VZCZCXRO8206
OO RUEHDT RUEHPB
DE RUEHHM #0651/01 1981205
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O P 161205Z JUL 08
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4654
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 3138
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 4882

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 000651 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, DRL/AWH AND DRL/IRF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KIRF PREL PGOV VM
SUBJECT: INVESTIGATING PASTOR NGUYEN CONG CHINH'S ALLEGATIONS OF 
ABUSE 
 
REF: HANOI 279 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000651  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, a Mennonite Pastor 
from Kon Tum province who now lives in Gia Lai province, is the 
founder of the Vietnamese People's Evangelical Fellowship 
(VPEF), an umbrella organization claiming to represent more than 
60 Protestant denominations and all 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam. 
 VPEF, though religious in name, also has politically-oriented 
objectives.  Pastor Chinh has repeatedly reported police 
harassment, but post has often found these reports to be 
inaccurate or misleading, leading us to consider Pastor Chinh a 
sometimes unreliable interlocutor.  Therefore, we are skeptical 
about Pastor Chinh's latest report that he was beaten by the 
police on July 12.  Pastor Chinh can be prone to exaggerated 
claims of abuse, especially insofar as he equates resistance to 
his political activities with religious persecution.  One 
Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV) pastor outright 
contradicts Chinh's version of the July 12 events.  Pastor 
Chinh's unorthodox methods have led some mainstream religious 
figures to shun or criticize him, and VPEF's political overtones 
have raised concerns within the Government of Vietnam (GVN). 
End summary. 
 
RECENT ALLEGATIONS OF POLICE ABUSE 
---------------------------------- 
¶2. (SBU) Pastor Chinh contacted post on July 13 to report that 
Gia Lai provincial police beat him and his adopted son after he 
refused to continue attending police interrogations or "working 
sessions" on July 8.  Upon reporting to the local hospital, 
Pastor Chinh said that he was x-rayed, but returned home without 
treatment for fear of the numerous police who had followed him 
to the hospital.  Pastor Y-Bon-Nie from the VPEF made the same 
allegations and provided pictures of a bleeding Pastor Chinh. 
The email report was also sent to the United Montagnard 
Christian Church (Greensboro, NC), the Billy Graham Evangelical 
Foundation, the online organization Queme, USCIRF, the White 
House, and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.  Thus 
far, only www .doi-thoai.com and Radio Free Asia have posted the 
story to the internet, and only in Vietnamese. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Post is following-up on these allegations with both the 
Office of External Relations in Ho Chi Minh City and our 
contacts in the Central Highlands.  A usually reliable Southern 
Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV) pastor denies Pastor 
Chinh's allegation, reporting instead that Pastor Chinh was 
involved in a scrap with several young ethnic minority men after 
insulting them.  He suggested that the police only became 
involved to stop the brawl.  However, this contact is known to 
have a particularly strained relationship with Pastor Chinh and 
has been prone to overstating his case against him. 
 
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATIONS 
---------------------- 
¶4. (SBU) Pastor Chinh is a Mennonite Pastor in Kon Tum Province 
and the President of the Vietnamese People's Evangelical 
Fellowship (VPEF).  Pastor Chinh announced the establishment of 
the VPEF on 30 July 2006 in Gia Lai province.  He claims the 
organization is an umbrella group for more than 60 Protestant 
denominations encompassing all 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam. 
According to Pastor Chinh, the VPEF carries out "charitable 
works" such as transferring money from overseas organizations 
and individuals to family members of ethnic minority prisoners. 
 
¶5. (SBU) In March 2008 post political officer met with a 
delegation from VPEF, including Pastor Chinh, Pastor Dinh Thanh 
Truong (General Secretary), and Pastor Bui Van Tan (Secretary). 
Pastor Chinh claimed that the group has more than 1,000 pastoral 
members representing 34 ethnic groups, and boasted of membership 
numbers in the hundreds of thousands or millions (Note: other 
Post contacts in the Central Highlands have assessed that there 
cannot realistically be more than 400 Protestant pastors in 
Vietnam. End note.)  Pastors Truong and Tan were less bombastic 
than Pastor Chinh, focusing instead on VPEF's practical 
achievements in terms of education and child support. 
 
POLITICAL ACTIVITIES 
-------------------- 
¶6. (SBU) Pastor Chinh is signatory to Bloc 8406's Manifesto on 
Democracy and Human Rights, as well as a member of Monk Thich 
Thien Minh's (member of unsanctioned United Buddhist Church of 
Vietnam) "Former Political and Religious Prisoner's 
Association."  Pastor Chinh also accompanied his close 
associate, controversial Mennonite Pastor and political 
dissident Nguyen Hong Quang, on a visit to human rights lawyers 
and high-profile political dissidents Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi 
Cong Nhan in prison in March 2008 (reftel).  However, Pastor 
Chinh later claimed that Pastor Quang 'denounced him' to the 
police. 
 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000651  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) Pastor Chinh reports that he plans to build a "real 
civil society" through the establishment of a VPEF Central 
Committee and 17 commissions covering a myriad of issues.  The 
structure he advocates almost exactly parallels that of the 
Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF), a Communist Party-affiliated 
mass organization charged with carrying out and rallying support 
for the Communist Party's social and civic priorities.  Any such 
rival organization is sure to be understood by GVN authorities 
to be an inflammatory and blatantly political act. 
 
