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Viewing cable 08HOCHIMINHCITY1054, TRA VINH PROTESTANTS AND OFFICIALS EXCHANGE VIEWS ON

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08HOCHIMINHCITY1054 2008-12-04 11:45 2011-08-26 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Consulate Ho Chi Minh City
VZCZCXRO8342
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHNH
DE RUEHHM #1054/01 3391145
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 041145Z DEC 08
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5194
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 3462
RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY PRIORITY 5423
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 001054 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, DRL AWH, DRL/IRF, PRM/ANE AND PRM/A 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KIRF PHUM VM
SUBJECT: TRA VINH PROTESTANTS AND OFFICIALS EXCHANGE VIEWS ON 
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PROBLEMS 
 
REF: A) HCMC 1016 REF B) HCMC 0154 REF C) HCMC 0651 
 
HO CHI MIN 00001054  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: During a November 18 visit to Tra Vinh, 
PolOffs raised a number of issues reported by both recognized 
and unrecognized Protestant congregations over the past year 
with provincial officials.  These incidents of religious freedom 
violations represent a small number of the worst types of 
discrimination some religious groups still face in Vietnam, 
despite generally improving conditions for most denominations. 
While provincial officials readily listened to reports from 
PolOffs and representatives from the Southern Evangelical Church 
of Vietnam (SECV) and did not deny the occurrences, they also 
complained to PolOffs that Protestant groups are "unstable" and 
thus difficult to administer, often setting back the 
registration process by changing their affiliations multiple 
times.  Tra Vinh Protestants said authorities are deliberately 
delaying registering their congregations and complained about 
harassment and beatings at the hands of local police and 
Buddhist residents who are intolerant of different religious 
practices.  Tra Vinh Protestants also said many have been 
pressured to renounce their faith and wondered why no 
disciplinary action has been taken.  The incidents point out the 
need for continued rule of law reform so that all types of 
minority groups in Vietnam not only have the right to worship 
freely, but have those rights protected by local authorities in 
communities where intolerance and discrimination exist.  End 
Summary. 
 
Protestant Problems in Predominantly Buddhist Province 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
2. (SBU) Protestants are experiencing difficult times in the 
Delta province of Tra Vinh, where Theravada Buddhism is the 
predominant faith.  Within the past year, five Protestant groups 
-- two nationally recognized and three unrecognized -- have 
reported problems with local authorities.  The issues ranged 
from officials not accepting registration documents, disrupting 
services and calling pastors in for police questioning to 
harassment and physical attacks by local Buddhist residents 
which were witnessed by police and officials.  The churches 
accused local authorities of allowing the attacks on Protestants 
and supporting discriminatory attitudes against new religious 
groups.  (Note: Approximately 30 percent of Tra Vinh's 
population of 1.1 million residents is Khmer.  All but a few 
thousand Khmer follow Theravada Buddhism and life in the Khmer 
community revolves around the Theravada Buddhist pagodas.  End 
Note).  In some cases, severe harassment has led some 
Protestants to move away from problem districts and several have 
approached ConGen's Humanitarian Resettlement Section regarding 
the possibility of resettling in the U.S. 
 
3. (SBU) In a November 18 meeting between PolOffs and members of 
the Tra Vinh Provincial People's Committee, Committee for 
Religious Affairs (CRA) and Ethnic Minority Committee, PolOffs 
raised the incidents reported by the SECV, Vietnam 
Inter-Christian Fellowship (VCIF), the Full Gospel Church, the 
Life Gospel Church and the United Khmer Christian Church in the 
Duyen Hai, Tra Cu and Tieu Can districts of Tra Vinh. 
 
Tra Vinh Authorities Speak 
-------------------------- 
4. (SBU) In response, Tra Vinh officials admitted to PolOffs 
that some local officials did not correctly implement 
regulations and laws on religion.  However, the violations did 
not warrant punishment, they claimed.  They complained that 
Protestants are "not stable," and constantly change their 
denominations.  Entire congregations change from one affiliation 
to another and if these groups had "true faith," they would be 
registered, officials said. 
 
