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III. REPRESSION OF DISSIDENT VOICES

The Vietnamese government tolerates little public criticism of the Communist Party or statements calling for pluralism, democratic reforms, or a free press.3 A common refrain by officials quoted in the state-controlled media is the need to rid the country of "hostile forces" and thwart "peaceful evolution" (a term used to deride those who allegedly seek to undermine or discredit communism by employing "Western" values of democracy and human rights). An example is the statement by CPV ideology chief Huu Tho in 1999: "Hostile forces from outside collaborate with bad, opportunistic elements from inside seeking to transform and derail socialism."4

Despite Vietnam's launching in 1986 of "doi moi," the economic renovation process, international donors to Vietnam remain frustrated with the slow rate of economic reform.5 Party leaders seem more intent on silencing dissent and retaining control, however, than addressing the economic and human rights concerns raised by donors or by Vietnamese dissidents and rural farmers brave enough to speak out. Indicating the mindset of the conservatives in power, in February 2000 Party General Secretary Le Kha Phieu denounced "imperialism" for widening the gap between rich and poor countries and stated: "We are renovating, but we are determined not to change color. The difficulties and challenges will not force us to diverge from the path of socialism."6
Vietnam's economic reform program has slowed not only because of the Asian economic crisis but also because of splits within the Communist Party's leadership, which is clearly uncertain as to how far it should open up the country to the West. The nineteen-member Politburo has been unable to reach consensus on such key issues as whether to move forward with a trade agreement with the U.S that has been stalled since July 1999. The Politburo has been paralyzed by the divide between those who advocate economic reforms along the lines proposed by the international donors and those who favor a more conservative and ideological approach, which is less threatening to their own assets as well as their political interests. There is concern that economic reform will jeopardize the positionof state-owned enterprises which will find it more difficult to compete with foreign companies. Political hardliners also fear that proposed economic reforms could weaken the Party's control at a time when it faces increasing rural unrest due to corruption and the widening economic gap between rural and urban dwellers.

Corruption remains a serious and widespread problem and has been repeatedly raised as an obstacle to development by the World Bank and Vietnam's bilateral donors. In response, the government has taken various actions, including highly publicized purges of allegedly corrupt officials, but these have so far failed to convince either domestic or international critics of the government's sincerity. In early 1999 the Communist Party discussed the need for a "self-criticism campaign" to root out corruption and, in May 1999, CPV Secretary General Le Kha Phieu ordered the anti-graft campaign to begin in earnest. The same month, the country's largest corruption trial, the Minh Phung-Epco trial, began in Ho Chi Minh City against defendants accused of defrauding the government of VND 5,186 billion (approximately U.S. $350 million). This concluded in August 1999, with the conviction of seventy-seven defendants, four sentenced to death.

The corruption purges continued and affected senior officials in the hierarchy, several of whom were dismissed in November 1999 for mismanagement, including Deputy Prime Minister Ngo Xuan Loc, former central bank governor Cao Sy Kien, and former customs chief Phan Van Dinh. Another 1,500 officials have been suspended or disciplined since the anti-corruption campaign began.7

Many of the top leaders targeted in the purges, however, were allied with those advocating economic reforms, such as Premier Phan Van Khai. Most hardline conservatives within the Party have been largely unaffected and appear virtually unaccountable. The sincerity of the anti-corruption campaign was questioned in a January 2000 article in the Sai Gon Gia Phong newspaper, which reported that only a small fraction of the Party's membership had been affected by the purge.8 Fears have also been expressed that those who speak out against corrupt officials as part of the anti-graft campaign may later come under attack and be labeled as dissidents themselves.

From 1975 until the late 1990s, many of those who opposed or criticized the government or called for pluralism and democratic reforms were imprisoned or sent to re-education camps. Nowadays, however, the Vietnamese government appears keen to avoid the international opprobrium that such overt repression provokes and to prefer to use other, less obvious means to try and silence key political and religious dissidents. Those who go too far in criticizing or confronting the government, however, still risk being subjected to house arrest, administrative detention or prison sentences.

