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Viewing cable 06HANOI1112, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE NORTH PART I: POLOFF

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06HANOI1112 2006-05-10 09:41 2011-08-26 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Hanoi
VZCZCXRO8733
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHNH RUEHPB
DE RUEHHI #1112/01 1300941
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 100941Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1801
INFO RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 1088
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 08 HANOI 001112 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, DRL/IRF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KIRF PGOV SOCI PHUM VM
SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE NORTH PART I: POLOFF 
VISITS LAO CAI PROVINCE, MEETS WITH PROTESTANTS 
 
REF: A) HANOI 894 B) HANOI 549 
 
HANOI 00001112  001.4 OF 008 
 
 
Summary and Comment 
------------------- 
 
1. (SBU) At the recommendation of Protestants in Hanoi, an 
Embassy team visited Lao Cai Province in the third week of 
April to investigate allegations of district-level abuse 
against Protestant groups.  The team was able to discuss 
with officials several serious allegations made against Lao 
Cai provincial and district authorities, and the access to a 
small sample of local Protestants and the frank and open 
discussion with officials at all levels about the gap 
between the new framework on religion and its implementation 
were a significant improvement over previous outreach trips. 
The team was also able to learn more about the development 
of Protestantism in the north.  Based on the team's 
discussions, it appears that the GVN has given strict 
instructions to northern provinces to change their approach 
to our concerns on religious freedom.  While the situation 
for Protestants there has not yet markedly improved, it may 
now be possible for house church congregations to register 
their activities per the law and per Lao Cai's purported 
plans.  We plan to send another team to the region as early 
as June to follow up on these developments.  End Summary and 
Comment. 
 
2. (SBU) Per Ref A, Evangelical Church of Vietnam (ECVN) 
General Secretary Au Quanh Vinh recently arranged for eight 
H'mong house church deacons to meet in Hanoi with Embassy 
Poloff to discuss the situation for Protestants in the 
provinces in northern Vietnam with large ethnic minority 
populations following the promulgation of the GVN's new 
framework on religion last year.  Vinh and the deacons 
reported that the mountainous border provinces of Lao Cai 
and Ha Giang are the most problematic for ethnic minority 
Protestants.  Immediately following this discussion, we 
formally requested an extensive visit for Poloff and Pol 
Assistant to Lao Cai and Ha Giang from April 23-28 to 
investigate these reports and to press provincial, district 
and commune officials to change their approach to 
Protestants.  Despite the political sensitivity of our 
proposed timing, which was concurrent with the Communist 
Party's 10th Congress, the GVN's Committee on Religious 
Affairs (CRA) and the Provincial People's Committees (PPCs) 
in both provinces agreed to facilitate the trip.  The Lao 
Cai PPC's official response stated "this is not a convenient 
time, but it would be impolite if we do not accept your 
visit." 
 
3. (SBU) The team traveled to Lao Cai City by overnight 
train and then drove east by off-road vehicles from Lao 
Cai's extreme western boundary with Lai Chau Province, 
district by district along Vietnam's border with China.  In 
addition to meetings with provincial officials, the team met 
with Bat Xat and Bao Thang district and commune officials in 
Lao Cai (Ha Giang meetings reported septel).  Officials from 
the PPC also facilitated unprecedented visits to ethnic 
H'mong villages with Protestant residents in each district, 
including Sang Ma Sao village in Bat Xat and Thuy Dien 
Village in Bao Thang.  Both of these village visits were 
requested by the team in advance on the recommendation of 
Pastor Vinh. (Note:  Bao Thang District in Lao Cai was 
incorrectly identified as "Bao Thuc" district by the ECVN as 
reported Para 11 in Ref A.  End Note.) 
 
Lao Cai Province 
---------------- 
 
4. (SBU) On April 24, PPC Vice Chairman Pham Van Cuong gave 
Poloff a brief overview of the province's social 
development.  Some 95 percent of Lao Cai's school age 
children attend classes, with more than 50 percent of school 
facilities "in good condition."  There are special ethnic 
minority boarding schools in each district.  Children below 
six years of age receive free medical care and 95 percent 
have been given free vaccinations.  The province is trying 
to preserve ethnic minority cultural traditions by building 
culture houses and cultural "post-offices" in every commune 
and village. The province provides radio and TV programs in 
five ethnic languages:  H'Mong, Dzao, Day, Tay and Thai, in 
addition to everyday Kinh language (ethnic Vietnamese) 
broadcasting, he added. 
 
