Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05HOCHIMINHCITY191
2005-02-24 12:09:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Consulate Ho Chi Minh City
Cable title:  

S/P STAFFER'S HCMC CONSULTATIONS ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Tags:  PHUM SOCI PREL PGOV KIRF VM RELFREE HUMANR 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 000191 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM SOCI PREL PGOV KIRF VM RELFREE HUMANR
SUBJECT: S/P STAFFER'S HCMC CONSULTATIONS ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
ISSUES OF THE PROTESTANT COMMUNITY

REF: A) SECSTATE 29193; B) HANOI 392; C) HCMC 160; D) HCMC 142

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 000191

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM SOCI PREL PGOV KIRF VM RELFREE HUMANR
SUBJECT: S/P STAFFER'S HCMC CONSULTATIONS ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
ISSUES OF THE PROTESTANT COMMUNITY

REF: A) SECSTATE 29193; B) HANOI 392; C) HCMC 160; D) HCMC 142


1. (SBU) Summary: In meetings with visiting S/P staffer William
Inboden and ConGenOffs in HCMC February 20-23, HCMC officials
cited the Prime Minister's February 4 "Order on Protestantism" as
evidence of the GVN's commitment to improve the climate for
religious practice in Vietnam. They said the PM's Order clears
the way for all Protestant denominations to register with relevant
local government authorities to legalize their status. Leaders of
the GVN-recognized Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV)
and Vietnam's house church movement agreed that the overall
climate for religious practice has improved, even in a number of
Central Highlands provinces. They enthusiastically welcomed the
PM's Order on Protestantism. However, they pointed to continued
religious freedom violations, particularly in a number of
provinces in the Northern and Central Highlands, and the slow
process of church recognition as evidence that the PM's order may
not be sufficient to rein in hard-line and obstructionist local
officials. They hope that GVN-USG dialogue on religious freedom
will encourage Vietnam to produce a legal framework that
streamlines overlapping and sometimes restrictive rules that
govern religious practice in Vietnam, and that expedites the
registration of churches. Ideally, such a legal framework would
minimize the discretion of local officials. End Summary.


2. (SBU) Policy Planning Staffer William Inboden visited HCMC from
February 20-23 to assess religious freedom developments in the
context of USG-GVN discussions on an action plan to improve
religious freedom in Vietnam (ref A). This cable focuses on the
status of the recognized and unrecognized Protestant churches and
their reaction to recent GVN initiatives. Discussions on the
United Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) and on the status of
imprisoned Mennonites Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang and Le Thi Hong
Lien will be reported septel.

The Government and Party: Vietnam is making real progress

-------------- --------------


3. (SBU) In separate meetings, Deputy Head of the HCMC External
Relations Office Nguyen Hung Quoc, the Deputy Head of the HCMC
Committee for Religious Affairs (CRA) Vo Ngoc Hue, and the Vice
Chairman of the HCMC Fatherland Front Tran Trung Tinh emphasized
that the PM's February 4 Order on Protestantism (ref B) is but the
latest step in the GVN's efforts to foster religious freedom.
They stressed that the GVN welcomes the growing role of religious
organizations in social and charitable efforts, particularly in
combating HIV/AIDS (ref C). The Vice Chair of the Fatherland
Front said that the GVN approach to religion in the Central and
Northern Highlands was to prevent the "abuse of religion" and the
use of religion to encourage separatism, particularly in remote
areas among impressionable ethnic minorities. While defending the
prosecution of Mennonite Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang (ref D) for
creating "social disorder," he said he hoped Quang and his wife
might be able to carry out religious activities in accordance with
the law in the future.


4. (SBU) The CRA deputy told us that over the next few days the
Central Government will organize instructional meetings in Hanoi
and HCMC to guide provincial officials in implementing the PM's
order on Protestantism. He maintained that the PM's order was
sufficient legal basis for Protestant groups to apply for
registration and legalization of status. He said that for
registration, a group must certify its membership, identify its
leader, who need not be an ordained minister, and demonstrate that
they have a wish to assemble together to conduct religious
services.


5. (SBU) According to the CRA Deputy, all Protestant denominations
are eligible to register to legalize their operations under the
PM's Order. At a later stage they would be able to apply for GVN
recognition, which is a more complex process governed by the
Ordinance on Religion and pending implementation guidelines for
the ordinance. Hue said the implementation guidelines would be
issued by mid-March; the GVN has gone through five drafts already.
However, the Fatherland Front Vice Chairman said the
implementation guidelines would not be issued before April.