It remains extremely difficult to estimate the number of those currently imprisoned in Vietnam because of their political or religious beliefs. The government rarely discloses information about them and does not allow independent monitoring of its prisons. However, Colonel Do Nam, director of the Public Security Ministry's Prisons Management Department, stated in March, 2000 that Vietnam's prison population included more than one hundred people convicted of crimes against national security alone.9 This figure could include many people imprisoned for their political orreligious beliefs, while other such prisoners may also be serving sentences imposed under different laws. According to Col. Nam, 78,000 people were then imprisoned in Vietnam, including 70,000 in forty-eight prisons under the Public Security Ministry, 7,000 in provincial detention camps, and 1,000 in Ministry of Defense Prisons.10 While as many as seven thousand prisoners were expected to be released in the amnesty scheduled for April 30, at the time this report was prepared, it was unclear whether these would include political prisoners, and, if so, how many. Previous amnesties, which have mostly resulted in the release of ordinary criminal prisoners, suggested it would be unlikely that a significant number of political prisoners would be among those freed.

Monitoring of Former Political Prisoners

Under Article 30 of Vietnam's criminal code, people convicted of national security offenses can be placed under the supervision and surveillance of local authorities for a probationary period of up to five years after release from prison. Formerly imprisoned political dissidents and re-education camp inmates, including religious dissidents, appear to be routinely subjected to such monitoring.

Many former political prisoners, particularly those who attempt to speak out, are regularly summoned for questioning by police or local officials. Their publishing rights are denied, friends and neighbors are discouraged from meeting them, their mail is intercepted, and their telephone lines are blocked. Others are forced into retirement or lose their positions in the government. Many have been denied household registry documents, which are required not only to legally reside in one's home, but to lawfully hold a job, attend a state school, receive public health care, travel, vote, or formally challenge administrative abuses. Among the political prisoners released in 1998 who were denied these residence permits were Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, Thich Quang Do, Thich Tue Sy, and Thich Khong Tanh. Thich Nhat Ban, a Buddhist monk released in October 1998, commented that he has been released from a "small prison only to enter a larger one."

Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, a leading dissident, has lived under close and constant surveillance since his release from prison in 1998. Police officers regularly visit his house, particularly when he has visitors. An endocrinologist and the first Amnesty International member in Vietnam, Dr. Que has spent much of the last twenty years in prison. His most recent period of imprisonment began when he was arrested in June 1990 after making a public appeal for political pluralism and respect for human rights; he was then held in Xuan Loc labor camp in Dong Nai province. When he was released from prison in 1998, he decided to remain in Ho Chi Minh City rather than leave the country. Yet, he remains unable to work because the authorities have not restored his license to practice as a medical doctor, and he is unable to travel because he has not been issued a residence permit. His neighbors and friends are regularly warned by the authorities to stay away from him, further isolating him. His telephone connection has been blocked and his Internet account suspended since May 1999, when he issued a communiqué by E-mail calling for democratic reforms. Despite this constant harassment, Que still manages to make public statements from time to time.

Stifling Dissent from within the Party

Government authorities are particularly sensitive to opposition from within the Vietnamese Communist Party, which ranges from those who completely reject Communism, to those who wish to retain a socialist system but seek to reform the Party from within, to those who criticize the Party primarily because they are frustrated with its endemic corruption.

A highly respected retired general and former chief of the Communist Party Ideology and Culture Committee, Tran Do was expelled from the Party in January 1999 because of his open criticism of it. He is now largely off limits to foreign press and diplomats. Since his expulsion, his phone line has been monitored and the connection often cut. In addition, his house has been placed under surveillance by undercover security police, who also follow him when he leaves it. In April 1999, the government turned down a request by Tran Do to be allowed to publish a privatenewspaper (See Appendix 1, Tran Do's application to publish a newspaper and the response from the Ministry of Culture and Information).

Tran Do has issued periodic critiques of the Party since 1995, but from 1998 they became much more pointed, and he issued a series of open letters to the Party leadership challenging its concentration of power and calling for democratic reforms and freedom of expression.

Popular novelist Duong Thu Huong, detained in 1991 for seven months for "sending seditious documents abroad" (that is, the manuscript for her novel) is also considered a threat because of her connections to the Party and the fact that several of her novels, which are critical of the government, have been translated into English and widely sold abroad. The authorities have refused to issue her a passport, making it impossible for her to travel abroad to attend international writers' conferences to which she has been invited.

