VZCZCXRO4803
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHHI #1520/01 1711251
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 201251Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2459
INFO RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY PRIORITY 1381
RUEHZS/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 001520 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, DRL/IRF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KIRF PHUM PGOV HUMANR VM
SUBJECT: THANH HOA PROTESTANTS REPORT BEATING BY POLICE 
 
REF: A) JENSEN-STATE E-MAIL 6/20; MOELING-STATE E-MAIL 6/20 
 
HANOI 00001520  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. On June 20, Poloffs met with a Protestant 
individual from Thanh Hoa Province who provided a credible report 
that he and another Protestant had been beaten by police on June 18 
after they were taken from their house church.  Poloffs presented 
this information, including graphic photographs, to MFA officers who 
were visibly shaken by the report.  The MFA pursued the inquiry 
after hours, presenting the report to senior MFA leaders and to the 
Ministry of Public Security (MPS).  Reporting the same evening, our 
MFA interlocutor stated that though MPS is skeptical of the report, 
they are sending officers from Hanoi to Thanh Hoa to investigate. 
Our initial take is that this is a credible report, but we will try 
to verify information directly in Thanh Hoa as soon as possible. 
The quick response from the GVN is significant, but we have not yet 
seen a coordinated or official reaction.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) On June 20, Poloff met with Nguyen Trung Ton, a member of 
the executive board of the United Gospel Church of Vietnam, aka "The 
Full Gospel Church" in Thieu Vien Commune, Thieu Hoa District, Thanh 
Hoa Province.  Ton requested the meeting on June 19 by cell phone 
while Embassy team was on provincial travel.  Ton had been visibly 
beaten with the left side of his face badly bruised and right eye 
swollen shut.  He explained that Ton and another individual named 
Hac Ngoc Sy were beaten by commune level police on June 18 after 
they were taken from their house church meeting point. 
 
Background 
---------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Ton explained that his forty-person congregation formed in 
the 1990s and has been particularly active since 2000.  Initially, 
they faced police harassment and "a number of individuals renounced 
their faiths under threat of force," however, in the last few years 
police attention had died down.  This changed in early May of 2006. 
On May 14 a visiting pastor named Ho Duc Toan conducted services at 
the congregations meeting point, a house church owned by a woman 
named Le Thi Minh.  Police raided this meeting and took Toan and 
Minh to the local People's Committee (PC) headquarters.  The Thieu 
Vien Committee on Religious and Ethnic Affairs informed them that 
their services were illegal and advised the congregation to register 
legally under the GVN's new framework on religion.  On May 23 or 24 
(Ton wasn't sure which date) Toan and Minh submitted their 
application as instructed.  However, the local PC refused to accept 
the application as "they had not received any instructions or 
guidance from higher authorities about allowing Protestant 
activities to continue," Ton said. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Ton's church has been in contact with us before.  In early 
June, Ton and Tran Van Ky, both members of the Thanh Hoa Full Gospel 
provincial management board, told ConGen Political officers that the 
FG congregation in Village 6, Thieu Van Commune, Thieu Hoa District, 
Thanh Hoa province had been "continuously harassed by local 
authorities and police."  On June 4, they reported that police 
dismissed the Sunday service, detained four people without written 
explanation, "beat them up" and confiscated four bicycles.  The four 
followers were released that night, but were required to pay an 
administrative fine of VND 100,000 each.  No reason for this fine 
was given. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Ky said police asked followers individually to renounce 
their faith because it is "an American faith."  Followers recorded a 
tape, in which local authorities and a chief of police named Hoe 
reportedly said "local rules prevail over the national legal 
framework." 
 
¶6. (SBU) According to the Full Gospel members, in mid-May Ms. Le Thi 
Minh, in charge of this 40-member congregation, sent a letter to 
local authorities asking for assistance and instructions to operate 
in accordance with Decree 01 and the Ordinance on Religion.  The 
church members reported that Full Gospel is not yet eligible for 
recognition, but Minh cited Decree 01's guidance that local 
authorities should give instructions to groups such as Full Gospel 
to operate while waiting for its headquarters to register at the 
national level.  Ms. Minh did not receive a response. 
 
¶7. (SBU) FG Pastor Ho Duc Tuan (based in the Southern province of 
Vung Tau) visited this congregation on May 14 and was "invited" to 
the commune police station for a work session, where authorities 
asked him to stop activities in Thanh Hoa until FG is recognized or 
face continued arrests, FG members reported. 
 
