US embassy cable - 03HOCHIMINHCITY1215

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001215 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/BCLTV, DRL/IRF 
 
E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, PREL, SOCI, VM, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: PROTESTANT POSSIBLY BEATEN, DETAINED FOR DISTRIBUTING 
 
 
1.  (SBU) SUMMARY.  At least one Protestant religious worker in Ho 
Chi Minh City was reportedly beaten and detained on December 9 for 
involvement in the distribution of religious leaflets designed to 
look like official Southeast Asia (SEA) Games pamphlets.  Other 
Protestant leaders held a "sit-in" at a local police station to 
protest the arrest.  One pastor told ConGen that a high-ranking 
police contact had indicated late Tuesday that distributors of 
this pamphlet would be strictly prosecuted.  The organizers had 
previously received repeated warnings from authorities not to 
distribute the material.  Other pastors and religious workers who 
were involved in distributing the pamphlets have reportedly failed 
to check in with family and friends.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (SBU) HCC Protstants printed 200,000 copies of a religious 
pamphlet for distribution in both Hanoi and HCMC during this 
year's 22nd annual SEA Games December 5-14, which Vietnam is 
hosting for the first time.  The front cover of the pamphlet reads 
"SEA GAMES 22: Vietnam 2003" and includes the official SEA Games 
logo and other official-looking symbols.  The back cover has the 
schedule for men's and women's soccer events.  Closed, the 
pamphlet is indistinguishable from an official program of events, 
but the inside reveals two full pages of religious quotes and 
information. 
 
3.  (SBU) On the evening of December 9, an unregistered Mennonite 
house church pastor and an associate claimed to have been 
confronted by police after leaving another pastor's home where the 
pamphlets were being stored.  The first pastor fled the scene back 
to the second pastor's home, but his associate was allegedly 
beaten and detained by police.  The associate was reportedly taken 
to a police station in HCMC's District 1.   Poloff spoke with 
several Protestant contacts during the night and received 
conflicting reports.  A third Protestant pastor told Poloff that 
he had spoken with high-level contacts in the HCMC branch of the 
Ministry of Public Security and been told that the decision had 
been made to strictly prosecute those responsible for the 
pamphlet.  Authorities had previously warned the organizers of the 
group more than once not to distribute the pamphlet. 
 
4.  (SBU) The Mennonite pastor and fifteen associates have engaged 
in a "sit-in" at the District 1 police station since last night to 
demand the release of their detained colleague.  Fifteen other 
Protestants, including the pastor whose house was used for storage 
of the brochures, have yet to check in with their families and 
friends.  This follows the alleged one-day detention of seven 
Protestants in the Hanoi area a few days ago.  One of those 
individuals was also allegedly beaten.  All of these cases 
involved distribution of the pamphlet. 
 
5.  (SBU)  Initial reports by pastors to ConGen on December 9 made 
conflicting claims that up to 16 Protestants had been beaten and 
were under medical care, or were detained at three separate 
locations.  In a separate meeting earlier the same day, one of the 
pastors told ConGen a student had been beaten by eleven police for 
distributing the pamphlet. When ConGen asked to meet with the 
student, the pastor refused, saying there were no marks and there 
was no point in asking any questions.  As of December 10 in the 
morning, the various stories had synthesized into one detainee and 
fifteen sit-in protesters.  However, a December 10 public 
statement from the Vietnamese Mennonite Church on the same events, 
received subsequently via Post's public affairs email account, 
claims that police attacked a religious worker and pastor with 
"electric rods and pistols" in an attempt to "assassinate" the 
two.  An update from the group the evening of December 10 
indicated that a deal was being brokered in which the police would 
release several detainees, including some of those who had not 
been in touch with their families, if the sit-in would disperse. 
 
6.  (SBU) COMMENT: While Post is attempting to clarify the 
situation, some of the primary sources for this incident are among 
the least credible.  This is the same group that was involved in 
an incident during the visit of A/S Dewey earlier in the year, 
when a confrontation over a prayer service with mistakes on both 
sides led to one of the pastors "punching a policeman," in his own 
words.  There were still other incidents with this group during 
another high-level visit on religious issues.  They have also 
illicitly brought cameras and video recorders to meetings with 
Congen staff to try to videostream the meetings on the Internet 
and use them for publicity.  Post was disconcerted that a top 
Protestant community leader knew nothing about the alleged 
pamphlet incident nearly twenty-four hours later.  Those involved 
in the incident wanted to have a ConGenOff come meet with them at 
the police station, but have yet to act on an invitation to meet 
elsewhere to discuss the incident in detail. 
 
7.  (SBU) Comment continued: The GVN has several options by which 
to prosecute this case beyond normal restrictions on 
proselytizing, including misrepresentation, unauthorized use of 
official government logos, and even IPR violations if the logos 
were copyrighted.  ConGen will continue to monitor the situation 
and follow up with our contacts, while remaining cautious about 
being drawn into deliberate, manipulative provocations.  It's hard 
to tell whether the police are more upset by the religious content 
of the pamphlet or the fact that the GVN itself was made to look 
like it was proselytizing. 
 
 
YAMAUCHI