TRAN HUU PHUOC LIKELY NOT A HUMAN RIGHTS CASE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 000674

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TAGS: PHUM PINR SOCI PREL PREF KIRF PGOV VM
SUBJECT: TRAN HUU PHUOC LIKELY NOT A HUMAN RIGHTS CASE

REF: HCMC 435 B) 05 HCMC 994

HO CHI MIN 00000674 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) Summary: Cao Dai believer Tran Huu Phuoc was
imprisoned in April for two years for slander. He alleged that
he was being persecuted for his religious and political beliefs.
We believe that his is not/not a human rights or religious
freedom case. Phuoc's legal troubles stem from his refusal to
comply with routine civil obligations such as registering his
household and his children's military draft status. End
Summary.


2. (SBU) On June 9, we traveled to Tay Ninh province to
investigate the human rights case of Tran Huu Phuoc (Ref A).
Phuoc had claimed in a letter to ConGen that he was being
persecuted for his political and religious beliefs. In April,
Phuoc was sentenced to two years in prison for slandering
government and religious officials. During the visit, we met
with representatives of the provincial Committee for Religious
Affairs (CRA) and the provincial External Relations Office. We
also met with the Chairman of the GVN-recognized Cao Dai
Executive Council, and the wife of Tran Huu Phuoc.

The Government View
--------------


3. (SBU) According to the Tay Ninh officials, Phuoc slandered 11
people, accusing them of corruption and of making threats
against Phuoc's family. The 11 included Tay Ninh district
police, Cao Dai church leaders and People's Committee officials
who had interacted with Phuoc. The officials told us that
problems with Phuoc began in 2001, when Phuoc's two children
failed to register for military service. (Note: Vietnamese law
mandates two years military service for males 18 years and
older. End Note.) Phuoc ignored requests to submit civil
documents and subsequent police summonses. The officials said
it was at this time Phuoc began writing letters of complaint to
provincial authorities and others. The contents of these
letters initially focused on his claim that his children be
exempt from military service, but gradually widened to include
"slanderous remarks" against officials. The officials
acknowledged that Phuoc had written 40 to 50 letters to the
Prime Minister and other national and international figures,
including the UN SYG. The letters criticized the Cao Dai
church's relationship with the GVN and its handling of land
disputes, but were "not considered" in prosecuting Phuoc.


4. (SBU) By September 2005, frustration with Phuoc had risen to
the point where the 11 aforementioned individuals had filed
formal complaints against Phuoc. During the subsequent
investigation, police sent Phuoc to a psychiatric clinic in Dong
Nai province to evaluate Phuoc's mental capacity and to rule out
mental instability. Phuoc was diagnosed as suffering from
elements of "paranoid schizophrenia," but was found to be
competent to stand trial. According to officials, Phuoc's
family then requested a second evaluation in March 2006. The
family's claim was that he had suffered a head injury in 1982
and that he has been "unstable" ever since. Officials remarked
that the family provided no evidence of Phuoc's injury and the
second evaluation confirmed the original diagnosis. He was
convicted of slander and sentenced to two years in prison.
Officials claimed that a court-appointed attorney represented
Phuoc. Following the trial, Phuoc filed an appeal requesting
his sentence be reduced from 24 to 18 months. Tay Ninh
officials stated that Phuoc's family has visitation rights but
were unaware how often they visited. Some officials noted that
Phuoc's sole motivation for contacting the U.S. Consulate for
assistance was to seek resettlement in the U.S. and that "if we
wanted him, Phuoc could go." (Note: In a letter to ConGen,
Phuoc requested political asylum in the United States. End
Note.)

The Official Cao Dai Perspective
--------------


5. (SBU) Cao Dai's Chief Clergyman and Executive Council
Chairman Thuong Tam Thanh rejected Phuoc's claim that he was a
Cao Dai clergyman. The Chairman remarked that Phuoc slandered
elderly Cao Dai officials and made blasphemous remarks about the
Cao Dai faith. The Cao Dai council had shown great leniency by
not excommunicating him. The Chairman did not know why Phuoc
accused government and Cao Dai officials. Phuoc had a
reputation within the Cao Dai community as being "rude and
abnormal".

Interview With Tran Huu Phuoc's Wife
--------------


6. (SBU) Before leaving Tay Ninh, we made an impromptu visit to
Phuoc's home where we met with Phuoc's wife, Dang Thi Le. Mrs.
Le acknowledged that Phuoc had verbally attacked provincial
officials, but there were "elements of truth" to his charges.
She said that her husband had never been a Cao Dai clergyman; he

HO CHI MIN 00000674 002.2 OF 002


was a barber up until his arrest in April.


7. (SBU) Mrs. Le also confirmed the official account of the
events that led to charges being filed against Phuoc in
September 2005. In 2001, police had requested her husband to
fill out a personal identification card as the original in the
precinct had been lost. Her husband was annoyed by the police
intrusion and dismissed them. The police subsequently wrote
Phuoc a formal citation, which he also ignored. According to
Mrs. Le, the police returned a few weeks later and informed
Phuoc that his children had not registered for military service
and cited the family for noncompliance with the law. The police
also warned Phuoc that failure to register may jeopardize his
children's employment prospects. It was at this point that her
husband began writing to local authorities demanding that his
children be exempted from military service because they were
attending school in HCMC. Phuoc also complained about police
visits to his home.


8. (SBU) Mrs. Le said Phuoc never showed her the letters he
wrote. She was unaware of their political and religious
content. According to Mrs. Le, the catalyst for her husband's
inflammatory epistolary was his friends who had civil land
disputes with other Cao Dai individuals and the Cao Dai church.
Emboldened by his initial letters complaining of harassment,
Phuoc's friends had him write complaints on their behalf.


9. (SBU) Mrs. Le said that her family was not threatened or
harassed by police. She also confirmed that she insisted
authorities re-evaluate her husband's mental condition. She
admitted to us that she had intended to bribe doctors at the
mental hospital to label Phuoc as mentally incompetent to stand
trial.


10. (SBU) According to Mrs. Le, her husband did not have a
court-appointed attorney. She said that the family did not hire
defense counsel because the family was poor and because she
believed that he likely was guilty of slander, at least to some
degree. Since the trial, she has visited Phuoc once. During
the visit, she requested that he withdraw his appeal, fearing
that the appeals court would increase the sentence. Mrs. Le
added that Phuoc wishes to join his sister in the United
States, where she has resided since 1995 under the humanitarian
resettlement program. Phuoc already had his passport issued,
although he had no immediate plan to go abroad prior to his own
arrest.


11. (SBU) Comment: There clearly is at least some unease in Tay
Ninh over the extent of GVN influence over the Cao Dai church.
We also view with skepticism officials' claims that Phuoc's
letter writing campaign played no role in him receiving the
maximum possible sentence and a public show trial. That said,
the information we developed in Tay Ninh, especially our
interview with Mrs. Le, indicates that the imprisonment of Tran
Huu Phuc is not/not a human rights or religious freedom case.
Local officials tried to work with Phuoc for nearly four years
before taking his case to court. It appears that Phuoc sought
to engage religious freedom and human rights issues in a routine
civil dispute he initiated with local officials, perhaps hoping
to facilitate his immigration to the United States. End
Comment.
WINNICK