Arrests on June 18 
------------------ 
 
¶8. (SBU) According to Ton's report to Hanoi Poloff, under pressure 
from the commune police in Thanh Hoa, many members of the church 
stopped attending services on Sundays.  On the morning of June 18, 
at 8:30 a.m., only four members of the church and Ms. Minh were in 
 
HANOI 00001520  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
attendance.  The congregants had not begun services yet and were 
"only chatting" when five members of the local police led by Deputy 
Police Chief Tran Kiem entered the church and demanded to know what 
was going on.  Four of the members, including Ton and Sy, were asked 
to come to the local security station.  Minh snapped two photos of 
the group as they were leaving her home (REF A, pictures 1 and 2). 
 
¶9. (SBU) Ton stated that at the station, Ton, Sy and an unnamed 
third individual were questioned for ten hours (8:30 a.m. to 6:30 
p.m.).  A fourth individual was allowed to leave the station because 
he was from the commune.  Ton stated that he and the others live in 
a neighboring commune but attend services in Thieu Vien.  The 
questioning began "relatively cordially" but over time became more 
difficult.  At noon, police officials began drinking alcohol with 
their lunch.  The prisoners were not allowed to eat or drink and in 
the afternoon, on the instruction of the police chief (NFI), were 
placed in separate interrogation rooms.  By 4:30, Ton stated that 
some of the officers in his interrogation room appeared to be drunk 
and also appeared "to be waiting for a signal to beat him."  He said 
that by this point he was "feeling bored with the detailed 
questioning" and asked the officers in the room to come to the 
point.  Kiem or the police chief asked Ton: "Do you plan to continue 
to come to this commune to attend services?"  Ton replied: "Yes...it 
is allowed by law...if it weren't, I wouldn't come."  The police 
chief then grabbed Ton by the shirt collar and his hair and slapped 
him three times.  The rest of the officers in the room, including 
Kiem, joined in and beat Ton for ten minutes focusing on his left 
eye and torso.  (Note: as they were all right-handed they would not 
have hit his right side as he faced them.  End note.)  After this, 
the group moved into the room next door where Sy was being 
interrogated and beat him as well, Ton said. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Following the beatings, Ton and Sy were released (NFI 
about the third individual).  They returned to Minh's home where she 
immediately photographed them (REF A, pictures 3-6). Ton presented 
the photos to Poloff and asked that we raise the event with the GVN. 
 In the photos, Ton appears to have been more severely beaten than 
Sy as his face and clothing are bloodied in the photographs.  The 
bruises and damage Poloff saw on Ton's face June 20 was consistent 
with the photographs taken two days earlier. Ton said that he did 
not have any torso bruises. 
 
MFA Demarche 
------------ 
 
¶11. (SBU) Immediately following the meeting with Ton, Poloffs 
requested a meeting with MFA officials to discuss the report and 
photographs.  The officials were clearly shaken and stated that they 
were shocked by what they saw and heard.  Poloffs emphasized that 
this case will receive considerable attention in the United States. 
This case is especially important, Poloffs stressed, as we have 
identified location, officials involved and witnesses/victims who 
want to come forward publicly with their allegations.  The MFA 
officers said they appreciated hearing about this case from the 
Embassy before it hit the Internet.  They were not prepared to 
provide an official response. 
 
First GVN Reaction 
------------------ 
 
¶12. (SBU) At 7:00 p.m. Poloff received a phone call from MFA 
America's Desk Section Chief Le Chi Dung.  Dung stated he made the 
report to his superiors and to the Ministry of Public Security 
(MPS).  MPS told MFA they have no reports of "incidents" from Thanh 
Hoa but recognize that they might not have heard about it.  MPS also 
commented to MFA that the date stamps on the photos appear to be 
doctored.  Dung reported that he told the MPS officer that Embassy 
staff had met with the victims personally and were eyewitnesses to 
the recent injuries.  MPS agreed to investigate more thoroughly to 
"verify" the situation and will send officers to Thanh Hoa from 
Hanoi to look into the situation at the commune in question, Dung 
said. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) Our initial take is that this is a credible report, but we 
are working solely from the victim's account.  We will try to verify 
information directly in Thanh Hoa as soon as possible.  The quick 
response from the GVN is significant and demonstrates that MFA and 
MPS appreciate the potential impact of this case. 
 
BOARDMAN