DCM, MPS DISCUSS VIOLENCE IN LAM DONG AND QUANG BINH

UNCLAS HANOI 000695

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS, DRL/IRF and DRL/AWH

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KIRF VM

SUBJECT: DCM, MPS DISCUSS VIOLENCE IN LAM DONG AND QUANG BINH


1. (SBU) On July 22, the DCM met with the Deputy Director General
of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) General Security
Department, Major General To Lam to discuss a range of operational
issues and to reiterate U.S. concerns over violence affecting
religious devotees in two locations: the Bat Nha Pagoda in Lam Dong
Province and the Tam Toa Catholic church ruins in Quang Binh. As in
her July 21 meeting with the Committee for Religious Affairs
(septel),the DCM drew a sharp contrast between the situation in Lam
Dong, where local police stood by as one party to the dispute
brutally attacked monks and nuns occupying the pagoda, and that in
Quang Binh, where it was the police who had reportedly beaten
demonstrators calling for a restoration of the church. The DCM
emphasized that the United States takes no position on either set of
claims, both of which involve complicated property disputes, but was
concerned with the attacks that had taken place.


2. (SBU) General Lam insisted that the MPS had urged both sides of
the pagoda dispute in Bat Nha to refrain from violence and deserved
credit for restoring order. He likened the conflict between
followers of the Lang Mai ("Plum Village") Order and those
affiliated with the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) to the type of
raucous behavior and fighting that sometimes occurs when a woman
from one village is courted by a suitor from another. The MPS, he
said, only intervened in "serious criminal cases." Lam said that
the Embassy "lacked information" and accused "foreign elements" of
skewing the story to attract attention and support. Feigning
exasperation, Lam asked rhetorically whether the Embassy would
protest the GVN's "interference" if the police had gotten involved
earlier and more forcefully. Lam had considerably less to say about
the property dispute concerning the Tam Toa Church, maintaining only
that local authorities had acted appropriately. Dismissing the
marriage analogy, the DCM again stressed that what concerns the U.S.
government is not the details of the particular disputes, but the
fact that people were beaten, in one case by the police, in the
other with the police's implicit consent. She said while it was
rare for a U.S. official to urge the MPS to take make arrests, this
case, yes, the police should take action against the perpetrators of
violence.

MICHALAK