Nguyen Ho, a former prominent Party member, war hero, and founder of the Club of Former Resistance Fighters, has also called publicly for greater democracy and the need to expose abuses within the Party. Since February 1996, he has been held under unofficial house arrest: police are stationed at his house to bar all visitors. Like other dissidents his telephone line is cut. He was previously held under house arrest from September 1990 to May 1993, and again since February 1996.

Hoang Minh Chinh, a former high-ranking Party cadre and former director of the Marxist-Leninist Institute, was detained in Hanoi in 1995 for allegedly propagating "anti-socialist propaganda." This was the third time he had been detained for criticizing Party policy. Today, he remains under heavy surveillance in Hanoi, with his telephone line jammed when he receives international calls.

After Tran Do's expulsion from the Party, other senior Party members and war heroes such as Col. Pham Que Duong and Hoang Huu Nhan made public statements in support of Tran Do. The Party Central Committee then passed a resolution in February 1999 stating that it would punish or criticize those who disseminate their own opinions or distribute dissenting views.11 Broadcast on national radio, the CPV Central Committee resolution stated, in part, that:

Party committees at all levels should monitor the political and ideological awareness developments of Party officials and members, regularly provide information to and assist one another in order to create consensus on the Party's viewpoints and line; correct improper viewpoints in a timely manner; strictly criticize and punish those Party members who have infringed the organizational principles of the Party who after being assisted by the Party organization keep disseminating their own opinions or distributing documents contrary to the platform, the statute and the resolutions of the Party.12

In a further effort to thwart opposition from within the Party, in May 1999, Politburo member Pham The Duyet outlined more than a dozen activities outlawed for Party members, including issuing statements contrary to the Party platform, and organizing people to lodge complaints or join demonstrations.13

Silencing Critical Poets and Intellectuals

Also under pressure and scrutiny are outspoken critics of the government from the academic and intellectual communities. Included in this group are mathematician Phan Dinh Dieu, geologist Nguyen Thanh Giang, journalist Vu Huy Cuong, writer Hoang Tieng, and the so-called Dalat intellectuals - biologist and writer Ha Si Phu, poet Bui Minh Quoc, and writer Tieu Dao Bao Cu. Intellectuals are highly respected in Vietnamese society, so statements they make or books or poetry they write are accorded considerable status and receive careful attention. Many have previously been jailed or placed under house arrest or administrative detention for expressing views critical of the government.

Geologist Nguyen Thanh Giang, who has openly advocated human rights, multiparty democracy, and peaceful reforms, was detained by police for three days in March 1998 and then released only after going on hunger strike. A month later he was summoned to the Cultural Police Headquarters and advised to stop criticizing the Party's polices. Then, on March 4, 1999, he was arrested and charged under Article 205a of the Criminal Code for "abusing democratic rights." After widespread international protest Giang was released in May 1999. He continues to be required to report regularly to police and prohibited from traveling outside his local neighborhood in Hanoi without permission. Public security police have searched Giang's house on several occasions, such as in October 1999, when they confiscated his computer and ordered him to the police station for several days of interrogation (See Appendix 2, Letter of Protest to the Government from Nguyen Thanh Giang). Giang has issued a number of public letters over the years, denouncing "red capitalists" within the Communist Party and violations of human rights, and calling for "real democracy in which people from both the top and the bottom would equally benefit."

After dissident journalist Vu Huy Cuong wrote a letter in January 1999 supporting Tran Do he was called in for interrogation by the police. Vu Huy Cuong has been a long-time government critic. For most of the last thirty years he has either been in prison or under constant police surveillance. After opposing the Party's Maoist stance in the early 1960s, Cuong was fired from newspapers where he worked, was imprisoned in 1967, and then was exiled to Ha Nam Ninh province from 1973-78. He has been banned from publishing or taking jobs with the government or as a teacher since 1980.