6. (SBU) The CRA and Fatherland Front differed on whether the
Ordinance on Religion and the PM's Order on Protestantism
superseded the 1999 Decree 26 on religion, which, inter alia, made
non-recognized house churches illegal under Vietnamese law. The
CRA Deputy told us that Decree 26 is no longer in effect.
However, the Vice Chair of the HCMC Fatherland Front told us that
only "certain" portions of Decree 26 were rendered obsolete and
the remainder of the Decree remained in force. Leaders of the GVN-
recognized Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV) and key
Protestant house church leaders told us that Decree 26 continues
to be cited by local government and police officials as
justification for taking action against non-recognized churches.

The SECV
--------------

7. (SBU) Pastors Thai Phuoc Truong, Duong Thanh and Phan Quang
Thieu, senior members of the executive board of the SECV (all
strictly protect),said the climate for religious freedom in
Vietnam continues to improve. They welcomed the PM's Order on
Protestantism after having reviewed unofficial drafts publicized
on the internet. In the SECV's view, one of the most significant
improvements of the order was that it appears to direct provincial
and local People's Committees to register new churches. In the
SECV's view this is a critical improvement as prior instructions
were issued through the Committee for Religious Affairs, which has
no authority over provincial governments.


8. (SBU) In response to the PM's order, the SECV has begun to
consider a new push to register its approximately 600 unrecognized
churches. Before moving ahead, the SECV awaits official
notification from the GVN as to how the PM's order will be
implemented. The SECV also desires a detailed explanation on how
the order will mesh with other rules and regulations governing
religious practice in Vietnam, including the yet-to-be issued
implementing guidelines for the Ordinance on Religion.


9. (SBU) The SECV leadership told us that they are taking this
cautious approach because of their past negative experience in
working with the GVN on the recognition of new churches. They
noted that almost immediately after the GVN recognized the SECV in
2001 it also recognized some 400 SECV churches. However, since
then, GVN recognition of other churches has been frustratingly
slow. They said that in 2003, after the Central Committee for
Religious Affairs issued a directive on "normalization of
operation of churches in the Central Highlands," the SECV
submitted a list of churches to the various provincial authorities
for registration. Almost all those applications were denied;
local authorities cited Decree 26 as justification for their
denial. At this point, the SECV desires -- at a minimum -- for
its churches to be allowed to operate normally, as the
registration process moves forward.


10. (SBU) The SECV officials told us that the organization has
1032 churches from Quang Tri in the Central region to Ca Mau in
the Mekong Delta. Of those, roughly 400 are GVN-recognized. The
SECV places its churches in three categories: those with a
building, pastor and financial self-sufficiency; those with a
building and a pastor but dependent on the SECV organization for
financial support; and "satellite" or "sub-branch" churches that
lack an official pastor, building or financial self-sufficiency.
The SECV leaders told us that the vast majority of unrecognized
SECV churches are in the Central Highlands; the majority of these
are house churches or "meeting points" that operate as a branch or
satellite of a recognized church. The SECV leaders told us that
the SECV has made some progress in Gia Lai, Dak Nong and Binh
Phuoc (the latter technically is not part of the Central
Highlands, but has a predominantly ethnic minority SECV
membership) in securing local government recognition of new
churches and receiving permission to operate satellite churches.
In Lam Dong province the situation varies from district to
district. However, in Dak Lak province, other than four
recognized churches, no other SECV facility has been allowed to
operate. They admit that their ability to monitor the state of
the SECV in Dak Lak is extremely limited, as Dak Lak SECV
representatives routinely are denied permission to travel within
the province. (A province-by-province breakdown for SECV churches
in the Central Highlands is listed in appendix A.)

House Church Movement: cautious but positive
--------------


11. (SBU) We met with four leaders representing the Protestant
house church movement throughout Vietnam: the Vietnam Evangelical
Fellowship (VEF),the Christian Interfellowship Church (CIC),the
Vietnam Good News Mission (VGNM) and the Christian Fellowship of
Vietnam (CFV). The VEF claims to have over 2,000 house churches
and 200,000 worshipers; the CIC 1,511 house churches with over
150,000 members; the CFV claims 500 house churches with 50,000
members. The VGNM says it supports 671 house churches and focuses
much of its efforts on ethnic minorities in the Northern and
Central Highlands. The majority of the VGNM churches are
affiliated with the SECV and ECVN.


