on the back of his neck. The cop came with about 20 young men with clubs and big knives. They pointed at him and came at him, shouted that he follows Jesus, and beat him [until they thought he was dead]. Now Donh has run away and is experiencing frequent headaches."
Donh and his wife accepted Jesus in June of last year. They lived in a village where the locals practiced various sacrificial ritual ceremonies. After deciding to follow Jesus, Donh refused to participate in the rituals, which angered the villagers. The local authorities also kept tabs on Donh and his family, and found out that on Sundays he would take his wife and son by motorbike out of the village to a church 60km away.
"They came to his house more than once, trying to force him to deny his faith in the Lord, but he refused," Cang shares. "And because of this, they destroyed his house, savaged his crops, and kicked him out of the village. But despite being treated like that, he continued not only in keeping his faith, but he shared it with his relatives. Three families related to Donh then became Christians."
On 10 July, the heads of those three families were called to the police station and told to give up their faith in Christ. When they refused, the police also beat them.
*names changed for security reasons
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Founded in 1939 by Huynh Phu So, Hoa Hao is a Buddhist sect based in the western Mekong delta. Some Hoa Hao adherents opposed the Republic of Vietnam in the mid 1950s as well as the communist insurgency throughout the Vietnam War. After 1975, the Hoa Hao sect was not recognized as an official religion by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. A section of the Hoa Hao church agreed to submit to state supervision and gained official recognition in 1999. But other Hoa Hao Buddhist factions remain at odds with the government (source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/12/12/vietnam-release-hoa-hao-buddhist-activist).
The persecution of Hoa Hao Buddist Church dated back as far as 1940’s when the Communists, under the umbrella of the Viet Minh nationalistic movement, assassinated Master Huynh Phu So, founder of the Hoa Hao Central Buddhist Church. They also massacred tens of thousands of Hoa Hao followers. Mass graves are located in several villages in South Vietnam provinces including Phu Thuan where the remains of 467 bodies were found (Chau Doc province), Tan Phuoc and Long Thanh (Dong Thap province), Thanh Quoi and Loi Tu (Can Tho province).
From 1975 to 1999, head of the Church Ven. Le Quang Liem was imprisoned for a total of 5 years, and officially placed under house arrest for another 5 years. Since 1999 until his death on 17th July 2015, he was under constant surveillance. The CPV tried to recruit him to be the chairman of an advisory committee on the unsanctioned religion and after he refused he was accused of espionage on behalf of unnamed foreign powers in April 2000 (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/85910-20000828.html?searchterm:utf8:ustring=hoa+hao). Unsanctioned Hoa Hao Buddhist groups have long been a target of government repression. In August 2005, after one serious crackdown, a Hoa Hao Buddhist follower, Tran Van Ut, burned himself to death in protest. At least 13 other Hoa Hao Buddhist activists are serving long prison terms. The most recent arrest, occurred in July 2, 2011, when Dong Thap province police arrested Hoa Hao Buddhist activist Tran Hoai An as he returned from visiting Hoa Hao Buddhist prisoners (source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/12/12/vietnam-release-hoa-hao-buddhist-activist). The communist authorities reportedly confiscated many of the church's properties (more than 5,000, including, in An Giang province, a university, hospital and center of the propagation of the faith). Dissemination of Hoa Hao sacred scriptures was also prohibited. The Vietnamese authorities abolished the sophisticated Hoa Hao management structure as well as banning major celebrations, including the annual Founder's day festival. Senior Hoa Hao leaders and more than 100 of their followers, including members of the former South Vietnamese National Assembly, were reportedly
1 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Hoa Hoa Buddist Persecution sent for varying periods of "re-education" without trial, as were several hundreds of thousands of others associated with the former regime. ...
... in May 1999, the authorities convened a Hoa Hao congress in An Giang province. The government-chosen group went on to establish an 11-member committee to oversee the administrative affairs of the religion. Whilst the committee constitutes the first official recognition by the Vietnamese government of the Hoa Hao religion in 25 years, there have been numerous reports, notably from Hoa Hao groups, that the committee comprises communist party members and local officials rather than accepted representative of a significant faction within the church itself (source: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3df4bec514.html). Following are some of the many stories.
26th Sep, 2000: Vietnam jails Hoa Hao sect members (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia- pacific/942602.stm)
Six members of a Buddhist sect have been jailed for up to three years in southern Vietnam following a brief and controversial trial, according to reports.
The followers of the Hoa Hao sect were arrested earlier this year after denouncing abuses of power by local officials in An Giang province in a letter to the Vietnamese Government.
They were charged with "having abused their right to democratic freedoms, disturbing social order and opposing public authorities," a court official told the AFP news agency.
A statement issued by the sect in the United States said hundreds of members in the province had been protesting against the trial.
The Hoa Hao have long complained of persecution by the Communists because of their previous armed opposition to Hanoi during the Vietnam War.
Control
The sect, which claims nearly four million followers in Vietnam, combines Buddhism, Animism, Confucianism and indigenous practices.
It is officially recognised by the country's Communist Government. But a section of its membership opposes governmental control of the group.
Reports said the leader of the group, Nguyen Chau Lang, was jailed for three years along with the other main defendant Tran Van Be Cao on Tuesday just hours after the trial opened.
The four other defendants are said to have received one and two-year sentences.
The Vietnamese officials denied reports on the Hoa Hao's website that the wife of one of the
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defendants had tried to stab herself to death in protest at the detention of her husband.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said the trial was about the violation of Vietnamese law and had "nothing to do with religion".
The trial comes just weeks after the US State Department criticised Vietnam in a report for holding religious prisoners.
Vietnam considers US criticism as interference in its affairs.
26th June 2013: Police Attack Hoa Hao Anniversary Gathering (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/hoa-hao-06262013180022.html? searchterm:utf8:ustring=hoa+hao)
A leader of an unsanctioned Hoa Hao Buddhist group in southwestern Vietnam slit his belly to protest a police attack on followers celebrating the anniversary of the sect's founding this week.
Vo Van Thanh Liem, the once-imprisoned head of the Quang Minh Tu pagoda in Choi Moi district of An Giang province, slashed his stomach after police blocked his followers from worshiping at the pagoda on Tuesday.
More than 100 police and security forces had beaten and thrown chairs at and sprayed dirty sewage water on worshipers on both Monday and Tuesday, followers said.
The worshipers were trying to gather at the pagoda to observe the 74th anniversary of the founding of Hoa Hao, sect indigenous to Vietnam which which has some 2 million followers countrywide.
Vietnam’s government officially recognizes the religion but imposes harsh controls on dissenting Hoa Hao groups who do not follow the state-sanctioned branch.
Liem’s brother Vo Van Diem said the leader had cut his belly to protest police harassment.
“My brother slit his belly and the cut is more than 1 centimeter [half an inch] deep and 10 centimeters [4 inches] long,” he told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
“After seeing that, the police left. My brother fainted and we carried him to my mother’s house,” where they treated him and others injured in the attack, he said.
The police had set up fences along the road to the pagoda and blocked the worshipers from going there, he said.
“Policemen threw chairs at us, and they sprayed dirty water on us…. They also cursed at us,” he said.
Followers of unsanctioned Hoa Hao branches have faced imprisonment over their beliefs, including Liem, who has been in jail 34 times and was most recently released from a six-year
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jail sentence in February last year.
Barred from pagoda
A member of the group that was attacked said the police had told the Quang Minh Tu worshipers to go to another Hoa Hao pagoda that is sanctioned by the government.
“They told us that they would not let us go in to the pagoda and did not give any reason,” the woman, named Tuyet, said.
“They told us to go the Hoa Hao church registered with the government,” she said.
To block them from the church, police had thrown chairs at women’s heads and hit the men in the stomach, said Tuyet, whose nephew was injured when he was hit by a chair in a similar attack the day before.
On Monday, police had attacked a group of 20 people who were going to Quang Minh Tu after beginning preparations for the anniversary commemoration at Liem’s mother’s house, worshipers said.
Phone calls to local police to inquire about the attacks rang unanswered on Friday.
Rights groups have said authorities in An Giang and Dong Thap provinces, have regularly harassed followers of the unsanctioned Hoa Hao branches, prohibiting public readings of founder Huynh Phu So’s writings and discouraging worshipers from visiting pagodas in An Giang, Vinh Long, Dong Thap, and Can Tho provinces.
Reported by An Nhien for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
4 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Lien Tri Pagoda
Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliament Religious Inquiry 2017
Lien Tri Pagoda situated on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh city for over 70 years and was forced out of existence by Vietnam Regime in November 2016.
The Most Venerable Thich Khong Tanh, birth name Phan Ngoc An, is the Abbot of Lien Tri Temple, and concurrently Vice President of the Board of Executives of the Vietnamese United Buddhist Church Sangha and General Commissioner of the Buddhist Social Services and Charity. He is also one of the founders of the Vietnam Inter-faith Committee of which he is currently the representative for the Sangha.
