SEPARATISM AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 001185

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREF SOCI PREL KIRF PGOV VM
SUBJECT: SEPARATISM AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS
PROVINCE OF GIA LAI

REF: HCMC 998; B) HCMC 1055; C) HCMC 1050

HO CHI MIN 00001185 001.2 OF 003



1. (SBU) Summary: During an October 10-12 visit to the province
of Gia Lai, officials told us that U.S.-based activists continue
to foment separatism in the Central Highlands and flight to
Cambodia. Officials are concerned about what they believe are
new efforts to organize anti-GVN activities before the visit of
the President for the APEC Leaders' Summit. They also detailed
additional progress on recognitions and registrations of
Protestant congregations and committed to continue to work
proactively to resolve outstanding VISAS-93 (family
reunification) cases. We cautioned that authorities should not
overreact to separatist provocations and that, in any event, the
rights of detainees under Vietnamese law must be protected.
Septel will detail visits to the homes of ethnic minority
returnees and a number of VISAS-93 applicants. See ref C for
additional analysis on overall conditions for ethnic minorities
in the Central Highlands. End Summary.


2. (SBU) From October 10-12, PolOff, Refugee Resettlement
Section (RRS) Chief and DHS/CIS officer traveled to the Central
Highlands province of Gia Lai to review a range of issues
involving the ethnic minority community. At our invitation, the
French Political Counselor accompanied us. We received good
access (especially for the Central Highlands). The province
responded positively to our requests for detailed discussions
with the Department of Public Security (DPS) on ethnic minority
separatism and to discuss VISAS-93 (family reunification)
issues. The province also facilitated our request to meet with
ethnic minority returnees from Cambodia in their homes as well
to investigate a number of outstanding VISAS-93 cases (covered
Septel).

VISAS-93
--------------


3. (SBU) Provincial People's Committee Chairman Pham The Dung
and Deputy Director of Gia Lai Department of Public Security
(DPS) Tran Dinh Thu told us that the province remains committed
to fast and transparent processing of family reunification cases
involving ethnic minorities (Visas-93). According to provincial
statistics, the province has processed 118 Visas-93 cases thus
far, involving 483 persons. Some 13 families, covering 41
persons, have not applied for their passports. (Comment: these
numbers are not far from our VISAS-93 figures for the province
of 130 cases/544 persons. End Comment.) RRS Chief handed the
DPS a list of 22 VISAS-93 cases needing passports; the Deputy
Director promised to look into the cases and expedite wherever
possible.


4. (SBU) The DPS official told us that officials have detected
and averted fraud in the Visas-93 process. The province has
detected discrepancies between the names of family members
listed by the applicant in the United States and the actual
names of his family members back home. Some applicants
attempted to include non-family members in their petitions for
provincial documents needed by the Consulate for VISAS-93
processing. Individuals caught are fined VND 20 to 30 million
(roughly USD 1,200 to 1,800),but the families themselves are
not fined and are allowed to continue the process.

Threat of Separatism Still Looms Large
--------------


5. (SBU) Turning to the issue of ethnic minority separatism, the
DPS Vice-Director said that, although the armed "FULRO"
insurgency against the GVN ended in October 1992, the GVN has
"solid evidence" that insurgency's leaders resettled in the
United States and continue to foment unrest, violence and
separatism in the ethnic minority community in the Central
Highlands. For example, the Montagnard Foundation (MF) has
distributed clandestinely maps of the Central Highlands
delineating the area of an ethnic minority "Dega" state. The
flag on the MF's website is virtually identical to the old FURLO
flag, sending a powerful message to ethnic minority groups in
the Central Highlands. According to Thu, through "various
channels," MF operatives spread the word that only those that
support independence would benefit when a Dega state was
created. "Collaborators" would lose their land and be kicked
out of the Central Highlands along with ethnic Vietnamese.
Village elders supportive of the GVN have been physically
threatened by Dega operatives, Thu and other officials told us.
According to Thu, one former Dega operative "confessed" that he
used dynamite and knives against police and local officials
during the 2004 protests. He offered to allow us to interview
the former operative during a future visit. (Comment: A church
leader from the GVN-recognized Southern Evangelical Church of
Vietnam separately had told us of threats against him and other
moderates from local separatists. End Comment.)


