PERSPECTIVES ON RELIGION IN THE NW HIGHLANDS

C O N F I D E N T I A L HANOI 001105

SIPDIS


STATE FOR BCLTV AND DRL/IRF

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2015
TAGS: KIRF PHUM VM ETMIN HUMANR RELFREE
SUBJECT: PERSPECTIVES ON RELIGION IN THE NW HIGHLANDS

REF: A. HANOI 956


B. HANOI 580

C. HANOI 353

D. HANOI 1051

Classified By: PolCouns Marc E. Knapper for reason 1.4 (d)


1. (SBU) Summary: Protestantism continues to grow rapidly in
Vietnam's Northwest Highlands. Practitioners report few
difficulties in Ha Giang and Lai Chau Provinces, but the
situation in Dien Bien Province is more difficult. The
introduction of Vietnam's new legal framework governing
religion has had mixed results. Some practitioners have been
able to practice more openly, while others have seen no
change. Reports of occasional attempts at forced
renunciations of faith continue. End Summary.


2. (C) On May 11, Poloff met with two ethnic Hmong
Protestants from Vietnam's Northwest Highlands who had come
to Hanoi to participate in a spiritual retreat led by house
church pastor Doan Trung Tin (protect). Both of the Hmong
identified themselves as regional "church planters" in charge
of developing and overseeing part of a network of unofficial
pastors and house churches in the Northwest Highlands.


3. (C) Sung Chan Tan (protect) oversees a network of 55 house
churches in Ha Giang Province from his home in Hoang Su Phi
District. Tan has six other church planters working under
him, and a total of 3,400 faithful attending his churches.
Tan converted to Christianity in 1990 after discussing the
religion with another Hmong believer. Subsequently, he
studied the Bible "by listening to the radio." (Note:
Presumably he did this by listening to the Hmong language
religious broadcasts of the Far Eastern Broadcasting
Corporation based in the Philippines. End Note.) In 2001,
Tan traveled to Ho Chi Minh City to receive training on
becoming a church planter from Pastor Tin.


4. (C) Tan described Protestantism as growing quickly in Ha
Giang. For example, in 2001 there were only ten churches in
Hoang Su Phi District, but today there are 21. He meets
openly with local authorities to inform them about the
operations of his house churches, and they generally do not
cause him any problems. The exception is a single church in
Gap Trung Village, where border guards stationed in the
village disrupted services and caused four local church
leaders to be arrested. These four were released during
Vietnam's special prisoner amnesty on April 30 (Ref A. Note:
The Mission raised these four cases several times with the
GVN. End Note.) After their return to Gap Trung Village,
the border guards called the four into their station and
unsuccessfully attempted to make them sign documents
renouncing their faith.


5. (C) Tan indicated that he has received copies from the
Protestant church in Hanoi of the Implementing Decree for
Vietnam's Ordinance on Religion and of the Prime Minster's
Instruction on Protestantism (Refs. B and C). The local
police in Ha Giang have not yet received copies of these
documents, however, and in one instance local police came to
his house church to read the versions he possessed.
Nonetheless, Tan said that, in his view, the situation for
the believers in his house churches has improved since the
legal changes were released. For example, the churches meet
openly twice a week.


6. (C) Mua Cho Thu (protect) serves as the leader for seven
other church planters, 57 churches and 6,500 believers in Lai
Chau and Dien Bien Provinces. Thu converted to Christianity
in 1992 after listening to radio broadcasts, and went on his
own initiative to the Protestant Church in Hanoi, where he
was given some Christian literature to read. He later met
with a church planter active in the Northwest Highlands, and
in 1998 went to Vientiane to study the Bible with a Hmong
pastor. Thu said his followers in Lai Chau Province have few
difficulties with authorities, but the situation is very
different in Dien Bien.


7. (C) Thu cited four house churches in Dien Bien Dong
District of Dien Bien Province as being unable to gather due
to pressure by authorities. Thu also reported that police in
Cha Cang Commune, Muong Lay District have attempted to force
Protestants to sign renunciations of faith and rebuild their
ancestral altars, and threatened to "eradicate Christianity"
in the commune by the end of April. As with Tan, Thu has
received copies of Vietnam's new Ordinance, Decree and Prime
Minster's Instruction from the Protestant Church in Hanoi,
and not from provincial authorities. He said he saw no
difference in the way followers were being treated since the
introduction of the legal changes.


8. (C) Comment: News of continued forced renunciations is
disappointing, but we came away from the conversations
encouraged. Only one of the 55 house churches in Tan's Ha
Giang network suffering problems would be average for
anywhere in Vietnam, and that Thu could point to no
difficulties in Lai Chau was similarly welcome. This,
combined with the nascent changes in official attitudes we
saw in Lao Cai Province during the Ambassador's recent visit
(Ref. D),suggests that Hanoi's more progressive policies may
be making inroads in the Northwest Highlands. Still, the GVN
has cautioned us that this is a "sensitive area" and change
will come slowly. The hardline attitudes and abuses in Dien
Bien underscore this. End Comment.
Marine


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