5. (SBU) Cuong asserted that in the last two years the PPC 
has made a special effort to speed up social and economic 
development in ethnic minority communities, particularly in 
the areas of infrastructure, improved cultivation and access 
 
HANOI 00001112  002.4 OF 008 
 
 
to clean water.  The province has spent "tens of billions of 
VND" each year on rural development under the GVN's 135 
(poverty reduction) and 186 (infrastructure) programs.  The 
province has also undertaken pilot projects to develop 
"trading villages" in three districts (including the village 
of Ta Phin - Para 13 in Ref B) to promote traditional trades 
as a source of income from increased tourism to the 
province.  The local administration has set aside 
specialized agricultural areas in each district to promote 
the cultivation of maize, tea and beans.  More than 43 
percent of Lao Cai's population lives under the poverty line 
according to the GVN's 2005 guidelines. The GDP per capita 
is estimated at 12 percent of the national average; 14 to 15 
percent in urban areas and seven to eight percent in rural 
districts, he said. 
 
6. (SBU) Turning to religion, Cuong noted that there are 
some 4,000 practicing Buddhists in the province, mainly 
living in and around Lao Cai City.  Representatives of 
Vietnam's official Buddhist church, the Vietnam Buddhist 
Sangha (VBS), frequently travel to Lao Cai to participate in 
seminars and festivals in the province.  There are also 
5,700 Catholics scattered across Lao Cai's ten districts. 
The province is divided into two main parishes, with eight 
total sub-parishes.  Until recently, Catholic believers were 
served by only one priest and fifty church laymen, but Cuong 
confirmed that on April 13, a recently ordained deacon of 
Hung Hoa Diocese took up the Sapa District benefice as 
priest for Sapa's three sub-parishes (Ref B, Para 12). 
 
7. (SBU) Cuong estimated that there are at least 9,000 
Protestants in Lao Cai, but that the PPC's statistics are 
incomplete because "a number of denominations are conducting 
missionary activities without our knowledge." That said, the 
majority of Protestants in Lao Cai are affiliated with the 
ECVN or the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV). 
(Note: According to the ECVN, Lao Cai has a total of 122 
house churches comprising 2,108 families, or 10,808 total 
Protestants.  End Note.)  The PPC has been in contact with 
the leaders of all Protestant organizations in the province 
and regularly listens to the concerns of the common people 
on religion.  The PPC is thus well aware of emerging social 
problems caused by the growth in religious belief, and the 
administration is making certain that religious groups 
improve their services to believers to ensure that they 
contribute positively to society as a whole.  "We think 
we've been doing a good job and we are confident the common 
people are happy with the current situation," he said. 
 
8. (SBU) Cuong stated that Protestants are currently free to 
practice their faiths in a normal manner at home, but are 
not allowed to conduct religious services in outside places 
of worship.  However, the PPC is currently considering 
applications from some ECVN congregations to legally 
register such places of worship, as all religious activities 
in Vietnam must be conducted according to law.  Cuong noted 
that the PM's Instruction on Protestantism is very precise. 
The PPC is now working on a plan to implement the PM's 
Instruction to register Protestant groups in the province. 
"Our guiding principles are to facilitate religious beliefs 
according to law and to respect the fundamental rights of 
belief and non-belief in Vietnam," he said.  There is no 
faith-based discrimination in Lao Cai province and citizens 
are allowed to follow or not follow religions so long as 
they respect the law.  It is also important that religious 
believers respect and preserve traditional ethnic minority 
customs as well, he added. 
 
9. (SBU) Poloff thanked the PPC for arranging the team's 
visit at such a busy time for the government, especially 
since Lao Cai had already received a visit from the Embassy 
in late February.  He noted that during Ambassador Hanford's 
recent discussions with DPM Vu Khoan, Vice Minister of 
Public Security Nguyen Van Huong and CRA Chairman Ngo Yen 
Thi, the GVN acknowledged that the Northwest Highlands and 
northern Vietnam remain the most problematic areas of the 
country in terms of religious freedom, particularly with 
regard to Protestants.  The importance of this issue for our 
bilateral relationship cannot be overstated, and the GVN has 
made registration of Protestant groups a clear domestic 
policy priority in the region over the next six months 
before the President's visit in November.  Lao Cai's 
openness to frank discussion of its failure to register 
Protestants to date is an important step forward as is the 
PPC's willingness to allow the team to visit Protestant 
communities in the countryside.  Poloff also noted with 
pleasure that the PPC is developing a plan to quickly 
implement the PM's Instruction on Protestantism and urged 
 
HANOI 00001112  003.4 OF 008 
 
 
the Vice Chairman to share this plan with the Embassy as 
soon as it has been finalized. 
 