In April 1999, police summoned writer Hoang Tien and Vu Huy Cuong for questioning in conjunction with Nguyen Thanh Giang's arrest. During April alone Hoang Tien underwent seven interrogation sessions, from April 12-14 and again on April 20; Vu Huy Cuong's interrogations began on April 12 and continued on a daily basis for several days. In late 1999 the police were continuing to visit Vu Huy Cuong almost every day. Hoang Tien is a well known writer who has been an outspoken advocate for democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. He issued his own reports during the 1996 trial of dissident Ha Si Phu, when he protested that the Vietnamese press was not allowed to cover the arrest and trial but instead "could only offer brief bits of news according to what the authorities handed down."

Writer Tieu Dao Bao Cu and poet Bui Minh Quoc were each placed under house arrest for two years in their homes in Dalat under Administrative Detention Directive 31/CP (see section III below). The official detention period lasted from September 1997 through October 1999. The authorities continue to keep them under surveillance, however, and their telephones are disconnected, although Bui Minh Quoc has been able to travel in the North since his release from detention.

Bui Minh Quoc was originally arrested in 1997 on the grounds of being in possession of "reactionary literature"- in fact, fellow dissident Vu Thu Hien's novel, Darkness at Midday. The arrest, made at a Dalat bus stop, took place on his return from a visit to Ho Chi Minh City. His conditions and treatment worsened in May 1998, following the appearance in Vietnam and elsewhere of his work, Poetic Flashes in the Interrogation Chamber. At that time he was subjected to intensive questioning and his home was ransacked by public security officials, who took away further reading and writing materials.

While under administrative detention, Bui Minh Quoc was made to live in near total isolation. Police were posted outside his home and generally he could not venture further than the confines of his house and garden. His telephone line was disconnected by the security authorities several months prior to his being placed under house arrest in order to prevent him from contacting people outside Vietnam or giving interviews to western news media. All mail to and from Quoc was intercepted. Money sent by relatives did not reach him. His home was searched by public security officials on several occasions during which books and writing materials were confiscated. On several occasions Quoc was subject to questioning and interrogation, usually of a very tedious and repetitive nature. Written requests he submitted to the police to take his son to school were rejected. His wife, a former journalist at the state-operated television and broadcasting station in Dalat, had to quit her job because of the circumstances surrounding her husband's arrest. Consequently, the family was deprived of their normal means of income, and turned to making and selling small hand-puppets to earn a living.

Biologist and writer Ha Si Phu was arrested in December 1995 and charged with "revealing state secrets" for being in possession of a copy of Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet's letter to the Politburo calling for reforms. After trial in August 1996, he was imprisoned until December 1996. He was then placed under house arrest on an unofficial basis when he returned to his home in Dalat. Ha Si Phu was treated even more harshly than the two other dissidents in Dalat, Bui Minh Quoc and Bao Cuu. In April 1999 police searched Ha Si Phu's house, confiscated his computer, printer, and diskettes, and fined him 500,000 Vietnam dong (about US $35) for violating the "publishing law." This incident reportedly was spurred by Ha Si Phu writing a letter to Tran Do, congratulating him for being expelled from the CPV. Ha Si Phu's condition of informal house arrest remains in place.

Controlling Rural Unrest

Not only urban or intellectual dissidents, but also farmers in the countryside, who constitute the majority of Vietnam's population, are denied their fundamental rights to free assembly, expression, and association. Isolated incidents of peasant protest in the provinces have occurred since the late 1980s, and farmers occasionally gather before sessions of the National Assembly in Hanoi to lodge complaints. However, under Vietnam's laws, farmers may be sanctioned if they publicly air their grievances or try to form independent associations to represent their interests.

In 1997 serious rural unrest erupted in Dong Nai and Thai Binh provinces, sparked by farmers' economic grievances and protests against corruption by local officials. In Thai Binh, some of the demonstrations turned violent, leading the government to dispatch more than 1200 special police as well as a high-level delegation led by Politburo member Pham The Duyet. More than fifty police and provincial officials were arrested at the time, as were more than sixty protestors, most of whom were probably detained under Administrative Detention Decree 31/CP. The media was prevented from traveling to the areas for more than five months; journalists still are not able to travel freely in the districts where the protests occurred. In March 1998, at least nine local people were convicted for disturbing public order during the January clashes in Dong Nai. In July 1998, the People's Court in Thai Binh sentenced more than thirty local people, whom the government termed "extremists," to prison terms: they were said to have incited people to disrupt public order during the unrest in the province in 1997. In Thai Binh more than 1500 local officials were eventually disciplined for corruption and because of ongoing unrest, eighty-four party members were expelled, and thirty local officials or cadres were sentenced to prison terms.

