Cablegate: Bright Spots and Trouble Spots for Religion In
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HANOI 001433
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV and DRL/IRF
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIRF VM HUMANR RELFREE
SUBJECT: BRIGHT SPOTS AND TROUBLE SPOTS FOR RELIGION IN
VIETNAM
Sensitive but unclassified. Protect accordingly.
1. (SBU) Summary and Comment: In recent months, Vietnam has
made several significant reforms in its laws that govern
religion and has taken a number of other positive steps for
religious believers, including releasing several religious
prisoners. Catholic and Protestant religious leaders state
that their ability to practice religion freely is improving.
Despite this, significant problems remain. The legal
changes leave unchanged the principle of Government
supervision of religious activities at all levels. Positive
legal changes have largely not yet been adequately
disseminated to local-level officials, who, in some cases,
continue to implement previous, more onerous, regulations.
The leaders of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV)
remain under pagoda arrest, and relations with some Hoa Hao
and Mennonite groups are troubled. The GVN seems to focus
on these groups because it views them as political threats,
not for religious reasons, however. The legal changes
Vietnam has made offer considerable potential for further
improvements on the ground, but this potential has yet to be
realized. Vietnam has made good progress two of the bases
for CPC designation - release of religious prisoners and
dealing with forced renunciations of faith - but less on the
other two - opening new churches and disciplining officials
guilty of abuses. End Summary and Comment.
Legal Reforms Bring Some Positive Changes
-----------------------------------------
2. (SBU) The most significant recent development regarding
religion in Vietnam is the revamping of the legal codes that
govern religious activity. Vietnam's new Ordinance on
Religion and Belief was issued in June 2004, and came into
effect on November 15 of that year. The Ordinance serves as
the primary document governing religious practice in
Vietnam. It reiterates citizens' rights to freedom of
belief and religion, and the freedom not to follow a
religion, and states that violations of these freedoms are
prohibited (a reference to forced renunciations). The
Ordinance continues the practice of Government control and
oversight of religious organizations, however. Among its
provisions are that religious denominations as a whole, as
well as individual religious congregations, must be
recognized by appropriate authorities, and that the
establishment of seminaries and enrollment of classes must
also be approved by the Government. The Ordinance relaxes
Government oversight of religion to some extent. For
example, religious organizations are now only required to
register their annual activities and the promotion of
clerics with authorities, while in the past this required
the authorities' explicit approval. Further, the Ordinance
encourages religious groups to carry out charitable
activities in healthcare and education, which was sharply
limited in the past. In this regard, the Catholic Church is
playing an increasing role in providing HIV/AIDS care in Ho
Chi Minh City and Hue.
3. (SBU) On March 1, the Government issued an implementing
decree that provides further guidance on the Ordinance. As
in the Ordinance, the Implementing Decree explicitly bans
forced renunciations of faith. It notes the specific
procedures by which religious groups can apply for official
recognition from the Government, receive approval to open
churches and train priests, and register other activities.
It further sets out specific time periods for the Government
to consider requests from religious organizations and
provide a response in writing. Several religious
organizations, including some Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses,
Seventh Day Adventists and a Mennonite group not affiliated
with activist Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang are reportedly
seeking recognition under the terms of the Implementing
Decree.
4. (SBU) On February 4, the Prime Minister issued the
"Instruction on Some Tasks Regarding Protestantism," which
provides tone and guidance for authorities to use in their
relations with Protestant groups. The Instruction calls
upon authorities to facilitate the requests of recognized
Protestant denominations to construct churches and train and
appoint pastors. Furthermore, it directs authorities to
help unrecognized denominations register their congregations
so that they can practice openly and move towards fulfilling
the criteria required for full recognition. Addressing the
Central and Northwest Highlands, the Instruction requires
authorities to help groups of Protestant believers register
their religious activities and practice in homes of
"suitable locations," even if they do not meet the criteria
to establish an official congregation. The Instruction
effectively allows unregistered "house churches" to operate
so long as they are "committed to follow regulations" and
are not affiliated with separatist movements.
