VZCZCXRO9154
PP RUEHHM
DE RUEHHM #0643/01 1700922
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 190922Z JUN 07
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2758
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 1970
RUEHVN/AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE PRIORITY 0012
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 2957

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 000643 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR SOCI KIRF VM
SUBJECT: EXPERIENCES OF A HARDLINE HOUSE CHURCH IN VIETNAM 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Leaders of the Inter-Evangelical Church of 
Vietnam, a large Protestant house church organization based in 
HCMC, told us that, with the exception of a recent incident in 
Binh Phuoc province, their operations in Southern and Central 
Vietnam are stable.  Conditions for the IEM in the Northwest 
Highlands are much more difficult, particularly in the province 
of Dien Bien, where at least two IEM congregations have faced 
particularly severe harassment from local officials, including 
allegations of forced conversions.  Another house church leader 
indicated that conditions elsewhere in the Northwest Highlands 
continue to improve modestly.  While the IEM's problems mirror 
the experiences of other Protestant groups, the refusal of the 
IEM's leadership to work constructively with provincial 
officials creates unnecessary antagonism and slows progress. 
End summary. 
 
 
¶2. (SBU) On June 13 we met with Pastor Tran Mai, leader of the 
Inter-Evangelistic Movement Bible Church (IEM), and twelve of 
his subordinate pastors to discuss a religious freedom incident 
in the province of Binh Phuoc on June 8.  Ethnic Hmong pastors 
from the Northwest Highlands also discussed the religious 
freedom challenges they face, especially in Dien Bien province. 
 
 
Binh Phuoc 
---------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Pastor Lam Cuong, IEM Pastor for Binh Phuoc Province, 
told us that he has been attempting to register IEM 
congregations with local authorities for the past year without 
success.  However, the 1,500 followers in his area of 
responsibility are able to worship regularly at eleven meeting 
points.  Every month, IEM followers in Binh Phuoc gather en 
masse for a prayer meeting.  Pastor Cuong does not seek 
permission from the local authorities to hold the gatherings and 
they usually go on unimpeded.  However, on June 8, Pastor Mai 
brought a group of approximately 150 IEM pastors from throughout 
Vietnam -- including from the Northwest Highlands -- to the Binh 
Phuoc prayer gathering.  He conducted an ordination ceremony for 
new pastors at the event.  The prayer service was at least 
one-third bigger than normal, with some 2,000 people in 
attendance.  Local police filmed the services but did not 
otherwise interfere.  Pastor Cuong demanded they leave but they 
refused. 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) Pastor Cuong said that the buses carrying Pastor Mai's 
group back to HCMC were stopped after the ceremony and forced to 
drive to the local government office.  Local officials wanted to 
question Pastor Mai and IEM Vice President Tran Long about their 
"evangelizing and organization of a large crowd without 
permission."  Mai and Long replied that the authorities would 
have to question all 150 pastors in his entourage and then tried 
to bring the entire group into the local government offices. 
The authorities locked them out. 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) After a few hours, the head of the Binh Phuoc 
Provincial Committee for Religious Affairs (CRA)  arrived from 
the provincial capital -- a one hour drive -- to speak with Mai. 
 He warned that the IEM needed to request permission to hold 
large meetings.  Pastor Mai told us he responded that they did 
not bother to request permission since it would not be granted 
and complained about the inaction on IEM's registration 
requests.  The CRA chief offered to meet with Pastor Mai 
regarding pending registration requests.  Mai said he would come 
if he is recognized officially by the province in its dealings 
with him as a Pastor and not as an ordinary Vietnamese citizen. 
The group was allowed to return to HCMC without further 
incident.  Two AmCits accompanied Pastor Mai but remained in the 
buses during the six hour negotiation at the People's Committee. 
 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) We told the IEM pastors that the fact that they are 
able to hold large gatherings and that the head of Binh Phuoc 
Province's CRA offered to meet and discuss registration are 
encouraging signs.  Pastor Mai was dismissive, stating he would 
probably not meet with the Binh Phuoc Provincial CRA even if he 
were invited.  Pastor Mai's only other complaint about 
obstruction of IEM operations in the HCMC Consular District was 
the authorities prevented IEM Christmas celebrations in Quang 
Ngai Province in 2006. 
 
 
Harassment in the Northwest Highlands 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Pastor Do Huu, IEM's Senior pastor in northern Vietnam, 
and Pastors Vua A De and Vang A Tua from Dien Bien Province, 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000643  002 OF 003 
 
 
provided an oral and written account of alleged harassment by 
local officials in northern Vietnam, especially in the Northwest 
Highlands.  Pastor Huu said that older meeting points and house 
churches, particularly those that have been in use since before 
2004, are able to hold regular services with little or no 
harassment.  However, services at new meeting points are 
consistently broken up and authorities prevent new meeting 
points from being established.  Pastors De and Huu claimed that 
they have shown former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's 
"Instruction Number One" of February 2005 (ordering officials to 
facilitate Protestant house churches) to local officials to 
persuade them that they are allowed to gather and worship. 
However, commune officials seize their documents and ignore the 
Instruction's provisions. 
 
 
¶8. (SBU) The pastors said that the situation is particularly 
acute in Dien Bien province.  Pastor Tua, from Hang Tro village, 
Pu Nhi Commune, East Dien Bien District, Dien Bien Province, 
stated he preaches to approximately 90 people.  He said that his 
followers have not been allowed to gather for prayer services 
since 2004, but they "meet secretly at night, in the fields" for 
prayers.  Pastor Tua claimed on two occasions in 2004 and 2005, 
local authorities brought all of the Protestants in his commune 
to the village leader's home and demanded they return to their 
traditional beliefs. 
 