Despite this clampdown, reports of sporadic protests by local farmers and disgruntled local officials who lost their jobs continue to be received. It remains difficult to monitor the extent of rural unrest because of restrictions on travel by foreign journalists, but since 1997 peasant protests have been reported not only in Thai Binh but also in southern Dong Nai province, where farmers protested evictions by the military; Ha Tay Province near Hanoi, the site of ongoing dissatisfaction over land rights and corruption; as well as Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa, Quang Ngai, and Bac Ninh provinces. The government's harsh response to the rural unrest makes clear both its determination tomaintain stability and the general absence in Vietnam of basic protections for the individual against arbitrary detention and violations of rights to expression, association and assembly.14

Persecution of Religious Dissidents

Religious groups and churches that are not officially sanctioned or controlled by the government continue to be perceived as posing a challenge to government authority because of their potential for attracting large followings and thus, for competing with the Party's mass organizations. A 1998 report by Abdelfattah Amor, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, underscored the need for Vietnam to implement reforms to safeguard religious freedoms. However, the government continues to require that all religious activities be registered by the state, to restrict travel by religious leaders, and to censor the contents of their sermons and speeches.

In April 1999, the government issued a new decree on religion, No. 26/1999/ND-CP.15 While purporting to guarantee freedom of religion, the decree provides that all religious organizations "used to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam," as well as undefined "superstitious activities," are to be punished.16 The decree provides for extensive government regulation of religious organizations, and includes provisions that religious seminaries and appointments of religious leaders be approved by the government.17 The decree also bans religious organizations that conduct activities contrary to "structures authorized by the prime minister."18 These provisions appear to be directed against religious leaders who have taken critical stands against the government and called for peaceful democratic reforms.

Religious leaders from the banned Unified Church of Vietnam (UBCV) face ongoing persecution for their long history of confronting the country's rulers on matters of principle. The UBCV was the main Buddhist organization in south and central Vietnam prior to 1975, when administration of its properties and institutions were taken over by the government.19 In 1981 the UBCV was dissolved by the government and replaced with the state-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church. Since that time tensions have risen steadily between the government and the UBCV, which does not recognize the authority of the Vietnam Buddhist Church, particularly during the 1990s when the government imprisoned many monks affiliated with the UBCV.

The Supreme Patriarch of the UBCV, Thich Huyen Quang, eighty-one, is currently being detained without trial under pagoda arrest in Nghia Hanh district in Quang Ngai province. He was first arrested in April 1977, then again in 1982 for calling for official recognition of the UBCV. From his forced internal exile in central Quang Ngai province, he issued a declaration in November 1993 calling for democratic reform and respect for human rights. In December 1994 he was rearrested on charges of organizing a UBCV flood relief operation in the Mekong Delta. In January 1995, police forcibly moved Thich Huyen Quang to an isolated pagoda in Quang Ngai province, where he now lives in internal exile. While requests by journalists, diplomats and non-governmental organizations to visit Thich HuyenQuang are routinely rejected by the government, in December 1999 a U.S. Embassy official was able to meet with him for three hours while inspecting flood-stricken areas in Quang Nai.

Outspoken UBCV leader Thich Quang Do has been harassed by the authorities on several occasions since his latest release from prison in September 1998. In March 1999, he was summoned for questioning and ordered to return to Ho Chi Minh City after he traveled to central Vietnam to visit Thich Huyen Quang. On August 6, officials in Ho Chi Minh City called in Thich Quang Do to interrogate him and tried to force him to sign a confession that he had acted illegally in July when he wrote a letter to European Union ambassadors in Hanoi calling for human rights and religious freedoms. On August 13, a police squad came to his pagoda after midnight and demanded to see him, threatening to break down the door before they eventually left.

