VZCZCXRO1227
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHNH RUEHPB
DE RUEHHM #1185/01 2900910
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 170910Z OCT 06
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1620
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 1146
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 1707

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 001185 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREF SOCI PREL KIRF PGOV VM
SUBJECT: SEPARATISM AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS 
PROVINCE OF GIA LAI 
 
REF: HCMC 998; B) HCMC 1055; C) HCMC 1050 
 
HO CHI MIN 00001185  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  During an October 10-12 visit to the province 
of Gia Lai, officials told us that U.S.-based activists continue 
to foment separatism in the Central Highlands and flight to 
Cambodia.  Officials are concerned about what they believe are 
new efforts to organize anti-GVN activities before the visit of 
the President for the APEC Leaders' Summit.  They also detailed 
additional progress on recognitions and registrations of 
Protestant congregations and committed to continue to work 
proactively to resolve outstanding VISAS-93 (family 
reunification) cases.  We cautioned that authorities should not 
overreact to separatist provocations and that, in any event, the 
rights of detainees under Vietnamese law must be protected. 
Septel will detail visits to the homes of ethnic minority 
returnees and a number of VISAS-93 applicants.  See ref C for 
additional analysis on overall conditions for ethnic minorities 
in the Central Highlands.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) From October 10-12, PolOff, Refugee Resettlement 
Section (RRS) Chief and DHS/CIS officer traveled to the Central 
Highlands province of Gia Lai to review a range of issues 
involving the ethnic minority community.  At our invitation, the 
French Political Counselor accompanied us.  We received good 
access (especially for the Central Highlands).  The province 
responded positively to our requests for detailed discussions 
with the Department of Public Security (DPS) on ethnic minority 
separatism and to discuss VISAS-93 (family reunification) 
issues.  The province also facilitated our request to meet with 
ethnic minority returnees from Cambodia in their homes as well 
to investigate a number of outstanding VISAS-93 cases (covered 
Septel). 
 
VISAS-93 
-------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) Provincial People's Committee Chairman Pham The Dung 
and Deputy Director of Gia Lai Department of Public Security 
(DPS) Tran Dinh Thu told us that the province remains committed 
to fast and transparent processing of family reunification cases 
involving ethnic minorities (Visas-93).  According to provincial 
statistics, the province has processed 118 Visas-93 cases thus 
far, involving 483 persons.  Some 13 families, covering 41 
persons, have not applied for their passports.  (Comment:  these 
numbers are not far from our VISAS-93 figures for the province 
of 130 cases/544 persons.  End Comment.)  RRS Chief handed the 
DPS a list of 22 VISAS-93 cases needing passports; the Deputy 
Director promised to look into the cases and expedite wherever 
possible. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The DPS official told us that officials have detected 
and averted fraud in the Visas-93 process.  The province has 
detected discrepancies between the names of family members 
listed by the applicant in the United States and the actual 
names of his family members back home.  Some applicants 
attempted to include non-family members in their petitions for 
provincial documents needed by the Consulate for VISAS-93 
processing.  Individuals caught are fined VND 20 to 30 million 
(roughly USD 1,200 to 1,800), but the families themselves are 
not fined and are allowed to continue the process. 
 
Threat of Separatism Still Looms Large 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Turning to the issue of ethnic minority separatism, the 
DPS Vice-Director said that, although the armed "FULRO" 
insurgency against the GVN ended in October 1992, the GVN has 
"solid evidence" that insurgency's leaders resettled in the 
United States and continue to foment unrest, violence and 
separatism in the ethnic minority community in the Central 
Highlands.  For example, the Montagnard Foundation (MF) has 
distributed clandestinely maps of the Central Highlands 
delineating the area of an ethnic minority "Dega" state.  The 
flag on the MF's website is virtually identical to the old FURLO 
flag, sending a powerful message to ethnic minority groups in 
the Central Highlands.  According to Thu, through "various 
channels," MF operatives spread the word that only those that 
support independence would benefit when a Dega state was 
created.  "Collaborators" would lose their land and be kicked 
out of the Central Highlands along with ethnic Vietnamese. 
Village elders supportive of the GVN have been physically 
threatened by Dega operatives, Thu and other officials told us. 
According to Thu, one former Dega operative "confessed" that he 
used dynamite and knives against police and local officials 
during the 2004 protests.  He offered to allow us to interview 
the former operative during a future visit.  (Comment:  A church 
leader from the GVN-recognized Southern Evangelical Church of 
Vietnam separately had told us of threats against him and other 
moderates from local separatists.  End Comment.) 
 
