This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 HO CHI MINH CITY 000084 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/BCLTV, DRL/IRF, H 
 
¶E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM SOCI PREL PGOV OTRA KIRF VM ETMIN HUMANR RELFREE
SUBJECT: CIRFDEL/STAFFDEL GROVE SURVEY RELIGION IN VIETNAM: 
PROTESTANTS IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS 
 
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Summary 
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¶1. (SBU) The religious situation for Protestants in Gia Lai and 
Dak Lak provinces has seen some real improvements in the last 
three months, according to both government officials and 
Protestant leaders who met with two USG delegations in early 
January.  Official registrations for new Protestant churches were 
up in each province, new pastors were ordained, and there were no 
significant incidents of religious oppression to report over the 
Christmas holidays.  While difficulties remained, including a 
bureaucratic, cumbersome process for registering new churches, the 
overall mood was more positive than it has been at any time since 
the ethnic unrest of 2001.  The delegations stressed Washington's 
interest in religious freedom in Vietnam and the importance of 
allowing USG officials access to provide first-hand reporting on 
any allegations of abuse.  After initially refusing to meet the 
delegations due to the late notice and the impending Tet Lunar New 
Year holidays, Gia Lai and Dak Lak provincial officials, with some 
pressure from the Office of the National Assembly and the Ministry 
of Foreign Affairs, were generally cooperative with scheduling 
requests. 
 
¶2. (U) Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations 
staff members Paul Grove and Mark Lippert traveled through Hanoi, 
the Central Highlands, and Ho Chi Minh City from January 7-10. 
During roughly the same time frame (January 7-16), Dr. Scott 
Flipse, senior policy analyst at the U.S. Commission on 
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), covered much of the same 
terrain, with the addition of Hue, on an official fact-finding 
mission.  He was joined by Mr. George Phillips, from the office of 
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Ms. Hannah Royal, from the office of 
Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), who traveled in their personal 
capacities under the sponsorship of a U.S.-based NGO, the 
Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam, which was represented 
on the trip by Vietnamese-American Catholic priest Tam Tran.  This 
cable covers the meetings of both delegations in the Central 
Highlands.  Septels report on their meetings elsewhere in Vietnam. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
Gia Lai:  Better Treatment, Lack of Space 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Staffdel Grove met with government and religious leaders 
in Gia Lai province on January 9.  Appointments included the Gia 
Lai People's Committee, the Committee on Ethnic Minority and 
Religious Affairs, and the Gia Lai Representative Board of the 
government recognized Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam 
(SECV).  The Staffdel also paid an officially arranged visit to a 
Gia Rai ethnic minority village.  The CIRFDEL drove through the 
province a few days later, without having arranged any official 
appointments or notified local authorities.  They were scolded by 
local officials for meeting informally with members of the SECV 
Board, and physically blocked from visiting a nearby village 
unannounced.  Reminding ConGenoff that the Consulate General's 
consular district did not extend beyond Ho Chi Minh City, 
provincial authorities were upset that they had not been asked to 
arrange the SECV meeting and that the CIRFDEL was making impromptu 
stops along the public highway running through Gia Lai.  (Note: 
CIRFDEL did request and receive official appointments in nearby 
Dak Lak Province -- see below.  End note.) 
 