In September 1999, Thich Quang Do was again summoned several times for questioning by police, as were UBCV monks Thich Khong Tanh and Thich Tue Sy, who had also been released from prison in 1998. The monks were told that their rearrests were imminent, as warrants had already been prepared to arrest them for "subversive activities" pending further investigation. During a tense, three-hour interrogation session on September 6, Thich Quang Do was confronted by ten officials, including members of the Ho Chi Minh City police, the Ho Chi Minh City section of the CPV, the Fatherland Front, and the official Vietnam Buddhist Church. On October 29, security police surrounded the Lien Tri Pagoda of Thich Khong Tanh in Ho Chi Minh City and confiscated documents and a fax machine.

Members of the Hoa Hao sect of Buddhism have been subject to police surveillance and several are thought to remain in detention. The sect was granted official status in May 1999, although government appointees dominate an eleven-member Hoa Hao Buddhism Representative Committee established at that time. In July 1999, in one of the first large public gatherings of the group since 1975, thousands of Hoa Hao members commemorated the founding of the church in An Giang province. Because of its history of armed resistance to Communist forces before 1975, however, the Hoa Hao sect remains closely monitored. After Hoa Hao Elder Le Quang Liem signed a joint appeal in September 1999 with representatives of other religions calling for greater religious freedom (see page 14, below), he was interrogated on several occasions by Ho Chi Minh City Public Security Police. Since December 1999 his telephone line has been disconnected and his house placed under surveillance.

On several occasions in December 1999 Hoa Hao members in An Giang province reportedly clashed with police, who prevented them from hanging out religious signs and pictures of their prophet and blocked their pilgrimage to their prophet's birthplace. Police also reportedly detained and beat some of the Hoa Hao adherents, only releasing them after about one hundred demonstrators staged a vigil at the police station.20 Tensions increased in An Giang province in the lead-up to a Hoa Hao religious anniversary commemorating the assassination of their founder on March 30, 2000. On March 11, police reportedly raided a private Hoa Hao ceremony in An Giang, injuring several participants and arresting three others. On March 28, two Hoa Hao Buddhists were reportedly arrested in An Giang province and charged with "defaming the government." On March 30 police reportedly blocked thousands of Hoa Hao followers from observing the religious anniversary, detaining ten followers.21

Members of the Cao Dai religion, which combines elements of Confucianism, Christianity, Taoism and Buddhism, have complained that some of their religious practices are banned and church property has been confiscated. A 1997 CPV report for Tay Ninh province, where Cao Daism is based, stated that the Cao Dai cathedral was a place"where enemies take advantage to stir up political reactionary operations against our revolution...We all agreed to fade out Spiritualism; to wipe out the [Cao Dai] system, which was organized like a state within a state."22

In October, 1998 two Cao Daists, Le Kim Bien and Pham Cong Hien, were arrested in Kien Giang province and sentenced to two years' imprisonment after they attempted to meet with U.N. Special Rapporteur Amor during his visit to Vietnam. While the religion was officially recognized in 1997, this was done on the government's terms, with the Cao Dai placed under a government-appointed management council that is not recognized by many Cao Dai officials. Special Rapporteur Amor noted in his 1998 report: "Two distinct groups are now associated with Cao Daism: a management committee, comprising a few church officials controlled by the authorities, and a majority of independent church officials opposed to the Committee."23

The government has also made efforts to suppress Protestants through police raids, surveillance, and negative propaganda, particularly as increasing numbers of ethnic minorities have joined evangelical churches in the northern and central highlands.24 Reports have been received of persecution and harassment of Hmong Protestants in Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Ha Giang provinces, Mnong in Binh Phuoc province, Bahnar and Jarai in Gia Lai province, and Hre in Quang Ngai. Three Protestant churches in Binh Phuoc province, whose members were ethnic Mnong and Stieng, were demolished by provincial authorities in July 1999. Subsequently several provincial officials were dismissed in Binh Phuoc leading to a decrease in tensions with local Protestants.

In January 1999, an official law journal, Phap Luat, heavily criticized the conversion to Protestantism of Hmong in northern Ha Giang province. The provincial Party chief was quoted as saying that a district task force had been established to "deal with illegal religious evangelism" by persuading people to sign commitments not to follow "bad people" or cults, but to rebuild ancestor shrines.25 Two months earlier in the same province, the provincial propaganda committee issued a forty-two page pamphlet entitled "Propagandizing and Mobilizing Citizens not to Follow Religion Illegally." About ten Hmong Christians were reportedly in detention in Lai Chau and Ha Giang provinces as of late-1999.

