US embassy cable - 05HOCHIMINHCITY1143

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001143 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/BCLTV, DRL/IRF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, SOCI, PREL, PGOV, KIRF, VM, RELFREE, HUMANR, ETMIN 
SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN GIA LAI PROVICE:  TWO STEPS FORWARD, 
ONE BACK 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  A reliable contact in the Central Highlands 
province of Gia Lai told us October 31 that, overall conditions 
for the GVN-recognized Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam 
(SECV) in the province continue to improve.  Additional churches 
have been recognized and new pastors trained.  That said, the SECV 
continues to struggle at the village level with "remnants of the 
old Vietnam" in pockets throughout the province.  In the most 
serious incident, in mid-September, local officials in Chu Prong 
district reportedly badly beat two ethnic minority believers and 
ordered one community of 240 worshipers not to practice their 
faith.  Despite the incident Kim remains optimistic about the 
province's progress on religious freedom issues.  He added that he 
has heard no reports of mistreatment of ethnic minority returnees. 
Land disputes and lack of economic opportunity continue to inflame 
the ethnic minority community.  This smoldering resentment led to 
a violent clash between ethnic minority individuals and majority 
Kinh Vietnamese rubber plantation workers in mid-October.  End 
Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) On October 31, PolOff met with Pastor Siu Y Kim (strictly 
protect), a member of the national executive board of the Southern 
Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV) from Gia Lai to review 
religious freedom and human rights issues in the Central Highlands 
province.  Overall, Kim continues to assess as positive the 
progress that the SECV has made in the Gia Lai.  The church now 
has 29 recognized churches with another four recognition 
applications pending with the provincial authorities.  The SECV 
recently completed a training course for 46 new pastors and is 
working with authorities to conduct a second course for new 
candidates.  In September, the SECV also was allowed to hold a two- 
day conference that brought together local leaders from the entire 
province.  Contact and dialogue with local police and with the 
provincial Committee for Religious Affairs is greatly improved. 
 
3. (SBU) Although Kim was pleased with progress, there remained 
stubborn pockets of local resistance to expanded religious freedom 
in the province.  In Gia Lai, there are seven ethnic minority 
villages in five districts in which local leaders continue to 
suppress Protestant religious practice.  For example, in one 
village in Chu Se district, local officials reportedly told an 
SECV pastor that his is not allowed to operate; villagers also are 
prohibited from traveling to a neighboring area to worship.  None 
of these villages has been a center of ethnic minority separatism, 
according to Kim.  However, the ethnic minority communities in 
these areas are split between Protestants and traditionalists 
(animists).  Ethnic minority village elders are animists and may 
be working with local officials to suppress the spread of 
Protestantism, Kim said. 
 
4. (SBU) Kim also reported a serious violation of religious 
freedom in Gia Lai's Chu Prong district, where the SECV has 240 
believers of the Sanchi and Dao groups, migrants from northern 
Vietnam.  The SECV had petitioned with local authorities to 
approve a "gathering point" for services, but was turned down.  In 
mid-September, local officials reportedly beat two ethnic Dao 
Protestants, who were subsequently hospitalized for five days. 
Local officials reportedly also told the SECV followers that they 
were not allowed to practice Protestantism.  Kim said he was 
investigating the incident, but thus far had no idea why these two 
northern ethnic minority groups were singled out for treatment 
that ran completely against the yearlong positive trend in the 
province.  Kim added that the SECV has other approved churches in 
the area that support ethnic Jarai and Kinh communities.  Kim said 
he is working with provincial officials to resolve the issue and 
asked us to hold off on raising this with government officials 
until he can assess what progress he can make on his own.  He 
noted optimistically that it was provincial police that first 
alerted him to the problem. 
 
New Ethnic Minority Land Protest 
-------------------------------- 
 
5. (SBU) Kim observed that while the province is making good 
headway on religious freedom issues, land disputes continue to 
fester.  In mid-October in Duc Co district, ethnic Jarai near the 
village of Plei To Den, demonstrated to protest the seizure of 
land by state-owned rubber plantations.  The demonstration led to 
a clash between the ethnic Jarai and ethnic majority Kinh 
Vietnamese plantation workers.  Some SECV members apparently 
participated in the protest, in which two plantation workers died. 
The District-level Head of the Party Mass Mobilization Committee, 
an ethnic Jarai, reportedly was suspended following the clash, 
reportedly because he sought to defend the actions of the 
protestors.  (According to Kim, that official was so disgusted 
with his suspension that he reportedly was contemplating crossing 
to Cambodia.)  Kim explained that the original tribal lands were 
taken over by the rubber plantations, which then employed ethnic 
minority individuals as laborers.  More recently, ethnic 
Vietnamese have filled these jobs, leaving the Jarai without 
gainful employment and completely removed from the lands they 
consider theirs.  There have been periodic quarrels between 
indigent Jarai and majority Kinh workers at the plantations. 
 
No/No Reports of Returnee Mistreatment 
-------------------------------------- 
 
6. (SBU) Kim observed that land issues and lack of economic 
opportunity continues to drive ethnic minority individuals to 
cross the border illegally to Cambodia.  That said, those 
individuals who have returned, voluntarily or involuntarily, under 
the Tripartite Agreement with UNHCR have not been mistreated, nor 
had he heard of any arrests of ethnic minority returnees. 
 
7. (SBU) Comment: Although Kim is troubled that "remainders of the 
past continue to coexist with the new," he is still optimistic 
about the prospects for the SECV in the province.   He (and 
separately we) will seek to work with provincial authorities to 
clarify the forced renunciation and beatings allegations involving 
ethnic Dao, the first credible report of such an incident we have 
seen in Gia Lai in well over a year.  Kim's reports of local 
clashes between ethnic Jarai and ethnic Vietnamese migrants from 
northern Vietnam are a cautionary reminder that smoldering 
frictions over land continue to drive ethnic minority unrest even 
in the most progressive of Central Highlands provinces.  End 
Comment. 
 
WINNICK