¶6. (SBU) According to Thu, the MF continues to spread rumors 
 
HO CHI MIN 00001185  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
that international recognition of a Dega state is imminent.  It 
made such claims while organizing the April 2004 protests in the 
Central Highlands.  The MF reportedly now is spreading the rumor 
that President Bush will recognize the Dega state during the 
APEC Leaders' Summit.  The goal of the MF is to try to stir up 
unrest and to foment violence to secure international 
intervention in the Central Highlands. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Thu claimed that the GVN also has evidence that the MF 
is diverting monies it collected from the ethnic minority 
community in the U.S. pledged for economic development to 
support its separatist activities.  Similarly, the "Dega 
Protestant Church" is an artifice designed to promote the FULRO 
message of separatism.  The MF also seeks to encourage illegal 
cross-border migration to Cambodia as a way of destabilizing 
village life in the Central Highlands.  The vast majority of 
cross-border migrants are leaving for economic reasons, 
particularly as they have been told that they can be resettled 
in the United States.  Unfortunately, because of the ethnic 
minority community's overall low level of education and poor 
economic competitiveness, they are susceptible to the separatist 
message. 
 
¶8. (SBU) We reiterated that the USG recognizes Vietnam's 
territorial integrity and that it is illegal under U.S. law to 
foment violence overseas.  We welcomed this most detailed 
briefing on Dega activities to date, and added that sharing 
concrete evidence of possible violations of U.S. law is critical 
if we are to address the issue constructively. 
 
¶9. (SBU) That said, we stressed that local authorities and 
police should be careful and sophisticated in their response to 
separatist provocations.  Detainee rights under Vietnamese law 
must be protected.  Referring to the death in police custody of 
an ethnic minority individual in the neighboring province of Dak 
Lak (ref A), we stressed that physical abuse of detainees is 
unacceptable and undermines GVN efforts to build trust with the 
ethnic minority community.  Thu said that he agreed, and that it 
was not GVN policy to abuse ethnic minority detainees.  He said 
that some "unfortunate situations" had occurred at village 
levels. 
 
Religious Freedom 
----------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Provincial People's Committee Chairman Dung and 
Chairman of Gia Lai Committee for Religious Affairs (CRA) Tran 
Thanh Hung said the province is implementing fully the GVN's 
legal framework on religion.  Hung noted that, especially since 
September 2005, there has been significant progress in the 
province.  All of the 82,000 members of the Southern Evangelical 
Church of Vietnam (SECV) are able to gather and practice freely 
in 35 recognized and 206 registered congregations.  The province 
has approved a second training course for SECV pastors.  Over 
the past year the province has facilitated the construction of 
17 new SECV churches.  According to Hung, the SECV has told the 
CRA that it wants to hold off on further recognitions of 
congregations until 2007.   In a separate meeting, Pastor Siu Y 
Kim, SECV national representative board member from Gia Lai, 
confirmed the steady progress for the church in the province. 
He said that the SECV needs to consolidate its organization 
following an intense period of expansion and legalization. 
 
¶11. (SBU) CRA Chairman Hung also noted the recent (ref B) 
national-level registration of the United World Mission Church, 
based in Danang.  Gia Lai Province is working to assist the UWMC 
congregations to develop their local congregations.  For 
example, it has facilitated the church's dispatch of its deacons 
to Danang for training.  At present, the UWMC does not have any 
accredited pastors in Gia Lai.  In addition to the UWMC, five 
other house church organizations have begun to operate in Gia 
Lai over the past year, including Baptist and Mennonite 
denominations.  According to Hung, these fledgling groups 
sometimes poach members from the SECV; their evangelists come to 
the Central Highlands from HCMC.  All of these groups are 
allowed to operate without interference, Hung claimed.  Asked 
how the CRA deals with frictions within the ethnic minority 
community between animist traditionalists and Protestant 
converts, Hung emphasized that the GVN's policy of freedom of 
belief and non-belief makes clear that government officials must 
remain neutral and not intervene in favor of any particular 
faith. 
 
