Prime Minister Meets with Protestant Leaders

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SUBJECT: Prime Minister Meets with Protestant Leaders

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This is a joint Hanoi-HCMC report.

Summary and Comment
--------------


1. (SBU) Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung met July 24 with the
leaders of Vietnam's two officially recognized Protestant churches
to welcome their contributions to national development while
cautioning against the use of religion for "hostile purposes."
During the meeting, the PM reportedly promised to facilitate the
return of confiscated properties and to ease the approval of some
churches and congregations in the Central Highlands. In subsequent
public remarks, which were widely broadcast and printed here, the
Prime Minister also applauded reported plans to merge the two
churches, although church leaders note that the Evangelical Church
of Vietnam North (ECVN) and Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam
(SECV) remain far apart on several issues, including the question of
who would lead a unified church. While the PM publicly admonished
local officials to effectively implement Vietnam's Ordinance on
Religion and Belief and the Prime Minister's Instruction on
Protestantism, he made no public reference to registering churches
or recognizing new religious groups. End Summary and Comment.

Prime Minister Greets Protestant Leaders...
--------------


2. (SBU) On July 24, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung met with
Protestant pastors and dignitaries from the Executive Board of the
Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV) and Pastor Phung Quang
Huyen, President of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam North (ECVN).
In widely broadcast and printed remarks, the Prime Minister welcomed
the contributions of Protestants to the cause of national
development. The GVN has always respected and ensured citizens'
religious as well as non-religious freedom, but it would fight
against hostile forces' attempts to take advantage of religious
belief to undermine the country's Doi Moi (renovation) process. The
Prime Minister said he hopes that local authorities will effectively
implement the Ordinance on Religion and Belief and the Prime
Minister's Instruction on Protestantism. Furthermore, the two
churches should uphold their principles and mobilize their followers
to be "vigilant" against the trickery of hostile forces that may
attempt to divide the "great national unity." PM Dzung also
applauded the wish of the two churches to merge under a single
Evangelical Church of Vietnam.

...But Too Early to Talk of ECVN-SECV Merger
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3. (SBU) Rev. Au Quang Vinh, the ECVN's General Secretary, told us
that the SECV Executive Board members had traveled to Hanoi to pay a
courtesy call on the Prime Minister and discuss with ECVN Executive
Board members the issue of possibly merging the two churches under
the same roof. Vinh added, however, that there had been no plan for
members of the ECVN Executive Board to join in the meeting with PM
Dzung until the "last minute." In fact, five of six members of the
ECVN's Executive Board refused to go to the meeting. However, the
GVN's Committee on Religious Affairs (CRA) ultimately succeeded in
persuading ECVN President Phung Quang Huyen to be present at the
meeting, and he was joined by "an ordinary pastor."


4. (SBU) On the subject of merging the two churches, apparently the
CRA had "jumped the gun" in its presentation to the Prime Minister,
Vinh continued. There have been no formal meetings or interactions
between the ECVN and the SECV following a resolution passed by the
SECV General Assembly in 2005 calling on the SECV Executive Board to
conduct discussions with the ECVN on a possible merger. Members of
the two executive boards were only planning to meet on July 26 for
the first time to discuss various aspects of a possible merger.


5. (SBU) Vinh cited "objective reasons" as well as differences
between the two churches in predicting a long and complicated road
to the two churches' merger. One key objective reason, according to
him, is the lack of a dominant leader in either the SECV or the ECVN
to guide the two groups through their discussions. One of the
differences is the two organizations' disagreement on whether to
re-establish "Protestant districts" to address requests for
assistance from congregations that feel they have been let down by
both the ECVN and SECV, leading to the congregations' "secession"
from one organization or the other. The SECV's most recent charter
provides that provincial Protestant representative boards be
established to deal with the issue, while ranking members of the
ECVN believe that "Protestant districts" must be re-established.


6. (SBU) The other issue of concern to the ECVN is that of a new,
unified organization's leadership. ECVN Executive Board members are
afraid that a single executive board would be dominated by
southerners given the overwhelming number of southern church
members. This in turn could hamper church efforts to reach out to
remote, mountainous areas in the north. (Note: According to

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current statistics, there are about 550,000 and 130,000 Protestants
affiliated with the SECV and the ECVN, respectively. End Note.)

The View from the SECV
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7. (SBU) SECV Secretary General Le Van Thien and Chairman Thai Phuoc
Truong told ConGenOff by phone that they are cautiously optimistic
following the meeting with PM Dzung and a separate meeting with the
central-level CRA. The atmospherics in the Dzung meeting were very
good; they hoped that it would lead to faster results. According to
the SECV officials, Dzung promised "in principle to return
confiscated SECV churches and properties, but noted that the details
needed to be worked out with the CRA. Dzung also informed the SECV
that "in near future" congregations and churches in Central
Highlands will be approved faster and more transparently. The two
SECV leaders noted that Dzung also mentioned that he received a
letter of congratulations from President Bush, and noted that it is
a "good sign."


8. (SBU) The SECV leaders said that, following their courtesy call
with the PM, they had a longer and more substantive meeting with the
CRA. At that meeting, they reportedly told the CRA that the SECV
needs "concrete actions to back up GVN promises." The SECV leaders
said that they presented the CRA with a detailed list of requests
that they wished to have fulfilled by the end of 2007, but sooner if
possible. These included:

-- Return of 217 churches and protestant properties (135 in the
Central Highlands). The top priority is the return of the former
SECV headquarters in downtown HCMC, which now is being used a youth
cultural house.

-- Construction of a Theological Institute in HCMC's District 2.
The SECV leaders said that last week, HCMC People's Committee Vice
Chairman Nguyen Van Dua instructed the Department of Construction to
speed up the permit process for the building, which has been pending
for at least six months. According to the SECV, if all approvals
are granted, construction could begin in August.

-- Unification of the SECV and ECVN. However, the SECV leaders
acknowledged that "certain individuals" on the ECVN Executive Board
are resisting the merger.

-- Publication of Bibles and other religious materials in five major
ethnic languages in the Central Highlands. According to the
officials, former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan promised to carry
out this request in a meeting with the SECV in early 2006, but the
SECV has not yet seen progress.

-- Accelerated approval for registration and recognition of
congregations, pastor promotions and transfers and special events
and celebrations.

-- Opening permanent SECV training schools in eight provinces in the
Central Highlands and the Mekong Delta.

-- GVN facilitation of overseas training for SECV pastors.

Comment
--------------


9. (SBU) This rare show of public support for Protestantism by the
Prime Minister so early in his tenure is welcome. However, we would
note that, although PM Dzung called on local authorities to
effectively implement Vietnam's legal framework on religion, there
was no public mention of registering new congregations or
recognizing new religious groups. While his call to protect
"national unity" from "hostile forces" may be no more than the usual
pro-forma language needed to assuage hardliners in the Communist
Party, that excuse has been used in the past to slow the process of
legalization of a number SECV congregations in the Central
Highlands. For their part, SECV officials almost certainly
recognize that some elements of the SECV "wish list," particularly
the rapid return of a large number of properties, are unrealistic;
return of some key properties in HCMC and other locations (such as
the former SECV seminary in Nha Trang) probably would suffice for
the near term. The SECV also understands that it must overcome
opposition from the ECVN to a merger before it can realistically
press this demand -- allowable under Vietnam's legal framework --
with the GVN. End Comment.

MARINE