¶4.  (SBU) In all of their meetings, Staffdel Grove stressed that 
Congress is concerned about religious freedom in Vietnam and that 
it was important to give access to USG officials so they could 
provide first-hand, accurate reporting on allegations of abuse. 
In a philosophical discussion spanning both the official meeting 
and a dinner, Chairman Nguyen Vi Ha compared free expression to a 
portrait of a naked woman -- something that could be admired for 
its beauty by some, yet drive others to do bad things.  In Mr. 
Ha's view, the government was responsible for ensuring that free 
expression did not become harmful.  Chairman Ha highlighted his 
own religious tolerance by pointing out that he had at least one 
family member following each major religion in the province. 
Staffdel Grove reminded him of his responsibility to ensure that 
other local officials throughout the province were tolerant as 
well.  The Deputy Chairman of the provincial Committee on Ethnic 
Minority and Religious Affairs reported that three new Protestant 
churches had been approved in December 2003, bringing the 
provincial total to ten. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The SECV Board confirmed that three churches had been 
approved,  pending additional paperwork.  They did not seem at all 
concerned about the last few bureaucratic requirements.  They said 
the three new churches -- in Plei Betel, Plei Breng, and Plei 
Athat -- would serve a total of 6500 believers in 22 villages, 
raising to 10,000 the number of the province's approximately 
71,000 Protestants who would be able to worship in registered 
churches.  SECV leaders reported no significant incidents in Gia 
Lai province involving Christmas celebrations.  While both 
registered and unregistered Protestant groups had been permitted 
to gather in most areas, they declined to comment further on a few 
groups who had special problems with local authorities.  When 
asked what the USG could do to assist Christians in the province, 
SECV leaders told Staffdel Grove that the biggest issue they faced 
was a lack of real church buildings anywhere in Gia Lai.  While 
provincial authorities had returned confiscated properties to 
other religious groups, they had yet to return anything to the 
Protestants, or even allocate land for new construction.  The SECV 
Board members specifically requested that any USG pressure on this 
issue not be traceable back to the Board, however. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Chairman Ha had told Staffdel Grove that the registration 
process could be as simple as a verbal agreement between a church 
and local authorities, while the Committee on Religious Affairs 
had further mentioned approvals from commune-level People's 
Committees and the screening of church members for good 
citizenship.  The SECV Board members, on the other hand, described 
a bureaucratic process that involved submitting a total of eleven 
documents to as many as nine different offices, including: local 
and provincial People's Committees, Fatherland Front Committees, 
and Mass Mobilization Committees, as well as the Ministry of 
Public Security.  Only then could a church hold a General 
Conference and select a Council of Deacons, requirements imposed 
by the SECV Charter, not the GVN.  The GVN, however, does require 
that the General Conference Minutes be transmitted to local 
authorities. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Meeting unofficially with the CIRFDEL on January 11, a 
member of the SECV Board discussed his impressions of the current 
situation at greater length.  He said that things were better now 
than in the past, but mostly because they couldn't have gotten any 
worse.  (Note:  The trend toward improvement echoes comments by 
underground Protestant leaders in HCMC, who told Staffdel 
McCormick in a meeting earlier in January that the Central 
Highlands was an area where the religious freedom situation was 
getting better.  End note.)  The most difficult times were during 
1979-1999, with modest improvement and fewer restrictions since 
¶2000.  The SECV Board member attributed those positive changes to 
international pressure and Vietnam's desire to integrate into the 
world community, and asked for a combination of continued 
international pressure -- including visits by more USG delegations 
--and ongoing dialogue.  He thought it would be useful for other 
countries to share with the GVN their own laws on religion, so the 
GVN would see where it was out of step. 
 
¶8. (SBU) The SECV Board members told the CIRFDEL that uneven 
implementation of the central GVN's policies on religion by local 
authorities continued to be the biggest problem.  While government 
treatment of registered churches was generally better than that 
for house churches, most unregistered congregations still enjoyed 
tacit approval from local authorities to continue their religious 
activities.  Unfortunately, it was difficult to get land for 
construction and believers were reluctant to contribute money when 
they thought the government should just return confiscated 
properties -- there were 38 churches in Gia Lai pre-1975 -- or 
build replacements.  Registrations were being processed slowly in 
part because congregations did not meet the criteria and were not 
always well organized.  In addition, small provincial staffs were 
untrained to deal with the flood of applications they faced. 
Priority was being given to churches that existed pre-1975, 
including the three whose  applications were submitted in 
September and approved in December. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Regarding church closures, this SECV Board members joked 
that there had been nothing left to close after the initial 
crackdown in the wake of the ethnic unrest of 2001.  Turning more 
serious, he noted that local authorities tended to be more subtle 
in their methods in Gia Lai than in Dak Lak.  Gia Lai relied on 
persuasion, not force, to convince congregations to disband.  Some 
house churches had been physically closed down, but most had 
either moved or simply continued to function at their original 
locations.  He said the government was generally lenient with 
pastors it regarded as authentic believers, but not with those who 
attempted to use religion as a means of opposing the government. 
The same government approach to disbanding churches had been 
applied to renunciations.  While the government had ceased 
attempting to force Christians to renounce their faith two years 
ago, they were now relying on other methods -- such as offering 
material benefits to those who renounced.  Despite the 
difficulties, Protestant numbers continued to rise, as many came 
to see Christians as positive role models and sought to emulate 
them.  According to the SECV member's records, there were only 
3500 Protestants in Gia Lai in 1975, versus the 71,000 today. 
 