As a monk, he has always been involved in the struggle for Human Rights and especially for religious Freedom. Consequently, he has been subject to Hanoi’s continual repression and vengeance. He was arrested and imprisoned for ten years – from 1976 to 1986 – because he had sent a letter to the Vietnamese Prime Minister protesting the government’s decision to negate the monk’s deferment of military obligation that had been in existence since the Republic of Vietnam era.
In October 1992, Vietnamese police searched Most Ven. Khong Tanh's room in Lien Tri Temple and seized a diary of the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang. He was subsequently accused of “circulating anti-government literature” and sentenced to 5 years in prison, and 5 years of probation.
After his early release in October 1993, he again involved himself in the social services and charity works. In November 1984, the police arrested him when he was soliciting donations and distributing relief gifts to the flood victims in the Mekong Delta. In August 1995, he and the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do were accused of “undermining the policy of unity and abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state," and were sentenced each to 5 years in prison.
Years after years, the Venerable has kept organizing charitable activities, distributing donated goods to disabled veterans of the former Republic of Vietnam and cancer-ridden children, and providing assistance to forced repatriated refugees. He also helped organizations of civil society find secure meeting places to promulgate their struggle for democracy and human rights. His efforts in inter- faith activities have given fresh vitality to the fight for religious freedom. Because of his activities, the government has continually harassed him and even threatened to confiscate the piece of land where his temple is located. Despite the government’s deterring measures, The Most Venerable has never faltered in his struggle for democracy and human rights.
1 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Lien Tri Pagoda
On the 6th August 2012, Vietnam Regime stopped unsanctioned Buddhist monks from distributing food to veterans:
Religious Leaders Barred (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/ubcv- 08062012161634.html?searchterm:utf8:ustring=Lien+Tri+pagoda)
Vietnamese police on Monday blocked religious leaders and disabled war veterans from attending a gathering organized by a pagoda associated with a banned Buddhist group, beating and detaining one minister, the head monk told RFA.
Monks at the Lien Tri Pagoda, a temple in Thu Duc on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City and under the unsanctioned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), held the gathering to provide a free vegetarian meal and gifts to disabled Vietnam War veterans who lack assistance from the government.
But around 100 plainclothes police surrounded the temple to prevent participants from entering, the head monk, Thich Khong Tanh, told RFA.
Local Christian leaders were also invited, and one Protestant minister was beaten and taken away to the police station for questioning, he said.
Two Catholic priests who resisted police attempts to block them from attending were allowed into the pagoda grounds only after agreeing to delete photos they had taken of the scene outside the temple, Tanh said.
Activists invited to the gathering, including prodemocracy physician Nguyen Dan Que, rights lawyer Nguyen Bac Truyen, and formerly imprisoned journalist Truong Minh Duc, phoned Tanh to tell him they were being closely watched and could not leave their homes, he said.
Unsanctioned group
Tanh and the Lien Tri Pagoda have long been targeted by authorities for refusing to submit to the official Buddhist Church of Vietnam, the only recognized Buddhist body in the one-party communist state, where religious activity is closely monitored and religious groups must operate under government-controlled management boards.
The unregistered UBCV, with followers around Vietnam, has clashed with officials since its founding in the 1960s. Its leader, Thich Quang Do, lives under house arrest at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in Ho Chi Minh City.
As UBCV’s Commissioner for Humanitarian and Social Affairs, Tanh has previously distributed food and relief funds to veterans, natural disaster victims, and other needy people.
Last month, authorities prevented UBCV monks and followers from attending anti-China demonstrations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, sending police officers to Lien Tri Pagoda and blocking Tanh from joining the protest, the group said.
2 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Lien Tri Pagoda
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese service. Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
On the 17th September 2014 Vietnam Regime threatened to Demolish Pagoda, Churches:
Vietnamese Authorities Threaten to Demolish Pagoda, Churches (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/demolish-09172014170203.html? searchterm:utf8:ustring=Lien+Tri+pagoda)
Vietnamese authorities have declared their intention to tear down a Buddhist temple and two Christian churches in southern Ho Chi Minh City to make way for a lucrative development scheme, drawing protests from religious leaders and local congregants, sources said.
In response to the government warning, an Interfaith Council representing five Vietnamese Christian and Buddhist groups issued an online public appeal this week for support in blocking the confiscation of the buildings and the land in the Thu Thiem area in the country’s largest city.
Addressed to governments, international human rights groups, news outlets, and “all Vietnamese Compatriots,” the Sept. 15 petition, which gained almost 600 signatures in the first 30 hours of its posting, notes the government’s threat to close the Lien Tri Pagoda by the end of September.
“Many other religious institutions are under the same threat,” the petition adds, “including the Thu Thiem Catholic Church, the Congregation of the Lovers of the Holy Cross; not to mention already shuttered facilities owned by the Vietnam Evangelical Church and Mennonite Church.”
“The Interfaith Council of Vietnam urgently appeal[s] for your support and cooperation in protecting all religious institutions in Thu Thiem by cosigning the Council’s Statement Regarding Religious Institutions in the New Thu Thiem City Development.”
The notice to close the Lien Tri Pagoda was issued Aug. 18 by officials from Ho Chi Minh City’s An Khanh Ward, District 2, the petition noted, adding that the decision could be implemented at any time between the dates of Sept. 8 to Sept. 30.
Land clearance 'an excuse'
Authorities have offered payment of VND 5.4 billion (about U.S. $274,000) in compensation for the pagoda and its land, resident abbot Thich Khong Tanh told RFA’s Vietnamese Service this week in an interview.
“I don’t want to accept the offer,” Tanh said. “But they said they will go ahead with their work according to the law, regardless of what I want.”
“We know that the government hasn’t liked Lien Tri for quite some time because we don’t
3 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Lien Tri Pagoda belong to the government’s Buddhist church. We belong to the [outlawed] Vietnamese Unified Buddhist Church, so we have been isolated and cracked down on for many years.”
“Now, they are using this land clearance to eliminate us,” he said.
"The government will do whatever it wants."
'Land of gold'
The Thu Thiem area of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is now targeted for development as a “new urban area,” with zones set aside for commercial, residential, administrative, entertainment, and educational purposes.
No plans have been made however for the establishment of temples, churches, or even offices for charity services in Thu Thiem, which has long been seen by developers as a “land of gold,” the Interfaith Council of Vietnam noted in a statement.
“How can people’s religious and spiritual needs be met when long term development gives no consideration for religious institutions?,” the Council asked. “How can freedom of religion as prescribed by the Constitution be accomplished?”
“The government wants us to move so they can build their new city here,” a nurse at the Convent of the Lovers of the Holy Cross told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Whenever we have a meeting with the government, we say that this is a decision to be made by all 600 members of our church.”
“We have already given the government 360,000 square meters (3.8 million square feet) of our land for the people to use,” the nurse said, adding, “We have only about 10,800 square meters (1.1 million square feet) left, and now they want us to move.”
“This is not fair to our convent. We want the government to reconsider,” she said.
Attacks on religion
Heiner Bielefeldt, a special U.N. envoy, accused Vietnam’s authoritarian government in July of “serious violations” of religious freedom and said that police had harassed and intimidated people he had wanted to meet in the course of his investigations.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion said during his 11-day visit that the violations affected independent groups of Buddhists, including Hoa Hao-Buddhists, and of the Cao Dai religion, some Protestant communities, and activists within the Catholic Church.
In an annual report on international religious freedoms released in July, the U.S. State Department said that Vietnam showed signs of improvement in 2013, but highlighted a number of continuing concerns.
4 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Lien Tri Pagoda
The State Department included Vietnam on its list of Countries of Particular Concern for abuses of religious freedom in 2004 but removed it from the blacklist two years later.
It has since ignored repeated calls by rights groups and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) to reinstate the country’s designation.
Reported by An Nguyen for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.
On the 26th September 2015, BULLDOZERS are idling outside the Lien Tri Pagoda
Higher powers - A proposed law on religion will not help the faithful (source: http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21667968-proposed-law-religion-will-not-help-faithful- higher-powers)
BULLDOZERS are idling outside the Lien Tri Pagoda, a complex of yellow buildings near the Saigon River. Officials plan to destroy it and fill this sparsely populated district of Ho Chi Minh City with skyscrapers. One property firm calls the area the “Pudong of Saigon”, referring to a glittering riverside district of Shanghai. But the pagoda’s chief monk, Thich Khong Tanh, is not so enthusiastic. He is fighting eviction.
Mr Tanh says the lure of profits is not the only reason the authorities would like his pagoda to vanish; it is not officially sanctioned by the Communist Party and is a sanctuary for political dissidents, former prisoners of conscience and disabled veterans who fought for the former South Vietnamese regime. Officials “want to isolate and control us,” he says. “But moving means isolation, so the monks here don’t want to move.”