On May 7, 1999, police raided an evangelical gathering of the Vietnam Assemblies of God Church in a Hanoi hotel and held twenty people for several days. Police detained two of the group's leaders, Lo Van Hen (a member of the Black Thai minority group, who had been released from three years in prison in January 1999), and Rev. Tran Dinh (Paul) AI, who had served two years in prison in the early 1990s for his religious activities and who had met with U.N. Special Rapporteur Amor during his 1998 visit. Lo Van Hen was escorted back to his home in Dien Bien Phu, while Rev. AI was detained under police guard for a month in the Hanoi hotel where the meeting had taken place.26 Subsequent police raids on Christian gatherings, in which police temporarily detained church members, were reportedto have taken place in 1999: in Quang Nam province in September, in Viet Tri town on October 10, and in Halong Bay in mid-October.27

Members of Tin Lanh (Good News, or Gospel) Protestant churches who are lowland Vietnamese [Kinh] are often less persecuted. This is thought to be because their members are not members of ethnic minorities and many of their churches are located in the main cities of Danang, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City rather than in remote highland areas. There are approximately 300 Tin Lanh churches in Vietnam, fifteen of which are the only Protestant churches that the government officially recognizes.28

For Catholics, relations between Vietnam and the Vatican warmed slightly in 1999 with the visit in March of a Vatican delegation and Vietnam's acceptance of the appointment of four new bishops by the Vatican. As in 1998, tens of thousands of Catholics were able to attend an annual festival commemorating the sanctuary of the Notre Dame of La Vang in Quang Tri province. However, at least seven members of the Catholic Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix, arrested in 1987, were believed to remain in prison as of this writing. In northern Son La province police have reportedly harassed ethnic minority Hmong Catholics in Hung Hoa diocese, where the government has rejected nominations for a bishop. The Vietnamese government has turned down requests by Catholics for the Pope to visit Vietnam.

Father Chan Tin, a Redemptorist priest in Ho Chi Minh City, has been a long-time critic of the regime. He was held under house arrest between 1990 and 1993. In 1998 while travelling to attend the funeral of a Communist Party Veteran who had called for democratization, Father Chan Tin and former Catholic priest Nguyen Ngoc Lan were injured in a motorcycle accident when another motorcyclist kicked the front of their motorcycle. This occurred in the presence of several police officers, none of whom took any action, but it remains unclear whether this was an attempt to kill or intimidate the two priests or simply an accident.

In September 1999 members of four of the main religions in Vietnam issued an unprecedented statement calling for the repeal of the new religion decree, described above, and demanding religious freedom and the separation of church and state. The letter, which was sent to CPV officials, was signed by Thich Quang Do of the UBCV, Catholic priest Chan Tin, Cao Dai priest Tran Quang Chau, and Hoa Hao leader Le Quang Liem.29 Afterwards, Le Quang Liem was questioned several times by Ho Chi Minh City Public Security Police about signing the joint appeal and his house was placed under surveillance. Police also summoned Thich Quang Do for questioning several times during the month of September.