5. (SBU) Provincial authorities asserted that Protestant 
missionaries go to the poorest communities and give away money 
to attract followers, then Protestants from other groups come 
and give more money to join their group.  On the registration 
process, groups often file for registration but then change 
their affiliation before the registration process on the 
original application is completed, the officials declared.  If 
Protestant groups were "long-term and stable," they would be 
registered, authorities stated.  (Comment: While it is tempting 
to dismiss charges of "convert buying" out of hand, provincial 
authorities are not the only ones making such charges. 
Well-respected Protestant leaders from other parts of Vietnam 
have previously lodged identical complaints against other 
denominations.  End Comment.) 
 
6. (SBU) As for a series of alleged incidents of religious 
intolerance reported by the Full Gospel Church where local 
authorities have allegedly disrupted house church services, 
threatened congregants with fines if they did not renounce their 
faith and failed to protect several followers from two beatings 
 
HO CHI MIN 00001054  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
inflicted by local residents in January and May, provincial 
officials implied that the church leaders were unstable because 
they had changed affiliations from Southern Evangelical Church 
of Vietnam (SECV) to the Pentecostal to the Full Gospel Church. 
Officials said another pastor from the also-unrecognized Life 
Gospel Church organized literacy classes which should not have 
included religious material, so police questioned him in 2007, 
then publicly denounced him for violating the law in July.  Life 
Gospel Church members contended, however, that the pastor was 
denounced for practicing his religious beliefs, not violating 
regulations. 
 
7. (SBU) In a separate incident, a pastor of the United Khmer 
Christian Church in Tra Cu District reported she and 15 
congregants received death threats from locals who gathered 
around her house in September, 2008.  The pastor said the group 
began throwing stones at her house and turning away followers 
who arrived for services, while local police officials looked 
on.  In October, the reported harassment grew so severe that the 
pastor and her family fled to HCMC. 
 
8. (SBU) Provincial authorities claimed that the congregation's 
pastor used to be with the SECV, then switched to the VCIF, 
which ordained her, then filed registration documents.  The 
pastor then changed to the United Khmer Christian Church, 
causing the VCIF to cut ties with her.  (Note:  The United Khmer 
Christian Church affiliated with Central Highlands Pastor Nguyen 
Cong Chinh's Vietnamese People's Evangelical Fellowship(VPEF), 
an umbrella organization claiming to represent more than 60 
Protestant denominations and all 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam 
(Ref C).  The pastor's affiliation with VPEF may also be a 
reason authorities are particularly suspicious of her 
activities.  End note.) Aside from her denominational changes, 
officials said the pastor used a loudspeaker to preach causing 
neighbors to petition village authorities to put a stop to the 
nuisance.  Local authorities then warned her to stop disturbing 
her neighbors.  Later, police intervened after "an incident" 
took place at the pastor's home, the authorities added. 
 
SECV Confronts Tra Vinh Officials 
--------------------------------- 
9. (SBU) In a separate meeting with the head SECV pastor in Tra 
Vinh, over 15 deacons and followers, the Tra Vinh External 
Relations Director and the Vice Director of the Tra Vinh 
Internal Affairs Department, the pastor and others candidly 
complained about the state of affairs in Tra Vinh.  (Note:  The 
pastor is a member of the majority Kinh, but roughly two thirds 
of SECV members in Tra Vinh belong to the Khmer minority.  End 
note).  The pastor contrasted Tra Vinh to neighboring Vinh Long 
province where the SECV is apparently experiencing no 
difficulties registering congregations or operating according to 
government requirements. 
 
10. (SBU) In one instance, after the SECV had filed for 
registration of a local congregation, its leader had passed 
away.  The congregation notified the local CRA that his son had 
replaced him as the new leader.  The pastor noted that the 
congregation covered three communes and had to file the 
registration application twice.  The pastor claimed the 
authorities turned down the first application after a long 
"processing" time on the premise that the congregation's meeting 
place was not legal.  The pastor said he awaits a reply to the 
second application.  Authorities mentioned this situation to 
PolOffs during the meeting described above, highlighting the 
change in leadership as the reason the application was taking a 
long time to process. 
 