5. (SBU) The Government has taken some steps to ensure these
new legal guidelines are understood and implemented. The
national-level Committee For Religious Affairs held two
conferences for provincial-level counterparts to explain the
new legal framework for religion. The provincial-level
committees were then charged with disseminating information
about the new legal framework to district-, commune-, and
village-level authorities. Knowledge of the new legal
framework at lower levels of the Government remains patchy,
however. Authorities in some areas have actively engaged
religious leaders in efforts to implement the changes. More
common, however, is that authorities remained ignorant of
them, especially at the grassroots level and in rural areas.
Prisoner Releases
-----------------
6. (SBU) The GVN has made significant progress in releasing
religious prisoners over the past twelve months. Recent
releases include Hmong Protestants Vang Chin Sang, Vang Mi
Ly, Ly Chin Seng Ly Xin Quang, and Mua A Chau, UBCV monk
Thich Thien Minh, Hoa Hao followers Ho Van Trong, Truong Van
Duc, Nguyen Van Lia and Nguyen Ha Hai (who died of cancer
shortly after his release) and Catholic priests Nguyen Van
Ly and Pham Minh Tri. In addition, the GVN has been
forthcoming with information on other individuals of
concern, some of whom were already free but remained on our
prisoner lists because the GVN previously had not confirmed
their sentences or releases. As a result, our list of
prisoners of concern for religious reasons has dropped to
six individuals. Three of them are recent cases however;
two are Hoa Hao arrested in February for distributing
illegal religious audio cassettes and DVDs, and one is a
Baptist preacher committed to a mental hospital, apparently
for calling upon party officials to abandon Marxism-Leninism
and to follow Christ instead.
Official Denominations Report Improvements
------------------------------------------
7. (SBU) Officials in Vietnam's officially-recognized
religious organizations point to a number of recent steps
that show positive progress. The Evangelical Church of
Vietnam: North (ECVN) held its long-delayed national
congress in December, the first time it has been able to do
so since 1988. The meeting allowed the ECVN to elect new
leaders and set priorities for the development of the
Church. The congress had been delayed initially due to the
Government's refusal to permit the meeting, and in recent
years due to the Church's refusal to accept GVN interference
in the selection of its leaders. The ECVN's southern
counterpart, the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam
(SECV) held its second national congress March 1 to 4, the
first being shortly after the SECV's establishment in 2001.
The newly elected ECVN and SECV leadership boards were
formally received by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan at the
Office of the Government in Hanoi, which ECVN leaders
welcomed as a sign of respect. SECV leaders have also
pointed to progress in quietly reopening house churches -
without officially registering them - in some parts of the
Central Highlands.
8. (SBU) Catholic leaders similarly welcomed as an important
symbolic step the condolences issued by Vietnam upon the
death of Pope John Paul II and the congratulations on the
naming of Benedict XVI. More tangibly, the GVN has allowed
the Catholic Seminary of Hanoi to accept incoming classes
yearly, from bi-annually, helping to address the shortage of
priests that frustrates the Church. While the Church has
many eager candidates for each seminary position, overall
enrollment limits and political screening of candidates
remain in place. The GVN has approved the long-pending
Church request to sub-divide the southern Xuan Loc diocese
and to create a new bishopric. The Government also
permitted the visit to Vietnam of exiled Buddhist leader
Thich Nhat Hanh earlier this year. Hanh, who has spent
nearly forty years in exile, traveled widely though the
country, secured publication of his previously-banned books
and made some private recommendations to Vietnamese leaders
that were critical of the state of Buddhism under the
officially-recognized Vietnam Buddhist Sangha.
Central and Northwest Highlands Remain Difficult
--------------------------------------------- ---
9. (SBU) Vietnam's Central and Northwest Highlands have been
flashpoints for religious tensions in recent years due to
security concerns in the two regions and the rapid growth of
evangelical Protestantism among some of the ethnic minority
groups present there. There has been some positive progress
in the Central Highlands: new provincial leadership in Gia
Lai Province has led to a more open situation for SECV and
house churches. In April, the SECV was permitted to open a
special training class for 46 house church preachers in the
region, allowing them soon to receive formal recognition as
pastors. In neighboring Dak Lak Province, however,
uncooperative leaders have made the situation for the Church
more difficult. The SECV has opened 22 churches in Gia Lai
and expects another 10 to 20 by the end of the year, but in
Dak Lak there are only four. (Note: In a recent meeting
with the Ambassador, Vice Minister of Public Security Huong
said that as many as 41 church "branches" have been
registered in Gia Lai, and that number again are "under
consideration" in Dak Lak. This is higher that what
provincial authorities report, and may be due to the process
of agglomerating several heretofore unrecognized house
churches into larger, officially recognized SECV churches.