3 The information in this report is based on interviews with individuals in Vietnam, France, and the United States, supplemented by academic articles, news stories, and reports by the U.N., non-governmental organizations, and diplomatic sources on human rights conditions in Vietnam. 4 Associated Press, "Prominent Vietnamese Dissident Arrested; Rights Grps Protest," March 11, 1999. 5 At the last two Consultative Group (CG) meetings of Vietnam's donors, held annually, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other donors pressed Vietnam to tackle corruption, institute greater transparency, and launch economic reforms. At the December 1999 CG meeting, donors pledged U.S. $2.8 billion in aid to Vietnam, with $700 million conditioned on accelerated economic reforms. Leading officials of donor governments have also raised human rights concerns in 1999, notably U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during her visit to Vietnam; Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen, when Finland held the European Union chairmanship; and Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman, who raised issues of democratization and political prisoners during a visit to Hanoi. See Associated Press, "Albright, Vietnamese Leaders Meet," September 6, 1999; Adam Jasser, "Vietnam PM calls for more trade talks with U.S.," Reuters, September 23, 1999 (coverage of PM's visit to Finland); and Pavla Novakova, "Zeman Did Not Sidestep Human Rights Issue in Vietnam," in Prague Lidove Noviny in Czech, December 16, 1999, cited in FBIS-EEU-1999-1216. 6 Associated Press, "Vietnam Party Lambasts Imperialism," February 2, 2000. 7 Huw Watkin, "Fear rather than reform may be behind purge," South China Morning Post, November 13, 1999. 8 See Huw Watkin, "Corrupt cadres thrive despite graft campaign," South China Morning Post, January 11, 2000. 9 The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention noted that Article 73 of the Penal Code, in describing offenses against national security, makes no distinction between the use or non-use of violence or of incitement or non-incitement to violence. The Working Group's 1994 report states: "The present wording of article 73 is so vague that it could result in penalties being imposed not only on persons using violence for political ends, but also on persons who have merely exercised their legitimate right to freedom of opinion or expression." See "Question of the Human Rights of All Persons Subjected to any Form of Detention or Imprisonment; Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Visit to Viet Nam," Commission on Human Rights, December 21, 1994, E/CN.4/1995/31/Add.4. 10 Associated Press, "18,000 Inmates to be Considered for Amnesty," March 11, 2000.

11 The resolution sends a mixed message, stating on the one hand that the Party will not discriminate against those with "minority views," but vowing to punish those who disseminate "dissenting views."

12 Voice of Vietnam, Hanoi, (radio) in Vietnamese, February 24, 1999, BBC Worldwide Monitoring; Reuters, "Vietnam communist Party to clamp down on dissent," February 25, 1999.

13 Hanoi Lao Dong, "Labor Journal Reviews SRV Party's `Forbidden' Activities,'" June 11, 1999; see also Associated Press, "Vietnam Clamps Down on Free Speech," June 7, 1999.

14 See Human Rights Watch/Asia, "Vietnam: Rural Unrest in Vietnam," Vol. 9, No. 11 (C), December 1997.

15 Decree No. 26/1999/ND-CP, "Decree of the Government Concerning Religious Activities" (translation on file at Human Rights Watch).

16 Ibid., articles 5; see also article 7.

17 Ibid., articles 18-26.

18 Ibid., article 8.

19 The 1963 demonstrations and self-immolations to protest the policies of the Diem government in South Vietnam led the majority of Buddhist sects in southern and central Vietnam to join together in a loose association known as the Unified Buddhist Church. It later became the largest Buddhist organization in this overwhelmingly Buddhist country.

20 Deutsche Presse-Agentur, December 30, 1999.

21 Deutsche Presse-Agentur, "Vietnam police block key anniversary of troubled Buddhist sect," March 30, 2000.

22 Andy Soloman, "Cao Dai struggles for survival in Vietnam," Reuters, April 21, 1999.

23 Commission on Human Rights, "Civil and Political Rights, Including the Question of Religious Intolerance; Addendum: Visit to Vietnam," Report submitted by Abdelfattah Amor, December 12, 1998.

24 Protestantism is the fastest growing religion in Vietnam, with a four-fold increase in membership since 1975 to an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 adherents of the faith today.

25 "Combating the Illegal Propagation of Religion - Not Only Promoting Law and Order," Phap Luat (Law), January 15, 1999. See also World Evangelical Fellowship, "On the Cruel Edges of the World: the Untold Persecution of Christians Among Vietnam's Minority Peoples," March 1999.

26 Reuters, "Vietnam Police Bust Hanoi Bible Meet, Detain 20," May 14, 1999. Reuters, "Prominent Vietnam Pastor Released from Detention," June 4, 1999.

27 Dean Yates, "Vietnam Christians decry police raids, harassment," Reuters, October 28, 1999.

28 1999 Vietnam Country Report on Human Rights Practices, released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State, February 25, 2000.

29 Deutsche Press-Agentur, "Vietnam's Major Religions Make Unprecedented Joint Freedom Appeal," September 27, 1999.

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