US embassy cable - 05HANOI1433

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 HANOI 001433 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV and DRL/IRF 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, KIRF, VM, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: BRIGHT SPOTS AND TROUBLE SPOTS FOR RELIGION IN 
VIETNAM 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Protect accordingly. 
 
1. (SBU) Summary and Comment:  In recent months, Vietnam has 
made several significant reforms in its laws that govern 
religion and has taken a number of other positive steps for 
religious believers, including releasing several religious 
prisoners.  Catholic and Protestant religious leaders state 
that their ability to practice religion freely is improving. 
Despite this, significant problems remain.  The legal 
changes leave unchanged the principle of Government 
supervision of religious activities at all levels.  Positive 
legal changes have largely not yet been adequately 
disseminated to local-level officials, who, in some cases, 
continue to implement previous, more onerous, regulations. 
The leaders of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) 
remain under pagoda arrest, and relations with some Hoa Hao 
and Mennonite groups are troubled.  The GVN seems to focus 
on these groups because it views them as political threats, 
not for religious reasons, however.  The legal changes 
Vietnam has made offer considerable potential for further 
improvements on the ground, but this potential has yet to be 
realized.  Vietnam has made good progress two of the bases 
for CPC designation - release of religious prisoners and 
dealing with forced renunciations of faith - but less on the 
other two - opening new churches and disciplining officials 
guilty of abuses.  End Summary and Comment. 
 
Legal Reforms Bring Some Positive Changes 
----------------------------------------- 
 
2. (SBU) The most significant recent development regarding 
religion in Vietnam is the revamping of the legal codes that 
govern religious activity.  Vietnam's new Ordinance on 
Religion and Belief was issued in June 2004, and came into 
effect on November 15 of that year.  The Ordinance serves as 
the primary document governing religious practice in 
Vietnam.  It reiterates citizens' rights to freedom of 
belief and religion, and the freedom not to follow a 
religion, and states that violations of these freedoms are 
prohibited (a reference to forced renunciations).  The 
Ordinance continues the practice of Government control and 
oversight of religious organizations, however.  Among its 
provisions are that religious denominations as a whole, as 
well as individual religious congregations, must be 
recognized by appropriate authorities, and that the 
establishment of seminaries and enrollment of classes must 
also be approved by the Government.  The Ordinance relaxes 
Government oversight of religion to some extent.  For 
example, religious organizations are now only required to 
register their annual activities and the promotion of 
clerics with authorities, while in the past this required 
the authorities' explicit approval.  Further, the Ordinance 
encourages religious groups to carry out charitable 
activities in healthcare and education, which was sharply 
limited in the past.  In this regard, the Catholic Church is 
playing an increasing role in providing HIV/AIDS care in Ho 
Chi Minh City and Hue. 
 
3. (SBU) On March 1, the Government issued an implementing 
decree that provides further guidance on the Ordinance.  As 
in the Ordinance, the Implementing Decree explicitly bans 
forced renunciations of faith.  It notes the specific 
procedures by which religious groups can apply for official 
recognition from the Government, receive approval to open 
churches and train priests, and register other activities. 
It further sets out specific time periods for the Government 
to consider requests from religious organizations and 
provide a response in writing.  Several religious 
organizations, including some Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, 
Seventh Day Adventists and a Mennonite group not affiliated 
with activist Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang are reportedly 
seeking recognition under the terms of the Implementing 
Decree. 
 
4. (SBU) On February 4, the Prime Minister issued the 
"Instruction on Some Tasks Regarding Protestantism," which 
provides tone and guidance for authorities to use in their 
relations with Protestant groups.  The Instruction calls 
upon authorities to facilitate the requests of recognized 
Protestant denominations to construct churches and train and 
appoint pastors.  Furthermore, it directs authorities to 
help unrecognized denominations register their congregations 
so that they can practice openly and move towards fulfilling 
the criteria required for full recognition.  Addressing the 
Central and Northwest Highlands, the Instruction requires 
authorities to help groups of Protestant believers register 
their religious activities and practice in homes of 
"suitable locations," even if they do not meet the criteria 
to establish an official congregation.  The Instruction 
effectively allows unregistered "house churches" to operate 
so long as they are "committed to follow regulations" and 
are not affiliated with separatist movements. 
 