10. (SBU) Cuong concluded the meeting by reading prepared 
talking points.  He stated that Lao Cai attaches importance 
to religious freedom per the Joint Statement signed by 
President Bush and PM Khai in Washington last June.  The PPC 
hopes that the U.S. Embassy will facilitate investment in 
the province, especially in the area of infrastructure, as 
transportation remains a significant problem.  In addition, 
the province would like assistance to help re-habilitate 
victims of Agent Orange (AO) and other problems left over 
from the war.  Finally, Cuong requested that the Embassy 
team write an objective report on religious freedom in 
Vietnam and Lao Cai so that Vietnam will be removed from the 
list of Country's of Particular Concern (CPC) this year. 
 
Bat Xat District 
---------------- 
 
11. (SBU) Following this meeting, Luong Ngoc Cap, Deputy 
Director of the Provincial Ethnic Affairs Committee (PEAC), 
took the team to Bat Xat District People's Committee (DPC) 
headquarters, a 30-minute drive by improved roads from Lao 
Cai City.  (Note: Mobile phone coverage ended on the 
outskirts of the city and was not detected anywhere else in 
the province, except at the very top of mountain passes. 
End Note.)  District Chairman Ly Seo Din stated that over 
the last couple of years, the GVN has paid a lot of 
attention to religious and ethnic issues, especially at the 
provincial level.  In Bat Xat, programs 135 and 120 
(resettlement of people living in mountainous areas prone to 
landslides) have been particularly helpful.  Living 
conditions have improved.  There has also been significant 
progress in agriculture and education, he added. 
 
12. (SBU) Turning to religion and ethnic issues, Din stated 
that the DPC always obeys GVN laws and regulations to 
respect the basic rights of ethnic minority peoples.  Thus, 
Bat Xat District authorities have fully implemented GVN laws 
on religion.  The DPC never forbid Protestant households 
from practicing their beliefs at any time.  On the contrary, 
the DPC has been trying to disseminate guidelines on the new 
laws on religion to all cadres and citizens and to ensure 
that Protestants share equally in the district's economic 
development.  Din would not estimate the total number of 
Protestants in the district because such statistics are hard 
to get, especially since many citizens are no longer 
Protestants, having decided to return to traditional 
beliefs. 
 
13. (SBU) Poloff noted that many ECVN groups in the north 
have run into official stonewalling when they've applied to 
register.  As an example, he showed Din and Deputy Director 
Cap a copy of the returned letter and envelopes from the 
Quan Binh District ECVN congregation's application that 
Pastor Vinh provided on April 5 (Ref A, Para 2).  He asked 
how many Protestant congregations in the district have 
applied to register with the local CRA.  At Cap's prompting, 
Din acknowledged that two communes in the district have 
active congregations, but claimed that no applications have 
been submitted by them to date.  The district is waiting for 
formal guidance from the province before it will consider 
such applications, he added. 
 
14. (SBU) Poloff further noted that a recent report from an 
influential international rights group (Freedom House's 
Center for Religious Freedom) alleged that in mid-March 
2006, a H'mong Christian named Giang A Thenh of Vi Lau 
Hamlet in Bat Xat informed the ECVN that from January 31 
officials and border guards ordered him to recant his faith 
and physically threatened him.  The report also alleged that 
after Thenh resisted several orders to deny his faith his 
was driven from his home and land.  Din stated that the DPC 
received a letter directly from the ECVN containing these 
allegations.  Bat Xat officials immediately investigated 
this report on receipt of the letter, but found no evidence 
to support the allegations.  While Din was unable to 
personally interview Thenh because of a scheduling conflict, 
officials did meet with Thenh's family who stated 
unequivocally that although some officials visited their 
home on March 31 to discuss Protestantism, nobody asked 
Thenh to renounce his faith in that meeting.  The DPC also 
ascertained that an alleged March 4 visit by the local 
commune chairman to the Thenh home never occurred because 
"nothing was on the chairman's agenda for March 4", Din 
asserted. 
 
