US embassy cable - 03HOCHIMINHCITY1000

UNCLAS HO CHI MINH CITY 001000 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/BCLTV, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, SOCI, PGOV, PREL, KIRF, VM, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: UNITED BUDDHIST CHURCH OF VIETNAM: GENERAL SECRETARY 
CONFIRMS ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION 
 
REF:  A) HCMC 0942   B) HCMC 0993   C) HCMC 0978 
 
1.  (SBU)  Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) General 
Secretary Thich Tue Sy told ConGen today that he has been placed 
 
SIPDIS 
under a two-year administrative detention, effective October 11. 
He confirmed that Thich Nguyen Ly and Thich Thanh Huyen -- two 
other UBCV monks riding in the van with the three top-ranking UBCV 
leaders when they were returning to HCMC on October 8, after an 
"illegal" UBCV meeting in Binh Dinh Province (ref A) -- had been 
placed under similar restrictions.  The administrative order was 
signed by Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vice Chairman Nguyen 
Thanh Tai, who holds the portfolio for social welfare, religion, 
culture, and education.  Thich Tue Sy said he did not understand 
the exact conditions of his detention or whether he would be 
permitted to leave the Gia Lam Pagoda grounds. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Updating ConGen from his conversations with other monks 
today over what he presumed to be monitored lines, Thich Tue Sy 
said that security officials had prevented several UBCV monks from 
entering Thanh Minh Zen pagoda to ascertain the welfare and 
whereabouts of UBCV Deputy Thich Quang Do (ref B).  He confirmed 
that Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang was back at Nguyen Thieu Pagoda 
in Binh Dinh Province.  He said security officials were preventing 
people from entering or leaving the pagoda -- while the monks were 
refusing to allow the police inside the grounds.  The authorities 
have apparently spared Thich Vien Dinh (on whose behalf the ConGen 
and Embassy have received inquiries from individuals who claim to 
be family members in the U.S.) formal administrative detention, 
but have told him orally that he must request permission to leave 
his pagoda. 
 
3.  (SBU)  Thich Tue Sy recounted how the van containing the UBCV 
leadership had been stopped in Khanh Hoa Province on the morning 
of October 9, before he was transported to Go Vap District police 
station in HCMC later that evening (ref C).  On the afternoon of 
October 11, after nearly two days of questioning, he said that he 
and Thich Thanh Huyen (also in the van on the trip from Binh Dinh 
Province) were brought to a school near Gia Lam Pagoda to meet 
with approximately 20 district officials, including the chairmen 
of the People's Committee, the Committee for Religious Affairs, 
and the Fatherland Front, respectively.  The district People's 
Committee Chairman read the administrative detention order, which 
accused the two monks of organizing a UBCV assembly in the U.S. in 
1999, corresponding with EU ambassadors in Hanoi regarding the 
UBCV, meeting with EU ambassadors while in Hanoi to visit Thich 
Huyen Quang in April 2003, and organizing the "illegal" meeting at 
Nguyen Thieu Pagoda this past September (para. 1).  Thich Tue Sy 
and Thich Thanh Huyen were "sentenced" to administrative detention 
under the now-familiar security grounds of "abusing democracy to 
cause harm to the State." 
 
4.  (SBU)  Post notes that when Thich Quang Do's administrative 
detention order was lifted this past June, the order was signed by 
the district People's Committee.  We are unsure if there is any 
significance to the fact that Thich Tue Sy's detention order was 
signed by the HCMC People's Committee, though even Thich Tue Sy -- 
who has much longer experience with this sort of situation than 
Post does -- cannot understand how HCMC can accuse him of crimes 
he allegedly committed that would have taken place outside its 
local jurisdiction. 
YAMAUCHI