US embassy cable - 04HOCHIMINHCITY1494

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 001494 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, SOCI, PREL, KIRF, PREF, PGOV, VM, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: DRL DAS DUGAN IN HCMC: HUMAN RIGHTS, RELIGION, WOMEN'S 
ISSUES 
 
REF:  A) HCMC 1481 B) HCMC 1465 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  Religious leaders and human rights dissidents 
told DRL DAS Dugan that despite strict GVN controls, they have 
seen improvement in human rights and religious freedom.  They 
welcomed continued pressure on Vietnam but cautioned against 
sanctions.  Recognized religious groups planned to test the 
provisions of the new Ordinance on Religion.  Protestant house 
church leaders had concerns over the new law's implications.  GVN 
officials stressed their commitment to expand gradually human 
rights in Vietnam and asked for USG patience.  The HCMC Women's 
Union outlined efforts to assist trafficked women and sex workers 
and to counsel Vietnamese overseas brides, especially to Taiwan. 
Dugan welcomed dialogue with GVN leaders, stressed the importance 
of human rights and religious freedom to the United States and 
urged the GVN to build partnerships with religious organizations 
to combat social evils.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) DRL DAS Elizabeth Dugan and Senior DRL Advisor Susan 
O'Sullivan visited HCMC November 20 to 22 to assess human rights 
and religious freedom issues.  They met with Deputy Chairman of 
the HCMC External Relations Office Le Hung Quoc, five Vice- 
Chairman of the HCMC Fatherland Front, Cardinal Man, and a Central 
Highlands leader of the recognized Protestant Southern Evangelical 
Church of Vietnam (SECV).  The DRL team visited a women's shelter 
run by the HCMC Women's Union, met with HCMC social activists, and 
attended a Protestant House Church service.  DAS Dugan also 
discussed met with dissidents Father Chan Tin, Dr. Tran Khue and 
the wife of Dr. Nguyen Dan Que.  They also were the first USG 
officials to meet with Buddhist leader Thich Quang Do since his 
placement in unofficial "pagoda arrest" in October 2003.  (HCMC 
1465 and HCMC 1481 report on the status of Dr. Que and on DAS 
Dugan's meeting with Thich Quang Do, respectively.) 
 
GVN: "the glass is half full" 
----------------------------- 
 
3. (SBU) The External Relations Office and the Fatherland Front 
noted their commitment to improve human rights.  Fatherland Front 
officials said they were leading a process of step-by-step 
"democratization." However, the GVN's first priority is poverty 
eradication and raising living standards.  ERO Deputy Director 
Quoc said Vietnam has made real progress on human rights over the 
past ten years and more will be made in the next five.  Patience 
and giving Vietnam room to develop is key, they argued.  GVN 
officials said that CPC designation was unwarranted.  While there 
are "isolated" problems caused by "uninformed" local officials, 
the majority of Vietnamese enjoy greater religious freedom than 
ever. 
 
Dissidents: CPC Yes, Sanctions No 
--------------------------------- 
 
4. (SBU) Dissidents Tran Khue, Mrs. Tam Van -- wife of imprisoned 
activist Dr. Nguyen Dan Que -- and Father Chan Tin thanked DAS 
Dugan for U.S. efforts to promote human rights in Vietnam.  They 
noted that Vietnam has made progress in expanding personal 
freedoms over the past 10 years, but much more was needed.  Father 
Chan Tin was skeptical that the new ordinance on religion would 
expand religious freedom.  Tran Khue called for greater 
transparency in government and for the eventual end to one-party 
rule.  Mrs. Que thanked DAS Dugan for USG support of her husband 
and hoped for his amnesty. (Ref A)  Father Chan Tim and Dr. Tran 
Khue applauded the USG for CPC designation, but opposed any 
sanctions.  In a separate meeting, Thich Quang Do of the banned 
United Buddhist Church of Vietnam also supported CPC designation, 
but opposed sanctions. (Ref B) 
 
SECV and Catholic Church: weighing the new ordinance 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
5. (SBU) A Central Highlands SECV leader told DAS Dugan that 
conditions for the SECV in the province of Gia Lai were difficult, 
although improving.  He noted that he was in frequent contact with 
the provincial Committee for Religious Affairs (CRA) and other 
local officials.  This dialogue and the SECV's decision to steer 
clear of Montagnard separatism or other "political" demands have 
been the keys to progress.  The SECV contact said that since 
September the local authorities approved opening three churches -- 
out of six requested -- although one of the three remains mired in 
a dispute over the name of the church. 
 
6. (SBU) Calling the new ordinance "difficult for me and the local 
authorities," the SECV representative noted that he has held 
discussions with the provincial CRA as well as Ministry of Public 
Security (MPS) officials from Hanoi on implementation of the law, 
which came into effect November 15.  He said that the SECV had 
been asked by the CRA to detail its plans for compliance.  The 
SECV has a list of 85 churches and 440 "meeting points" but has 
not submitted it to the authorities for registration.  The SECV 
fears that if registration is denied, the police will use the list 
to close "unauthorized" places of worship.  In the interim, the 
SECV submitted to the Hanoi MPS and local CRA a list of SECV 
pastors and officials in the province.  The provincial CRA asked 
the SECV to remove one of the pastors, claiming a past affiliation 
with the Montagnard separatists.  Thus far the SECV has refused. 
The SECV pastor told us that he also secured a promise from the 
Hanoi MPS that they would "reorient the psychology" of local 
police officials who remain suspicious of Protestants. 
 