About 24m of Vietnam’s 90m people identify with a religious faith; Buddhism and Catholicism are the most popular. But the party has always viewed religion warily, in part because three of its former foes—the French, the Americans and the government of South Vietnam—were friendly with the Catholic Church. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the party seized church lands and put pressure on worshippers to join approved denominations like the Vietnamese Buddhist Sangha, which was founded in 1981 and reports to the Fatherland Front, a party organisation.
Many religious leaders who refused to accept party control were arrested or harassed. Thich Quang Do, the patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, a banned group, has spent three decades in prison or internal exile, or under house arrest in Ho Chi Minh City —“longer than Aung San Suu Kyi,” says Vo Van Ai, a church spokesman who lives in France. Other leaders of banned sects, including evangelical pastors in the Central Highlands, a restive region with many ethnic groups, have fared almost as badly.
After a trip to Vietnam in 2014, the UN’s special rapporteur on religion said that planned visits to parts of the Central Highlands and the Mekong Delta, a stronghold for worshippers of the Hoa Hao Buddhist faith, had been “unfortunately interrupted” and that some Vietnamese he had wanted to meet had been threatened by police. Officials, presumably, wanted to
5 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Lien Tri Pagoda
conceal their efforts to suppress religion.
The party has somewhat softened its stance. Since the 1990s, temples, pagodas and churches have been refurbished and allowed to celebrate religious holidays, such as the Buddha’s birthday, that were once taboo. But the government has issued more regulations governing worshippers and their faiths, with dispiriting results. One such was a law on religion passed in 2004 that criminalised the “abuse” of religion to undermine national security. Another decree, issued in 2013, made it more difficult to register religious groups.
Next month the National Assembly, Vietnam’s parliament, plans to debate another law aimed at streamlining these statutes. A draft version includes some small improvements, such as reducing the amount of time a religious organisation must have operated in Vietnam before it can be formally recognised by the state from 23 years to ten. Senior legislators quoted by the official Vietnam News Agency say the law will help to bring domestic religious policy in line with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Vietnam signed in 1982. Yet critics, including Human Rights Watch, a New York-based NGO, say the law is so vague that it could give Vietnam’s powerful security state even more freedom to police religious groups that it does not like.
In May the Interfaith Council of Vietnam—a group of dissident religious leaders of various faiths—wrote an open letter of protest denouncing the law as a ploy by the party to reinforce its power and stifle worship. Dinh Huu Thoai, a Catholic leader and one of the letter’s 22 signatories, says the law’s text is riddled with arbitrary and confusing clauses. For example, it allows worship in homes and other “legal” places, but does not say what is legal.
It is difficult to predict how harshly the authorities will interpret the bill. But its passage will certainly do little to boost the government’s image as a defender of human rights. Thich Khong Tanh, the monk at Lien Tri Pagoda, reckons that freedom of worship is only improving for those who belong to state-sanctioned denominations. “Anybody who is independent will face oppression and difficulty,” he says. His own troubles are far from over.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition.
On the 8th September 2016, Vietnam Regime evicted Monks From Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City:
Vietnamese Authorities Evict Monks From Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/vietnamese-authorities-evict-monks-from-pagoda-in-ho- chi-minh-city-09082016151044.html?searchterm:utf8:ustring=Lien+Tri+pagoda)
Local government authorities in Vietnam forcibly evicted monks from a Buddhist pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, while police blocked pagoda supporters from entering the site, clergy members said.
Thich Khong Tanh, the resident abbot in charge of Lien Tri Pagoda which belongs to the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and is located in district two of the city’s An Khanh
6 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Lien Tri Pagoda
ward, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service by phone that authorities arrived at the site to read their eviction order this morning.
The Vietnamese government does not recognize the church.
District officials have been threatening to close the Lien Tri Pagoda since August 2014, when they sent resident monks an initial notice after Vietnamese authorities had declared their intention to tear down the structure.
Authorities also planned to demolish two Christian churches to make way for a lucrative development scheme in the Thu Thiem area where all three religious structures are located.
At the time, Tanh told RFA that authorities had offered a payment of 5.4 billion Vietnamese dong (then about U.S. $274,000) in compensation for the pagoda and its land. But he refused to accept the money, saying that authorities were using the clearance order to eliminate the pagoda because it did not belong to the government’s own state-controlled Buddhist church.
On Thursday, he was unable to speak at length about the eviction because of health concerns.
“I was very tired, so they sent me to the hospital in district two for an intravenous transfusion,” he said. “I can’t talk at the moment. I’m very weak.”
Besides serving as a place of worship, the pagoda provides shelter to many rights activists and victims of injustice who go to the city to pursue their quests for justice with government authorities.
District authorities have already built new structures on a nearly 700-square-meter-area where they plan to relocate the pagoda, according to state media reports.
Catholics affected too
Meanwhile, police in the district also blocked other religious activists from leaving their homes, fearing they would interfere with the evictions at Lien Tri Pagoda, monk Dong Minh told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
Anthony Le Ngoc Thanh, a priest at the Roman Catholic Redemptorist Church in Ho Chi Minh City told RFA that security personnel had followed members of the church early Thursday morning as they were going to Mass.
“When we got home, they had set up checkpoints outside our houses,” he said. “Maybe they thought that we would go to Lien Tri Pagoda to interfere their eviction, but we did not intend to do it.”
“We have already condemned the eviction because it is illegal according to Vietnamese law, let alone international law,” Thanh said.
“The Lien Tri Pagoda is a religious institution, and the district has no authority to take their
7 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Lien Tri Pagoda land,” he said. “This authority belongs only to the city. They can’t authorize a lower-level office to do this.”
The district government sent an eviction notice to the pagoda in July, prompting Charles Sellers, chief of the political section at the U.S. consulate general in Ho Chi Minh City to visit Lien Tri and meet Thich Khong Tanh.
On Monday, the district government sent a second official eviction notice to the pagoda.
Tanh told RFA on the same day about the harassment that monks who live at the pagoda have had to endure since they received the notices.
Now there are always five or seven policemen outside the pagoda’s entrance, and they installed two or three cameras to monitor the monks, causing worshipers to stay away, he said.
“During a recent festival, they stopped Buddhist worshippers from entering the pagoda,” he said. “They take pictures of anyone who comes here and stop people from entering the pagoda because they said our pagoda is reactionary.”
Policemen have also followed Tanh on his regular trips to the hospital for treatment for several months, he said
“We can only pray and get out the news, hoping that the international community—people who are interested in religious freedom in Vietnam—will raise their concerns to support us,” he said.
“We are like a lamb led to slaughter,” he said. “They can evict us whenever they want. We have no power. We can only pray.”
‘New urban area’
Authorities have selected the Thu Thiem area of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, as the site of a “new urban area” with zones created for commercial, residential, administrative, entertainment, and educational purposes.
They did not include plans for the establishment of temples, churches, or offices for charity services there, according to the Interfaith Council of Vietnam, which represents five Christian and Buddhist groups.
The group issued an online petition in September 2014 for support in blocking the confiscation of the buildings and the land in Thu Thiem.
In January 2016, the Interfaith Council issued an online notice condemning the suppression of religious freedom in Vietnam. The group also called on the Vietnamese people and the international community to support the Lien Tri monks as they face the threatened demolition of their pagoda.
8 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Lien Tri Pagoda
Reported by Mac Lam and Cat Linh for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
On the 12th September 2016, Vietnam Regime demolished Buddhist Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietnamese Authorities Demolish Buddhist Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/vietnamese-authorities-demolish-buddhist-pagoda-in-ho- chi-minh-city-09122016162048.html?searchterm:utf8:ustring=Lien+Tri+pagoda)
Government authorities in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City have destroyed a Buddhist pagoda from which they recently evicted monks, and have moved all of the temple’s contents to another location, the head of the religious institution said Monday.
On Sept. 8, authorities forcibly removed all monks from Lien Tri Pagoda, which belongs to the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and is located in district two of the city’s An Khanh ward, to clear the land for a lucrative development project. The Vietnamese government does not recognize the church.
“Lien Tri Pagoda is more than 70 years old, but they’ve destroyed the entire pagoda, and now it has become empty land,” Thich Khong Tanh, the resident abbot in charge of the pagoda, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
He has argued that only the city—not the district—has the authority to take the religious institution’s land.
Authorities took away all the site’s Buddha statues, pictures, furniture, and boxes containing human ashes to the city’s Cat Lai area, where they have decided to relocate the pagoda and monks, he said.
Placing a deceased person’s ashes in a pagoda following cremation is one of the three ways to dispose of the remains according to Buddhist tradition.
“Some people took pictures of the pagoda, which now is just a derelict place where everything has been destroyed,” Tanh said.
After the most recent eviction order was issued on Sept. 5, the thousands of people who worshipped at Lien Tri Pagoda had to go elsewhere, he said. Only a few hundred continued to go there until the place was destroyed.
District authorities also issued an eviction notice in July.
“I had said before that if they eliminated the pagoda, I would become a monk without a pagoda just like a homeless person,” Tanh said. “I may have to apply for refugee status because I have no place to stay.”
