GVN BEGINS CONSULTATIONS ON DECREE ON RELIGION: FRICTIONS

UNCLAS HO CHI MINH CITY 000364

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

GENEVA FOR UNCHR DEL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM SOCI PREL PGOV KIRF VM HUMANR RELFREE
SUBJECT: GVN BEGINS CONSULTATIONS ON DECREE ON RELIGION: FRICTIONS
WITH UBCV FESTER

REF: A) HCMC 288; B) HANOI 580; C) 04 HCMC 147; D) HCMC 325; E)

HCMC 190; F) 04 HCMC 1481


1. (SBU) Summary: Contacts in the Protestant community report that
central- and provincial-level officials have begun formal
consultations on implementation of Vietnam's new legal framework
on religion. The officially recognized Southern Evangelical
Church of Vietnam has begun a training course for pastors in the
Central Highlands province of Gia Lai while leaders of the house
church movement report a sharp reduction in police harassment
throughout southern and central Vietnam. Local authorities also
allowed an unrecognized Hoa Hao group to hold a controversial
prayer service in the Mekong Delta. However, frictions continue
unabated with the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV). A
UBCV monk was detained last week while attempting to smuggle out
of Vietnam a recording of the UBCV General Secretary that, inter
alia, called for the end of one-party rule in Vietnam. The UBCV's
outspoken advocacy for comprehensive political change in Vietnam
explains continued GVN hostility towards the UBCV even as
authorities show new flexibility towards other religious
organizations. End Summary.

GVN BEGINS TO EXPLAIN NEW DECREE TO PRACTITIONERS
-------------- --------------


2. (SBU) Contacts in the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam
(SECV) told us that the central-level Committee for Religious
Affairs (CRA) organized a conference in HCMC on April 1 to
introduce to practitioners the Implementing Decree on Religion and
Belief (more on the Decree in refs A and B). More than 150
representatives of Vietnam's six recognized religions from the
southern and central provinces attended. A similar conference is
scheduled to take place in Hanoi on April 8. While the SECV
welcomed the GVN's initiative to hold the conference, they were
disappointed with the content and do not have a better
understanding of how the Decree -- and the entire new legal
framework on religion -- will be administered. The conference
lasted only three hours and was primarily used to introduce the
participants to the various forms and paperwork that the GVN plans
to use in conjunction with the Decree. The SECV plans to hold
more detailed discussions with the HCMC CRA to discuss
implementation of the Decree. Overall, the expectation is that
the central-level CRA will work with the SECV board and provincial-
level governments to ensure uniform application.


3. (SBU) Leaders in the HCMC house church community told us that
they were not invited to attend the April 1 conference. They had
not yet received instruction from Vietnamese authorities on how to
implement the Decree. Their expectation was that Government input
would be forthcoming, and they noted positively that the level of
police harassment of house churches continues to drop throughout
southern and central Vietnam. (Note: We have heard similar
comments from house church leaders in the Northwest Highlands.
End Note.) Nguyen Ngoc San, the Chairman of the HCMC CRA,
confirmed to us on April 4 that his office would begin consulting
with all religious groups in HCMC on the new legal framework,
including house church organizations.


4. (SBU) Separately, an SECV leader in the Central Highlands
province of Gia Lai told us that the SECV was able to begin a
provincial-level training class for new pastors in accordance with
the Decree. The classes were originally authorized in a letter
from the central-level CRA to the SECV "On the Operation of
Protestantism in the Central Highlands" (Ref C). They are
intended to allow individuals currently working as unofficial
preachers for the SECV to obtain a diploma and, subsequently,
Government recognition as SECV pastors, allowing them officially
to take charge of a congregation of their own. The SECV indicated
that it hopes to open a similar course in Dak Lak under the
provisions of the letter, but preparations there have been more
difficult.

