US embassy cable - 03HANOI1932

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 001932 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR AEPEAP/BCLTV AND DRL/IRF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KIRF, PHUM, PGOV, PREF, SOCI, KIRF, VM, ETMIN, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT:  RELIGIOUS FREEDOM THRU THE LENS OF A DAK LAK VILLAGE 
REP 
1.  (U)  This is a joint Hanoi/HCMC reporting cable. 
 
 
2.  (SBU)  Summary:  On July 25, during an otherwise tightly 
controlled visit to the Central Highlands (septels), the 
Ambassador, Emboffs, and ConGenoffs made an unscripted visit 
to a mostly Protestant ethnic minority M'nong village along 
the road from Buon Ma Thuot to Dalat.  A local resident told 
of some continuing government efforts to limit Protestant 
worship, including the destruction of some churches and 
prohibitions on worship as a community.  At the same time, 
the resident specifically dismissed allegations of forced 
renunciations, "invitations" to meet with police, and 
arrests, and we were able to visit one apparently active 
unofficial house church.  End summary. 
 
3.  (SBU)  Following official meetings with Dak Lak 
provincial authorities, Ambassador and delegation traveled 
by car along National Highway 27, where nearly 29,000 ethnic 
minority M'nong Protestants reportedly face restrictions on 
their ability to worship, according to HCMC-based Protestant 
contacts.  While the police escort preferred to remain 
parked along the side of the main road, the Ambassador and 
delegation ventured for an hour down a muddy path into Buon 
Biap Xa Yang Tao village, Lak District, Dak Lak Province. 
 
4.  (SBU)  Almost immediately after entering the village, 
the Ambassador encountered an ethnic M'nong Protestant and 
former USAID employee, who, with only some initial 
trepidation, agreed to escort the Ambassador on a tour of 
the village. 
 
5.  (SBU)  The village contains approximately 1000 residents 
in about 100 households, often consisting of three 
generations under the same roof.  While appearing generally 
poor and often dressed in worn western clothing, villagers 
had few real complaints about their material lives, 
according to our guide.  Most children were now able to 
attend grades 1-5 in the neighborhood school, although very 
few made it to the provincial capital to attend high school. 
 
6.  (SBU)  According to this source, police destroyed the 
local village "church" late last year and forbade the 
predominantly Christian villagers to worship any more.  The 
police had told them the church was "illegal" and would not 
allow them to build a replacement.  (He said that he had 
heard of other churches destroyed elsewhere, but made clear 
he had not seen this for himself.  He indicated that police 
directed most of their attention to houses/churches that 
openly displayed a cross on the outside, or had a sign 
proclaiming the location of a church.)  Worship had become 
"more difficult" over the past year, but people nonetheless 
continued to gather in small groups in their homes, he 
claimed.  They were not allowed to worship in the community 
"rong" house or school, however. 
 
7.  (SBU) While police had sometimes tried to make local 
Christians sign documents renouncing their faith, nobody 
ever complied, according to our source.  (Sources in HCMC 
had earlier confirmed that there had been fewer 
"invitations" from local police and fewer attempts at forced 
renunciations of late.)  He said that he had heard of 
ceremonies where villagers were required to drink pig's 
blood to show they had renounced Christianity, but that this 
had not happened not in this village.  Asked about 
restrictions on travel, he noted that most people were too 
poor even to contemplate leaving the village. 
 
8.  (SBU)  Our contact attributed government mistrust of 
ethnic minority Christians in the Central Highlands to GVN 
officials' confusion over the term "Dega," which means 
simply "people of the mountains."  He opined that the GVN 
regarded his own ethnic minority group as U.S. spies. 
Describing events related to the ethnic unrest of 2001, he 
claimed that 10 to 20 villagers had been arrested and not 
heard from since.  Their families knew where they were held, 
but were not allowed to visit them, he added.  No one from 
this village had escaped to Cambodia, and no one had come to 
the village encouraging them to do so, he noted.  No foreign 
religious workers had ever come to the village, either. 
Even after facing repression, he said, "no one" in this 
village supported an autonomous state.  While there were no 
military units in the village on a daily basis, there was a 
steady police presence to keep an eye on them, he said. 
 
9.  (SBU)  Our guide escorted Ambassador and delegation into 
an ordinary wooden home, which was unmarked from the outside 
but was clearly being used as a place of worship on the 
inside, with rows of wooden pews, an altar with a cross, one 
Bible (in Ede, a language related to M'nong), and hymnals. 
He claimed that every village had a "secret" place like this 
for worship.  Formal services are held one Sunday a month, 
when a pastor comes from a neighboring village, but 
villagers worship in this house church or in their homes at 
other times.  Lamenting insufficient supplies of ethnic 
minority language Bibles, he asked for the Ambassador's 
assistance in obtaining additional Bibles from the U.S. 
Outside another nearby house, a board displayed two lines of 
biblical scripture written in an ethnic minority language. 
 
10.  (SBU) Comment:  While one village cannot be seen as 
truly representative of the complex picture of religious 
life in the Central Highlands, it was striking how 
Protestant religious life continues to flourish, despite 
apparent official efforts to crack down on "illegal 
activities."   Authorities must be aware of the ongoing 
services, travels by pastors, existence of ethnic language 
Bibles, etc., but yet appear willing to turn a blind eye in 
this village as long as the residents do not attempt to step 
beyond certain bounds to "flaunt" their unregistered 
religious activities.  Similarly, at least in this village, 
there appear to have been few if any consequences to 
individuals for declining to renounce their faith. Even the 
relatively tolerant official treatment of this village is 
somewhat offset, however, by our guide's account of house 
church destruction, arrests, and pervasive suspicion. 
BURGHARDT