FIRST GVN OFFICIAL OUTREACH TO UNOFFICIAL RELIGIOUS GROUPS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 000588

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL KIRF SOCI PGOV VM
SUBJECT: FIRST GVN OFFICIAL OUTREACH TO UNOFFICIAL RELIGIOUS GROUPS

REF: HCMC 559 AND PREVIOUS; B) 05 HCMC 1082; C) HANOI 1232

HO CHI MIN 00000588 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) Summary: On May 30 in HCMC, the central-level
Committee for Religious Affairs (CRA) held its first briefing on
Vietnam's legal framework on religion to encourage unrecognized
religious groups to legalize their status. Over 100
representatives attended from unregistered religious
organizations, including Protestant house church leaders.
According to participants, CRA officials promised to approve
quickly the long-pending registration application of the United
World Mission Church as well as of the Baha'i church and two
small independent Buddhist sects. Baptist leaders told us that
they would now begin the registration process. Other Protestant
house church leaders belonging to the Vietnam Evangelical
Fellowship, welcomed the CRA outreach and acknowledged
improvement in conditions for their house churches, but remain
undecided on moving forward with registration. End Summary.


2. (SBU) On May 30, the central-level Committee for Religious
Affairs (CRA) held a briefing in HCMC for unrecognized religious
organizations from throughout the southern half of Vietnam on
the legal framework on religion. According to Tran Ngoc Bao,
Vice Chairman of HCMC CRA, about 100 representatives from
Protestant house churches and other unregistered religious
groups, including the Baha'i, and Buddhist sects, attended.
Central-level CRA Vice-Chairman Nguyen Thanh Xuan, Protestant
Affairs Chief Nguyen Huy Thong, and legal department staff
chaired the meeting.


3. (SBU) Bao told us the event marked the first official meeting
with unrecognized religious groups on the new legal framework on
religion. The CRA gave the participants three forms that groups
must complete to apply for national-level registration, two for
national-level registration (an application form and an addendum
to list of member churches in each province) and a third for
recognition under Vietnam's legal framework on religion.


4. (SBU) Bao confirmed that Mennonite Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang
was invited to the gathering, despite the recent confrontation
between Quang and HCMC authorities (ref A). Bao said that his
Hanoi counterparts had wanted to exclude Quang and invite only
the Mennonite group of Pastor Nguyen Quang Trung that has been
registered in HCMC. Bao said that the HCMC CRA interceded and
noted that it would be seen as discriminatory if Quang was not
invited.


5. (SBU) According to Bao, the CRA officials said that the CRA
will begin in June to consider the national-level applications
of three groups, including the Danang-based United World Mission
Church (UWMC). The CRA told the participants that they would
"try" to meet the deadline for consideration of applications
stipulated in the time frame provided in the March 2005
Implementing Guidelines (60 days for national registration, 90
days for national recognition). Bao noted that the
national-level process is only the last step in a registration
process that first requires religious groups to register with
their local and provincial CRAs before they apply at the
national level. Suggesting that different provinces still are
applying registration requirements differently, Bao noted that
were the UWMC headquartered in HCMC, it would have been
registered already. (The UWMC told us that it completed its
registration application in September 2005.)

Religious Groups' Reaction
--------------


6. (SBU) Pastor Pham Dinh Nhan, President of the Vietnam
Evangelical Fellowship (VEF),an umbrella organization for many
of HCMC's house churches, acknowledged that the meeting was a
positive step in bridging differences between the house church
community and the government. Pastor Nhan said that he told the
CRA that he was ready to register and to "adhere to Vietnamese
law." However, Nhan said the VEF is concerned about
"discrepancies" between national-level and local-level
registration applications. The fact that local registration
requires that each church list its followers remains a
non-starter for VEF members. Nhan said he complained publicly
about continued local harassment of some house churches and
requested that the CRA establish a national hot-line to report
local violations of religious freedom. Nhan requested a
follow-on meeting between Protestant house church leaders and
the Central-level CRA to clarify registration procedures and to
discuss other issues such as the hot-line, but received no
commitment.


