US embassy cable - 04HOCHIMINHCITY1240

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001240 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/BCLTV, DRL/IRF, DRL, EAP/P 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, SOCI, PREL, PGOV, KIRF, VM, RELFREE, HUMANR 
SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS ISSUES IN DANANG 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  During a visit to Danang September 30 and 
October 1, religious leaders from GVN-recognized Catholic and 
Protestant denominations painted a picture of provincial 
leadership that is tolerant of organized religion.  While 
bemoaning their lack of "complete religious freedom," they told us 
their situation is getting "easier everyday."  Church leaders were 
skeptical that the new religious ordinance would create major 
improvements when it comes into effect on November 15, but neither 
did they think that it would constrain their activities.  A new 
SECV initiative to train 600 new pastors in their local 
jurisdictions is awaiting GVN approval.  The apparent key to 
church leaders' success in Danang is their effort to reach out to 
local GVN leaders -- from the village level on up -- and to 
demonstrate that they pose no threat to continued Communist Party 
rule.  In return for what appears to be largely pro forma 
acknowledgments of Party authority, Church leaders are relatively 
free to go about their business.  End Summary. 
 
2. (U) During the visit of CG and a ConGen HCMC team to Danang 
September 30 and October 1, PolOff met with Pastor Nguyen The 
Binh, Head of the Danang Southern Evangelical Conference of 
Vietnam, and Father Tran Quoc Viet, a senior priest in the office 
of the Danang and Quang Nam Bishop's diocese, to review the status 
of the Protestant and Catholic Churches in Danang.   Meetings with 
local GVN officials and reporting on economic and consular issues 
are covered septel. 
 
The Danang Protestant Community 
------------------------------- 
 
3. (SBU) Pastor Nguyen The Binh, head of the Southern Evangelical 
Church of Vietnam (SECV) chapter in Danang (strictly protect), 
told us that the GVN-recognized Protestant community in Danang had 
a positive relationship with local authorities.  The Danang SECV 
has not experienced limitations on its freedom to assemble and 
worship -- the 10,000-strong SECV community routinely gathers 
without incident in 11 GVN-sanctioned churches.  The pastor added 
that this past August, the local chapter of the SECV also 
organized a 3-day region-wide conference that attracted some 4,000 
believers, including ethnic minorities.  According to the pastor, 
the SECV did not have to seek permission from local authorities to 
hold the conference, but merely had to "register" the activity 
with the People's Committee and the local Committee for Religious 
Affairs (CRA).  In general, the Danang SECV notifies local 
authorities with a list of its planned activities once a year. 
 
4. (SBU) Pastor Binh told us that there has been some recent 
movement in addressing his biggest concern:  the shortage of GVN- 
recognized pastors in Danang.  Currently there are only 8 pastors 
authorized to cover the 11 churches in the Danang SECV community. 
According to the pastor, there is a pending agreement between the 
GVN and the SECV to allow local SECV chapters to provide "in- 
service" training for pastors in the provinces in lieu of sending 
trainees to the SECV seminary in Ho Chi Minh City.  (In practice, 
these "trainees" have been working unofficially in local 
communities already.)   According to the pastor, Danang will 
receive 10 of the 600 slots that the SECV national leadership 
might be allocated for an in-service program. 
 
5. (SBU) Separately, Tran Ngoc Du of the SECV National Board in 
HCMC confirmed that the SECV in August submitted a proposal to the 
GVN requesting approval for "in-service" training courses for 600 
pastor-candidates now ministering unofficially in the 34 provinces 
in which the SECV functions.  The duration of the course would be 
three months.  According to Du, Danang province would receive 15 
of those slots; the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai would be 
granted 30 in-service training slots.  The SECV anticipates a GVN 
reply to its proposal by the end of 2004. 
 
6. (SBU) Pastor Binh told us that he meets at least quarterly with 
the local CRA.  He characterized the CRA as accessible and his 
meetings as relaxed and open.  However, the CRA has not yet 
briefed the SECV on the new religious ordinance, because, the 
pastor believes, local authorities have not yet received 
implementation instructions from Hanoi.  The pastor does not 
anticipate that the ordinance will bring significant changes to 
what he says is a favorable relationship with the GVN.  He is 
concerned, however, that without uniform instructions, local 
authorities elsewhere in Vietnam will continue to interpret rules 
government religious practice as they please, perpetuating 
problems where problems exist today. 
 
7. (SBU) Also problematic was the local authorities refusal to 
resolve satisfactorily issues of expropriated church property. 
Pastor Binh said there were a number of properties in Danang that 
the GVN expropriated post 1975.  Discussions on compensation have 
not been fruitful. 
 
8. (SBU) Pastor Binh said that there is a small -- "few hundreds" 
-- house church movement in Danang operating under the umbrella of 
the hitherto unrecognized Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship (VEF). 
Binh said that, as far as he was aware, these worshipers gather in 
large groups every Sunday without incident or police harassment. 
He added that two local VEF-affiliated churches recently 
petitioned the GVN for recognition. 
 
Catholic Church 
--------------- 
 
9. (SBU) Father Tran Quoc Viet, a senior representative of the 
Bishop of Danang and Quang Nam provinces (strictly protect) told 
us that the situation today for the 60,000 Catholic believers was 
far improved from a decade ago.  The 70 priests in the diocese 
were sufficient to minister to the faithful.  Urban areas in the 
diocese are particularly free from acrimony as local authorities 
are more used to worshipers congregating in large numbers. 
 
10. (SBU) Father Viet said that problems remain in the 
countryside, particularly among police and especially in areas 
where the Church is reaching out to new parishioners.  He said 
that even here there has been some progress.  He related an 
incident in which local Ministry of Public Security officials in 
an ethnic-minority area of Quang Nam province sought to prevent 
Church activity in the region.  However, after two years of 
dialogue and cajoling, he was able to win their acquiescence.  The 
key, he said, was that the police were reassured that the Church 
activities were not designed to incite anti-Hanoi sentiments among 
the Montagnards. 
 
11. (SBU) Father Viet said that the new ordinance on religion 
would do little to bring Vietnam to a "true state" of religious 
freedom, which he defined as the pre-1975 status where the 
Catholic Church was free of all state controls.  Any progress 
depended on the yet-to-be-issued implementation guidelines.  The 
Danang/Quang Nam diocese also was highly dissatisfied with the 
GVN's nickel-and-dime approach to compensation of the Church 
property expropriated in 1975.  In his view, other dioceses, 
particularly HCMC, have made more progress toward recovering or 
being compensated fairly for expropriated property. 
 
Comment:  Lessons Learned 
------------------------- 
 
12. (SBU) The message from the GVN-recognized Christian community 
in Danang was the most positive we have heard in southern Vietnam 
thus far.  What seems to set Danang apart from other provinces is 
the good personal and institutional relationship between the 
protestant and Catholic Churches and local authorities. 
 
13. (SBU) The SECV's Vietnam roots are in Danang -- its mother 
church was founded here in 1911 and the current SECV head 
representative has been working with Danang authorities for over 
30 years.  Similarly, the Catholic Church is a known commodity and 
familiarity breeds acceptance.  Equally important, Danang church 
leaders appear to have a taken a long-term approach to build trust 
with local officials.  Their view is that by showing some measure 
of fealty to the State -- working through the system and assuaging 
the paranoia of local leaders that they will use religion to 
weaken the hold of the Communist Party -- they receive cooperation 
and some measure of autonomy in return. 
 
 
WINNICK