End note.)
10. (SBU) In the Northwest Highlands, the Prime Minister's
Instruction on Protestantism has led to improvements in
certain areas. The Instruction was the first document to
formally acknowledge the existence of Protestants in the
northwest. Officials in Lao Cai Province appear to have
taken this to heart, and acknowledged to the Ambassador that
there are Protestant house churches there and that they are
trying to implement the Prime Minister's Instruction with
regards to these churches. In the other Highlands provinces
of Dien Bien, Lai Chau and Ha Giang, however, officials
continue to deny to visiting diplomats that there are any
Protestants in their provinces. The Embassy continues to
hear allegations of attempts by officials in the northwest
to force Protestant converts to renounce their faith,
including in Lao Cai. These are fewer than in the past,
however, and some house church leaders have said that they
practice far more openly now than in the past.
Some Trouble Spots Remain
-------------------------
11. (SBU) The Government remains intransigent towards the
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV). Leaders largely
remain under official or de facto pagoda arrest since the
group held an unauthorized conference in Binh Dinh Province
in October 2003. UBCV leaders frequently mix political
rhetoric into their calls for freedom to operate as an
independent Buddhist organization, and the group has a
strong tradition of social advocacy dating from pre-
unification South Vietnam. The official sentences of
administrative detention placed on four Ho Chi Minh City-
based UBCV monks will expire this November.
12. (SBU) Relations between authorities and the Mennonite
church of Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang is another difficult
area. Quang maintained a robust record of confronting Ho
Chi Minh City officials who interfered with his unauthorized
church services, and on at least one occasion this resulted
in violence, landing Quang in jail for three years, with
five of his followers' receiving shorter sentences. Since
then, Quang's wife has attempted to continue holding church
services. City authorities repeatedly disrupted these
services, often bringing churchgoers to a station house for
several hours of "questioning." This appears to have
quieted recently, however. Finally, the Hoa Hao Central
Buddhist Church (HHCBC), an unrecognized sect, has engaged
in a number of confrontational public protests recently,
including threats of self-immolation. The GVN has difficult
relations with the Hoa Hao, perhaps rooted in the sect's pre-
1975 anti-communist activities.
Progress Mixed on CPC Bases
---------------------------
13. (SBU) Vietnam has been talking a good game in terms of
improving the situation for religion here. Indeed, for the
majority of believers, the situation has improved; there are
more priests and pastors than in the past, churches and
pagodas are flourishing, and Vietnamese citizens are able to
follow their individual spiritual paths in a way that was
difficult ten years ago and impossible twenty years ago.
14. (SBU) CPC designation was made for different reasons,
however, and was based on four major concerns: releasing
religious prisoners, opening new churches in the Central and
Northwest Highlands, ending forced renunciations of faith
and holding accountable officials guilty of the abuse of
religious believers. On this score we are half way there.
Excellent progress has been made on religious prisoners,
although the Government continues to impose restrictions on
some individuals who have been released, such as Father Ly,
and on others who have never been charged, such as the UBCV
leaders. The Ordinance on Religion and its Implementing
Decree both prohibit forced renunciations of faith, and
while we continue to hear of isolated cases in the Northwest
Highlands, contacts tell us that this happens less than in
the past. On opening new churches, the Implementing Decree
and the Prime Minister's Instruction open the door to the
recognition of new official churches and registration of
house churches. While we can point to some progress in
opening (or re-opening) SECV-affiliated churches, only a
handful of house churches have registered under the new
legal framework so far. We await more progress on this most
fundamental issue. Finally we have no evidence of actions
to reprimand officials guilty of abuses. We hold little
hope for seeing punishment of past abuses, but will keep the
GVN's feet to the fire when transgressions within the new
legal framework are evident.
MARINE