 
¶9. (SBU) The IEM also provided us with a list of other incidents 
centered in Hang Tro village, Pu Nhi Commune, East Dien Bien 
District, Dien Bien Province: 
 
 
-- March 15: District police banned the IEM from gathering and 
police pressured followers to sign a commitment stating they 
would not gather or follow Protestantism.  Police threatened to 
fine each worshiper VND 250,000 (USD 16). 
 
 
-- March 17: Police came to each IEM follower's home to pressure 
them to abandon their faith.  The police reportedly said that 
"believing in Christ is to believe in the United States." 
Police confiscated religious materials from Protestant followers. 
 
 
-- March 27: Commune police and authorities detained Pastor Sung 
Da Khua, fined him 500,000 VND (USD 31) and forced him to chop 
wood in lieu of cash payment. 
 
 
-- April 26: Police detained Pastor Khua for six days and forced 
him to cut more wood.  He was released after he signed a 
commitment that he would not hold any more gatherings in his 
home. 
 
 
-- May 25: Two IEM followers came to visit their brother's house 
in the congregation's area.  Police detained them and Pastor 
Khua for two days and fined them VND 500,000.  The two followers 
escaped; one of them was rearrested after 14 days and the other 
fled to the jungle.  Police reportedly punched Pastor Khua in 
the face during his confinement. 
 
 
Harassment elsewhere in the North 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Pastor Mai also claimed that in April, police in Lac 
Thien village, Minh Hoa commune, Minh Hoa District, Quang Binh 
Province confiscated Bibles from IEM follower Dinh Xuan Sam on 
three occasions.  Police also reportedly pressured followers to 
abandon their faith, noting that "Protestantism is a bad 
American religion."  On May 20, police in Quang Phuc Commune, 
Tien Lang District, Haiphong City disrupted prayer services and 
confiscated religious materials from Pastor Tran Van Kien. 
 
 
Pretending to be the ECVN 
------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) In discussing his efforts to legalize the IEM's 
activities in the Northwest Highlands, Pastor Tua noted that a 
Voice of Vietnam radio program "in 2005" announced Protestants 
would be allowed to register their congregations if they were 
members of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam North (ECVN). 
Subsequently, Pastor Tua and a number of other IEM leaders from 
the Northwest Highlands traveled to Hanoi to meet with the ECVN. 
 He said that they obtained certificates of ECVN membership for 
their congregations.  The IEM members presented the certificates 
to the local officials, but the officials confiscated the 
certificates.  Pastor Tua stated that he has met with local 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000643  003 OF 003 
 
 
officials on a number of occasions to request to register his 
church, but the officials will not instruct him on how to do so. 
 
 
 
Another View on the Northwest 
----------------------------- 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Separately, we spoke with Pastor Doan Trung Tin on 
June 15 to discuss the situation in the Northwest Highlands. 
Pastor Tin, an HCMC-based house church leader with extensive 
operations in the Central and Northwest Highlands has ties to 
both the SECV and ECVN.  Pastor Tin noted some improvement in 
overall religious freedom conditions for ethnic minorities in 
the Northwest Highlands.  In the past two months, the 
authorities have approved 20 new ECVN "meeting points" that 
serve ethnic Hmong.  He also noted that fewer ethnic Hmong are 
fleeing the Northwest because of religious persecution.  Other 
Hmong that fled to Laos have returned, noting that they had been 
"cheated" by those promoting the establishment of a "Hmong 
Kingdom" where, inter alia, they could practice their faith 
without official harassment.  However, when they arrived in 
Laos, their belongings were confiscated and they were forced to 
practice something other than Protestantism. 
 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) The IEM split in two in 2006 following a leadership 
dispute.  Pastor Mai and his branch of the IEM are among the 
most intransigent of the house church groups in Vietnam.  In an 
earlier meeting with us, Mai told us that he would refuse to 
comply with GVN legalization and registration requirements and 
that "he would consider Vietnam not to have religious freedom 
until he could evangelize all of Vietnam's 84 million citizens." 
 Pastor Mai briefly also joined the "8406 Bloc" dissident 
movement in 2006, but then resigned from the organization. 
 
 
¶14. (SBU) Binh Phuoc is one of the least progressive provinces 
on religious freedom in the HCMC Consular district.  But even in 
Binh Phuoc, the overall trend continues to be positive.  Aside 
from the IEM's (unauthorized) ordination service,  the group has 
has generally not had problems with large-scale religious 
gatherings, despite Pastor Mai's refusal to work with the 
authorities.  Unlike Pastor Mai, other HCMC-based house church 
leaders have sought a more cooperative relationship with 
provincial and national authorities.  By and large, these groups 
have found that the registration process for their churches has 
been faster and the police scrutiny of activities more limited. 
 
 
 
¶15. (SBU) The IEM's refusnik reputation and its decision to 
masquerade as the ECVN in the Northwest would do nothing to 
predispose the authorities in the Northwest to approve its 
registration requests.  However, the IEM's experience in 
Northern Vietnam largely parallels the difficulties that the 
ECVN and other Protestant groups have encountered, especially in 
rural areas.  And Dien Bien, the province in which the IEM has 
faced the most difficulty, is Vietnam's most retrograde province 
on religious freedom matters.  Elsewhere in the Northwest, our 
contacts point to modest forward progress.  If the experience of 
the Central Highlands is any guide, it should be possible to 
leverage progress in other provinces in the region to press for 
change even among those most resistant to change.  End Comment. 
WINNICK