US embassy cable - 05HOCHIMINHCITY1082

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001082 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, SOCI, PREL, PGOV, KIRF, VM, HUMANR, ETMIN, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND THE PROTESTANT COMMUNITY IN CENTRAL 
VIETNAM 
 
REF:  A) HCMC 968 and previous B) HCMC 623 C) HCMC 910 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  Discussions in early October with the GVN- 
recognized Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV), house 
church leaders and provincial government officials indicate that 
steady progress continues to be made of religious freedom issues 
affecting Protestants in central coastal Vietnam.  SECV leaders in 
Danang and Quang Nam told us that provincial governments continue 
to facilitate their operations under Vietnam's legal framework on 
religion.  The SECV also reported that Quang Ngai province 
resolved to its satisfaction an August church burning incident. 
Similarly, representatives of the United World Mission Church of 
Vietnam, a house church organization operating throughout Central 
Vietnam -- including the Central Highlands -- told us that their 
123 congregations now operate without significant restriction. 
The house church leaders report that the central Committee for 
Religious Affairs is considering their application for 
registration under the legal framework; a decision should be 
forthcoming by mid-December.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) On the margins of the visit of the October 5-7 visit of 
the Consul General to Danang and Quang Nam provinces (septels), 
PolOff met with key local officials and church leaders to assess 
religious freedom issues facing Protestants in central coastal 
Vietnam.  Pastor Nguyen Toi, General Secretary the Executive Board 
of the United World Mission Church of Vietnam (UWMCV), an 
unrecognized Protestant house church organization said that 
conditions for his church have improved.  Founded in 1956, the 
UWMCV's focuses on outreach to ethnic minority communities in 
Central Vietnam; over 80 percent of the church's 26,000 followers 
(123 congregations) are ethnic minority.  Although headquartered 
in Danang, the church has only six churches and 600 adherents 
there, all of whom are ethnic Vietnamese.  The UWMCV's largest 
concentration of churches is in the Central Highlands province of 
Kontum, where it claims 13,000 adherents in 44 congregations, all 
from the Gie Trieng ethnic group.  The church says it has 2,214 
adherents in Gia Lai province in 23 congregations -- mainly ethnic 
Jarai -- and another 700 in six congregations in Dak Lak province, 
all ethnic Bru.  Other congregations are scattered throughout 
central Vietnam, down to HCMC.  Because of post-1975 GVN 
restrictions, the UWMCV only has six ordained pastors, all 
ordained before 1975.  Toi said that the UWMCV has another six, 
self-ordained pastors, and 212 voluntary preachers. 
 
3. (SBU) Toi said that he has been de facto General Secretary of 
the church since 1974 as the GVN has prevented the UWMCV from 
holding a general conference to elect new leadership.  Toi 
explained that the GVN claimed that the organization has no legal 
status in Vietnam, and, therefore had no right to organize.  Prior 
to 2005, the UWMCV had reached out a number of times to the GVN to 
attempt to legalize its status, but to no avail.  The church's 
three hospitals and clinics in the Central Highlands and a 
substantial portion of its compound in Danang were expropriated 
after 1975. 
 
4. (SBU) At present, all of the church's congregations have been 
able to operate without significant official harassment, even in 
Dak Lak province, where the local government has sharply curbed 
many Protestant organizations, including the GVN-recognized 
Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (ref A).  Toi explained 
that the UWMCV has stayed clear of "Dega Protestantism" or other 
activities that officials believe foster ethnic minority 
separatism. 
 
5. (SBU) Toi said that the UWMCV enjoys a cordial working 
relationship with the Ministry of Public Security, whose officials 
periodically meet with him and his colleagues.  He complained that 
the same could not be said for officials from the Danang Committee 
for Religious Affairs (CRA), although the CRA is supposed to be 
his primary intermediary.  Danang CRA officials reportedly refused 
to meet officially with the UWMCV, claiming the church has no 
legal status 
 
6. (SBU) Despite the lack of official contact with the CRA, in 
April 2005 the UWMCV had submitted an application to Hanoi for 
registration to legalize operations under Vietnam's legal 
framework on religion.  A representative of the central-level CRA 
subsequently called to confirm receipt and to assure Toi that the 
application would be approved "soon."  (According to the legal 
framework, as an organization that operates in many provinces, the 
UWMCV must apply for registration with the central level CRA.) 
Although law mandates a decision within 60 days of application, 
Toi has not received a reply.  However, hours before our visit, 
Toi said he was contacted by Danang officials who requested Toi to 
submit one more form, the "annual registry of church activities," 
and promised that the church would be legalized "very, very soon." 
 