7. (SBU) According to Nhan, Pastor Ngyuen Toi, head of the UWMC
in Danang was upset that he would have to re-apply for
registration using the new forms. However, in May 31 telephone
conversation with ConGen staff, Pastor Toi was positive. He
said that the Central CRA apologized for the delay in
implementing the November 2004 Ordinance of Religion. Pastor
Toi was told that the UMWC, along with two small Buddhist

HO CHI MIN 00000588 002.2 OF 002


organizations (not the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam),were
"priority cases" for national registration. The Central CRA
committed to sending staff to Danang this month to work with the
UWMC to supplement its registration/recognition application
before submitting it to the Prime Minister for final approval.
In the meantime, the CRA instructed the UWMC to complete all
local-level registrations. The central-level CRA also committed
to notify all provinces where the UWMC has churches to instruct
local authorities to process registration applications. The CRA
officials told Pastor Toi that he should notify them directly if
localities refuse to accept the UWMC application. Pastor Toi
told us that the vast majority of local officials accepted UWMC
registration applications. Moreover, with the exception of one
house church in Dak Lak province, UWMC operations have been not
faced harassment. (Per ref B, the UWMC operates 123
congregations serving 26,000 persons throughout central Vietnam,
including a large number in the Central Highlands.)


8. (SBU) Pastor Nguyen Ngoc Hien, Head of the Vietnam Baptist
Fellowship, expressed a clearer understanding of the
registration process than Pastor Nhan. Hien noted that the CRA
instructed church groups to begin local registration under the
Prime Minister's February 2005 "Instruction on Protestantism."
This requires house churches to apply with the People's
Committee at the village level in every jurisdiction in every
province the organization operates. Following local
registration, each organization must prepare and submit the
three new forms that the central-level CRA handed out at the
meeting. The central-level CRA will then contact the
organization to review the national registration application.
Central CRA will grant them national registration after a review
of the provincial registrations and the church's national
submission. According to Hien, CRA officials told him that they
"aim" to complete registration for all unrecognized groups
within two years. Pastor Hien said that he is going to instruct
his churches to start the local registration process. Despite
GVN pressure to register jointly, the five Baptist denominations
under the Vietnam Baptist Fellowship likely will apply for
registration separately.


9. (SBU) Nguyen Dinh Thoa of the HCMC BahHai Church told us
that he and six other members of the Baha'i "legalization
committee" attended the briefing. They confirmed that CRA
officials apologized for the late introduction of the
implementation guidelines to unrecognized groups and announced
that the implementation officially had commenced. Although the
Baha'i were not one of the three named "priority cases for
national registration," Thoa told us that the Baha'i have been
instructed orally to file for central level registration and
recognition immediately. The Baha'i church is planning to
submit its application on June 20.


10. (SBU) Comment: The Central-level CRA's initiative to open
formal discussions with unregistered religious organizations is
a welcome and needed step, albeit overdue; the HCMC CRA has told
us that it had been lobbying its Hanoi counterparts for nearly a
year in this regard. It follows on the heels of successful
meetings between local and international Baptist representatives
in Hanoi and HCMC in May (ref C).


11. (SBU) Comment continued. The differing reactions of the
Baptists, VEF and UWMC to the meeting is no surprise. Over the
past two years, the Baptists and the UWMC have reached out
informally to government and Party officials in the provinces
and Hanoi and are clear on how to proceed and prepared to do so.
In contrast, the VEF is divided between moderates who might
consider registration, and hardliners who reject GVN oversight.
For example, members of the VEF include Pastor Quang's branch of
the Mennonite Church and the Inter-Evengelistic Movement church
of Pastor Tran Mai. Both Pastor Mai and Quang were signatories
of the "Declaration on Democracy" co-authored by political
dissident Do Nam Hai and Father Nguyen Van Ly. Seeking internal
consensus, the VEF has not been willing to engage on
registration. More consistent and more rapid progress in
registration and recognition of the UWMC and Baptists is
critical to encouraging fence-sitters in the VEF to register.
So too are continued government efforts to minimize the number
of harassment incidents against house churches and to resolve
those that do occur. End Comment.
Winnick