 
HANOI 00001112  004.4 OF 008 
 
 
15. (SBU) Din further stated that the two officials who 
investigated the Thenh case discovered that the original 
letter sent to the ECVN was not drafted by Thenh as he 
cannot write.  The DPC believes that the writer exaggerated 
the details of the case.  For example, the letter claimed 
that local officials had prevented Thenh from building a 
house, but, in fact, the house was already completed when 
investigating officials visited Thenh.  The officials also 
ascertained that allegations that Ministry of Public 
Security (MPS) or Border Protection Force (BPF) personnel 
visited Thenh in March were untrue, although an agricultural 
seminar was conducted in his village during that period. 
Thenh himself reportedly assessed the letter as "beyond the 
spirit" of his complaint.  Din concluded somewhat wistfully 
by saying that Thenh's case was against GVN laws on whistle 
blowing; Thenh should have gone to local officials with his 
complaints first. 
 
Sang Ma Sao Commune 
------------------- 
 
16. (SBU) Following the district-level meeting in Bat Xat, 
Cap and Din took the Embassy team to the People's Committee 
headquarters in San Ma Sao Commune.  The trip from the 
district center to the remote base camp facility lasted two 
hours over winding and switchbacked mountain roads that 
passed over two separate ranges.  Upon arrival, two ethnic 
H'mong commune representatives (NFI) greeted and briefed the 
team on the social conditions of the region.  Sang Ma Sao 
Commune comprises 7,000 hectares of mountainous land 
containing eight villages with a total of 541 households, or 
3,500 people.  The average household has 5-6 members and 
farms 3,000 square meters of dryfield rice during the single 
growing season.  In addition to the committee headquarters 
and a police station, the base camp also includes a six-room 
school house that teaches students up to the ninth grade.  A 
few students go on to attend the district-level boarding 
school.  The furthest that the average villager will ever 
travel is down the mountain to the Mung Hung market center, 
14 kilometers from the commune.  There is only one group of 
Protestants living in Sang Ma Sao.  They are ethnic H'mong 
and practice their religion at home, the commune officials 
said. 
 
Sang Ma Sao Village 
------------------- 
 
17. (SBU) It transpired that the actual village the ECVN 
recommended the Embassy team visit was at the top of the 
mountain and could only be reached by foot along a steep, 
ten-kilometer trail.  It was evident that the commune, 
district and provincial officials did not expect the team to 
be willing to hike to the village.  However, when Poloff 
made clear his intention of meeting with Protestants in the 
commune whatever the burden, they reluctantly agreed to 
accompany the team to Sang Ma Sao village.  The trail to the 
village took three hours to hike through bamboo groves mixed 
with higher elevation evergreen trees.  The team passed only 
two or three villagers during the ascent, but many more were 
visible working in the occasional terraced clearings or 
tending buffaloes in the breaks above or below the trail.  A 
number of primitive water wheels and irrigation systems 
constructed of bamboo were built near the path close to 
several small settlements.  Din noted that these were 
constructed under Program 135. 
 
18. (SBU) By the end of the hike, most of the attending 
officials and plain clothes policemen were overcome by heat 
and had stripped to their undershirts.  They were also far 
less talkative than during the initial ascent. 
Nevertheless, after a brief visit to the village headman's 
smoke-filled hut for a cup of green tea and a shared pipe of 
some kind of tobacco-like herb, they cheerfully took the 
team to visit a nearby Protestant household.  The hut was 
built of vertical wood slats and thatched with grass.  The 
floor in the main room was bare rock with a pit fireplace 
full of hot coals in one corner and a naked baby asleep on a 
straw mat in another.  Only the daughter-in-law and baby 
were home.  Sung Ti Ma was visibly nervous and had to be 
coaxed into the main room of the hut   Through H'mong to 
Vietnamese to English interpretation, Ma said that her 
husband and the rest of her family of ten was out working to 
prepare their fields for the growing season.  Eight members 
of the family are Protestant.  They do not worship in the 
home, but she would not say where they conduct their 
services.  Poloff asked if her family had been able to 
celebrate Easter this year, but Ma admitted that she does 
not know what Easter actually is.  At any rate, her family 
 
HANOI 00001112  005.4 OF 008 
 
 
did not do anything special to celebrate the holiday. 
Poloff asked which denomination the Sung family follows.  Ma 
said that a member of their community had traveled to Hanoi 
to learn about Protestantism and they all follow him, but 
she stated that she is not really sure what Poloff was 
asking. "I'm just a daughter-in-law," she said.  Ma stated 
that she is 18 years old, has two children after three years 
of marriage and, like the rest of her family, has never 
attended school.  Her family owns two buffaloes and farms 
3,600 square meters of land.  She could not estimate their 
annual income. 
 