The SECV in Central Vietnam 
--------------------------- 
 
7. (SBU) Ma Phuc Hiep, a senior Pastor of the Southern Evangelical 
Church of Vietnam (SECV) in Danang, told us October 7 that 
conditions for the SECV continued to improve in Danang and Thua 
Thien Hue provinces since our last meeting with him in June (ref 
B).  Cooperation with local officials, including the CRA, is 
positive and ongoing.  For example, the Danang CRA recently 
allowed the SECV to hold a large religious retreat that drew 
participants from neighboring provinces. 
 
8. (SBU) Separately, in a meeting October 5, Pastors Ma Phuc Tin 
and Doan Xuan Phat of the Executive Board of the Quang Nam SECV 
also confirmed that conditions had improved markedly for its 
15,715 members since the new legal framework on religion had been 
promulgated.  Although the SECV in Quang Nam is overwhelmingly -- 
95 percent -- majority Kinh Vietnamese, its 400 ethnic minority Ko 
Tu worshipers now can gather freely at a single meeting point. 
The Quang Nam CRA also facilitated the appointment of seven pastor- 
designates to a training course in Danang.  The SECV still 
encounters periodic problems at the village level, where local 
officials are poorly informed and turnover high.  However, 
problems get fixed at the district and provincial levels, because 
"when Quang Nam gets a law, provincial officials implement it," 
Tin told us. 
 
9. (SBU) Pastor Tin also said that he has oversight responsibility 
for the SECV's 5,000 adherents in neighboring Quang Ngai province. 
He had traveled there in September with the HCMC-based National 
General Secretary Le Van Thien to investigate August incidents 
involving allegations of church burning and forced renunciation 
involving an SECV church serving ethnic minority Hre adherents 
(Ref C).  Tin said that, following meetings at the provincial 
level, local officials were ordered to rebuild the home of the 
SECV voluntary preacher that also served as the house church for 
the SECV congregation.  Tin was unsure as to whether local 
officials were formally reprimanded, but said he was satisfied 
with the province's response to the problem.  He said that the 
incident stemmed from tension within the Hre community between the 
converted who sought to evangelize those who maintained their 
traditional beliefs. 
 
10. (SBU) In a separate meeting October 7, Dao Duy Pho, Chairman 
of the Quang Nam CRA, told us that his province is committed to 
implementing positively the new legal framework on religion.  The 
province is ready to approve new churches and congregations to add 
to the 22 the SECV already operates in the province, Pho said. 
The province also is considering how to compensate the SECV for 
the single property that the GVN expropriated prior to 1975. 
Quang Nam also is applying the Prime Minister's February 2005 
"Instruction on Protestantism," which directs government officials 
to facilitate and normalize the operations of house churches.  In 
this context, the province has allowed two house churches 
affiliated with Pastor Toi's UWMCV to operate unimpeded.  The 
Quang Nam CRA also will welcome UWMCV efforts to register under 
the new legal framework, whenever "Toi and his colleagues are 
ready to contact us." 
 
11. (SBU) Comment:  The SECV's ability to work directly with 
provincial governments throughout the region to resolve problems 
to its satisfaction -- including in Quang Ngai -- is a new and 
welcome development.  Although the reluctance of local Danang and 
Quang Nam CRA officials to reach out to or meet officially with 
house church leaders is disappointing, it is not atypical of the 
officiousness of CRA bureaucrats throughout southern Vietnam. 
More importantly, Pastor Toi's church has been able to operate 
successfully throughout Vietnam's Central Highlands and Central 
Coast, apparently even in retrograde Dak Lak.  Equally important, 
local and central-level officials are considering the UWMCV's 
application to normalize its activities under Vietnam's legal 
framework on religion.  Toi told us that he would respond 
immediately to the Danang CRA's October 7 request for additional 
information on his church related to his petition.  Accordingly, 
the Central-level CRA should reply to Toi with a written decision 
no later than mid-December.  End Comment. 
 
WINNICK