5. (SBU) The Government has taken some steps to ensure these 
new legal guidelines are understood and implemented.  The 
national-level Committee For Religious Affairs held two 
conferences for provincial-level counterparts to explain the 
new legal framework for religion.  The provincial-level 
committees were then charged with disseminating information 
about the new legal framework to district-, commune-, and 
village-level authorities.  Knowledge of the new legal 
framework at lower levels of the Government remains patchy, 
however.  Authorities in some areas have actively engaged 
religious leaders in efforts to implement the changes.  More 
common, however, is that authorities remained ignorant of 
them, especially at the grassroots level and in rural areas. 
 
Prisoner Releases 
----------------- 
 
6. (SBU) The GVN has made significant progress in releasing 
religious prisoners over the past twelve months.  Recent 
releases include Hmong Protestants Vang Chin Sang, Vang Mi 
Ly, Ly Chin Seng Ly Xin Quang, and Mua A Chau, UBCV monk 
Thich Thien Minh, Hoa Hao followers Ho Van Trong, Truong Van 
Duc, Nguyen Van Lia and Nguyen Ha Hai (who died of cancer 
shortly after his release) and Catholic priests Nguyen Van 
Ly and Pham Minh Tri.  In addition, the GVN has been 
forthcoming with information on other individuals of 
concern, some of whom were already free but remained on our 
prisoner lists because the GVN previously had not confirmed 
their sentences or releases.  As a result, our list of 
prisoners of concern for religious reasons has dropped to 
six individuals.  Three of them are recent cases however; 
two are Hoa Hao arrested in February for distributing 
illegal religious audio cassettes and DVDs, and one is a 
Baptist preacher committed to a mental hospital, apparently 
for calling upon party officials to abandon Marxism-Leninism 
and to follow Christ instead. 
 
Official Denominations Report Improvements 
------------------------------------------ 
 
7. (SBU) Officials in Vietnam's officially-recognized 
religious organizations point to a number of recent steps 
that show positive progress.  The Evangelical Church of 
Vietnam: North (ECVN) held its long-delayed national 
congress in December, the first time it has been able to do 
so since 1988.  The meeting allowed the ECVN to elect new 
leaders and set priorities for the development of the 
Church.  The congress had been delayed initially due to the 
Government's refusal to permit the meeting, and in recent 
years due to the Church's refusal to accept GVN interference 
in the selection of its leaders.  The ECVN's southern 
counterpart, the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam 
(SECV) held its second national congress March 1 to 4, the 
first being shortly after the SECV's establishment in 2001. 
The newly elected ECVN and SECV leadership boards were 
formally received by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan at the 
Office of the Government in Hanoi, which ECVN leaders 
welcomed as a sign of respect.  SECV leaders have also 
pointed to progress in quietly reopening house churches - 
without officially registering them - in some parts of the 
Central Highlands. 
 
8. (SBU) Catholic leaders similarly welcomed as an important 
symbolic step the condolences issued by Vietnam upon the 
death of Pope John Paul II and the congratulations on the 
naming of Benedict XVI.  More tangibly, the GVN has allowed 
the Catholic Seminary of Hanoi to accept incoming classes 
yearly, from bi-annually, helping to address the shortage of 
priests that frustrates the Church.  While the Church has 
many eager candidates for each seminary position, overall 
enrollment limits and political screening of candidates 
remain in place.  The GVN has approved the long-pending 
Church request to sub-divide the southern Xuan Loc diocese 
and to create a new bishopric.  The Government also 
permitted the visit to Vietnam of exiled Buddhist leader 
Thich Nhat Hanh earlier this year.  Hanh, who has spent 
nearly forty years in exile, traveled widely though the 
country, secured publication of his previously-banned books 
and made some private recommendations to Vietnamese leaders 
that were critical of the state of Buddhism under the 
officially-recognized Vietnam Buddhist Sangha. 
 
Central and Northwest Highlands Remain Difficult 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
9. (SBU) Vietnam's Central and Northwest Highlands have been 
flashpoints for religious tensions in recent years due to 
security concerns in the two regions and the rapid growth of 
evangelical Protestantism among some of the ethnic minority 
groups present there.  There has been some positive progress 
in the Central Highlands: new provincial leadership in Gia 
Lai Province has led to a more open situation for SECV and 
house churches.  In April, the SECV was permitted to open a 
special training class for 46 house church preachers in the 
region, allowing them soon to receive formal recognition as 
pastors.  In neighboring Dak Lak Province, however, 
uncooperative leaders have made the situation for the Church 
more difficult.  The SECV has opened 22 churches in Gia Lai 
and expects another 10 to 20 by the end of the year, but in 
Dak Lak there are only four.  (Note: In a recent meeting 
with the Ambassador, Vice Minister of Public Security Huong 
said that as many as 41 church "branches" have been 
registered in Gia Lai, and that number again are "under 
consideration" in Dak Lak.  This is higher that what 
provincial authorities report, and may be due to the process 
of agglomerating several heretofore unrecognized house 
churches into larger, officially recognized SECV churches. 
End note.) 
 
