US embassy cable - 03HANOI2287

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 002287 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED - PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 
 
STATE FOR DRL/IRF AND EAP/BCLTV 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, VM, RELFREE, HUMANR, ETMIN 
SUBJECT: RELIGION IN VIETNAM - THREE CONTRASTING VIEWS 
 
REF:  A.  HANOI 2152    B.  HANOI 0175 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  In meetings on September 4 in Hanoi with 
DRL/IRF's William Inboden, prominent Buddhist, Protestant, 
and Catholic leaders provided personal perspectives on the 
religious situation in Vietnam that ranged from rosy to 
troubled.  (Ref a reported on EAP/BCLTV's discussions with 
religious figures in Hanoi.)  The three portrayed markedly 
different levels of support in their dealings with the 
government:  from the representative of the officially- 
sanctioned Buddhist church talking of warm relations with 
the State, to a Catholic painting a picture of operating but 
under considerable oversight, to a Protestant expressing 
continued frustration with repression and an arrest.  End 
Summary. 
 
BUDDHIST SATISFACTION 
--------------------- 
 
2. (SBU)  The Venerable Thich Minh Tien (please protect), 
Secretary of the Office of the officially sanctioned Central 
 
SIPDIS 
Buddhist Church of Vietnam, portrayed a positive situation 
for Buddhist adherents in Vietnam.  He talked of 
"friendship" between the Buddhist Church and the State, and 
said that, while there were some difficulties in church- 
state relations in the past, there had been major 
improvements in recent years.  The Venerable Tien mentioned 
with approval the January 2003 Communist Party Central 
Committee resolution on religion (ref b), claiming that this 
was a sign the Party recognized religion as a strategic 
issue, and that the resolution underscored how the Party 
supports freedom of religion in Vietnam. 
 
3. (SBU) Pressed by Inboden about official attitudes towards 
Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and Venerable Thich Quang Do of 
the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), Tien 
dismissed the dissidents as having "no real support."  He 
portrayed the two as malcontents, saying that "all" other 
UBCV followers had happily joined the Central Buddhist 
Church, that there were no doctrinal issues between the 
Central Buddhist Church and the UBCV, and that the existence 
of the UBCV should not be recognized or even acknowledged, 
as it could only serve to damage the consensus that exists 
among Vietnamese Buddhists at this time.  Tien also 
volunteered his negative opinion of the USG's recent catfish 
decision and the South Vietnam flag legislation, and 
suggested that the GVN was right to focus more on the 
nation's socio-economic development than on increasing 
political or religious freedoms. 
 
CATHOLIC CONCERNS 
----------------- 
 
4. (SBU) Father Joseph Dang Duc Ngan (please protect), chief 
priest of the Catholic parish of downtown Hanoi, depicted a 
church growing both in members and ability to operate, but 
still under government constraints.  Father Ngan pointed to 
what he characterized as "considerable improvements" in the 
naming of bishops to dioceses, although in the past some 
positions had remained open for as long as ten years due to 
the GVN's rejections of the Vatican's candidates. 
Similarly, he said that it was now "common" for priests to 
travel abroad for study, something that had been restricted 
in the past.  He acknowledged, however, that appointments 
and travel requests are still subject to State approval, and 
that some difficulties remain.  Father Ngan also touched on 
other areas where he thought there had been some 
improvements, such as more seminarians now able to study 
than in the past.  He noted that conversions to Catholicism 
posed no problem, and were actually quite frequent with 
inter-faith marriages.  In all, he contrasted the position 
of the Catholic Church in Vietnam favourably with that in 
China, saying Vietnamese Catholics have more autonomy then 
their counterparts across the border. 
 
PROTESTANT BLUES 
---------------- 
 
5. (SBU) A Protestant church leader, who spoke freely but 
asked his name not be used, recounted a personal history of 
acting in unofficial status for years as the GVN refused to 
acknowledge new ministers in his church; he also described 
detentions and fines in past years for working with Hmong 
Protestants in northern highland areas.  He lamented that 
"old age" continued to reduce the number of Protestant 
ministers to less than one per church, with GVN refusals to 
permit the training and appointment of new ones.  He opined 
that this was part of a GVN desire to restrict the spread of 
Protestantism.  Nonetheless, he pointed to some positive 
developments for Protestants in recent months, notably 
central authorities being somewhat more responsive in 
"educating" local officials after complaints of specific 
abuses.  He predicted that the Evangelical Church of Vietnam- 
North would soon be able to hold a long-delayed convention, 
at which members would be able to vote internally on the 
appointment of new leaders and ministers. 
 
6. (SBU) The minister nonetheless expressed regret over 
continuing difficulties and limited progress for Hmong 
Protestants in the Northwest Provinces.  He said that this 
was the largest growing section of the Protestant church, 
but was frequently "misunderstood" by local officials, who 
viewed the underground church as similar in structure to the 
Communist Party.  He noted that, while some Hmong churches 
had joined the ECVN-North, they have not been recognized as 
such by the GVN.  He reported the continued detention of at 
least one church volunteer, as well as the imprisonment of 
an unknown number of other Hmong Protestants.  He added that 
he continued to hear claims of evictions from villages and 
attempts at forced renunciations of faith in northern 
highland areas.  The frequency of these claims has dropped, 
however, and by his account, the rapid growth of the church 
among the Hmong is increasingly leading some higher GVN 
officials to accept it as an important part of people's 
lives. 
 
7. (SBU) Comment: A common theme emerges from these 
discussions about the GVN's ongoing supervision over 
religion.  Those faiths and organizations that the GVN can 
supervise more successfully receive (paradoxically) some 
latitude to operate.  Those faiths that, by their nature, 
growth, or convictions resist GVN efforts at oversight are 
subject to more pressures. 
 
8.  (U)  DRL/IRF's Inboden has cleared this message. 
BURGHARDT