BAPTISTS MEET IN VIETNAM, HIGHLIGHT THEIR SITUATION

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 001232

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TAGS: PHUM KIRF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM VM
SUBJECT: BAPTISTS MEET IN VIETNAM, HIGHLIGHT THEIR SITUATION

Ref: 05 HCMC 994 and previous


1. (SBU) Summary: The Baptist World Alliance - an
international umbrella group for some (perhaps 30 million,
according to their President),but not all, of the world's
Baptists - visited Vietnam May 16-21 to meet with the GVN
and hold a large meeting of Baptists in Ho Chi Minh City.
The delegation, which included the BWA's President (David
Coffey, from the UK) and prominent Baptist officials from
Texas, California, Virginia, India, Korea, Vietnam and the
UK, was originally concerned that they would not be able to
meet anyone from the GVN and would be blocked from including
members of the separate Baptist umbrella organizations in
Vietnam, only one of which is registered with the GVN. The
delegation was able to hold high-level meetings (at the vice-
chairman level) with the Commission on Religious Affairs
(CRA) and the Fatherland Front in Hanoi and with the CRA in
HCMC, and the GVN agreed to include all of the Vietnamese
Baptist representatives, including those who are in the
process of applying for legal status. Their 500-person
meeting and gala dinner in HCMC had to be modified to
accommodate GVN concerns, but was held successfully. The
unregistered Baptist groups in Vietnam told us that they are
able to worship freely, but are waiting for GVN approval of
their registration applications. The Baptists reported that
Pastor (and former USG person of concern) Than Van Truong is
facing official harassment at the local level in Bac Giang
Province north of Hanoi. End Summary.


2. (U) The 16-member delegation met with the Charge for 90
minutes at the Embassy on May 16, taking photos and
describing the background of the organization (which does
not include the large U.S.-based Southern Baptist
Conference). Each of the five Vietnamese Baptist
denominations present gave its own short presentation; all
were variations on the same script: things were difficult
in the 1990s, and gradually improved since 2000. Conditions
improved markedly in late 2004/early 2005 with the new
Ordinance on Religion (and its implementing decree) and the
Instruction on Protestantism, to the point where they are
now able to carry out activities freely. Four of the five
groups have not yet been registered, but the CRA reportedly
has promised them they should have their recognition by this
summer, perhaps by July. They would like more freedom to
open schools and churches and conduct direct charitable
works without the involvement of the Fatherland Front, but
are generally satisfied with current conditions. The U.S.
members of the delegation said they are in regular contact
with U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious
Freedom John Hanford as well as with their Congressional
representatives.


3. (U) In HCMC, the group said that the CRA asked the
delegation to present a list of participants (both Baptist
and non-Baptist) for the evening gala dinner event and asked
that they consider revising their schedule, omitting the
meeting and worship service prior to the commencement of the
banquet. This is ultimately what happened: the event was
shortened by two hours and recast as an informal dinner.


4. (U) HCMC Poloff attended the May 20 function. The event
included a lengthy period of religious songs and welcome
speeches by members of the visiting international
delegation. During each speech, each representative thanked
the GVN for allowing the Baptist World Alliance to convene
in Ho Chi Minh City. They spoke at length about what it
meant to be a Baptist and how they were honored to be in
Vietnam. The speeches and dinner proceeded without
interruption and included no overt political themes.


5. (SBU) Not all Baptists are so positive. On Wednesday,
May 17, Embassy Poloff met with Pastor Than Van Truong (who
was, until September of last year, confined in a mental
hospital for what appeared to be political reasons.
Reftel.) He contacted Poloff to express his concern over
some incidents his Baptist congregation has faced in Bac
Giang Province north of Hanoi. Although Truong has spent
most of his time in the south, he is originally from Bac
Giang and has tried to move back to Bac Giang to conduct
religious activities there. However, he has faced
opposition from local authorities in Bac Giang who point out
that his legal household registration is in the south and he
has no legal right to reside or work in Bac Giang.


6. (SBU) Truong's Bac Giang city congregation formed in
January 2006, Truong said, and applied for recognition on
May 11 of this year. Truong reported that the week of May

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8, the village-level People's Committee Chairman showed up
at his house and told him to stop his religious activities,
threatened to attack him physically, and called
Protestantism "an American religion." Truong said the
Chairman brought a security cadre to the meeting and said
"God can be in the South, not in the North" and that Bac
Giang will never have Protestant groups. Another official
apparently went to the houses of some of Truong's
congregation to demand they take down crosses they had on
display, and to tell them that Truong will soon be arrested
and that they should stay away from him, Truong reported.


7. (SBU) Truong showed what appeared to be genuine copies of
summonses he has received from local security officials in
Bac Giang requiring his presence at the police station, and
said that the local authorities have challenged his right to
reside in Bac Giang.


8. (SBU) Poloff told Pastor Truong that we take his case
seriously, that we will recommend to the GVN that they
favorably consider his church's registration application and
that we are concerned about reports of possible abuse.


9. (SBU) Truong was quite agitated at the meeting and
peppered his discussion with strident criticism of the GVN
and demands for political change. At one point, he and his
wife became convinced that we were being surveilled by a
group of "security agents" sitting nearby in the hotel
restaurant where we were meeting; a brief encounter with
Poloff later revealed that the "agents" in question were, in
fact, Korean businessmen. Truong displayed photos of the
meeting in his home where the commune Chairman had
supposedly "tried to beat him." The photos showed two men
seated in a living room sipping tea.


10. (SBU) Comment: For the most part, Baptists in Vietnam
have told us that they are able to worship in Vietnam and
have benefited from the Ordinance on Religion and the Prime
Minister's Instruction on Protestantism. The problems they
have faced have seemed more bureaucratic than anything else.
We are reasonably optimistic that their applications for
recognition and registration will be approved eventually,
but have been pressing the GVN to do so without much further
delay. As always, there are cases to address, Pastor
Truong's being the main one at the moment. His organization
in Bac Giang should be granted the same consideration as any
Protestant organization in Vietnam and should benefit from
expeditious recognition and be free of GVN interference.
Truong himself, however, presents a more complicated case.
His vehement anti-government and anti-Party rhetoric injects
a problematic political element into what should be a
relatively routine religious administration problem. It is
obvious that he has had problems with the authorities in Bac
Giang, but whether these problems reflect Bac Giang's
reluctance to host a vociferous regime critic who weaves
politics and religion together or a genuine antipathy
towards Protestantism and an unwillingness to respect the
PM's Instruction and the Ordinance on Religion is a question
we need to investigate further. End Comment.

BOARDMAN