Government want to 'eliminate us'
9 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Lien Tri Pagoda
So far, the abbot has refused to sign an agreement with district officials to take over the new place they assigned to the monks.
“I said before that I would not accept it even if the government offered us 100 billion Vietnamese dong (U.S. $4.4 million), he said. “We don’t want to sell the pagoda or trade it for anywhere else.”
“The government just wants to eliminate us, using hundreds of policemen to evict us despite our protest,” he said.
District officials have been threatening to close the Lien Tri Pagoda since August 2014, when they sent resident monks an initial notice after Vietnamese authorities declared their intention to tear down the structure along with two Christian churches to make way for the development scheme.
Authorities had offered a payment of 5.4 billion Vietnamese dong (then about U.S. $274,000) in compensation for the pagoda and its land. But Tanh refused to accept the money, saying that authorities were using the clearance order to eliminate the pagoda because it did not belong to the government’s own state-controlled Buddhist church.
Besides serving as a place of worship, the pagoda provides shelter to many rights activists and victims of injustice who go to the city to pursue their quests for justice with government authorities.
Reported by Mac Lam for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Viet Ha. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
In September 2016 a petition was organised by Vietnam Human Rights Network (VNHRN) and sent to UN Human Rights council with over 5,000 signatures (source: https://www.change.org/p/petition-in-protest-of-the-forced-expropriation-of-lien-tri-pagoda- vietnam), and the following text was received by VNHRN from UN Human Rights council:
Dear Nguyen Ba Tung,
On behalf of the Chief of the Asia Pacific section at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, I am writing in acknowledgment of your correspondence on 18 October 2016 regarding the protest of forced expropriation of the Lien Tri Pagoda.
The High Commissioner continues to monitor the situation in Vietnam closely and appreciates being updated on developments. The information you provided will be shared with OHCHR Special Procedures division and with OHCHR colleagues.
Yours sincerely,
Asia Pacific Section
Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Division
10 Taiwanese plant’s toxic dumping threatens the health and livelihood of millions in Vietnam
Century-old Dong Yen Parish faces disappearance
Prepared by “Save Dong Yen” Campaign
3rd December, 2016
In early April 2016, toxic waste dumped into the sea by a Taiwanese-owned steel plant contaminated some 200 km of Vietnam’s coastline. Located next to this steel plant, Dong Yen Parish suffers the full impacts of this brewing environmental disaster while continuing to be targeted by the local government’s anti-religion policy.
In 2008, Dong Yen Parish residents were the first to oppose Ky Anh District’s decision to lease 3,300 hectares of land, for a term of 70 years, to Formosa Plastics Groups for its steel complex. This Taiwanese-owned multinational chemistry company is known for its poor environmental track record. In 2009, its owners were selected for the Black Planet Award by the Foundation for Ethics & Economics (https://www.ethecon.org/en/902).
As the district government ignored their concerns, on 20th of March, 2011 thousands of Dong Yen parishioners participated in an anti-Formosa protest. The district government subsequently ordered the relocation of the entire parish to a remote mountainous area. The government promised to the Bishop of Vinh Diocese, which includes Dong Yen Parish, that the relocation area would benefit from eco-tourism. About 4,000 parishioners reluctantly moved only to find out that they would be split into two disjointed communities, and there was no eco-tourism but only an artillery base nearby and no arable land. Some 158 families (800 people) resisted relocation, determined to save their century-old parish from permanent elimination.
On 17th March, 2015, the government sent in its mobile police unit to seize land, destroy homes, and bring down religious edifices, turning a once thriving community into a desolate sight. As the demolition team cordoned off the Dong Yen church for destruction, parishioners used themselves as human shields to protect the prime symbol of their faith. The police brutally attacked them causing injuries to several parishioners, including four women – one of them being pregnant – and a Catholic nun.
The government also took children hostage to force parishioners to relocate. The government sent in demolition team to destroy the village’s only school and barred children from going to any other school. Adults who volunteered to teach the children at their homes were subjected to threats and harassment by the government. Thus, all 153 children and youth of Dong Yen Parish whose family defied the relocation order were without education for over two years. Only after students and parents protested in front of the Ky Loi Commune People’s Committee in August 2016 did the government lift its ban on education. The children can now attend in a nearby school, but face difficulty caused by their extended absence from school and also by discriminatory actions by school officials.
In early April 2016, fisherfolks in Dong Yen Parish started to observe the death of farmed fish, followed by tons of dead fish washing ashore. The environmental disaster rapidly spread to 4 provinces in Central Vietnam: Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Quang Binh and Thua Thien-Hue, affecting the livelihood of not only fishermen but millions of residents in the region. Many people also reported signs of illness; a number of divers employed by Formosa Steel Plant displayed symptoms of poisoing; one of them died and others remain in poor health.
As their concerns were ignored by all levels of government, local fishermen did their own investigation and found a 1.5km-long pipeline, 1m in diameter, discharging yellowish waste into the ocean. They observed a vast area of the sea with only dead or dying coral reefs and almost no fish and mollusks. On 26th April, Thua Thien-Hue’s Office of Natural Resources and Environment announced test results showing concentrations of heavy metals in seawater exceeding allowable levels, and warned residents against sea swimming until further notice.
Ironically, on the same day Mr. Dang Ngoc Son, Deputy Chair of the People’s Committee of Ha Tinh Province, went on television urging people to swim at sea and consume seafood as usual. The following day, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan held a press conference in Ha Noi to affirm that there was no sign of cause-effect relationship between Formosa Steel Plant and the spreading dead fish phenomenon. When asked about the abnormally high concentration levels of heavy metal found in seawater, he quipped that such a question would harm national interests.
Reacting to the government’s lack of transparency, thousands of people joined a mass protest in Quang Binh Province on 28th of April. Similar protests soon broke out in Da Nang, Hai Phong, Vung Tau, Nha Trang and Saigon. The public security police brutally cracked down on the peaceful protesters. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement of concern regarding the government’s unnecessary use of force.
On 30th April, the Chairman of Natural Resources and Environment of Da Nang City, which was in the affected area, and other city government officials were photographed by reporters while dipping in seawater. The following day, the Minister of Information and Communication Truong Minh Tuan and staff of several state-run newspapers showcased their consumption of sea fish caught in the vicinity Formosa Steel Plant; he called on the public to demonstrate patriotism by eating seafood and swimming in the sea.
A state-owned publication (Countryside Today) was fined 140 million VND (6,300 USD) for an article expressing sympathy with affected fisherfolks. A number of civil society activists visiting the affected areas were blocked, threatened, or arrested. Some were reportedly tortured while in police custody.
On 30th June, almost three months after the environmental disaster had broken out, Minister and Chairman of Government Office Mai Tien Dung announced at a press conference that Formosa had admitted its wrongdoing and agreed to pay 500 million USD in fines and compensation. Minister Dung asked the affected people to show generosity and forgiveness towards Formosa.
This announcement was met with public anger as people affected had been completely shut out of the negotiation with Formosa about compensation level. The government-negotiated compensation level would amount to only 10% to 25% of the pre-disaster monthly household income for most families. This compensation would only cover 6 months while most experts projected that full recovery of the ecology and fishery would take decades.
To the dismay of local residents, Formosa Steel Plant was caught illegally dumping hundreds of tons of solid wastes in half a dozen places. While Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had earlier threatened to evict Formosa from Vietnam if caught with another incident of illegal dumping, the government has so far taken no action against Formosa.
Meanwhile, a Taiwanese television program aired an investigative documentary raising suspicion of Formosa’s involvement in the mass fish death. On 1st August, Taiwan Parliamentarian Su Chih Fen led a media delegation to Vietnam to look into the operations of Formosa Steel Plant. The Vietnamese authorities confiscated her passport, held her at Noi Bai Airport, and only released her nine hours later as public and diplomatic pressure mounted.
On 22nd August, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Truong Hong Ha held a press conference in Dong Ha, Quang Tri Province to announce that the ocean was now safe for swimming and seafood safe for consumption. He and a dozen government officials then went dipping in seawater and ostensibly consuming local seafood. Three days later officials from the Ministry of Health warned people from consuming seafood coming from the affected areas.
Frustrated with increasingly clear intention of the government to whitewash the environmental disaster and protecting the perpetrator, on 26th September, thousands of residents in Quynh Luu and Ky Anh Districts came to the People’s Court of Ky Anh District to file over 500 law suits against Formosa Steel Plant. The following week, over ten thousand district residents held a demonstration in front of Formosa Steel Plant to demand justice and judicial due process. A few days later, the Ky Anh District People’s Court returned all filings, explaining to the plaintiffs that the case had been resolved through agreement between Formosa and the central government.
For the past eight months, families in Dong Yen Parish have been without income because local fishery, their only means of livelihood, had been completely destroyed. None of them has received assistance from the government. In-kind and monetary relief sent from benefactors in other parts of the country or from overseas has been blocked by the government.