¶12. (SBU) The province also is facilitating the operation of the 
Catholic Church, the CRA Chairman told us.  The 91,000-strong 
Catholic Church continues to grow in Gia Lai, albeit at a slow 
rate.  The province recently approved the Church's proposal to 
send nine new students to the seminary in Hue.  The Church also 
ordained six new priests and transferred eight to new parishes. 
Two of the eight transfers came from outside Gia Lai. 
 
HO CHI MIN 00001185  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
 
Implementation at the District Level 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶13. (SBU) Prior to meeting with returnees in Chu Se District -- 
a hotbed of Dega activism -- we met with District People's 
Committee Chairman Nguyen Dung.  Dung emphasized that he has 
been instructed to facilitate the operation of all Protestant 
denominations in his area of responsibility save the "Dega 
Protestant Church."  The latter organization is not legitimate 
and it only "uses the Bible" to attract followers and then call 
for the creation of a Dega state.  Dung estimated that there are 
perhaps a thousand hardcore Dega activists in his district, 
which is home to over 70,000 ethnic minority persons.  These 
activists continue to try and incite protests and violence and 
to induce individuals to cross to Cambodia.  He denied that the 
province was taking any measures to confiscate cell phones from 
ethnic minorities, but noted his concern that "Dega activists" 
were using cell phones to coordinate activities and to spread 
anti-GVN propaganda.  He repeated the allegations that Dega 
activists were spreading rumors that President Bush would 
recognize a new Dega ethnic minority state during his upcoming 
visit to Vietnam. 
 
And at the Grassroots 
--------------------- 
 
¶14. (SBU) During our village visits to monitor the welfare of 
ethnic minority returnees from Cambodia in the border district 
of Duc Co, we met with the ethnic Jarai village elders of Ba and 
Chan villages.  The three elders from Ba village were former 
Viet Cong and adamant that Protestantism was a 
"counterrevolutionary" phenomenon.  The elders said that it was 
their independent policy to discourage the practice of 
Protestantism.  The two Protestant families in the 580-person 
village only could practice at home.  Catholicism and 
traditional animist beliefs did not face restriction, although 
the elders said that they were atheists.  Five hundred yards 
down the road, the neighboring village of Chan -- within the 
same local administrative area as Ba -- was a complete contrast. 
 The bulk of the villagers were affiliated with the SECV.  Up to 
600 villagers gather for services three times a week without any 
incident.  Villagers explained that a number of the village 
elders are Protestant. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶15. (SBU) The province's relatively detailed and frank 
discussions on ethnic minority separatism are a significant step 
forward as is their willingness to grant us greater access to 
returnees in their villages (more septel).  While it is still 
difficult for us to gauge the extent of ethnic minority support 
for the separatist movement, it is clearly the biggest single 
worry for Central Highlands officials.  The perceived separatist 
threat colors the provincial response to religious freedom, NGO 
access, views of the United States and treatment of cross-border 
migrants.  In that context, it is particularly notable that Gia 
Lai -- and to a lesser extent Dak Lak -- have become 
increasingly comfortable with the legalization of other 
Protestant groups in the province.  Equally encouraging is that 
provincial officials now tell us that they will apply the 
successful model of registration and recognition of SECV 
churches to other Protestant denominations in the province.  The 
presence of our French Embassy colleague on the visit helped 
underscore that issues such as the status of ethnic minorities, 
human rights and religious freedom in the Central Highlands are 
not an exclusive U.S. issue but an international concern. 
 
¶16. (SBU) Comment, continued:  The status of the SECV in Gia Lai 
continues to improve steadily.  Its leaders acknowledge that 
they must resolve internal organizational challenges, such as 
training additional pastors, before seeking additional 
recognitions from provincial authorities.  The stark contrast in 
attitudes to religion from village elders in adjacent hamlets in 
Duc Co District highlights the how difficult it can be to change 
entrenched mindsets at the grassroots and ensure consistent 
application of GVN policy on religion.  At least in this corner 
of the Central Highlands, restrictions on religious practice 
stem from the hardliners in the ethnic minority community who 
still reject the efforts of higher-level GVN officials in the 
area.  End Comment. 
WINNICK