VZCZCXRO5698
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHNH RUEHPB
DE RUEHHM #0588/01 1530816
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 020816Z JUN 06
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0928
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 0679
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 0972

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 000588 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL KIRF SOCI PGOV VM
SUBJECT: FIRST GVN OFFICIAL OUTREACH TO UNOFFICIAL RELIGIOUS GROUPS 
 
REF: HCMC 559 AND PREVIOUS; B) 05 HCMC 1082; C) HANOI 1232 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000588  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  On May 30 in HCMC, the central-level 
Committee for Religious Affairs (CRA) held its first briefing on 
Vietnam's legal framework on religion to encourage unrecognized 
religious groups to legalize their status.  Over 100 
representatives attended from unregistered religious 
organizations, including Protestant house church leaders. 
According to participants, CRA officials promised to approve 
quickly the long-pending registration application of the United 
World Mission Church as well as of the Baha'i church and two 
small independent Buddhist sects.  Baptist leaders told us that 
they would now begin the registration process.  Other Protestant 
house church leaders belonging to the Vietnam Evangelical 
Fellowship, welcomed the CRA outreach and acknowledged 
improvement in conditions for their house churches, but remain 
undecided on moving forward with registration.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) On May 30, the central-level Committee for Religious 
Affairs (CRA) held a briefing in HCMC for unrecognized religious 
organizations from throughout the southern half of Vietnam on 
the legal framework on religion.  According to Tran Ngoc Bao, 
Vice Chairman of HCMC CRA, about 100 representatives from 
Protestant house churches and other unregistered religious 
groups, including the Baha'i, and Buddhist sects, attended. 
Central-level CRA Vice-Chairman Nguyen Thanh Xuan, Protestant 
Affairs Chief Nguyen Huy Thong, and legal department staff 
chaired the meeting. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Bao told us the event marked the first official meeting 
with unrecognized religious groups on the new legal framework on 
religion.  The CRA gave the participants three forms that groups 
must complete to apply for national-level registration, two for 
national-level registration (an application form and an addendum 
to list of member churches in each province) and a third for 
recognition under Vietnam's legal framework on religion. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Bao confirmed that Mennonite Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang 
was invited to the gathering, despite the recent confrontation 
between Quang and HCMC authorities (ref A).  Bao said that his 
Hanoi counterparts had wanted to exclude Quang and invite only 
the Mennonite group of Pastor Nguyen Quang Trung that has been 
registered in HCMC.  Bao said that the HCMC CRA interceded and 
noted that it would be seen as discriminatory if Quang was not 
invited. 
 
¶5. (SBU) According to Bao, the CRA officials said that the CRA 
will begin in June to consider the national-level applications 
of three groups, including the Danang-based United World Mission 
Church (UWMC).  The CRA told the participants that they would 
"try" to meet the deadline for consideration of applications 
stipulated in the time frame provided in the March 2005 
Implementing Guidelines (60 days for national registration, 90 
days for national recognition).  Bao noted that the 
national-level process is only the last step in a registration 
process that first requires religious groups to register with 
their local and provincial CRAs before they apply at the 
national level.  Suggesting that different provinces still are 
applying registration requirements differently, Bao noted that 
were the UWMC headquartered in HCMC, it would have been 
registered already.  (The UWMC told us that it completed its 
registration application in September 2005.) 
 
Religious Groups' Reaction 
-------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) Pastor Pham Dinh Nhan, President of the Vietnam 
Evangelical Fellowship (VEF), an umbrella organization for many 
of HCMC's house churches, acknowledged that the meeting was a 
positive step in bridging differences between the house church 
community and the government.  Pastor Nhan said that he told the 
CRA that he was ready to register and to "adhere to Vietnamese 
law."  However, Nhan said the VEF is concerned about 
"discrepancies" between national-level and local-level 
registration applications.  The fact that local registration 
requires that each church list its followers remains a 
non-starter for VEF members.  Nhan said he complained publicly 
about continued local harassment of some house churches and 
requested that the CRA establish a national hot-line to report 
local violations of religious freedom.  Nhan requested a 
follow-on meeting between Protestant house church leaders and 
the Central-level CRA to clarify registration procedures and to 
discuss other issues such as the hot-line, but received no 
commitment. 
 