For over half a century Dong Yen Parish has been targeted for religious persecution by the local government. Over the years, a dozen parishioners were sent to prison for standing up to the government. In 1969, the government accused the parish’s chaplain, Rev. Vu Van Giao, of being reactionary and mobilized over 3000 police and military personnel carrying weapons to surround the parish in order to arrest him. After 72 days of standoff, the government troops withdrew. Ever since, the government has repeatedly found new ways to disrupt the life of Dong Yen parishioners. On May 1, 1979 the government abducted Rev. Nguyen Dang Dien. After 3 months of unsuccessful search, the parishioners went to the Prime Minister’s office to petition for an answer. The government released Rev. Dien but forced him to move to another parish.
In the Formosa Steel Complex the local government found a pretext to remove Dong Yen Parish once for all. On 13th March, 2014, Nguyen Van Bong, then-Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ky Anh District, signed Decision No. 7008/QD-UBND ordering the seizure of all lands in Dong Yen Parish. On 14th September, 2015, Le Xuan Vuong, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ky Loi Commune, signed Announcement No. 39/TB/UBND to prohibit volunteers from teaching the 153 children and youth in Dong Yen Parish. On 25th March, 2015, the People’s Committee of Ky Anh District issued Announcement No. 147/TB/UBND about dismantling the Parish’s community house, its bible school, and its church; the announcement also banned all religious activities at the Dong Yen Church and ordered the removal of all assets from the church before the 25th March, 2015 deadline. It was signed by Mr. Duong Thanh Hoa, Deputy Chair of Ky Anh District’s People’s Committee.
Then on 18th September 2015, the new Chairman of Ky Anh District People’s Committee, Nguyen Quoc Ha, signed Announcement No. 1187 /TB/UBND to again order that Dong Yen Church be dismantled. On 12th January, 2016, Chu Van Quang, Deputy Chair of Ky Anh District People’s Committee signed Announcement No. 03/TB/UBND banning all construction work in Dong Yen Parish.
With the support from the Bishop’s Court, many Catholic priests and the Catholic community of Vinh Diocese, the remaining 158 families of Dong Yen Parish have successfully fought off the government’s repeated attempts to eliminate their parish. However, with the added threat to their livelihood and health, these families need support to:
(1) Push back all administrative measures or use of force by the local government to dislocate parishioners; (2) Sue Formosa Steel Plant for compensation and for its eviction from Vietnam; and (3) Create alternative means of livelihood so as to sustain their protracted fight for justice.
For information, contact: Thong Nguyen, email: [email protected], or Rebecca Dang, email: [email protected]
Dong Yen Parish located in proximity of Formosa Steel Complex
Dong Yen Parish before and after demolition by order of Ky Anh District government Dong Yên Parish before and after demolition The chaplain’s house reduced to rubbles
What left of Dong Yen’s bible school Dong Yen parishioners defending their church from being demolished Children of Dong Yen Parish demanding their right to education after 2.5 years of being denied this basic right, August 2016
Students and parents praying for the return to school, recovery from the environmental disaster and the preservation of their parish, August 6, 2016
Submission to UN Special Procedures
By BPSOS, December 21, 2016
To what issues/themes/areas is your submission related?
Please indicate if your submission is related to any of the following. If none of these apply to your submission once you have confirmed consent you can continue to the next step.
Adequate housing Arbitrary detention Counter-terrorism Cultural rights Democratic and equitable international order Discrimination against women in law and in practice Education Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances Environment Extreme poverty Food Foreign debt Freedom of Assembly and Association Freedom of Opinion and Expression Freedom of Religion Hazardous substances and wastes Health Human Rights Defenders Independence of judges and lawyers Indigenous peoples Internally displaced persons International solidarity Mercenaries Migrants
170 families in Dong Yen Parish, including some 800 residents; among them 153 are children.
Describe the activities of the group/community, civil society or other entity:
Despite threats, harassment and violence, these parishioners have defined government order to abandon their parish and move to a location designated by Ky Anh District government.
Affiliation or activity of group/community:
An all-Catholic community with 87 years of history
Occupation of group/community members:
Fisherfolks
Contact information of the group/community Address: c/o Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang President & CEO BPSOS 6066 Leesburg Pike, Suite 100 Falls Church, VA 22041 USA
District/province/area where the incident allegedly occurred/is occurring/might occur (if relevant):
Dong Yen, Dong Yen, Ky Loi Commune, Ky Anh District, Ha Tinh Province, Viet Nam
Case details Country where the incident allegedly occured/is occuring/might occur: *
Viet Nam
District/province/area where the incident allegedly occured/is occuring/might occur (if relevant):
Ky Loi Commune, Ky Anh District, Ha Tinh Province
Please provide a short chronological summary of the incident: what happened; when (date/time); who was involved?
In 2008, Ky Anh District leased 3,300 hectares of land, for a term of 70 years, to Formosa Plastics Groups to build a steel complex only 1km away from Dong Yen Parish. In March 2011, all Dong Yen parishioners staged an anti-Formosa protest. The district government ordered the relocation of the entire parish to a remote mountainous area.
While about 4000 parishioners reluctantly moved, some 158 families dug in. To put pressure on them, in 2014 the government of Ky Loi Commune ordered the eviction of all 153 children of the parish from its public school. Seeing that parishioners set up substitute classes at the parish's bible school, on March 17, 2015 the government demolished this school, destroyed homes including the chaplain’s house, and
Yes.
Dong Yen Parish, as an official affiliate of the Vietnamese Catholic Church, which has legal status, is recognized by the government.
Please indicate the denomination of the religion or belief of the alleged victim(s). Roman Catholic
Do you believe the alleged victim was specifically targeted because of her/his religious or belief? Please specify.
For over half a century Dong Yen Parish has been targeted for religious persecution by the local government. Over the years, a dozen parishioners were sent to prison for standing up to the government. In 1969, the government accused the parish’s chaplain, Rev. Vu Van Giao, of being reactionary and mobilized over 3000 police and military personnel carrying weapons to surround the parish in order to arrest him. After 72 days of standoff, the government troops withdrew. Ever since, the government has repeatedly found new ways to disrupt the life of Dong Yen parishioners. On May 1, 1979 the government abducted Rev. Nguyen Dang Dien. After 3 months of unsuccessful search, the parishioners went to the Prime Minister’s office to petition for an answer. The government released Rev. Dien but forced him to move to another parish.
Information relating to Violence Against Women
In case the alleged violation involved physical violence, has the victim seen a doctor after the incident took place? Are there any medical certificates/notes relating to the incident concerned?
On March 17, 2015, the police escorted public work personnel to the parish to demolish homes, religious edifices and the only school for children in the parish. Female parishioners used themselves as human shield to protect their church from being demolished while attempting to de-escalate confrontation with the police.
The police brutally attacked the women. Injured victims included several women, including one who was pregnant. The police then went after resident nuns from the Missionaries of Christ's Charities. Matta Nguyen Thi Phu, a nun, was brutally beaten.
As these women did not abandon their vigil around the church, the police finally withdrew. The Dong Yen Church has so far escaped destruction.
Perpetrators:
(1) Mr. Nguyen Van Bong, Ex-Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ky Anh District: On March 13, 2014 he signed the order (No. 7008/QD-UBND) to expropriate the entire parish and relocate all parishioners.
(2) Mr. Duong Thanh Hoa, Ex-Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ky Anh District: On March 25, 2015, he signed the order (No. 147/TB/UBND) to demolish the chaplain’s house, the bible school, and the church in the parish. The order also prohibited parishioners from conducting activities in their church while it awaited demolition.
(3) Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ha, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ky Anh District: On September 18, 2015, he signed the order (No. 1187/TB/UBND) to demolish Dong Yen Church. This was the District government’s second attempt.
(4) Mr. Le Xuan Vuong, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ky Loi Commune: On September 14, 2015, he issued the order (No. 39/TB/UBND) to prohibit volunteers from offering substitute classes to the 153 children of Dong Yen.
(5) Mr. Chu Van Quang, Vice-Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ky Loi Commune On January 12, 2016, he signed the order (No. 03/TB/UBND) to prohibit all new constructions in the parish. Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Unified Buddist Persecution
Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliament Religious Inquiry 2017
Many Buddhists have experienced persecution from non-Buddhists and other Buddhists during the history of Buddhism. Persecution may refer to unwarranted arrest, imprisonment, beating, torture, replacement, assassination or execution. It also refers to the confiscation or destruction of property, or the incitement of hatred toward Buddhists. Buddhism is the largest and oldest religion in Vietnam comprises of more than 80% of the population and hence has been the most to suffer. The persecution of Buddhists in Vietnam is very systematic and widespread by means of re-education, isolation, false teaching, fake religious leaders and pagodas and brain washing. The persecution of Buddists dated back as far as 1940’s when the Communists saw the golden opportunity of controlling and manipulating the populate through the mercy and merciful teaching of Buddhism. The reported cases so far are only the tip of an enormous iceberg.
The Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam (UBCV) is a Buddhist organization in Vietnam. The Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam was founded in 1964 in South Vietnam to unify 11 of the 14 different sects of Vietnamese Buddhism at the time present in the country. The unification also came in response to a government that was seen as increasingly hostile to Buddhists during the Vietnam War.
After the victory, the communist government in 1981 consolidated all Buddhist organizations under the umbrella group Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam and placed it under government control. The UBCV and all other non-sanctioned organizations became banned within Vietnam. It continues to operate in exile outside of Vietnam.
Partriarch Thich Quang Do was born on 27 November 1928 in the Thai Binh Province of North Vietnam, at 14 he became a monk. At age 17 he witnessed his religious master executed by the revolutionary People’s Tribunal. In 1975 under communist control the UBCV was again unwelcome in Vietnam. As a result, the UBCV facilities were seized, and documents burned. Quả ng Đ ộ was active in protesting the governments actions, and after attempting to gather Buddhists from other regions in non-violent opposition, he was arrested on charges of anti-revolutionary activities and undermining national solidarity. He spent 20 months at the Phan Dang Luu Prison in solitary confinement, before he was trialed and released in December, 1978. Later that year he was nominated by Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1982 because of his opposition to the new church, he was again jailed. He would spend the next 10 years in exile in the village of Vu Doai. Yet again in 1995, while attempting to expose government abuse
1 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Unified Buddist Persecution of the UBCV, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. He became the President of the UBCV’s Institute for the Dissemination of the Dharma in 1999, meaning that he was the second- ranking UBCV dignitary after patriarch Thich Huyen Quang. In 2008, as one of his last wishes Partriarch Huyen Quang named him as the new patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. He has been under pagoda arrest ever since.
Following are some of the many stories.
25th Jan 2010: Vietnam’s Covert War Against Overseas Buddhists (source: http://www.queme.net/eng/docs_detail.php?numb=1290)
In Vietnam hundreds of monks undergo re-education to infiltrate overseas temples with the aim to destroy the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam
Vietnam has waged a brutal overt and covert war against its Buddhist population for decades.
In 1981, they officially outlawed their country’s oldest and original Buddhist Church, the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV).
The communists attacked the 2000-year-old tradition and created an alternative state- controlled Buddhist Church.
Those who refused to submit allegiance to this new order were imprisoned, tortured, and even murdered.
The current spiritual leader of the UBCV, Nobel Prize nominee the Venerable Thich Quang Do, has spent the last 26 years under house arrest in Vietnam.
His struggle began years ago when as a young monk he witnessed the execution of his Buddhist teacher by the communists.
Viewed as antagonists to communist ideology, Do and his fellow Buddhists are a target of persecution inside, and now outside, Vietnam.
Just days after monks at a Buddhist temple in Western Australia denounced Hanoi’s policies of religious repression, Buddhist statutes at the temple were beheaded. The incident occurred in October and November 2009.
The first desecration occurred after the temple’s head monk, who is the UBCV’s Australian representative, attended a Buddhist conference in Los Angeles, where they announced their determination to oppose Hanoi’s plan to eliminate them.
The second desecration occurred after this same monk sponsored a delegation of UBCV exiles to meet with the Australian government in Parliament House, Canberra. The meeting was organized to advise the government of Hanoi’s religious persecution in preparation for the Australia-Vietnam human rights dialogue to be held in December.
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Thus, the beheadings were clearly viewed as a warning to the Australian Buddhists. For Hanoi, the ramifications of Buddhists speaking out on human rights abuses is geopolitical, for their authoritarian regime has come under growing international pressure to cease religious persecution.
In the United States, it was in 2004 that the State Department first designated Vietnam as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC), the official watch list of nations that commit egregious religious persecution. CPC designation involves potential economic sanctions, hence Hanoi’s determination to silence any critics.
Hanoi and Washington however, reached an agreement for reform in 2006, with the understanding that Vietnam would be dropped from CPC designation.
Vietnam was indeed removed from the CPC designation and yet the promised reforms never came.
In fact, Vietnam increased persecution, of which Human Rights Watch accused the country of “launching one of the worst crackdowns on peaceful dissidents in 20 years.”
Ever since, calls for Vietnam to be re-designated as a CPC, such as the U.S. Commission on International Freedom, have gone unheeded.
Today, Hanoi has merely morphed its security forces into adopting more covert mechanisms of religious persecution.
These covert mechanisms involve expanding so-called “legal” churches while persecuting “illegal” churches that refuse to submit to communist control. Religious groups across Vietnam—Buddhists, Montagnard and Hmong Christians, Catholics, Hoa Hao, and Cai Dai sects, and other dissidents like democracy advocates, journalists, and bloggers—all face the same repressive measures.
Hanoi’s intention is a ‘divide and conquer’ policy that includes infiltration of overseas dissident groups.
Hanoi’s Secret Policy Directives
Incredibly, evidence of Hanoi’s policy of persecution comes from their written policies. The Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau has uncovered secret policy directives outlining Hanoi’s intention to attack overseas dissidents.
The overseas spokesman for the UBCV, Vo Van Ai even testified before the U.S. Congress on this fact. Speaking before the House Committee on International Relations on June 20, 2005, he quoted Hanoi’s explicit orders directing Vietnam’s security forces to “wipe out the An Quang Buddhist Church once and for all.”
The “An Quang Buddhist Church” is Hanoi’s term for the UBCV and the secret directives,
3 Bloc 8406 Submission to the Australian Parliamnent Religious Inquiry 2017 – Unified Buddist Persecution
authored by the Public Security Science Institute in Hanoi are entitled “On Religions and the Struggle Against Activities Exploiting Religion—Internal Document for Study and Circulation in the People’s Security Services.”
Penelope Faulkner, a long time activist with the International Buddhist Information Bureau, reports the secret directive instructs party cadres and security agents at every level to “oppose, repress, isolate, and divide” UBCV leaders. She states, “These directives order the training of special agents to infiltrate the UBCV, not only to gather intelligence and report on UBCV activities, but to create schisms and dissent within their ranks, thus undermining the UBCV from within.”
According to Faulkner these “special agents” have extended these activities overseas with Australia set to become the test case for their strategy.
Australia—The Test Case
Faulkner states that Hanoi has set up government “fronts” to undermine overseas religious groups and democracy activists and have sent hundreds of “state-sponsored” monks to Australia and the United States.
The main one now attacking the UBCV was formed at a conference in Sydney, Australia on Jan. 1, 2009. This “front” goes under the name “Trans-continental Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam.”
Faulkner said the ploy of these fronts “is not to overtly promote communism, but to tell Buddhists they should not get mixed up in politics, just stick to praying and sending money to Vietnam, and not get involved in the movement for religious freedom and human rights.”
Faulkner has no doubt that Hanoi is involved in intimidating overseas Buddhists and she quotes from the secret directive which orders Vietnamese authorities to “take pre-emptive action to prevent Western countries from making human rights investigations” in Vietnam.
The directive states, “We urge the Politburo to coordinate activities between the Vietnamese Communist Party’s departments of propaganda and mobilization, interior affairs, foreign affairs, religious affairs, and overseas Vietnamese to work together on this policy.”
One member of this “Transcontinental UBCV,” a Vietnamese monk based in Sydney, was seen Nov. 26, 2009, at the Parliament House in Canberra talking to about a dozen high ranking Vietnamese security officers. It was the same day the UBCV overseas delegation met with the Australian government.
A few days later the UBCV temple in Western Australia was desecrated.
Faulkner was among the UBCV delegation, and while she admits these security officers were likely attending the Australian Parliament for some diplomatic matter, she has no doubt they notified their bosses in Hanoi of seeing them at Parliament House.
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She is also sure the desecration of the temple in Western Australia was no coincidence.
In January 2010 this reporter traveled to the Buddhist Temple in Perth, Western Australia, and spoke to the monk in charge, Venerable Thich Phuoc Nhon. He carried the head of one of the two beheaded Buddhas in his arms and said Hanoi had long been trying to eliminate their church.
Nhon also said he received an anonymous envelope of gold and silver “funeral paper” in the mail in 2009. The paper is an ancient funeral tradition, and he said there was only one explanation for this letter: “a death threat.”
Members of his church in Sydney and Melbourne have also received threats over the telephone, he said.
Nhon said the statute would be repaired.
Scott Johnson who is a lawyer, writer and human rights activist who has focused on issues in South East Asia.
7th May 2013: Banned Vietnamese Buddhist Group's Pagoda Blockaded (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/sunday-05072013190530.html? searchterm:utf8:ustring=buddhist+vietnam)
Security forces in southern Vietnam surrounded the pagoda of a banned Buddhist group over the weekend and barred monks from leaving the monastery, in the latest crackdown on the group in the one-party communist state.
The blockade of the Giac Hoa Pagoda belonging to the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) in Ho Chi Minh City came as activists gathered in parks in cities across the country to stage “picnic” demonstrations calling for protection of human rights.