6. (SBU) According to Thu, the MF continues to spread rumors

HO CHI MIN 00001185 002.2 OF 003


that international recognition of a Dega state is imminent. It
made such claims while organizing the April 2004 protests in the
Central Highlands. The MF reportedly now is spreading the rumor
that President Bush will recognize the Dega state during the
APEC Leaders' Summit. The goal of the MF is to try to stir up
unrest and to foment violence to secure international
intervention in the Central Highlands.


7. (SBU) Thu claimed that the GVN also has evidence that the MF
is diverting monies it collected from the ethnic minority
community in the U.S. pledged for economic development to
support its separatist activities. Similarly, the "Dega
Protestant Church" is an artifice designed to promote the FULRO
message of separatism. The MF also seeks to encourage illegal
cross-border migration to Cambodia as a way of destabilizing
village life in the Central Highlands. The vast majority of
cross-border migrants are leaving for economic reasons,
particularly as they have been told that they can be resettled
in the United States. Unfortunately, because of the ethnic
minority community's overall low level of education and poor
economic competitiveness, they are susceptible to the separatist
message.


8. (SBU) We reiterated that the USG recognizes Vietnam's
territorial integrity and that it is illegal under U.S. law to
foment violence overseas. We welcomed this most detailed
briefing on Dega activities to date, and added that sharing
concrete evidence of possible violations of U.S. law is critical
if we are to address the issue constructively.


9. (SBU) That said, we stressed that local authorities and
police should be careful and sophisticated in their response to
separatist provocations. Detainee rights under Vietnamese law
must be protected. Referring to the death in police custody of
an ethnic minority individual in the neighboring province of Dak
Lak (ref A),we stressed that physical abuse of detainees is
unacceptable and undermines GVN efforts to build trust with the
ethnic minority community. Thu said that he agreed, and that it
was not GVN policy to abuse ethnic minority detainees. He said
that some "unfortunate situations" had occurred at village
levels.

Religious Freedom
--------------


10. (SBU) Provincial People's Committee Chairman Dung and
Chairman of Gia Lai Committee for Religious Affairs (CRA) Tran
Thanh Hung said the province is implementing fully the GVN's
legal framework on religion. Hung noted that, especially since
September 2005, there has been significant progress in the
province. All of the 82,000 members of the Southern Evangelical
Church of Vietnam (SECV) are able to gather and practice freely
in 35 recognized and 206 registered congregations. The province
has approved a second training course for SECV pastors. Over
the past year the province has facilitated the construction of
17 new SECV churches. According to Hung, the SECV has told the
CRA that it wants to hold off on further recognitions of
congregations until 2007. In a separate meeting, Pastor Siu Y
Kim, SECV national representative board member from Gia Lai,
confirmed the steady progress for the church in the province.
He said that the SECV needs to consolidate its organization
following an intense period of expansion and legalization.


11. (SBU) CRA Chairman Hung also noted the recent (ref B)
national-level registration of the United World Mission Church,
based in Danang. Gia Lai Province is working to assist the UWMC
congregations to develop their local congregations. For
example, it has facilitated the church's dispatch of its deacons
to Danang for training. At present, the UWMC does not have any
accredited pastors in Gia Lai. In addition to the UWMC, five
other house church organizations have begun to operate in Gia
Lai over the past year, including Baptist and Mennonite
denominations. According to Hung, these fledgling groups
sometimes poach members from the SECV; their evangelists come to
the Central Highlands from HCMC. All of these groups are
allowed to operate without interference, Hung claimed. Asked
how the CRA deals with frictions within the ethnic minority
community between animist traditionalists and Protestant
converts, Hung emphasized that the GVN's policy of freedom of
belief and non-belief makes clear that government officials must
remain neutral and not intervene in favor of any particular
faith.