7. (SBU) Cardinal Pham Minh  Man, Archbishop of HCMC, told DAS 
Dugan that he will reserve judgment on the new ordinance until he 
can test provisions that give the Church freedom to ordain and 
transfer priests and to participate more fully in charitable and 
social services.  He told DAS Dugan that because of GVN 
restrictions on the Church's charitable activities, a number of 
programs have been forced underground.  Examples he cited include 
a shelter run by nuns for pregnant women, a street children center 
and an HIV/AIDS clinic in HCMC.  He hoped that a recent GVN 
invitation to Catholic nuns to work in GVN HIV/AIDS clinics might 
suggest a change in GVN thinking about the Church's role. 
 
Protestant House Churches: On the outside looking in 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
8. (SBU) After attending a Protestant house church service in an 
outer district of HCMC, DAS Dugan met with Pastor Pham Dinh Nhan 
(strictly protect), a leader of the Vietnam Evangelical Foundation 
(VEF), an umbrella organization for Vietnam's house churches. 
Pastor Nhan welcomed USG efforts to promote religious freedom in 
Vietnam.  He said that almost all house churches faced periodic 
police harassment, although the frequency of harassment has 
decreased.  The house church that DAS Dugan visited had been 
subject of police inquiry 12 times since its creation, but none in 
the past year. 
 
9. (SBU) Nhan said that the Ordinance on Religion presented house 
churches with difficult decisions.  He confirmed that there has 
been dialogue with local CRA and MPS officials on how house 
churches fit in the new legal framework.  The sticking point is 
that GVN officials do not wish to recognize the "scattered" house 
churches as places of worship.  The large number of Protestant 
denominations and the lack of a hierarchal structure in the 
Protestant community add to the GVN's difficulty in dealing with 
the house church movement, Nhan said.  Some in the house church 
movement fear that the GVN will use the law a pretext to close all 
house churches.  As a result, attendance at some house churches in 
HCMC was down on November 21 -- the first Sunday under the new 
law.  (Note:  Except for the house church of controversial 
Mennonite Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, we have heard of no GVN effort 
to close house churches since the ordinance came into effect.  End 
Note.) 
 
Women's Center of HCMC: a drop in the bucket 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
10. (SBU) DAS Dugan visited the Center for Disadvantaged Women and 
Children, run by the HCMC Women's Union, part of the Fatherland 
Front.  The Center is supported financially by AFESIP, a French 
NGO.  The Women's Union representatives explained that the Center 
is a GVN-approved pilot project to help female victims of 
trafficking, prostitution and drug addiction.  The Center promotes 
HIV awareness and distributes condoms to prostitutes, provides 
vocational training and helps its clients reintegrate into 
society.  The programs are run by three "peer" advisors, former 
sex workers who are now employed full time by the center. 
 
11. (SBU) In its first two years of operation, the Center had 
assisted 52 young women and teenagers -- 19 currently are Center 
clients.  Of the 52 women assisted by the Center, four were "lured 
into prostitution," 17 became prostitutes of their own volition, 
18 were victims of sexual abuse, and 11 are "at risk" children 
from poverty stricken or abusive homes.  Another two young 
Vietnamese women were brought to the Center after being found 
abandoned in a hotel in HCMC.  The two were to be trafficked to 
Taiwan, according to the Women's Union officials.  The Center 
estimates that there are 10,000 to 15,000 sex workers in HCMC. 
 
12. (SBU) The Women's Union representatives told DAS Dugan that in 
2004 they had launched a second self-funded initiative -- an 
advisory center to counsel Vietnamese women who plan to marry 
foreign husbands.  The Center has counseled 479 prospective brides 
to date.  The Women's Union hopes that the Center will be able to 
develop the capacity to check the bona fides of foreigners on 
behalf of prospective Vietnamese brides.   The Union hoped to 
minimize tragic situations such as a number of Vietnamese women 
who unknowingly were married to disabled South Korean men to be 
their caregivers. 
 
13. (SBU) The Women's Union representatives told DAS Dugan that, 
from 1993 through May 2004, 41,900 women from Vietnam's 
southernmost 13 provinces became overseas brides.  The rate of 
overseas marriage is on the rise -- some 5,000 per year from 
Vietnam's 13 southern provinces in the last three years. 
According to the Women's Union, 32 percent married Taiwanese 69 
percent married men who were at least 20 years their elder.  80 
percent were unemployed prior to marriage and 75 percent had low 
education levels -- some were illiterate.  Many did not speak 
their future husband's language.  On average, the brides' families 
received 6 million Dong (USD 360) from marriage brokers, according 
to Women's Union statistics. 
 
14. (SBU) In her meetings with Vietnamese officials, DAS Dugan 
applauded the Women's Union for its efforts but noted that the 
needs far exceeded the Union's -- and the GVN's -- limited 
resources.   She noted that in the U.S. and elsewhere, religious 
groups provide support in dealing with difficult social issues. 
DAS Dugan encouraged her interlocutors to build stronger 
partnerships with Vietnam's religious organizations to tackle 
social problems. 
 
15. (U) DAS Dugan cleared this cable. 
 
WINNICK