10. (SBU) In the Northwest Highlands, the Prime Minister's 
Instruction on Protestantism has led to improvements in 
certain areas.  The Instruction was the first document to 
formally acknowledge the existence of Protestants in the 
northwest.  Officials in Lao Cai Province appear to have 
taken this to heart, and acknowledged to the Ambassador that 
there are Protestant house churches there and that they are 
trying to implement the Prime Minister's Instruction with 
regards to these churches.  In the other Highlands provinces 
of Dien Bien, Lai Chau and Ha Giang, however, officials 
continue to deny to visiting diplomats that there are any 
Protestants in their provinces.  The Embassy continues to 
hear allegations of attempts by officials in the northwest 
to force Protestant converts to renounce their faith, 
including in Lao Cai.  These are fewer than in the past, 
however, and some house church leaders have said that they 
practice far more openly now than in the past. 
 
Some Trouble Spots Remain 
------------------------- 
 
11. (SBU) The Government remains intransigent towards the 
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV).  Leaders largely 
remain under official or de facto pagoda arrest since the 
group held an unauthorized conference in Binh Dinh Province 
in October 2003.  UBCV leaders frequently mix political 
rhetoric into their calls for freedom to operate as an 
independent Buddhist organization, and the group has a 
strong tradition of social advocacy dating from pre- 
unification South Vietnam.  The official sentences of 
administrative detention placed on four Ho Chi Minh City- 
based UBCV monks will expire this November. 
 
12. (SBU) Relations between authorities and the Mennonite 
church of Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang is another difficult 
area.  Quang maintained a robust record of confronting Ho 
Chi Minh City officials who interfered with his unauthorized 
church services, and on at least one occasion this resulted 
in violence, landing Quang in jail for three years, with 
five of his followers' receiving shorter sentences.  Since 
then, Quang's wife has attempted to continue holding church 
services.  City authorities repeatedly disrupted these 
services, often bringing churchgoers to a station house for 
several hours of "questioning."  This appears to have 
quieted recently, however.  Finally, the Hoa Hao Central 
Buddhist Church (HHCBC), an unrecognized sect, has engaged 
in a number of confrontational public protests recently, 
including threats of self-immolation.  The GVN has difficult 
relations with the Hoa Hao, perhaps rooted in the sect's pre- 
1975 anti-communist activities. 
 
Progress Mixed on CPC Bases 
--------------------------- 
 
13. (SBU) Vietnam has been talking a good game in terms of 
improving the situation for religion here.  Indeed, for the 
majority of believers, the situation has improved; there are 
more priests and pastors than in the past, churches and 
pagodas are flourishing, and Vietnamese citizens are able to 
follow their individual spiritual paths in a way that was 
difficult ten years ago and impossible twenty years ago. 
 
14. (SBU) CPC designation was made for different reasons, 
however, and was based on four major concerns: releasing 
religious prisoners, opening new churches in the Central and 
Northwest Highlands, ending forced renunciations of faith 
and holding accountable officials guilty of the abuse of 
religious believers.  On this score we are half way there. 
Excellent progress has been made on religious prisoners, 
although the Government continues to impose restrictions on 
some individuals who have been released, such as Father Ly, 
and on others who have never been charged, such as the UBCV 
leaders.  The Ordinance on Religion and its Implementing 
Decree both prohibit forced renunciations of faith, and 
while we continue to hear of isolated cases in the Northwest 
Highlands, contacts tell us that this happens less than in 
the past.  On opening new churches, the Implementing Decree 
and the Prime Minister's Instruction open the door to the 
recognition of new official churches and registration of 
house churches.  While we can point to some progress in 
opening (or re-opening) SECV-affiliated churches, only a 
handful of house churches have registered under the new 
legal framework so far.  We await more progress on this most 
fundamental issue.  Finally we have no evidence of actions 
to reprimand officials guilty of abuses.  We hold little 
hope for seeing punishment of past abuses, but will keep the 
GVN's feet to the fire when transgressions within the new 
legal framework are evident. 
 
MARINE