US embassy cable - 05HOCHIMINHCITY1024

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001024 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, SOCI, PREL, PGOV, KIRF, VM, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: STATUS OF HCMC'S NEW LIFE FELLOWSHIP CHURCH STILL AT AN 
IMPASSE 
 
REF:  HCMC 949 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  The unregistered expatriate New Life Fellowship 
Church continues to meet in small groups following HCMC police 
cancellation of its weekly church services at a hotel in HCMC's 
District 5 in late August.  NLF Pastor-in-Charge told us September 
26 that he had declined overtures from the local recognized 
Vietnamese Protestant Church to share facilities.  The NLF also 
appears reluctant to work with HCMC authorities on how it might 
resume operations in other hotels in HCMC, even as HCMC 
authorities responsible for religious affairs took the unusual 
step of asking ConGen to intercede with the NLF to begin a 
dialogue.  The church may be more interested in leveraging its 
predicament to focus greater international attention on religious 
freedom issues in Vietnam rather than seeking a quiet solution. 
End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) On September 26, we met with Eric Dooley, Pastor-in- 
Charge of the unregistered New Life Fellowship Protestant Church. 
Dooley reported that, following its inability to access hotel 
facilities in HCMC's District 5 due to local police pressure 
(reftel), the church continues to meet in groups of 20 at members' 
homes throughout the city.  Police have not interrupted these 
gatherings. 
 
3. (SBU) Dooley told us that during a recent meeting with a local 
pastor of the GVN-recognized Southern Evangelical Church of 
Vietnam (SECV), the SECV invited Dooley to share facilities as a 
first step towards legalization of the NLF's status.  The SECV 
pastor reportedly said that the Korean expatriate community had 
successfully followed this model for its church in HCMC.  Dooley 
told us that he informed the SECV pastor that such an arrangement 
would not be possible for the NLF.  He and his congregation did 
not want to share facilities with another church.  He believed 
that local church facilities were not adequate for expatriates; he 
also did not want to deal with the problems of coordinating 
schedules, competing for members and sharing space with a local 
church.  Moreover, locking the NLF into a particular church 
building would restrict the growth of his community. 
 
4. (SBU) What the NLF wanted was to operate from any hotel or any 
locality of its choosing without interference or regulation from 
Vietnamese authorities.  While he understood that the HCMC 
Committee for Religious Affairs (CRA) had asked him to explore a 
return to the District 1 hotel (from which the NLF operated until 
moving in January 2005), he was not prepared to do so on an ad hoc 
basis.  Rather, he and NLF members were looking at using their 
situation to build outside pressure on the GVN to change its laws 
governing where church services could be conducted and, more 
broadly, to press for greater religious freedom in Vietnam.  He 
also indicated that the NLF was upset at how it was treated by 
District 5 authorities and was not inclined to help HCMC find a 
face-saving solution by quietly returning to another hotel. 
Dooley complained that the Vice Chairman of the HCMC CRA had never 
called him despite promises to do so.  Dooley said that he had 
sent a letter to the HCMC CRA outlining his reluctance to explore 
a partnership with the SECV.  (Copy sent Embassy Hanoi and 
EAP/MLS.) 
 
5. (SBU) Dooley asked what impact his church's situation would 
have on USG deliberations on Vietnam's status as a country of 
particular concern.  We noted that we were concerned about the 
inability of his church to gather at a particular hotel in 
District 5 following apparent police pressure on the hotel 
management.  That said, we explained that the national-level 
Secretary General of the SECV had confirmed to us that he had been 
 
SIPDIS 
contacted by the CRA and asked to assist the NLF, if possible. 
The Secretary General had told us that he was willing to work with 
the NLF and had asked that we urge Dooley to work directly with 
him -- and not just a local SECV pastor -- to discuss what options 
might be available in partnership with the SECV.  We also 
suggested to Dooley that he revisit the option of approaching 
another hotel in HCMC from which to operate, perhaps even working 
with the CRA on a joint approach.  While ultimately it would be 
his and his congregation's choice as to what course of action to 
take, it did seem to us from our conversations with the CRA and 
the SECV that efforts were being made to try and find both a short- 
term and long-term solution to the NLF's status as a church for 
expatriates in Vietnam.  Dooley was non-committal. 
 
CRA trying to reach out 
----------------------- 
 
6. (SBU) On September 27, HCMC CRA Vice-Chairman Tran Ngoc Bao 
called us to request ConGen assistance in contacting Pastor 
Dooley.  He said that he and his staff had called the phone number 
that Dooley had given him, but that no one answered.  (We passed 
that message to Dooley via email, who committed to contacting 
Bao.)  When asked about his understanding of the NLF, Bao said 
that he had suggested to Dooley in their first meeting immediately 
after the District 4 shutdown that the church resume its 
operations in District 1.  He noted that he had asked the SECV to 
talk to Dooley, but that Dooley preferred to hold services in a 
hotel.  Bao explained that by holding services at an SECV church, 
the NLF would be in a position to register more easily under 
Vietnam's new legal framework on religion.  Bao welcomed continued 
dialogue with Dooley to try and resolve the NLF's predicament. 
 
7. (SBU) Comment:  The request of the HCMC CRA that we act as a 
middleman to contact Dooley is highly unorthodox.  It appears to 
reflect an appreciation of the potential seriousness of the NLF 
problem and CRA's efforts to find a quiet solution.  Our words of 
counsel to Dooley were aimed at encouraging the NLF to test the 
CRA's offer of dialogue and compromise.  End Comment. 
 
WINNICK