VIETNAM, NEWS ANALYSIS, SEPTEMBER 18, 1999.

Along with negotiations on economic and trade relations between Hanoi and Washington, the American officials often raise human rights issues and request the Vietnam Communist Party government to improve its human rights records. Although the American side does not tie such request as a condition to any bilateral agreement, the issues bring some pressure from the world public opinion against the tyranny in Hanoi. Therefore, the requests always prompt strong reaction from the Communist leaders because they are very sensitive to topics regarding human rights, freedom and democracy.

Last week, Hanoi was very upset at the human rights report of the United States State Department in which Hanoi was listed as one of the regimes having numerous human rights violations. The report focuses on religious intolerance in Vietnam, particularly the incarceration of many Catholic priests and Buddhist monks who were arrested and imprisoned only because of their pure religious activities.

As usual, Hanoi asserted that it did not hold any political prisoners and that the priests and monks were locked up in prison camps only because they violated criminal laws. The VCP government has its own explanation of its criminal laws and related regulations governing religious practices. According to its grotesque explanation of religious freedom, every citizen is free to practice a religion, but preaching a faith must be under total state control.

In general, Hanoi always defenses itself by saying that human rights must be conformed with culture and sovereignty of a nation.

Meanwhile, an Episcopal delegation from the United States Catholic Church was on a trip visiting Vietnam. There have been no report about any recommendations of the delegation concerning freedom of religion or the fate of the priests in prison. There is only a little optimistic remark by some of its members.

Hanoi has been conducting a campaign against the Protestants for the last many months. Some preachers were arrested, even while Secretary of State Albright was in Hanoi.

Protestants are growing fast in number especially in the highland areas, not only in South Vietnam but also in North Vietnam. Ethnic groups in highland areas have been traditional anti-Communist for a long time since the Communist Party broke its promise, interfered in their ways of life, their culture and imposed rigorous control over the ethnic population.

For the last half of the century, a large number of them have reverted to Christianity, and even larger after 1975. Among 7 million people in dozens ethnic groups in Vietnam, 600,000 to 700,000 are Protestants - 300,000 of those are H'mong living along the common border between Laos and northern Vietnam.

After the Communist occupation of South Vietnam in April 1975, Hanoi authorities have labeled Protestants as agents of the CIA and restricted their religious activities. Early this year, Communist authorities began cracking down on the Protestants. The campaign includes a propaganda effort to slander Protestant ministers and preachers, pulling down chapels and dismissing gatherings for religious service.

According to many sources from Hanoi, its cracking down campaign seems to fail. A report by Nisid Hajari in the Time magazine on September 13, said that the campaign in the Yen Minh district last year could convince only 37 of the 1,112 Protestants to renounce their faith.

Meanwhile in the South, the Communist government continues its interference in the Buddhist Hoa Hao and the Cao Dai. Against both religions, the Communist authorities set up pro-Hanoi management councils that included ranking communists cadres holding key posts of the councils to impose strict control over their activities, despite the followers' protest.

The Hoa Hao and the Cao Dai have been fervent anti-Communist religious groups after thousands of the followers were massacred in the 1946-48 cleansing campaign, reportedly by order of Ho Chi Minh himself.

On July 1, 1999, about a million Hoa Hao Buddhist followers gathered to celebrate the 60th year anniversary of the Hoa Hao Church. The size of the rally surprised people outside, particularly Communist leaders.

Hanoi authorities then detained many Hoa Hao local officials for interrogation, a threatening measure frequently exerted by the Communists. The crack down triggered a protest of more than 300 Hoa Hao notables who gathered at their holy site An Hoa pagoda on September 9, 1999 and delivered a petition written with blood to Communist authorities.

The letter is demanding the restoration of Hoa Hao traditional organization, flag and religious titles, that were recently annulled by the authorities. In the most infuriating action to the Hoa Hao, Communist authorities have expunged almost 80 percent of the teachings by the Hoa Hao Holy Leader Huynh Phu So.

In the latest protest, an old lady attempted to set herself on fire with gasoline. She failed when Public Security officers intervened.

As to the Buddhists, reports by sources from Saigon and by Reuters on Sept 17 confirm that Public Security agencies in Saigon have detained some Buddhist monks for interrogation and told them that the agencies had an order for the arrest of monks linked to the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) at any time.

