VZCZCXRO1139
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHHI #0184/01 0500948
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 190948Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7191
INFO RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH 4309
RHEHNSC/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000184 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS AND DRL/AWH 
NSC FOR ELIZABETH PHU AND KURT TONG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV KIRF VM
 
SUBJECT: HUNDREDS ATTEND FUNERAL FOR VIETNAMESE DISSIDENT LEADER 
 
REF: 07 HANOI 1271 
 
HANOI 00000184  001.2 OF 002 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The February 16 funeral for Dr. Hoang Minh Chinh, 
a former Communist Party ideologue and GVN vice minister turned 
dissident and democracy activist, drew hundreds of relatives and 
supporters as well as a heavy police presence.  Many dissidents 
reported that they were prevented from attending and intimidated or 
harassed.  Embassy Poloff attended the ceremony and Ambassador 
Michalak issued a statement calling Chinh "a true patriot" and "a 
man of courage and dignity."  Full text of the Ambassador's 
statement is in para 9.  International media reported on Hoang Minh 
Chinh's death and funeral, most quoting from the Ambassador's 
statement, but to date no Vietnamese media outlets have covered 
either the death or funeral.  End summary. 
¶2. (SBU) Chinh, who spent five years in jail under French rule and 
later 10 years under the communist regime, died in a state-run 
military hospital in Hanoi on February 7 at the age of 87 after a 
long struggle with cancer.  His funeral took place at a nearby 
funeral house managed by the hospital.  Until his death, Chinh, once 
the director of Hanoi's Marx-Lenin Institute and a former Vice 
Minister of Education, remained the leader and Secretary General of 
the outlawed Democratic Party of Vietnam (DPV), which he co-founded 
in 2006 as a pro-democracy incarnation of a once legal 
post-independence political party.   Chinh also assisted in the 2006 
launch of the underground pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406. 
SOME DISSIDENTS ABLE TO ATTEND; OTHERS PREVENTED, HARASSED 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
¶3. (SBU) The day before the funeral, MFA called PolCouns to express 
the government's displeasure at Post's decision to send a 
representative to the funeral; as this decision had not been 
announced, it is unclear how the GVN knew about Post intentions. 
Days before the funeral, Embassy and ConGen received e-mails and 
calls from activists complaining of being blocked by security agents 
from attending the funeral and called in for interrogation sessions. 
 Tran Khue, a DPV leader in the South, was blocked from boarding a 
plane in HCMC and interrogated for eight hours. HCMC-based Bloc 8406 
leader Do Nam Hai was also allegedly prevented from going to the 
airport.  AmCit and Vietnamese-American doctor Nhan Nguyen, who 
reportedly treated Chinh for cancer in the United States in 2005 and 
had come to Hanoi for the funeral, told Post she was kicked out of 
her hotel room the day before the event and put on a plane out of 
the country by security officials. 
¶4. (SBU) Recently-released writer and journalist Tran Khai Thanh 
Thuy called the Embassy to say she was interrogated at her home for 
several hours the day before the funeral and threatened with 
re-arrest, if she attended.  She told us that a dissident writer 
colleague in Haiphong, Nguyen Xuan Nghia (a member of the Bloc 8406 
Executive Board), was also interrogated and warned not to attend 
lest a motor vehicle accident come his way.  Youth leader Nguyen 
Trung told us there were several others who were prevented from 
attending the funeral.  Pham Hong Son told poloff he was told at the 
funeral home entrance to pay his respects quickly and leave. 
WATCHED BY POLICE, HUNDREDS ATTEND POLITICALLY CHARGED FUNERAL 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
¶5. (SBU) Embassy poloff attended the tense but relatively orderly 
February 16 Hanoi funeral ceremony for Chinh, presenting a flower 
wreath from the Embassy in keeping with Vietnamese tradition.  Chinh 
was eulogized and laid to rest with three to four hundred family, 
friends and fellow democracy activists in attendance while scores of 
plain clothes GVN security agents who were present videotaped 
participants in the ceremony. 
¶6. (SBU) Chinh's eulogists included well-known lawyer and former 
statesman Tran Lam, who was one of the defense lawyers for 
high-profile dissidents Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan at their 
2007 trial.  Lam said that Chinh "abandoned communism with the heart 
of a patriotic intellectual."  Chinh's oldest daughter noted that 
her father had been jailed by the French for five years and then 
later the "Communists" for 10 years.  She played a message Chinh 
recorded before he died, in which he said with a weakened voice: "I 
wish you success in the struggle for freedom and independence and 
happiness for all Vietnamese people." 
¶7. (SBU) Chinh's body laid in a closed coffin with a viewing window, 
for mourners to file past and pay respect, and he was later 
cremated, in a ceremony conducted by monks of the outlawed Unified 
Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV). Chinh had requested that a 
dissident colleague, UBCV leader Thich Quang Do conduct his funeral 
and cremate him in Buddhist tradition.  Do, unable to attend due to 
house arrest restrictions in HCMC, sent one of his deputies to 
conduct the ceremony. 
¶8. (SBU) At the ceremony, poloff noted the presence of a number of 
political activists, including Dr. Pham Hong Son (a dissident jailed 
for four years in 2002 for translating and disseminating a document 
on the State Department website, "What is Democracy?"); Nguyen Viet 
Trung, a HCMC-based youth leader and DPV associate, who is being 
forced into military conscription in the near future; Mrs. Tran Thi 
Le, the mother of jailed lawyer Le Thi Cong Nhan; and Mrs. Bui Kim 
Thanh, a land rights activist and current P1 visa applicant who was 
 