19. (SBU) Poloff took the opportunity in front of the nine 
GVN observers to inform Ma that the United States and 
Vietnam have agreed that northern Protestants should be 
allowed to worship without harassment from local officials. 
He noted that the Embassy team will be returning to the 
region soon to check that conditions for Protestants in Sang 
Ma Sao continue to improve.  According to the village 
headman, no other Protestants from the village were 
available at that time of day, so the team returned to the 
commune.  The return journey was notable as many farmers 
were returning up the path to their homes.  Some carried 
very large wooden plows on their shoulders and others were 
equally burdened. 
 
Why are the H'mong Becoming Protestants? 
---------------------------------------- 
 
20. (SBU) During the descent from San Ma Sao village, the 
provincial and district officials were in a much more open 
mood and gave Poloff a history of Protestantism in the 
region.  According to Cap, H'mong villagers in the north 
first learned about evangelical Christianity through 
shortwave radio broadcasts originating in the Phillipines in 
the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Local officials did not 
notice H'mong Protestantism until 1993, by which time it had 
become a widespread phenomenon in the border region with 
China.  However, initial practice of the faith was confused, 
as little was actually known by believers about its tenets. 
In the mid-1990s this led to a number of Protestants 
declaring faith in "Vang Chu," a new H'mong belief 
apparently originating in Laos that holds that the world was 
created by a single omniscient God.  (Note: Veneration of 
Vang Chu is usually associated with militant H'mong 
separatism by GVN officials.  In the past, provincial 
authorities, particularly in Lai Chau Province on the border 
with Laos, have reportedly accused Protestant H'mong of 
harboring an illegal political agenda because some believers 
equate Vang Chu with Jesus Christ.  End Note.)  In the late 
1990s, the Vang Chu phenomenon subsided as Protestants 
learned more about their faith from ECVN and SECV 
missionaries.  Still, Cap asserted that many Protestants 
remain ignorant of their faith and profess to follow 
Protestantism for economic and social reasons. 
 
21. (SBU) According to Cap, traditional H'mong beliefs and 
customs require substantial sacrifices (at least one 
buffalo) on important occasions like weddings and funerals. 
If a family has more than just one of these events in a two 
or three year period, it could ruin the family by destroying 
their ability to farm the land, as buffaloes are the only 
economical source of pulling power in the region. Protestant 
H'mong, however, are not required to make any sacrifices or 
other economically negative activities.  In addition, they 
are allowed to stop work early on Thursdays for prayers and 
are not required to work at all on Sundays.  Keeping the 
Sabbath is thus considered a significant improvement in 
lifestyle.  Finally, Cap noted that H'mong women are 
traditionally subservient to their husbands, but as 
Christians are considered equals, so many women are 
attracted to Protestant beliefs.  Female believers thus 
generally outnumber males in remote villages, he added. 
 
Thuy Dien Village 
----------------- 
 
22. (SBU) On April 25, Cap took the Embassy team to another 
Protestant village in Ban Phiet Commune, Bao Thang District. 
The village is relatively near Lao Cai City but distant from 
district headquarters.  It lies on a peninsula between a 
dammed, Vietnam-side tributary and the main river that 
comprises the border with China in this region.  Cap noted 
on the three kilometer walk to the village that H'mong are 
the majority on both sides of the border and many Vietnamese 
H'mong have relatives on the China-side of the river.  The 
path to the village crosses over the reservoir of a tiny and 
now disused hydroelectric station that was considered a 
 
HANOI 00001112  006.4 OF 008 
 
 
major achievement for North Vietnam when it was built in 
1961.  Today, the dam's reservoir makes possible paddy-rice 
farming techniques in the area.  The path winds its way 
through cinnamon tree groves and is notable for several 
ethnic Dzao mound graves with Dzao and Chinese language 
inscriptions on their ceremonial stone offering porticos. 
Recent offerings included fruit and bottles of moonshine 
rice alcohol.  Cap stated that in this area Dzao and H'mong 
and several other ethnic groups live in mixed communities. 
 