¶7. (SBU) According to Nhan, Pastor Ngyuen Toi, head of the UWMC 
in Danang was upset that he would have to re-apply for 
registration using the new forms.  However, in May 31 telephone 
conversation with ConGen staff, Pastor Toi was positive.  He 
said that the Central CRA apologized for the delay in 
implementing the November 2004 Ordinance of Religion.  Pastor 
Toi was told that the UMWC, along with two small Buddhist 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000588  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
organizations (not the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam), were 
"priority cases" for national registration.  The Central CRA 
committed to sending staff to Danang this month to work with the 
UWMC to supplement its registration/recognition application 
before submitting it to the Prime Minister for final approval. 
In the meantime, the CRA instructed the UWMC to complete all 
local-level registrations.  The central-level CRA also committed 
to notify all provinces where the UWMC has churches to instruct 
local authorities to process registration applications.  The CRA 
officials told Pastor Toi that he should notify them directly if 
localities refuse to accept the UWMC application.  Pastor Toi 
told us that the vast majority of local officials accepted UWMC 
registration applications.  Moreover, with the exception of one 
house church in Dak Lak province, UWMC operations have been not 
faced harassment.  (Per ref B, the UWMC operates 123 
congregations serving 26,000 persons throughout central Vietnam, 
including a large number in the Central Highlands.) 
 
¶8. (SBU) Pastor Nguyen Ngoc Hien, Head of the Vietnam Baptist 
Fellowship, expressed a clearer understanding of the 
registration process than Pastor Nhan.  Hien noted that the CRA 
instructed church groups to begin local registration under the 
Prime Minister's February 2005 "Instruction on Protestantism." 
This requires house churches to apply with the People's 
Committee at the village level in every jurisdiction in every 
province the organization operates.  Following local 
registration, each organization must prepare and submit the 
three new forms that the central-level CRA handed out at the 
meeting.  The central-level CRA will then contact the 
organization to review the national registration application. 
Central CRA will grant them national registration after a review 
of the provincial registrations and the church's national 
submission.  According to Hien, CRA officials told him that they 
"aim" to complete registration for all unrecognized groups 
within two years.  Pastor Hien said that he is going to instruct 
his churches to start the local registration process.  Despite 
GVN pressure to register jointly, the five Baptist denominations 
under the Vietnam Baptist Fellowship likely will apply for 
registration separately. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Nguyen Dinh Thoa of the HCMC BahHai Church told us 
that he and six other members of the Baha'i "legalization 
committee" attended the briefing.  They confirmed that CRA 
officials apologized for the late introduction of the 
implementation guidelines to unrecognized groups and announced 
that the implementation officially had commenced.  Although the 
Baha'i were not one of the three named "priority cases for 
national registration," Thoa told us that the Baha'i have been 
instructed orally to file for central level registration and 
recognition immediately.  The Baha'i church is planning to 
submit its application on June 20. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Comment:  The Central-level CRA's initiative to open 
formal discussions with unregistered religious organizations is 
a welcome and needed step, albeit overdue; the HCMC CRA has told 
us that it had been lobbying its Hanoi counterparts for nearly a 
year in this regard.  It follows on the heels of successful 
meetings between local and international Baptist representatives 
in Hanoi and HCMC in May (ref C). 
 
¶11. (SBU) Comment continued.  The differing reactions of the 
Baptists, VEF and UWMC to the meeting is no surprise.  Over the 
past two years, the Baptists and the UWMC have reached out 
informally to government and Party officials in the provinces 
and Hanoi and are clear on how to proceed and prepared to do so. 
 In contrast, the VEF is divided between moderates who might 
consider registration, and hardliners who reject GVN oversight. 
For example, members of the VEF include Pastor Quang's branch of 
the Mennonite Church and the Inter-Evengelistic Movement church 
of Pastor Tran Mai.  Both Pastor Mai and Quang were signatories 
of the "Declaration on Democracy" co-authored by political 
dissident Do Nam Hai and Father Nguyen Van Ly.  Seeking internal 
consensus, the VEF has not been willing to engage on 
registration.  More consistent and more rapid progress in 
registration and recognition of the UWMC and Baptists is 
critical to encouraging fence-sitters in the VEF to register. 
So too are continued government efforts to minimize the number 
of harassment incidents against house churches and to resolve 
those that do occur.  End Comment. 
Winnick