RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND THE PROTESTANT COMMUNITY IN CENTRAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001082

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM SOCI PREL PGOV KIRF VM HUMANR ETMIN RELFREE
SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND THE PROTESTANT COMMUNITY IN CENTRAL
VIETNAM

REF: A) HCMC 968 and previous B) HCMC 623 C) HCMC 910


1. (SBU) Summary: Discussions in early October with the GVN-
recognized Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV),house
church leaders and provincial government officials indicate that
steady progress continues to be made of religious freedom issues
affecting Protestants in central coastal Vietnam. SECV leaders in
Danang and Quang Nam told us that provincial governments continue
to facilitate their operations under Vietnam's legal framework on
religion. The SECV also reported that Quang Ngai province
resolved to its satisfaction an August church burning incident.
Similarly, representatives of the United World Mission Church of
Vietnam, a house church organization operating throughout Central
Vietnam -- including the Central Highlands -- told us that their
123 congregations now operate without significant restriction.
The house church leaders report that the central Committee for
Religious Affairs is considering their application for
registration under the legal framework; a decision should be
forthcoming by mid-December. End Summary.


2. (SBU) On the margins of the visit of the October 5-7 visit of
the Consul General to Danang and Quang Nam provinces (septels),
PolOff met with key local officials and church leaders to assess
religious freedom issues facing Protestants in central coastal
Vietnam. Pastor Nguyen Toi, General Secretary the Executive Board
of the United World Mission Church of Vietnam (UWMCV),an
unrecognized Protestant house church organization said that
conditions for his church have improved. Founded in 1956, the
UWMCV's focuses on outreach to ethnic minority communities in
Central Vietnam; over 80 percent of the church's 26,000 followers
(123 congregations) are ethnic minority. Although headquartered
in Danang, the church has only six churches and 600 adherents
there, all of whom are ethnic Vietnamese. The UWMCV's largest
concentration of churches is in the Central Highlands province of
Kontum, where it claims 13,000 adherents in 44 congregations, all
from the Gie Trieng ethnic group. The church says it has 2,214
adherents in Gia Lai province in 23 congregations -- mainly ethnic
Jarai -- and another 700 in six congregations in Dak Lak province,
all ethnic Bru. Other congregations are scattered throughout
central Vietnam, down to HCMC. Because of post-1975 GVN
restrictions, the UWMCV only has six ordained pastors, all
ordained before 1975. Toi said that the UWMCV has another six,
self-ordained pastors, and 212 voluntary preachers.


3. (SBU) Toi said that he has been de facto General Secretary of
the church since 1974 as the GVN has prevented the UWMCV from
holding a general conference to elect new leadership. Toi
explained that the GVN claimed that the organization has no legal
status in Vietnam, and, therefore had no right to organize. Prior
to 2005, the UWMCV had reached out a number of times to the GVN to
attempt to legalize its status, but to no avail. The church's
three hospitals and clinics in the Central Highlands and a
substantial portion of its compound in Danang were expropriated
after 1975.


4. (SBU) At present, all of the church's congregations have been
able to operate without significant official harassment, even in
Dak Lak province, where the local government has sharply curbed
many Protestant organizations, including the GVN-recognized
Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (ref A). Toi explained
that the UWMCV has stayed clear of "Dega Protestantism" or other
activities that officials believe foster ethnic minority
separatism.


5. (SBU) Toi said that the UWMCV enjoys a cordial working
relationship with the Ministry of Public Security, whose officials
periodically meet with him and his colleagues. He complained that
the same could not be said for officials from the Danang Committee
for Religious Affairs (CRA),although the CRA is supposed to be
his primary intermediary. Danang CRA officials reportedly refused
to meet officially with the UWMCV, claiming the church has no
legal status


6. (SBU) Despite the lack of official contact with the CRA, in
April 2005 the UWMCV had submitted an application to Hanoi for
registration to legalize operations under Vietnam's legal
framework on religion. A representative of the central-level CRA
subsequently called to confirm receipt and to assure Toi that the
application would be approved "soon." (According to the legal
framework, as an organization that operates in many provinces, the
UWMCV must apply for registration with the central level CRA.)
Although law mandates a decision within 60 days of application,
Toi has not received a reply. However, hours before our visit,
Toi said he was contacted by Danang officials who requested Toi to
submit one more form, the "annual registry of church activities,"
and promised that the church would be legalized "very, very soon."