12. (SBU) The house church leaders acknowledged improvement in
religious freedom in Vietnam in recent months. Meetings with
local officials are "warmer and more relaxed." The vast majority
of their house churches now are able to operate without police
harassment, particularly in non-ethnic minority areas. In one
notable case in an HCMC suburb, a chagrined policeman actually
apologized to the pastor of a house church for attempting to stop
a service the previous Sunday.


13. (SBU) However, religious freedom violations persist,
particularly in the Northwest Highlands province of Lao Cai and
the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak. According to the VGNM
pastor, in November and December 2004 in Lao Cai the members of
five ethnic Hmong house churches reportedly were pressured to
renounce their faith. As a result, 22 Hmong families fled to Dak
Lak, Dak Nong and Binh Thuan provinces in the south, where they
face an uncertain future. The CFV leader related another
incident, where 19 house churches and 3,000 ethnic Hmong from
Thanh Hoa Province in northern Vietnam relocated to Dak Nong
Province to avoid harassment. Other church leaders described
incidents in the central province of Phu Yen and in the Mekong
Delta province of Ca Mau where hard-line village and district-
level officials attempted to force house churches to close and
declared that Protestantism is a U.S. plot to undermine the Party.


14. (SBU) The house church leaders welcomed the PM's order on
Protestantism, although they believed it was more a ploy to avoid
CPC sanctions than a fundamental change of GVN approach toward
religion. Nonetheless, they hope to be able to legalize their
status, but are hesitant to act until the GVN ensures that the
procedures for doing so are clear and consistent across Vietnam.
They also await the issuance of the implementation guidelines for
the Ordinance on Religion. The house church leaders expressed
concern that the GVN would try and manipulate the new legal
framework to encourage house churches to join the GVN-recognized
SECV or its Hanoi counterpart, the Evangelical Church of Vietnam
North (ECVN).

The Mennonites
--------------


15. (SBU) Le Thi Phu Dung, wife of the imprisoned Mennonite leader
Pastor Quang, told us that her church welcomes the PM's order on
Protestantism; her church would consider applying for
normalization of status, but was doubtful that such an application
would be approved. She said that her church continues to face
police harassment and that worshipers are being intimidated. Her
Mennonite organization also is grappling with an internal schism
as a rival pastor has broken away from Quang's organization to
form a separate Mennonite church. (Dung's update on the condition
of her husband and that of the apparently mentally ill Mennonite
prisoner Le Thi Hong Lien are reported septel.)


16. (SBU) Comment: The SECV, Vietnam's single largest Protestant
organization, and key leaders of the house church movement are
responding positively, albeit cautiously, to GVN overtures. They
are not looking for specific numbers of churches to be recognized
under the PM's Order on Protestantism. Rather, they hope that the
Ordinance on Religion, its implementation guidelines and the PM's
Order on Protestantism will create a positive legal framework that
streamlines the hodgepodge of conflicting, overlapping and
restrictive rules that govern religious practice in Vietnam.
Ideally, such a legal framework would minimize the discretion of
local officials and have a clear appeals process. The end result
of having such a system in place would be greater numbers of house
churches registered and afforded the opportunity to apply for full
GVN recognition. End Comment.

Appendix A: SECV Churches in the Central Highlands

Gia Lai: 70,784 worshipers in 150 churches of which 17 or 18 are
recognized by the GVN. (Note: the head of the SECV board in Gia
Lai told us the SECV has over 75,000 worshipers and roughly 440
churches and "meeting points."

Dak Lak: 98,358 worshipers in 204 churches, of which 4 are
recognized. (Note: the SECV board in Dak Lak told us there were
nearly 125,000 worshipers in 400+ churches and "meeting points.")

Dak Nong: 24,242 worshipers in 82 churches, of which 1 is GVN-
recognized.

Lam Dong: 64,946 worshipers in 230 churches, of which 10 are GNV-
recognized.

Kontum: 480 worshipers in four churches, none are GVN-recognized.

Binh Phuoc: 61,542 members in 150 churches, of which 3 are GVN-
recognized. (Note that while Binh Phuoc technically is not
considered part of the Central Highlands, the SECV tells us its
membership there is predominately ethnic minority.)

WINNICK