VIETNAM, NEWS ANALYSIS, 0CTOBER 7, 2000.

Less than 8 months have passed since the deadly fast floods broke out in many coastal provinces of Central Vietnam, killing at least a thousand people, leaving a million people homeless and causing heavy losses in property and crops.

In the last few weeks, great floods all over the Mekong delta provinces causing fewer deaths but higher losses in housing and rice production. In many places, flood water rose to the record mark in forty years. By Thursday, October 5, the outskirts of Can Tho and Saigon were threatened by the aggressive Mekong water.

By Thursday, October 5, according to official report, at least 280 people have been killed, 211 of them children, and more than 4 million people affected, including about 175,000 people who have had to be evacuated from their homes.

Though the risk of great floods had been forecast several weeks ahead - as early as in August - preparation to face the outcome of the disaster seemed to exist mostly in paper. So when the floods finally drowned people and destroyed their houses and rice crops, no appropriate sources of relief were immediately available. For example, not until late September were 20 rescue boats sent to the flooded areas. Better than none, but it was too late.

Last Friday, September 29, after the floods had been ravaging the areas for weeks, all flood victims whom visiting UNICEF workers met said they hadn’t received aid of any kind.

The Communist government in Hanoi has called for international relief . Meanwhile, preparations for planned celebrations of 990 years Hanoi establishment as the capital city that will cost a lot of money are going on. On Thursday, Oct 5, Hanoi announced that fireworks and laser shows will be cancelled so that VN$ 1.5 billion (US$100,000) could be saved for flood relief fund.

Various organizations in the oversea Vietnamese community are doing their best to collect money contribution to the flood aids from Vietnamese émigrés . Last year, Vietnamese in America only, contributed more than one million dollars to the 1999 Winter flood victims, not including money sent by individuals directly to their relatives living in the flooded region, the total of which was estimated at nearly Another million of dollars. The grand total of money contribution from the Vietnamese refugees abroad last year was a little more than the total flood relief from all foreign countries.

This time, many community organizations expect to raise an equal amount of money. Among many others, an 8-hour concert at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, California on Friday night has attracted a large crowd. The concert was free, and the donations reached a total of nearly $150,000. But an obstacle emerged this week might be discouraging prospective contributors.

Last month, the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) said Public Security prevented 17 of its followers from distributing more than $22,000 worth of relief supplies in the Mekong Delta. UBC deputy head, the Most Ven. Thich Quang Do, then wrote a letter to the Communist top leaders to criticize the "monopoly on relief distribution."

UBCV is an independent church, outlawed by the Communist regime but is still growing larger and stronger than the state-controlled Buddhist Church of Vietnam. Most Ven. Quang Do was imprisoned for 20 years in Communist jails for his advocacy of religious freedom and human rights. In 1994, he was arrested and sentenced to a prison term when he was doling out relief supplies to flood victims in the Mekong Delta. He was freed in September 1998 as a result of international pressure against Hanoi for the release of political and religious prisoners.

The 73-year-old brave monk has vowed to take a trip to the flooded region to help the victims. But in the mean time, the Thanh Minh Mastery where he is living, is placed under 24 hours’ watch of a Public Security group. He has been closely watched in a way like under house arrest since 1998.

Last year, Vietnamese Communist authorities didn’t do much to interfere in the distribution of aids from the oversea Vietnamese private associations, churches and pagodas. Those organizations entrusted their money to monks, priests, ministers, nuns and notables of affiliate groups in Vietnam who would give it out to the very hand of each victim.

This time, things seem different. Hanoi requires all aid to be channeled via three organizations - the Vietnamese Red Cross, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (the ruling Communist Party's mass movement umbrella organization), and the Finance Ministry's aid committee.

Responding to a question about the new policy, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said the regulations were designed to ensure supplies were effectively and fairly distributed.

"As we have said, if any organization and individual really wants to help the victims they should carry out exactly the regulations of the Vietnamese government," she said.

In the letter, Quang Do wrote: "I have heard about different forms of discrimination based on race, religion or gender," a statement quoted him as saying. "But I have never heard of 'aid discrimination', discrimination against people in desperate need of relief."

In other circumstances, local governments play the most effective role in distribution of relief to disaster victims. In today's Vietnam, it's different.

There are many reasons why the Vietnamese don’t want their money to be distributed by the Communist authorities. First of all, is corruption. Whenever a sum of money is given to the hands of the Communist authorities to be spent for the public, a part of it could be stolen one way or another.

In many places, relief aid was distributed with higher priority and larger amount to privileged families such as Communist veterans, parents and widows of the war dead, war disabled, those who actively supported the Communist side in war…

In other cases, a part of the money may be deducted and redirected to non-relief purposes such as to built or repair roads, government buildings as if government fund were allocated for them. The refugees community don’t want their contributions to be used in works that must be provided by national budget. They don’t want their money to be spent to consolidate the Communist tyranny, either.

Last year, the Hanoi state-controlled media announced only contributions from foreign countries, international organizations, and individuals who were Communist supporters even one who contributed only $100. But not a single word was said about the million dollars from the Vietnamese oversea refugees community.

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According to news from the Internatioal Buddhist Information Office in Paris, in the morning of Friday, October 6, 2000, the Most Ven. Thich Quang Do departed from Thanh Minh Monastery where he is living for a trip visiting and distributing aid to flood victims in An Giang province. About thirty Buddhists accompanied him.

Many Public Security officers surrounded the monastery, but the old monk and his suite started the trip without trouble, in defiance of the unwritten order of high level Communist authorities keeping him under round-the-clock surveillance, actually house arrest.

Later in the day, he and some of his followers have been detained by local Communist authorities. After being interrogated for 21 hours by local Public Security department, Quang Do and his men were released. Though he was still ill, Most Ven. Quang Do continued his visit before returning to Saigon.