The SECV in Central Vietnam
--------------


7. (SBU) Ma Phuc Hiep, a senior Pastor of the Southern Evangelical
Church of Vietnam (SECV) in Danang, told us October 7 that
conditions for the SECV continued to improve in Danang and Thua
Thien Hue provinces since our last meeting with him in June (ref
B). Cooperation with local officials, including the CRA, is
positive and ongoing. For example, the Danang CRA recently
allowed the SECV to hold a large religious retreat that drew
participants from neighboring provinces.


8. (SBU) Separately, in a meeting October 5, Pastors Ma Phuc Tin
and Doan Xuan Phat of the Executive Board of the Quang Nam SECV
also confirmed that conditions had improved markedly for its
15,715 members since the new legal framework on religion had been
promulgated. Although the SECV in Quang Nam is overwhelmingly --
95 percent -- majority Kinh Vietnamese, its 400 ethnic minority Ko
Tu worshipers now can gather freely at a single meeting point.
The Quang Nam CRA also facilitated the appointment of seven pastor-
designates to a training course in Danang. The SECV still
encounters periodic problems at the village level, where local
officials are poorly informed and turnover high. However,
problems get fixed at the district and provincial levels, because
"when Quang Nam gets a law, provincial officials implement it,"
Tin told us.


9. (SBU) Pastor Tin also said that he has oversight responsibility
for the SECV's 5,000 adherents in neighboring Quang Ngai province.
He had traveled there in September with the HCMC-based National
General Secretary Le Van Thien to investigate August incidents
involving allegations of church burning and forced renunciation
involving an SECV church serving ethnic minority Hre adherents
(Ref C). Tin said that, following meetings at the provincial
level, local officials were ordered to rebuild the home of the
SECV voluntary preacher that also served as the house church for
the SECV congregation. Tin was unsure as to whether local
officials were formally reprimanded, but said he was satisfied
with the province's response to the problem. He said that the
incident stemmed from tension within the Hre community between the
converted who sought to evangelize those who maintained their
traditional beliefs.


10. (SBU) In a separate meeting October 7, Dao Duy Pho, Chairman
of the Quang Nam CRA, told us that his province is committed to
implementing positively the new legal framework on religion. The
province is ready to approve new churches and congregations to add
to the 22 the SECV already operates in the province, Pho said.
The province also is considering how to compensate the SECV for
the single property that the GVN expropriated prior to 1975.
Quang Nam also is applying the Prime Minister's February 2005
"Instruction on Protestantism," which directs government officials
to facilitate and normalize the operations of house churches. In
this context, the province has allowed two house churches
affiliated with Pastor Toi's UWMCV to operate unimpeded. The
Quang Nam CRA also will welcome UWMCV efforts to register under
the new legal framework, whenever "Toi and his colleagues are
ready to contact us."


11. (SBU) Comment: The SECV's ability to work directly with
provincial governments throughout the region to resolve problems
to its satisfaction -- including in Quang Ngai -- is a new and
welcome development. Although the reluctance of local Danang and
Quang Nam CRA officials to reach out to or meet officially with
house church leaders is disappointing, it is not atypical of the
officiousness of CRA bureaucrats throughout southern Vietnam.
More importantly, Pastor Toi's church has been able to operate
successfully throughout Vietnam's Central Highlands and Central
Coast, apparently even in retrograde Dak Lak. Equally important,
local and central-level officials are considering the UWMCV's
application to normalize its activities under Vietnam's legal
framework on religion. Toi told us that he would respond
immediately to the Danang CRA's October 7 request for additional
information on his church related to his petition. Accordingly,
the Central-level CRA should reply to Toi with a written decision
no later than mid-December. End Comment.

WINNICK