11. (SBU) The authorities at the provincial and commune level 
"keep passing the ball to each other," the pastor lamented.  The 
Tra Vinh CRA says it is the commune authorities' responsibility 
to issue the registration certificate while the commune 
authorities tell the pastor that they need a written approval 
from higher authorities, the pastor added. 
 
12. (SBU) Several of the assembled SECV followers complained 
about harassment and even beatings at the hands of local police 
and thugs, who were predominantly Khmer Buddhists.  When 
followers gather for prayer, "government people" are waiting at 
the entrance to put their names on a list, one parishioner said. 
 Later, those on the list are called in and pressured to 
renounce their faith, he added.  The pastor himself complained 
that local authorities orchestrated attacks against him and his 
followers two times in 2007.  Even his status as a member the 
Fatherland Front did not help, he said. 
 
13. (SBU) In one incident (reftels), after "rescuing" SECV 
believers from a blockade of local Buddhists, the police took 
them to the local station and put them in separate rooms for 
 
HO CHI MIN 00001054  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
questioning, the SECV pastor continued.  After the two hour 
session at the police station, over 200 Buddhists "at the chief 
monk's command" beat them in front of local officials, the 
pastor asserted.  (Note: At the conclusion of the meeting, the 
SECV pastor provided PolOffs Vietnamese language letters from 
police summoning parishioners for questioning and x-rays of 
people allegedly beaten.  End Note).  The pastor and the 
assembled SECV followers expressed frustration that the local 
Chairman of the People's Committee was later praised for his 
"good performance." 
 
14. (SBU) The provincial authorities in the meeting did not try 
to silence or take issue with the incidents raised by the SECV. 
In response to the complaints, the Tra Vinh Internal Affairs 
Vice Director, who is also the head of the Tra Vinh CRA, said 
the CRA will report to provincial leaders and organize a meeting 
so that representatives of the different religious groups can 
sit together and seek ways "to promote harmonious relations." 
In an aside to poloff, he added that "personality conflicts" 
were also driving these incidents.  The Internal Affairs Vice 
Director also stressed to the group that the problems with the 
SECV are not indicative of the larger religious freedom 
situation in Tra Vinh.  This prompted one parishioner to say 
that his family "is living in fear" because local thugs have 
gone unpunished. 
 
Comment: Religious Diversity Requires Rule of Law 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
15. (SBU) Although the Khmer community in Tra Vinh is strong 
locally, in the country as a whole the Khmer are a double 
minority, vastly outnumbered by the Kinh majority and by those 
who follow Mahayana Buddhism.  Complaints received from Khmer 
Protestants indicate pressure comes from their Khmer and Kinh 
Buddhist neighbors as well as from local officials who are 
extremely suspicious of Protestantism.  The fact that several 
Khmer Protestant leaders are former Theravada Buddhist leaders 
who converted to Protestantism while in refugee camps in 
Thailand in the early 1990's only darkens the cloud they are 
under.  Under these unusual circumstances, it is plausible that 
local officials might have incited mobs or taken a passive 
stance when thugs beat up Protestant converts.  In the past, the 
congregations have been reluctant to have Post raise their cases 
with the national CRA, preferring to handle their issues 
internally, but their leaders are increasingly frustrated with 
the GVN's inaction. 
 
16. (SBU) It is important to note that while these incidents are 
isolated and represent the worst-case scenarios in terms of 
religious freedom's lack of progress in some areas of Vietnam, 
they also point to a much larger issue--the GVN's inability to 
protect the rights of minorities, whether they are religious, 
ethnic or otherwise "different" from the majority.  Whether the 
CRA is sympathetic to the issues of these groups or not, they do 
not have the resources or authority to actually protect minority 
religious groups from discrimination and harassment by private 
citizens.  That responsibility lies with local officials and 
police.  The authorities' failure to do so in Tra Vinh again 
points to the serious need for rule of law reform at all levels 
of government in Vietnam. 
 
14. (SBU) This cable was co-written with Embassy Hanoi. 
FAIRFAX