¶10. (SBU) According to these SECV Board members, there were two 
negative forces at work in the Central Highlands which actively 
oppose the GVN.  One was composed of purely political Dega 
separatists, and another used religion to pursue their separatist 
aims.  Both factions enjoyed backing from U.S.- based supporters. 
Real Protestant believers might sympathize with Dega nationalism 
and the desire to preserve traditional culture, but could never 
approve of using violent methods to attain those goals.  He 
described the ethnic unrest of 2001 as an ethnic conflict, not a 
religious one, although the two were certainly linked, with ethnic 
minority resentment directed squarely at majority Vietnamese Kinh 
coming down from the north to reap the benefits of their land. 
 
¶11. (SBU) At Staffdel Grove's request, Gia Lai provincial 
officials had arranged for the delegation to visit Mo Rong Ngo 4, 
in Ia Ka commune, Chu Pa district, a village that reportedly 
contained some returnees from Cambodia who had resettled in 
Vietnam independently of UNHCR.  Upon arrival in the village, 
however, the delegation was informed that only one household had 
any connection to Cambodia.  Ksor Hom (a Gia Rai minority male) 
had reportedly crossed to Cambodia and been resettled in America, 
leaving behind his wife, Ro Cham A Lo, and eight children. 
Nervous and speaking through a Gia Lai provincial interpreter, Ro 
Cham A Lo told Staffdel Grove that she did not know when her 
husband had left Vietnam and had not heard from him, although she 
was aware of rumors that he might be in America.  (Note:  Post's 
refugee resettlement section will follow up on her husband's 
status.  End note.) 
 
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Dak Lak:  New GVN Directive on Protestant Churches Brings Hope 
--------------------------------------------- ----------------- 
 
¶12. (SBU) On January 12, the CIRFDEL met officially with the Dak 
Lak People's Committee, the Committees on Ethnic Minority and 
Religious Affairs, the Fatherland Front, and the provincial SECV 
Representative Board.  People's Committee Chairman Nguyen Van Lang 
expressed disappointment that the United States did not seem to 
understand the real human rights/religious freedom situation in 
Vietnam, despite improvements in many other facets of the 
bilateral relationship.  Citing the many economic gains he had 
seen since his arrival in the province in 1975, he said that the 
lives of Dak Lak's 600,000 ethnic minority residents had improved 
dramatically.  The CIRFDEL laid out concerns over continuing 
reports of closed churches, forced renunciations and leaked 
government documents detailing a campaign to stamp out 
Christianity.  The CIRFDEL asked Chairman Lang for his views on 
GVN claims that any violations of human rights/religious freedom 
were due to mistakes at the local level.  They reminded their 
Vietnamese interlocutors that they were talking about 
international standards to which the GVN had voluntarily acceded, 
and expressed hope that this issue would not become an impediment 
to an otherwise improving bilateral relationship. 
 
¶13. (SBU) Chairman Lang noted that Dak Lak's Christians were 
happier than at any time in the past, although they still 
sometimes faced problems from local officials who did not fully 
understand the GVN's policies.  In addition to the usual rounds of 
visits from provincial and local officials, Protestant leaders 
this past Christmas had received personal visits from First Deputy 
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and other high-level officials for 
the first time.   Chairman Lang disputed the number of closed 
churches provided by the CIRFDEL, saying the province's 200,000 
Christians were served by hundreds of churches.  Besides, he 
retorted, there were only 7000 Protestants in Dak Lak in 1975, so 
there couldn't have been hundreds of churches to close in the 
past.  He acknowledged only that two specific church properties in 
the Ban Me Thuot area had been confiscated shortly after the war 
for concealing weapons and documents pertaining to FULRO 
separatists.  (An otherwise very unfriendly Chairman of the 
provincial Fatherland Front Committee seemed quite confident that 
procedures were underway to return these two churches.) 
 
¶14. (SBU) The Chairman of the Religious Affairs Committee, 
however, admitted to the closure of hundreds of places where 
Christians had gathered illegally to pray.  (Post Note:  Closure 
in this sense often means asking people not to meet for group 
religious services in the house/building anymore, since these 
premises often serve other purposes, e.g., prayer services in 
people's homes.  The Chairman explicitly said that a family would 
always be allowed to worship in its own home.  End Note.) 
However, while the government still had problems with the Dega 
movement, he said, there was no campaign to suppress peaceful, 
nonpolitical worship.  The Religious Affairs Committee chairman 
observed that peaceful Christians were often responsible for 
turning in Dega leaders after hearing their sermons calling for 
the overthrow of the GVN.  Noting how poverty currently prevented 
many Christians from purchasing land to construct new churches, he 
said Dak Lak province had already provided land to one new church 
in Phuoc An, and hoped to do the same for other congregations, now 
that the SECV had disclaimed any relationship with the Dega 
movement.  He also said the province had taken steps to speed up 
the registration process, as evidenced by the approval of three 
new churches and the ordination of three new pastors just that 
month. 
 
