US embassy cable - 03HOCHIMINHCITY770

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 000770 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR PRM A/S DEWEY 
DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR EAP/BCLTV, DRL 
 
E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, PREF, SOCI, PGOV, VM, RELFREE, HUMANR 
SUBJECT: A/S DEWEY PRESSES HO CHI MINH CITY LEADERSHIP ON 
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 
 
REF:  HCMC 0766 
 
1. (SBU) Summary.  A/S Dewey raised issues of religious freedom 
during several official meetings in Ho Chi Minh City on August 19. 
Describing the GVN's record as uneven in the Central Highlands 
provinces he had visited, he registered disappointment that even 
in HCMC, there were sporadic reports of interference with worship 
and confiscation of religious materials.  He also expressed dismay 
over a recent police raid on an unregistered "illegal" church in 
HCMC's District 11 (reftel).  Despite that, A/S Dewey said he 
would return to the U.S. with a more balanced picture of the 
situation in Vietnam because of this visit.  Local officials 
responded with the standard GVN refrain -- that the GVN encourages 
religious freedom, but cannot accept those who would use religion 
to disrupt the national unity.  Mr. Dewey also mentioned, in 
general terms, his proposal to reopen processing in several 
categories of the old Orderly Departure Program.  End summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Assistant Secretary Dewey visited HCMC on August 19, 
after three days in the Central Highlands (to be reported septel). 
He raised issues of religious freedom at meetings with the 
Committee for Religious Affairs (CRA), the External Relations 
Office (ERO - local branch of the Foreign Ministry), and the HCMC 
People's Committee.  He also stopped briefly at the headquarters 
and main church of the GVN-recognized Southern Evangelical Church 
of Vietnam (SECV), the umbrella organization for all legal 
Protestant churches in Vietnam's southern 31 provinces and HCMC. 
Describing lack of religious freedom as a factor that causes 
people to become refugees, A/S Dewey told his interlocutors that 
he was returning to the U.S. with a mixed view of the ability of 
people to practice their faith freely in Vietnam.  He praised what 
he considered to be positive efforts by the provincial 
administration in Lam Dong to register new Protestant churches, 
but noted the picture was less positive elsewhere.  He praised the 
GVN decision to recognize the SECV, and pointed to the opening of 
the SECV seminary this past February as another positive step. 
 
3. (SBU) During all three official meetings, A/S Dewey raised the 
case of an altercation at an unregistered "illegal" house church 
in District 11 of HCMC just the day before.  He said he found it 
difficult to understand how Vietnam could profess to allow freedom 
of religion when police acted in "such a brutal fashion."  While 
he told his Vietnamese interlocutors that he had hoped to go back 
to Washington with the sense that the situation in HCMC was 
generally positive, he said he was not sure how to explain this 
latest incident.  He reminded CRA Chairman Nguyen Ngoc San that 
the "whole world is watching," and hoped local officials 
understood the effect of their actions on international opinion. 
He appealed to Chairman San to gain the immediate release of the 
two pastors who were reportedly being detained and provide some 
explanation of the incident before he departed Vietnam later that 
evening.  Chairman San regretted that he had not heard anything 
about this development, but promised to investigate.  He noted 
that district officials were sometimes slow to report back to the 
city government.  Mr. San agreed it would be regrettable if the 
story were true, but he thought there might be more to the story. 
He returned to this incident unsolicited several times during the 
meeting and seemed genuinely concerned.  (Note:  Mr. San described 
himself as a religious person with an understanding of spiritual 
needs.  He took great pride in telling A/S Dewey that he even had 
an altar at home, although he never specified the religion.) 
 
4. (SBU) While Chairman San did contend that some religious 
believers violated the law by using freedom of religion to pursue 
political agendas, he also admitted that local officials at the 
grassroots level sometimes overstepped their bounds because they 
did not fully understand GVN policies.  He mentioned  two civil 
servants who had recently been disciplined for violating GVN 
policies toward religion, although he did not give any details. 
He said he had recently organized eight sessions with Protestant 
and Catholic clergy to teach local officials more about religious 
practices.  Mr. San was somewhat inconsistent, however, when he 
tried to describe the Catch-22 situation unregistered churches are 
in.  These house churches are generally left alone and allowed to 
operate "as long as they do not do anything to disrupt national 
unity."  Yet their "illegal" status also means they can be shut 
down or have their property/belongings confiscated at any time, 
i.e. their "religious freedom" only lasts as long as they do not 
cross some arbitrary, invisible line.  Mr. San noted that the CRA 
was still awaiting the green light from Hanoi to register 
additional Protestant churches not affiliated with the SECV, but 
assured Mr. Dewey that those believers would be allowed to carry 
on their activities in the meantime.  He said the CRA welcomed the 
printing of Bibles by the SECV and only restricted importation of 
"those books which incite instability." 
 
5. (SBU) Speaking more generally about what he described as the 
"harmonious development" of religious practices in HCMC, Mr. San 
gave statistics on growing numbers of believers and construction 
of new houses of worship.  He said there were two million 
religious believers of all faiths in the city -- one million 
Buddhists, 500,000 Catholics, 30,000 Protestants (worshipping at 
41 registered churches), and unspecified numbers of Hoa Hao, Cao 
Dai, Muslims, Hindus, and Bahai.  Reiterating that the policy of 
the GVN was to promote the development of religion in Vietnam, he 
added the refrain that Vietnam's long history of war has led it to 
value freedom and national unity.  Mr. Dewey agreed that it was 
acceptable to differentiate between religious believers and those 
with a political agenda, but stressed the need to close the gap 
between GVN official policy allowing believers to practice their 
religion and inconsistent implementation of that policy at the 
local level.  Making clear the USG strongly supported the 
territorial integrity of Vietnam, Mr. Dewey pointed out that 
religious diversity was actually part of America's strength. 
 
6. (SBU) Mr. Dewey's other meetings covered nearly the exact same 
ground, with all of his interlocutors seeking to demonstrate 
progress on religous freedom by citing the growth in numbers of 
worshippers.  All recited some variation of the same mantra that 
religious freedom is respected, but not for those with a political 
agenda.  ERO Director Le Quoc Hung added another wrinkle, by 
contrasting the importance of stability to attracting foreign 
investment with the fact that religion(s) was often associated 
with foreign invaders in Vietnam.  As did all of the GVN 
officials, Director Hung stressed there has been enormous progress 
in recent years, but that balancing religious freedom with 
security/stability concerns requires a "step-by-step" approach. 
 
7. (U) A/S Dewey did not clear on this message. 
YAMAUCHI