Some 50 security personnel including police and plainclothes agents surrounded the pagoda on Sunday, the Paris-based UBCV-affiliated International Buddhist Information Bureau rights group said in a statement Tuesday.
That morning, the head of the pagoda Thich Vien Hy and UBCV deputy leader Thich Vien Dinh were pushed back inside by a “gang” of plainclothes agents who surrounded their car when they tried to leave the monastery, IBIB said.
The two were going to another monastery to visit UBCV patriarch Thich Quang Do, who has called on followers to support public protests in Vietnam’s cities in recent years.
Security agents refused to provide a police warrant or explanation for why the monks were not allowed to leave, except to say they had “orders from above.”
Other monks were also barred from leaving the monastery to conduct prayers or funeral services for local Buddhists.
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The IBIB did not say whether the siege of the pagoda has ended.
According to the IBIB, police have regularly “systematically blockaded” various UBCV pagodas around on weekends since July last year, when Thich Quang Do called on followers to support a series of weekend anti-China rallies led by activists across the country.
Public protests are rarely allowed in Vietnam, and the recurring rallies calling for Hanoi to take a stronger stance against Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea were at first allowed to go ahead but eventually faced stricter controls.
Unsanctioned religious groups face strict controls in Vietnam, religious activity is monitored and groups must be supervised by government-controlled management boards.
‘Picnic for human rights’
This past weekend, in an ingenious move, activists organized protest “picnics” in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Nha Trang in the hope that the gatherings will not be shut down like the anti-China rallies.
But police dispersed the gatherings.
In Ho Chi Minh City, three activists were briefly arrested after they handed out copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Blogger Nguyen Hoang Vi, who had helped organize the Ho Chi Minh City gathering in the April 30th park, said she was held until late Monday and suffered beatings by police.
“When I went to the picnic spot, police arrested me and sent me to Phu Thanh police station,” she told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
When she went back to the police station with her mother after her release to get her belongings, police beat her and puller her mother’s hair violently, she said.
“When my mom told them off, they started to beat me. They grabbed my mom’s head and dragged her out,” she said.
Fellow blogger Vu Quoc Anh was beaten after he confronted people in the park who were using hoses to douse picnickers with water to disperse the gathering and was taken to the police station until Sunday night.
“When I did not cooperate with them, they slapped me, on my head and neck,” he told RFA.
Activist Hanh Nhan was also briefly detained.
An announcement about the May 5 picnic protests circulated online on April 30, the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, calling for people to gather in the parks to discuss human rights with the aim of “contributing to a beautiful society.”
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“What needs to be done to improve the human rights situation in Vietnam so that Vietnam will become a strong country with a prosperous people and a just, democratic, and civilized society?” it said.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
2nd Jan 2014: Vietnam Places Buddhist Youth Leader Under House Arrest (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/buddhist-01022014201138.html? searchterm:utf8:ustring=buddhist+vietnam)
A youth leader affiliated to the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) said Thursday that he has been placed under house arrest after he was detained and interrogated for 13 hours, in the latest religious crackdown in the one-party Communist state.
Le Cong Cau, head of the UBCV's Buddhist Youth Movement and an active coordinator of human rights issues in the North Central Coast province of Thua Thien-Hue, said he was detained on New Year's Day before he could take a flight to Ho Chi Minh City to meet with UBCV leader and prominent dissident Thich Quang Do.
He said security officers whisked him away from a plane at Phu Bai Airport near Hue, the provincial capital, and seized from him Do's laptop computer and UBCV documents, which they deemed as illegal.
From the airport, he was driven to the Truong An district police station in Hue where he was interrogated for 13 hours and accused of breaching various laws before he was placed under house arrest.
"Before they let me go, they told me, 'Now you know you have violated laws and so from now on, we'll follow you very closely,'" Cau told RFA's Vietnamese Service. "They said I was not allowed to leave my house and can't meet anybody."
Police outside his home
He said there were 15 to 20 policemen guarding him from outside his home.
"I can't go out," he said, speaking from his residence. "There are many policemen outside. They sit in the cafe across the street. Sometimes they enter the house. Some wear uniforms, some don’t."
Cau said during his interrogations, police told him that the UBCV was not recognized by the government and "by working with the church I violated the law."
"I said I did not violate any law because our church is legal but that [the authorities] had deprived us of our right and legal status."
Arrest condemned
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Cau's arrest has been condemned by rights groups.
Paris-based group, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and its member organization, the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), expressed serious concern over the arrest and detention.
“Arresting Le Cong Cau for simply attempting to visit to an elderly monk is a serious violation of the right to religious freedom,” said VCHR President Vo Van Ai.
“Vietnam will host the UN International Vesak Day [Buddha’s Birth] in May this year and the Vietnamese government claims to respect the rights of Buddhists. It should demonstrate its commitment by immediately releasing Le Cong Cau and Thich Quang Do from house arrest,” he said.
VCHR said police had seized two laptop computers, two flash drives, and two mobile phones as well as various documents from Cau.
“The ongoing repression of human rights defenders shows that Vietnam still has a long way to go in respecting and promoting fundamental human rights.” said FIDH President Karim Lahidji.
“Arbitrary arrests and detention targeting independent Buddhist groups and other religious communities must cease and their members must be immediately and unconditionally released,” he said.
Educational group
The Buddhist Youth Movement (BYM) headed by Cau is an educational organization affiliated to the UBCV with about 500,000 members in Vietnam.
Although the UBCV is banned by the Communist authorities, BYM has a semi-official status because of its widespread social, humanitarian, and educational activities, which are tolerated by government.
This is not the first time Cau had been arrested.
He was held in March 2013 and interrogated for three days because he posted articles on the Internet calling on the Vietnamese government to restore UBCV’s legal status and cease repression against UBCV members.
Police accused him of “undermining the unity policy” and “circulating anti-state propaganda” under Articles 87 and 88 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code. Those offenses carry prison sentences of up to 15 and 20 years respectively.
Authorities have arrested, charged, detained, or imprisoned hundreds of dissenting voices over the years Vietnam. This includes bloggers, labor and land rights activists, human rights defenders, and those calling for peaceful democratic reform. Members of religious groups
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have also been targeted.
Since the beginning of 2012, at least 65 peaceful dissidents have been sentenced to long prison terms in some 20 trials that failed to meet international standards, rights group Amnesty International said.
Reported by RFA's Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
14th Jan 2014: Vietnamese Security Agents Assault Monk of Banned Buddhist Church (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/assault-01142014175407.html? searchterm:utf8:ustring=buddhist+vietnam)
Vietnamese plainclothes security agents have assaulted a prominent monk as part of a greater crackdown on the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) following its announcement of a new executive committee, an affiliated advocacy group said Tuesday.
Thich Chon Tam, the newly appointed secretary general of UBCV’s Institute of the Sangha, was “intercepted and assaulted” as he was riding his motorbike in Ho Chi Minh City, the UBCV-affiliated International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) said in a statement.
“As he stopped at a red traffic light near Nguyen Van Cu bridge, a car pulled up in front of him,” IBIB said.
“Another car then rammed into his motorbike from behind. Plainclothes security agents got out and began to assault him.”
Tam, who is assistant to UBCV leader and prominent dissident Thich Quang Do, appealed for help from passersby, and as a crowd began to form, a third car pulled up containing a man who appeared to be the assailants’ chief, telling them “that’s enough for now” before they moved on, IBIB said.
The monk has been the target of “close police surveillance and harassment for several days,” the statement said.
On Jan. 8, Tam was expelled from the North Central Coast province of Thua Thien-Hue and forced to return to Ho Chi Minh City by security police after he attempted to attend a UBCV commemoration service, organized by the group’s newly appointed deputy leader Thich Nhu Dat, IBIB said.
Since then the authorities have kept a permanent watch on the Tu Hieu Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, where Tam is in temporary residence, and “follow him wherever he goes,” it said.
IBIB quoted Tam as saying that Vietnam was simply paying lip service to its support for the Buddhist religion by agreeing to host the 2014 United Nations Day of Vesak, or Buddha’s birthday, and an international Buddhism conference in the northern province of Ninh Binh in May.
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“How can Vietnam host U.N. International Vesak Day when police beat and intimidate Buddhist monks in broad daylight on the streets of Saigon [Ho Chi Minh City]?” Tam asked.
Ceremony crackdown
IBIB said that police harassment of the monk was part of “an ongoing crackdown on members of the new UBCV executive” who, like Tam, were announced by Thich Quang Do earlier this month.
It said that repression has been particularly harsh in Hue, the capital of Thua Thien-Hue province, where police prevented Thich Nhu Dat from organizing the UBCV commemoration service at the Long Quang pagoda on Jan. 10.
Dat told RFA’s Vietnamese Service last week that the government had actively prevented Buddhists from attending the ceremony beginning on Jan. 1, and had stepped up efforts from Jan. 7-9 in a number of different provinces.
“Many monks and nuns were terrorized and stopped from going to the ceremony,” he said.