The Ven. Thich Quang Do, who heads the UBCV's executive branch told Reuters and a Vietnamese language radio program in California that public Security officers "disclosed there is already an order to arrest all of us. We can do nothing against it so we must prepare for it."

Among those detained for many hours on Thursday and Friday are Ven. Thich Khong Tanh, 56, and Ven. Thich Tue Sy, 64.

Ven. Thich Quang Do said the clampdown on UBCV monks was the result of official unease over the group's re-emerging profile and because the state-controlled Vietnam Buddhist Church, founded 1982 by the VCP, had no influence.

** Conflicts between the religions and the VCP regime might become more intense, even bloody protests are predicted by some observers.

Conflicts between the religions and the VCP regime might become more intense, even bloody protests are predicted by some observers.

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 Vietnam Human Rights Network

4745 El Cajon Blvd., Suite 104, San Diego, CA 92115

Tel: (619) 284-5111; Fax: (619) 284-5115

Email: vnhrnet@vnhrnet.org; Website: http://www.vnhrnet.org

In his speech to conclude the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) Central Meeting last August, Secretary-General Le Kha Phieu remarked, "Our people won't allow any political power sharing with any other forces. Any ideas to promote "absolute democracy," to put human rights above sovereignty, or to support multi-party or political pluralism ... are lies and cheating."

These remarks, though originated from the leader of the only political party in Vietnam, deserve no serious response due to the fact that the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) has been notoriously known around the world for its self-centered and self-serving logic. However, for the benefits of the people of Vietnam who have been officially forbidden to obtain impartial information, and for those who may not be aware of the VCP's common manipulations, the Vietnam Human Rights Network (VNHRN), deems it necessary to offer the following clarifications:

1. Le Kha Phieu was not able to provide any evidence to substantiate his claims, nor any arguments that led to his conclusions.

2. Le Kha Phieu’s ideas were just a product of authoritative imagination. No human rights activists would demand such things as ‘to promote absolute democracy’ and ‘to put human rights above sovereignty’. By democracy, everyone believes that the governing power must lay in the hands of the whole population, not a single individual or a party. The national sovereignty is supreme while individual human rights are inalienable. These two sets of rights are supportive but not mutually exclusive; and sovereignty without human rights would mean a country may be independent but her people may have no freedoms and happiness, resulting in her inevitably dismal socio-economic growths. This is the reality of Vietnam nowadays.

3. Le Kha Phieu brazenly accused human rights activists of lies and cheating while the world has plenty of evidence of all kinds of lies, deceptions, violations and abuses committed by the VCP. A typical example is Hanoi's repeated denials before 1975, in regards to its troops invading South Vietnam, were shamelessly admitted by its own Army ex. General Chief of Staff Gen. Van Tien Dung in his memoir, "Spring Victories." The poor people in Vietnam have historically been lured by the VCP into sacrificing everything, including their lives, for its class struggles under its deceitful banner of social equality. Ironically, Vietnam has never been more inequitable as it is at present. Political prisoners in Vietnam are a fact to the world, despite Hanoi's efforts to deny or disguise it.

4. Le Kha Phieu may have forgotten that Vietnam is a signatory of the United Nations' International Bill of Human Rights, which it is required to comply with. These rights are clear, specific, and legally enforceable without exceptions. The realization of human rights is justified internationally and cannot be branded lies and cheating.

5. Le Kha Phieu's remarks unwittingly revealed his own and his comrades' fear in the face of rising movements for human rights around the world, especially in Vietnam. The VCP leaders must feel threatened by the prestige of human rights activists, such as Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, Ven. Thich Quang Do, Rev. Chan Tin, Prof. Doan Viet Hoat, Prof. Nguyen Thanh Giang, Prof. Phan Dinh Dieu, writer Ha Si Phu, Ex. Gen. Tran Do, ....

Therefore, it is clearly easy to determine who the true liars and cheaters are. However, for the sake of objectivity, we challenge the VCP to agree to hold truly free elections, under the United Nations' supervision, to allow the entire population of Vietnam to elect those who do not lie and cheat to serve in the government. Unless the VCP leaders are all liars and cheaters, they have no reason to decline or disregard this impartial and constructive challenge.

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