¶15. (SBU) According to Chairman Lang, another big impediment to 
the further development of Protestantism in Dak Lak was the need 
for more trained pastors.  He said he was working with the SECV to 
open a Bible training school in the provincial capital.  While he 
agreed with the CIRFDEL that he and other Dak Lak officials also 
needed a better understanding of religion, he chafed at a proposal 
for some sort of joint venture with the USG to provide training 
for his own officials.  He saw no need for foreigners to tell him 
how to deal with religious issues in his own province, although he 
left it open for the central government to agree to such a plan. 
 
¶16. (SBU) A subsequent meeting with the provincial SECV Board, as 
well as with a local pastor who has been a long time contact of 
the Consulate General, confirmed much of what the CIRFDEL had been 
told in its other meetings regarding the three new churches, three 
new pastors and the promise of a bible school.  Asked to comment 
on a recent Human Rights Watch report detailing a new Christmas 
crackdown, the Board members contradicted that dire portrayal. 
Noting that 2003 had been a huge improvement over 2002, they said 
they had been able to hold big services wherever there were 
pastors, and smaller celebrations elsewhere.  (Even the previous 
Christmas, they said, while some number of believers had been 
detained for unknown reasons, they could think of no pastors who 
had been imprisoned.)  What they now needed most was more 
churches, more Bibles (the Religious Affairs Chairman promised the 
CIRFDEL he was in the process of printing one million new Bibles), 
and better training.  Training for local officials would also be 
helpful, since most problems started at the local level. 
 
¶17. (SBU) Commenting further on the claims of massive church 
closures, the Board members thought many had closed simply because 
people had moved away, or because there weren't enough pastors to 
go around.  They admitted that in fact some congregations were 
also Dega, something which had driven the government to send out 
letters requesting churches to close until the membership could be 
vetted in the first place.  (They believed quite firmly, however, 
that none of their SECV pastors were Dega.)  Many churches had 
been allowed to reopen since 2001, even though they were still 
unregistered.  The SECV Board members also acknowledged problems 
with trying to even calculate the number of churches in the 
province.  They thought there could be thousands, depending on 
what definition was used, with many villages having three or more. 
The local SECV pastor questioned reports of beatings and forced 
renunciations, noting that lots of people broke laws and went to 
jail for things that had nothing to do with religion.  In a 
similar vein, he thought people complained about many things that 
were unfair, but he had no personal knowledge of anyone who had 
ever been discriminated against in employment, education, or 
medical care for being Christian.  He caveated his remarks by 
acknowledging he did not always know what was happening in remote 
areas, or among non-SECV churches. 
 
¶18. (SBU) For the future, much hope seemed to rest on new GVN 
directive 782/TGCP-TL (septel), distributed to the Dak Lak SECV 
Board by the National Committee for Religious Affairs on December 
4, 2003.  The decree reportedly calls for the "continuation of the 
normalization of operations of the SECV in the Central Highlands 
and Binh Phuoc Province."  (Note:  No one mentioned this decree to 
either delegation in Gia Lai.  End note.)  Based on this new 
directive, the SECV Board was planning to ask its adherents to 
submit some form of certification that they were not Dega to the 
local authorities in advance of applying for registration.  The 
local SECV pastor told the CIRFDEL that circumstances had improved 
dramatically since the release of this directive, although they 
had already begun to improve in September.  Government officials 
had changed completely in the way they treated Protestants.  Even 
so, he predicted registrations would continue to move slowly, due 
to small number of provincial staff assigned to process 
applications. 
 
¶19. (SBU) Note:  A representative of the Office of the National 
Assembly's foreign affairs section was dispatched to accompany 
Staffdel Grove on the trip through the Central Highlands at the 
last minute, and stayed in Dak Lak to greet the CIRFDEL for the 
second leg of their trip.  The ONA representative encouraged the 
Embassy and Consulate General to work with his office on future 
visits, but later threatened a formal protest when he was excluded 
from meetings with religious leaders by both delegations. 
Interestingly, the Gia Lai and Dak Lak provincial authorities 
proved more cooperative on this visit,  where they had been 
notified in advance (paras. 1 and 3).  Unlike the ONA 
representative, they did not protest when the delegations asked 
for private meetings with religious groups nor did they interrupt 
those meetings (as they had sometimes on previous visits.)  End 
note. 
 
¶20. (U) Neither Staffdel Grove nor the CIRFDEL had the opportunity 
to clear on this cable before their departures. 
YAMAUCHI