“In Hue, most of the leaders of the [UBCV] were summoned by the police or kept inside their houses.”
Dat said that Buddhists near Long Quang pagoda were “invited”—a common euphemism for being forced against their will—to attend a lecture about how the UBCV is illegal and how joining it is in violation of the law.
The lecture also referred to Dat as a “reactionary element” and warned the Buddhists in attendance that anybody who went to the commemoration service at Long Quang pagoda would be detained.
“They [the police] set up many checkpoints from the pagoda to Highway No. 1 to stop people from going to the ceremony,” Dat said.
“They mobilized vans to block roads to the pagoda. Many security guards were sent to this area.”
Dat said that the commemoration service was an annual tradition held by the UBCV over the past five decades and had nothing to do with political activity.
“I think they did this to threaten the office that I lead and as an attempt to prevent us from our mission—fighting for our church and the freedom of the Vietnamese people,” he said.
“We went ahead and announced the new staff for our office. I believe that was the reason they were worried and determined to stop us [from holding the commemoration].”
Dat told IBIB that he and his monks went ahead with the commemoration service despite the ban, but that police intercepted and harassed a total of 300 UBCV monks, nuns, and youth
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leaders from all over southern and central Vietnam who had been invited to the event.
Additional harassment
IBIB said Tuesday that since the crackdown began on Jan. 1, police had placed a total of 23 members of the UBCV-affiliated Buddhist Youth Movement (BYM) under house arrest in Hue, including the group’s leader and newly appointed secretary general of the UBCV’s Executive Institute Le Cong Cau.
Cau was arrested on Jan. 1 and remains under house arrest, where he is forbidden to go outside or to receive visitors.
“Police are stationed outside his door and he is subjected to ‘working sessions’ (interrogations) twice each day,” IBIB said.
“Police threaten to imprison him if he does not step down from his post in the UBCV. At the end of each working session, the security police warn, ‘With just one signature we can throw you in jail’.”
Also under house arrest, according to IBIB, are Ho Nguyen Minh, Ho Van Nich, Hoang Nhu Dao, Hoang Tanh, Hoang Thi Hong Phuong, Le Nhat Thinh, Le Van Thanh, Ngo Duc Tien, Nguyen Chien, Nguyen Dinh Mong, Nguyen Duc Khoa, Nguyen Sac, Nguyen Tat Truc, Nguyen Thi Huong, Nguyen Van De, Truong Dien Hieu, Truong Minh Dung, Truong Trong Thao, Van Dinh An, Van Dinh Tat, Van Thi Hieu, and Van Tien Nhi.
BYM, headed by Cau, is an educational organization affiliated to the UBCV with about 500,000 members in Vietnam.
Although the UBCV is banned by the communist authorities, BYM has a semiofficial status because of its widespread social, humanitarian, and educational activities, which are tolerated by government.
IBIB also said that early on Jan. 10, as another leading monk Thich Thanh Quang and young nun Thich Nu Dong Hieu ordered a car from the Giac Minh Pagoda in central Vietnam’s Danang city to take them to Hue for the commemoration service, security officers surrounded the complex and forced them back inside.
Later that morning, a crowd of security police broke into the pagoda, and when Quang ordered them to leave the premises, one officer attacked Hieu, “slapping her repeatedly in the face until she fainted.”
IBIB condemned police harassment of Buddhists in Vietnam and called on the international community to press the government for specific improvements in freedom of religion at its upcoming Universal Periodic Review at the U.N. Human Rights Council in February.
Reported by Y Lan for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
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23rd May 2014: Vietnamese Woman Self-Immolates in Anti-China Protest (source: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/self-immolation-05232014155743.html? searchterm:utf8:ustring=buddhist+vietnam)
A Vietnamese woman belonging to an outlawed Buddhist movement died Friday after setting herself on fire in protest against China's actions in a territorial dispute with Vietnam, according to activists and local media.
The woman, 67-year-old Le Thi Tuyet Mai, surrounded herself with seven banners denouncing Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea before dousing herself in gasoline and setting it alight early Friday morning in front of the Reunification Palace in downtown Ho Chi Minh City.
Police told Vietnamese media they put out the blaze within three minutes but she succumbed to her burns.
The burning protest follows a clampdown on demonstrations against China's May 1 deployment of a giant oil rig in waters claimed by Vietnam.
The exile-based International Buddhist Information Bureau said Mai was an executive member of the Buddhist Youth Movement, part of the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), which is banned in the country.
The banners found next to her body displayed handwritten slogans expressing opposition to Chinese incursions into Vietnamese waters and support for the UBCV patriarch Thich Quang Do’s stance on the issue, the IBIB said.
Last week, the IBIB issued a statement saying Do was “disturbed” by China’s deployment of the oil rig off the coast of central Vietnam and wanted the Vietnamese government and the ruling Communist Party “to embark on a process of democratization to enable its citizens to participate equally in the defense of their homeland.”
“I offer my body as a torch to light the path of all patriots,” one of the banners displayed by Mai read, according to the group.
'Combination' of problems
Le Truong Hai Hieu, vice chairman of Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1 government, told reporters that police believe the self-immolation was inspired by a combination of serious life problems and anger created by China's deployment of the oil rig, local newspaper Thanh Nien reported.
Mai’s son Tran Le Truong, 45, said she had no history of mental illness, the paper said.
A local blogger in Ho Chi Minh City who went to the site of the blaze after reading about Mai’s self-immolation in a report on social media said the area had been thoroughly cleaned
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hours after the incident.
“I went to the site at noon but it was already cleaned, with nothing much left,” Hoang Van Dung told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
“I have a feeling that they wanted to cover this up because they cleaned this area so fast so nobody could see anything,” he said.
Several local media outlets reported the self-immolation but the first to do so, An Ninh Thu Do, took down its article hours after posting it.
China’s deployment of the oil rig in contested waters near the Paracel Islands has triggered fury in Vietnam.
Hanoi had initially lauded "patriotic" displays by its citizens and allowed protests by thousands in a rare move that amplified state anger against Beijing.
But it backpedalled after the protests turned violent last week, with rioters targeting factories in industrial parks around the country.
Some dissidents and activists who took part in peaceful protests reported they were brutally beaten and harassed by police.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
13th Oct 2015: Vietnamese Authorities Harass Independent Buddhist Church (cource: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/harass-10132015152114.html? searchterm:utf8:ustring=buddhist+vietnam)
Vietnamese authorities in the southern coastal province of Ba Ria Vung Tao have begun a campaign of harassment against a small, independent Buddhist church operating outside of government control, sending mobs to harass community members and block access to their building, sources say.
The crackdown against the Dat Quang pagoda, a temple of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam located in Bau Lam village in the province’s Xuyen Moc district, was launched at about noon on Oct. 6, a senior pagoda monk told RFA’s Vietnamese Service this week.
“Provincial authorities sent a large group of people to our place to harass our members, and we had only one way to counter their attack, which was to sit in protest and pray,” the monk, Thich Vinh Phuoc, said.
“They blocked all access to our temple and stopped anybody who wanted to come in,” Phuoc said, adding, “They even sprayed some kind of gas from the temple roof onto people who were sitting inside.”
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When one community member, Nguyen Thanh Cong, learned what was happening, he rushed to the scene to defend the temple and his friends, Phuoc said.
“He was detained by police and taken to the Bau Lam Village People’s Office, where a policeman struck him on the head, knocking him unconscious.”
Family members were at first prevented by police from taking Cong to a hospital for treatment, but were eventually allowed to proceed, Phuoc said.
“We do not belong to the government-controlled church,” Phuoc said, explaining the reasons for the attack.
“They always oppress the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam,” he added.
“We are under the leadership of Venerable Thich Thanh Tinh, who was jailed by the communist government for many years,” Phuoc said.
“He was arrested in 1992 and 1993 and was released in 2000. He came to live with us in 2001.”
Repairs blocked
Established in a modest village house in 1975, the Dat Quang Pagoda has physically deteriorated and needs work, but structural repairs have been blocked by local authorities, Phuoc said.
“Right from the beginning, they would not recognize us. They would not even let us register our residents, so why would they allow us to undertake repairs?” he asked.
Called by a reporter on Monday, provincial religious affairs Nguyen Van Ron declined comment and referred the caller to district-level authorities, who also refused to speak.
“I’m not authorized to talk about this, so please direct your questions somewhere else,” Lam Quang Dung, director of the Xuyen Moc District People’s Office, said.
“According to the rules, I’m not allowed to answer your questions.”
Vietnam, under one-party communist rule, continues to “severely restrict independent religious practice, and repress individuals and religious groups it views as challenging its authority,” the congressionally mandated U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) said in an annual report released in April.
The State Department included Vietnam on its list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) in 2004 but removed it from the blacklist two years later amid improving diplomatic relations, and has since ignored repeated calls from the commission to reinstate the country’s designation.
Reported by Gia Minh for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Hanh Seide. Written in
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English by Richard Finney.
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