12. (SBU) The province also is facilitating the operation of the
Catholic Church, the CRA Chairman told us. The 91,000-strong
Catholic Church continues to grow in Gia Lai, albeit at a slow
rate. The province recently approved the Church's proposal to
send nine new students to the seminary in Hue. The Church also
ordained six new priests and transferred eight to new parishes.
Two of the eight transfers came from outside Gia Lai.

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Implementation at the District Level
--------------


13. (SBU) Prior to meeting with returnees in Chu Se District --
a hotbed of Dega activism -- we met with District People's
Committee Chairman Nguyen Dung. Dung emphasized that he has
been instructed to facilitate the operation of all Protestant
denominations in his area of responsibility save the "Dega
Protestant Church." The latter organization is not legitimate
and it only "uses the Bible" to attract followers and then call
for the creation of a Dega state. Dung estimated that there are
perhaps a thousand hardcore Dega activists in his district,
which is home to over 70,000 ethnic minority persons. These
activists continue to try and incite protests and violence and
to induce individuals to cross to Cambodia. He denied that the
province was taking any measures to confiscate cell phones from
ethnic minorities, but noted his concern that "Dega activists"
were using cell phones to coordinate activities and to spread
anti-GVN propaganda. He repeated the allegations that Dega
activists were spreading rumors that President Bush would
recognize a new Dega ethnic minority state during his upcoming
visit to Vietnam.

And at the Grassroots
--------------


14. (SBU) During our village visits to monitor the welfare of
ethnic minority returnees from Cambodia in the border district
of Duc Co, we met with the ethnic Jarai village elders of Ba and
Chan villages. The three elders from Ba village were former
Viet Cong and adamant that Protestantism was a
"counterrevolutionary" phenomenon. The elders said that it was
their independent policy to discourage the practice of
Protestantism. The two Protestant families in the 580-person
village only could practice at home. Catholicism and
traditional animist beliefs did not face restriction, although
the elders said that they were atheists. Five hundred yards
down the road, the neighboring village of Chan -- within the
same local administrative area as Ba -- was a complete contrast.
The bulk of the villagers were affiliated with the SECV. Up to
600 villagers gather for services three times a week without any
incident. Villagers explained that a number of the village
elders are Protestant.

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


15. (SBU) The province's relatively detailed and frank
discussions on ethnic minority separatism are a significant step
forward as is their willingness to grant us greater access to
returnees in their villages (more septel). While it is still
difficult for us to gauge the extent of ethnic minority support
for the separatist movement, it is clearly the biggest single
worry for Central Highlands officials. The perceived separatist
threat colors the provincial response to religious freedom, NGO
access, views of the United States and treatment of cross-border
migrants. In that context, it is particularly notable that Gia
Lai -- and to a lesser extent Dak Lak -- have become
increasingly comfortable with the legalization of other
Protestant groups in the province. Equally encouraging is that
provincial officials now tell us that they will apply the
successful model of registration and recognition of SECV
churches to other Protestant denominations in the province. The
presence of our French Embassy colleague on the visit helped
underscore that issues such as the status of ethnic minorities,
human rights and religious freedom in the Central Highlands are
not an exclusive U.S. issue but an international concern.


16. (SBU) Comment, continued: The status of the SECV in Gia Lai
continues to improve steadily. Its leaders acknowledge that
they must resolve internal organizational challenges, such as
training additional pastors, before seeking additional
recognitions from provincial authorities. The stark contrast in
attitudes to religion from village elders in adjacent hamlets in
Duc Co District highlights the how difficult it can be to change
entrenched mindsets at the grassroots and ensure consistent
application of GVN policy on religion. At least in this corner
of the Central Highlands, restrictions on religious practice
stem from the hardliners in the ethnic minority community who
still reject the efforts of higher-level GVN officials in the
area. End Comment.
WINNICK