Cablegate: Central Highlands: Security Jitters Accompany Religious

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001310

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL KIRF SCUL SOCI PHUM VM RELFREE HUMANR ETMIN
SUBJECT: CENTRAL HIGHLANDS: SECURITY JITTERS ACCOMPANY RELIGIOUS
FREEDOM GAINS ON THE EVE OF CHRISTMAS

1. (SBU) Summary: Reliable contacts in the Protestant community
in the Central Highlands told us that security has been
intensified throughout the region in the run-up to Christmas.
In archconservative Dak Lak Province there appear to be
near-blanket restrictions on Protestant gatherings. Elsewhere
in the Central Highlands, villages that are considered to be
sympathetic to the "Dega Church" and ethnic minority separatism
are under the most intense police scrutiny. Our contacts are
not aware of any recent police arrests or beatings of ethnic
minority individuals, including recent returnees from Cambodia.
However, tensions between ethnic minority communities and local
police remain high, especially over land issues; tensions led to
a clash with a local military unit in Gia Lai that left one
soldier dead. On the other hand, our contacts report
significant progress in legalizing the operation of the
GVN-recognized Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam in Gia Lai
and Kontum provinces. In particular, the SECV cites the
December 12 formal registration of 248 "meeting points" in Gia
Lai, effectively legalizing operations for all of the SECV's
75,000 believers in the province. The United World Mission
Church -- a house church organization based in Danang -- also
reports an improved operating environment in much of the Central
Highlands. The GVN appears to be adopting a two-track strategy
of promoting the operations of non-threatening religious groups
while suppressing the "Dega Church," which it considers nothing
but a front for ethnic minority separatism. End Summary.

Security Intensifying Amid Pre-Christmas Restrictions...
--------------------------------------------- -----------

2. (SBU) Over the past week, leaders of the Protestant house
church movement and the GVN-recognized Southern Evangelical
Church of Vietnam (SECV) have told us that, beginning in
December, police and military units have been deployed in
increased numbers throughout the Central Highlands. Teams of
three or four police and security officials have been assigned
to monitor specific ethnic minority villages. Police have set
up checkpoints along the roads and routinely stop and question
travelers headed to ethnic minority villages. Officials
reportedly are concerned that ethnic minority separatists will
take advantage of Christmas celebrations to organize anti-GVN
activity. This led police to prevent at least one SECV church
worker from accessing an ethnic minority village in Gia Lai
Province.

3. (SBU) The security presence and restrictions are particularly
strong in "sensitive communes" where villagers participated in
protests in 2001 and 2004 or fled to Cambodia. For example, in
M'Drak district of Dak Lak, police decreed that villagers could
not gather to celebrate Christmas, although families could
worship and celebrate individually. Similar conditions have
been imposed on certain villages in Gia Lai considered by the
government to be strongholds of the "Dega Church." In a number
of cases, these Dega churches sought to apply for legal
registration using a "cover name," but were denied. Our SECV
contact spoke with one Dega pastor who reportedly could not
articulate to which denomination of Protestantism he belonged,
but was well versed in concepts of ethnic minority nationalism.
That pastor reportedly told our contact that there is an
operational Dega government in exile and that ethnic minorities
in the Central Highlands had to continue to hope for
"liberation."

4. (SBU) In Kontum Province, one village in Sa Thay district
also faced restrictions on gathering. Our contact explained
that this village was the source of a recent group of ethnic
minority individuals who sought to cross to Cambodia. Another
ethnic minority village in Kon Plong district was allowed to
gather, but Protestant worshipers reportedly were being
discriminated against in the distribution of government
assistance, with the unstated goal of inducing them to abandon
their faith.

5. (SBU) Our SECV contact also reported that a group of ethnic
San Chi that had migrated from northern Vietnam to Gia Lai and
had sought to affiliate with the SECV were expressly forbidden
from gathering to celebrate Christmas. Their application to
register as a congregation in accordance with the new legal
framework on religion was denied because the group had only
recently arrived in the province and officials considered their
situation "unstable." Unfortunately, the San Chi could not
participate in other SECV church services in the area there
because they did not speak Jarai or Vietnamese, the lingua
franca of the SECV churches in the region. The SECV is
appealing the decision with the provincial government.

6. (SBU) Although the police have not arrested or otherwise
detained or beaten ethnic minority individuals, including
returnees from Cambodia, their presence has made villagers
"edgier." In early December, in one ethnic minority village in
Duc Co district, Gia Lai Province, dissatisfaction over land
compensation and encroachment from a state-owned rubber
plantation led to a serious clash between villagers and a local
military unit, during which one soldier was killed. There were
no reported ethnic minority casualties. Despite the death, Gia
Lai authorities -- at least thus far -- have not arrested any of
the villagers. Our contact explained that authorities recognize
that the grievances that fueled the outburst were legitimate,
that the military unit was conspiring with the rubber plantation
to disadvantage the ethnic minorities, and that arrests would
trigger further disorder.

...But Significant Progress As Well
-----------------------------------

7. (SBU) Despite the stepped-up security, our contacts said that
significant progress continues to be made in easing the
restrictions on most Protestant church operations in Gia Lai and
Kontum provinces. On December 12, the Gia Lai SECV received
official notification from the provincial Committee for
Religious Affairs that the province had formally accepted the
registration of 248 SECV "meeting points" throughout the
province. According to our SECV contact, taken together with
the 29 SECV churches that already had been recognized -- the
bulk in 2004 and 2005 -- all SECV operations for its 75,000
worshipers in the province have been legalized. In coming
months, as these individual congregations meet internal SECV
regulations, the SECV will petition with the provincial
government for recognition of these "meeting points".

8. (SBU) Our contacts report that conditions in Kontum also have
improved significantly in 2005. House churches belonging to the
United World Mission Church (UWMC) -- headquartered in Danang --
which previously faced significant harassment, now function
without incident. Provincial officials proactively reached out
to UWMC local leaders to encourage them to register under the
new legal framework on religion. In a separate phone
conversation, Pastor Nguyen Toi, UWMC President, confirmed that
conditions for his church had improved throughout the Central
Highlands. Similarly, the SECV, which previously had a very
limited footprint in Kontum because of official harassment, has
found it easier to operate there. For example, a local SECV
pastor who previously was told that worshipers could not gather
at his home because he was not legally registered in the
province was asked to worship "normally." He also was informed
that he could expand the meeting room in his home even though
the house is not yet legally registered in the province.

9. (SBU) Comment: Formal registration of the SECV's 248 meeting
points in Gia Lai is a significant milestone; the SECV has been
lobbying hard for the past three years to reach this point.
Equally encouraging is the treatment that the SECV and some
other house church organizations are receiving in Kontum.
Government efforts to liberalize operations for the SECV and
some house churches, coupled with the intensified security focus
on "Dega" villages, suggests that the GVN is adopting a
two-track strategy of promoting the operations of
non-threatening, apolitical religious groups while continuing to
try to suppress the "Dega church," which it considers nothing
but a front for ethnic minority separatism. The clash in Duc Co
district between ethnic minority villagers and the local
military is a sharp reminder that this strategy will fail absent
a sustained effort to address the underlying socio-economic
grievances that drive ethnic minority disaffection in the
Central Highlands. End Comment.
CHERN

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