HANOI 00000184  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
committed to a psychiatric hospital in late 2006, before being 
released under USG pressure in the summer of 2007.  According to 
media reports, Thanh briefly scuffled with police while trying to 
unfurl a banner at the funeral; however, she was released after 
Chinh's family intervened.  ConGen HCMC later spoke with Thanh and 
confirmed the incident.  A number of activists conveyed thanks to 
poloff for the Embassy's representation and complained of ongoing 
police harassment and scrutiny. 
AMBASSADOR MICHALAK ISSUES STATEMENT 
------------------------------------ 
¶9. (SBU) Ambassador Michalak, who had visited Chinh in the hospital 
in December, issued the following statement on February 15 that was 
widely covered in the international media: 
"I was saddened to learn of the death of Hoang Minh Chinh and would 
like to express my deepest condolences to his family.  Hoang Minh 
Chinh was a true patriot and proud Vietnamese.  I had the honor of 
meeting him in December and was able to express my respect for his 
lifetime of effort on behalf of his beloved country and its people. 
Hoang Minh Chinh battled the cancer that eventually took his life 
with the same dignity and courage with which he fought for the 
rights of all Vietnamese.  A key leader in Vietnam's struggle for 
independence, he continued that struggle throughout his life to have 
the voices of his fellow citizens heard. It is my profound hope that 
his legacy will live on and bear witness to Hoang Minh Chinh's 
undying love and commitment to the people of Vietnam." 
¶10. (U) International wire services reported on Hoang Minh Chinh's 
death and funeral, most quoting from the Ambassador's statement.  A 
number of western journalists have also reportedly requested an MFA 
response to the Ambassador's message.  To date, no Vietnamese media 
outlets have covered either the death or funeral of Hoang Minh 
Chinh, nor has the MFA issued any kind of reaction to the 
Ambassador's statement. 
 
COMMENT: PASSING OF A GENERATION 
-------------------------------- 
¶11. (SBU) Dr. Hoang Minh Chinh leaves a unique legacy as a hero of 
the independence movement who later became a senior member and 
ideologue of the Communist Party, achieving the rank of 
Vice-Minister, before splitting with the Party in the 1960s over 
what he called the inevitable limitations and failings of communism. 
 His several terms in prison did not sway his views, and he became 
something of a father figure for political dissidents and the 
underground movement for multi-party democracy.  It remains to be 
seen who from the next generation will take over the reins of the 
outlawed Democratic Party of Vietnam; what is clear is that the 
Ministry of Public Security will be watching very closely. 
MICHALAK