QUESTIONS OF CREDIBILITY AND ALLEGATIONS OF ABUSE 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
¶8. (SBU) Pastor Chinh regularly reports persecution and/or 
harassment by the police to Consulate General HCMC.  While some 
of these reports appear to be based at least somewhat in truth, 
others do not.  The following is an illustrative list of reports 
from Pastor Chinh over the past four years, and corresponding 
follow-up actions by post: 
 
-- (SBU) Pastor Chinh's wife reported in May 2008 that the 
pastor had been detained after 60 policemen searched their 
house, taking away all written material and Pastor Chinh's 
computer equipment.  She also alleged that the police had 
physically constrained her and slapped her face.  Although one 
Post source among several we contacted (aside from those 
informed directly by Pastor Chinh) was able to confirm this 
report, that source suggested an early June date for the raid. 
Post's contact reported that the police had searched Pastor 
Chinh's house and confiscated many documents relating to the 
VPEF and the GVN.  In addition, Post's contact alleged that many 
of the confiscated VPEF documents (Pastor Chinh's dossier, 
certificates for member pastors, and organizational documents 
claiming massive membership numbers) were forgeries.  Meanwhile, 
the GVN denied the assault on the Chinhs ever even occurred, 
stating that only a small number of policemen had come to ask 
Chinh to report to the police station in order to register his 
group. 
 
-- (SBU) On 25 June 2008, Pastor Chinh contacted Post claiming 
that he has been required by the police to attend "working 
sessions" every day from 0800-1700 for the past 50 days, and has 
been completely isolated from his church members.  Several Post 
contacts confirmed that Pastor Chinh has been called for 
questioning each of the past 60 days; however, they lacked 
further details. 
 
-- (SBU) In 2006, Chinh reported that a Mennonite Pastor A Shua 
was beheaded by the police.  However, ConGen discovered that A 
Shua was not Protestant but rather Catholic, and he died of 
cancer rather than anything connected with the police. 
 
-- (SBU) In Nov 2004, Post received a letter from Pastor Chinh 
alleging that seven recruits in Kon Tum had been tortured and 
forced to renounce their faith.  Post contacts confirmed the 
questioning of seven individuals associated with Chinh, though 
they were allowed to return home each night, and contacts were 
not aware of any police campaign to force renunciations. 
 
-- (SBU) In Oct 2004, Chinh claimed that police in Pleiku 
detained four Mennonite pastors and forced their renunciation 
after four days of intense pressure.  A contact in Pleiku 
reported that the pastors were not Mennonites but members of the 
officially-recognized SECV, and no police brutality was reported. 
 
-- (SBU) In Oct 2004, based on a Human Rights Watch report 
alleging the destruction of Pastor Chinh's unofficial Mennonite 
house church/residence, Post confirmed that the church/residence 
had in fact been torn down on September 24, 2004. 
 
CONTRADICTORY VIEWS ON CHINH'S ACTIVITIES 
----------------------------------------- 
¶9. (SBU) Several Post contacts in the house church community 
expressed skepticism about Pastor Chinh's claims of harassment, 
suggesting to Post that he often exaggerates his difficulties. 
A reliable contact in the GVN-recognized SECV reported that most 
Protestant leaders had long ago severed contact with Chinh 
because of his "poor moral behavior" and political activism. 
One of Post's contacts also harbored serious doubts about 
Chinh's credibility, alleging that Chinh is neither a real 
pastor nor has ever received any theological training and had 
similar doubts about the qualifications of other VPEF members. 
He went on to describe the VPEF as a few dozen "rejects" who 
grouped together after being rejected by other denominations on 
moral grounds.  Other Post contacts expressed their displeasure 
at Pastor Chinh's modus operandi.  His blatant 
inter-denominational recruiting is galling to other Protestant 
groups.  In addition, his overt politicization of the VPEF 
creates difficulties with the authorities for apolitical 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000651  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
denominations. 
 
 
COMMENT: 
-------- 
¶10. (SBU) Given the unreliable nature of Pastor Chinh's reports, 
we are forced to conclude that Pastor Chinh is likely more 
interested in attracting attention to himself than in improving 
conditions for religious adherents in Vietnam.  Pastor Chinh is 
an inflammatory figure in the Central Highlands house church 
community and the combination of his sometimes outrageous claims 
and his political activities makes him a particularly maddening 
figure to more mainstream religious activists.  Those pastors 
who lead registered churches and work within the present 
government framework find Pastor Chinh's antics particularly 
disruptive to continuing progress towards religious freedom. 
While many of Post's most reliable contacts in the house church 
community have denounced Chinh as unreliable and self-absorbed, 
their frustrations with his political activities may have 
spilled over into ad hominem attacks on Pastor Chinh himself. 
That said, Post's own experience shows that Pastor Chinh's 
reports are often unreliable and must be thoroughly investigated. 
 
¶11. (SBU) Pastor Chinh's political grandstanding is undoubtedly 
objectionable to the GVN.  The VPEF parallel committees to the 
VFF will be perceived as a direct challenge to GVN authority and 
are likely to incur the same sort of repression experienced by 
political activists.  In addition, a contact suggested that the 
GVN finds Chinh's inflated membership numbers threatening, given 
GVN's long-standing preference to understate the size and 
influence of the Protestant community. 
 
¶12.  This cable was drafted by HCMC summer intern John Vrolyk 
and was coordinated with Embassy Hanoi. 
FAIRFAX