HOA HAO MEET PEACEFULLY
--------------


5. (SBU) Meanwhile, Hoa Hao dissident Le Quang Liem (protect) told
us on April 4 that his sect was able to hold a ceremony in the
Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap on April 3. The ceremony was
to commemorate the disappearance of the founder of Hoa Hoaism,
whom Liem and his followers believe was murdered by the Communists
in 1947. Liem told us that authorities in HCMC allowed him to
travel to officiate and that an estimated 1,000 believers
participated. Earlier, Liem had warned that Vietnamese
authorities would try to prevent the breakaway Hoa Hao group from
holding the event to which Liem promised his followers would
respond with protests and possible self-immolations (Ref D).


UBCV CONTINUES TO PRESS ITS POLITICAL AGENDA
--------------


6. (SBU) We also are following closely new frictions between the
United Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) and local authorities. A
March 30 report from the International Buddhist Information Bureau
(IBIB) in Paris reported on the arrest of UBCV monk Thich Vien
Phuong (strictly protect). Shortly after the reports we spoke
with Phuong, who reported that around 4 p.m. on March 30, traffic
police stopped him on his way back from a visit with UBCV General
Secretary Thich Quang Do. The police searched his bag and

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confiscated audio and video equipment and recordings. He said
that he denied to police knowing anything about the tapes during
his seven hours of questioning on that day. However, Phuong told
us that the recordings contained a tape of Thich Quang Do speaking
in English highly critical of the GVN, the Communist Party,
demanding democracy in Vietnam and calling for international
intervention on behalf of the UBCV. (Note: On April 5, on the
sidelines of the UN Human Rights Commission Meeting in Geneva, the
IBIB reportedly released a transcript of Thich Quang Do's message,
which called Vietnam's 20-year market-oriented economic reform
program a disaster and called for international support for UBCV
efforts to secure democracy in Vietnam. End Note.)


7. (SBU) In a subsequent conversation on April 5, Phuong told us
that he returned to the local police station on March 31, where he
was questioned for one day -- morning and afternoon sessions --
about his association with Thich Quang Do. The police played back
portions of the recording and presented the UBCV monk with a
translation into Vietnamese. Phuong told us that he believed the
police were attempting to get him to admit that he was part of an
organized scheme to smuggle anti-GVN material out of the country.
Phuong again denied knowing the contents of the recordings and
told police he was only a courier. Since then, Phuong has not
complied with follow-on summonses from ward- and district-level
police. However, he sent a letter to the HCMC prosecutor's office
complaining that the police illegally seized the materials and
equipment and did not properly identify themselves at the time of
detention. He alleged that the police also did not make clear
what the basis was of his detention and subsequent summonses.
Currently Phuong remains at the Giac Hoa pagoda in Binh Thanh
district, under the supervision of Thich Vien Dinh, a senior UBCV
monk.


8. (SBU) Comment: With the exception of the UBCV, our religious
group contacts describe progress and rapprochement with Vietnamese
authorities. Formal consultations with religious organizations on
the legal framework on religion, the absence of any significant
harassment of house churches over the past few months and the
ability of a previously-suppressed Hoa Hao group to assemble and
worship all are positive steps forward. The opening of the
training course in Gai Lai offers the potential to greatly expand
the official operations of the SECV there in the near future.


9. (SBU) Unlike other religious organizations in Southern Vietnam,
the UBCV does not shy from away from mixing politics with
religion. Its leaders mince no words that their principal
position is a fundamental opposition to one-party, Communist rule
in Vietnam. Thich Quang Do and others in the UBCV have told us
clearly that they will use the pulpit to press for democratization
and political change in Vietnam. From the Vietnamese perspective,
this puts the UBCV in a different category from other religious
organizations. Under these circumstances, the fear and hostility
of the Vietnamese authorities towards the UBCV is predictable. We
will continue to work closely with recognized and unrecognized
religious organizations and provincial authorities to press for
continued progress in expanding religious freedoms in Southern
Vietnam. Similarly, we will continue to press Vietnamese
authorities to allow all activists, including members of the UBCV,
to advocate peacefully for political change in Vietnam. End
Comment.

WINNICK


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