23. (SBU) Ban Phiet itself is a village of 36 woven bamboo 
huts with corrugated asbestos roofs.  The team was taken to 
a cluster of three houses in one corner.  Communal officials 
introduced Thao Thi Tau, a woman of about forty dressed in a 
colorful ethnic costume and bright pink headscarf over her 
bald head, and her neighbor Lo Thi Ho, a younger women in 
similar attire.  A young man named Lo The and an older man 
named Tsung Seo quickly joined the delegation in Tau's hut. 
The hut was sparsely furnished but was electrified.  A 
Russian-made short wave radio hung from one of the central 
poles.  A Christian poster calendar was the only ornament 
hanging on the walls.  Incomplete Christian symbols were 
carved into the surface of the hut's only table.  Tau's two- 
year old son sported a Spiderman t-shirt, but no pants. 
 
24. (SBU) The (pronounced TAY) stated that most villagers in 
Ban Phiet are Protestant.  The husband of Tau was 
unavailable to speak that day because he was out hunting 
snakes, however as a long-time Christian, The was happy to 
discuss Protestantism with Poloff.  He said that life is 
difficult as the villagers do not have enough land to 
cultivate, though their houses are all new.  In fact, the 
village itself is only ten years old.  It was built when a 
group of H'mong from a village in Bac Ha decided to move 
because the land there was too poor.  Their new commune 
provided land for the new village and gave the immigrants 
roofing materials, but villagers collected cinnamon wood and 
bamboo to build the frames for their new houses themselves. 
Since the village moved, Ban Phiet's inhabitants have given 
up traditional slash and burn techniques in favor of fixed 
cultivation agriculture.  They raise rice, maize and manioc 
for their subsistence, and sell chickens at the commune's 
nearby market to raise cash, The said. 
 
25. (SBU) The is the only one of the four Protestants the 
team met in Ban Phiet who ever attended school, having 
completed first grade.  He has also been to Hanoi one time. 
The others have never traveled outside of Lao Cai and cannot 
afford to travel to visit their relatives in China.  The 
speaks Vietnamese well, and the older man and younger girl 
can speak some.  Tau apparently understands some Vietnamese 
but cannot speak the language at all.  Poloff asked what 
denomination the four follow.  The said that they "follow 
Hanoi," i.e., the ECVN.  The State only allows them to 
practice their beliefs at home.  Poloff asked The what 
Protestantism means to him.  He said that Protestantism is 
the word of God.  God speaks only good things and instructs 
humans not to do bad things.  After further prodding he said 
that Protestants follow Jesus Christ.  Jesus means "good 
news."  The said that he has seen pictures of Christ, but he 
admitted that he does not know who he is.  "We only follow 
his teachings," he said.  The H'mong Protestants still 
preserve their customs by wearing traditional clothes, but 
they no longer engage in ceremonies to sacrifice buffaloes, 
he added. 
 
26. (SBU) Poloff pointed to the calendar's image of a 
beatific woman in a flowing dress holding on to a stone 
cross amid a raging sea with the light of God shining down 
and asked The to explain what it means to him.  He said that 
the cross is a symbol of blessing and of protection that the 
H'mong like to wear if they can afford them as a good luck 
charm and to identify themselves to each other.  Other than 
that, he admitted he does not know what the cross 
symbolizes, nor what the calendar image depicts.  Seo, Tau 
and Ho said that they do not know anything more about 
Protestantism than The, though one man from the community 
recently traveled to Hanoi to get religious materials from 
the ECVN, including some H'mong language bibles to help 
instruct the villagers in Christianity.  In front of the 15 
official observers, Poloff informed the group that the 
United States and Vietnam have agreed that northern 
Protestants should be allowed to worship without harassment 
from local officials.  He encouraged them to register their 
group with local authorities as soon as possible and noted 
that the Embassy team will be returning to the region soon 
to check that conditions for Protestants in Ban Phiet 
continue to improve. 
 
HANOI 00001112  007.4 OF 008 
 
 
 
Bao Thang District 
------------------ 
 
27. (SBU) Following the visit to Ban Phiet, Cap took the 
team to Bao Thang District headquarters, an hour's drive on 
good roads from the village.  The road passes through Phong 
Hai Town (incorrectly identified as Phung Hai District in 
Ref A, Para 11), which is a Kinh township founded as a new 
economic zone by the GVN in the late 1960s for forced 
immigrants from Haiphong City.  It is now one of the major 
areas of habitation in the district, having displaced 
several ethnic minority communities.  At the headquarters in 
Bao Thang Town, DPC Deputy Chairman Le Cong Minh noted that 
the district comprises 67,000 hectares and 100,000 people 
from seventeen ethnic groups.  Some 70 percent of the 
population is ethnic Kinh.  The second largest group is the 
H'mong, with six percent.  There are 15 townships and 
communes.  GDP growth is stable at 14 percent a year, with 
annual per capita income estimated at ten million VND (USD 
630).  In the past few years, living conditions have 
improved, as has access to education for all children, which 
has resulted in a large number of economic immigrants. 
These are also mostly ethnic Kinh, but include some ethnic 
Muong from Thanh Hoa Province south of Hanoi.  Most of the 
H'mong are also not indigenous to the district, having moved 
to Bao Thang from Bac Ha District over the last several 
decades.  The DPC has recently been focusing on improving 
the infrastructure of the rural parts of the district and 
has achieved some success.  Six communes used to be on Lao 
Cai's list of extremely poor communes, but now only one 
remains on the list, Minh noted. 
 
28. (SBU) Poloff thanked Minh for the opportunity to visit 
Ban Phiet Village and to interview Protestant residents.  He 
reiterated the importance of registering Protestants in the 
district per GVN policy for the bilateral relationship. 
Poloff also noted that the Protestants in Ban Phiet stated 
they had access to H'mong language bibles, but Bao Thang was 
recently alleged to have fined two ECVN house church deacons 
who traveled to Hanoi to acquire application forms to 
register their congregation on the charge of possession of 
illegal H'mong language bibles (Ref A, Para 11).  Minh 
responded that the individuals were fined for possessing 
illegal materials, but not because they possessed H'mong 
language bibles per se.  Religious documents in general must 
be published by the CRA and all believers, regardless of 
faith, must seek permission to use "foreign language 
bibles."  These H'mong language bibles were written in the 
Phillipines so they do not use proper H'mong language. 
Poloff noted that some H'mong language bibles are apparently 
produced in Hanoi and Cap admitted that the books in 
question were probably not imported to Vietnam. 
Nevertheless, provincial officials, much less district 
officials, do not have the authority to decide without GVN 
guidance if such texts are legal, and the CRA has not 
provided any guidance on the matter, he said. 
 
29.  (SBU) Cap stated that Lao Cai province plans to include 
a report on the problem to the national CRA as part of their 
implementation plan on the PM's Instruction.  In any case, 
the deacons in question were "administratively punished" 
according to the GVN's laws on publication.  Poloff noted 
that the ECVN alleges the deacons were held for sixteen 
days.  Minh admitted that the DPC did call them in to talk 
about publication laws and to the use of illegal cultural 
items, but denied that the two were held in custody for any 
period of time.  Cap reiterated that it is unfair to say 
that the two were fined because they possessed bibles, but 
rather because they possessed illegal publications.  He 
asked that Embassy team objectively explain this to "outside 
people."  If the GVN now allows groups to posses H'mong 
language materials, "we will allow them to circulate such 
materials per our implementation plan," he added. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
30. (SBU) This was an unprecedented visit.  The Embassy team 
was able to discuss several serious allegations made against 
Lao Cai provincial and district-level authorities. Access to 
a small sample of blocal Protestants and the frank and open 
discussion with officials at all levels about the gap 
between the new framework on religion and its implementation 
were a significant improvement over previous outreach trips. 
It is clear from the reception of the visit at such a 
sensitive political time and from the repetition of talking 
points in Lao Cai and Ha Giang (Ha Giang trip reported 
 
HANOI 00001112  008.4 OF 008 
 
 
septel) that the GVN gave strict instructions to northern 
provinces to change their approach to our concerns on 
religious freedom.  While the situation for Protestants has 
not yet markedly improved, it may now be possible for house 
church congregations to register their activities per the 
law and per Lao Cai's purported plans.  We plan to send 
another team to the region as early as June to follow up on 
these developments.  End Comment. 
 
MARINE