The Nine-point Claim

Persistent to its policy, the Communist administration executed repressive measures against the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. On June 25, 1992, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, the “Charge d'Affairs” of Vien Hoa Dao (Institute for the Propagation for the Buddhist Faith), sent a letter of claims to the Secretary-general of the Vietnamese Communist Party. The letter particularly stressed the role of Buddhism in the moral and spiritual life of the Vietnamese people. It equally denounced the political discrimination and repressive measures against Buddhism of the Communist administration in the past decades. The dignitary concluded his letter with a 9-point claim, demanding the Hanoi Communist administration to restore the legal status to the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and to return to it pagodas and the academic, social, cultural, and religious establishments the State had illegally dispossessed. The letter recounts the facts that,

"As a first step, the Communists dissolved the Inter-zone V Patriotic Buddhist Congregation (1951) during the Resistance against the colonial powers. They forced all Buddhist organizations and followers to join the Lien  Viet  Front,  the predecessor to the present National Fatherland Front. I myself --the Venerable Thich Huyen Quang,-- protested against the dissolution. I was arbitrarily arrested in 1952 and was only released subsequent to the Geneva Agreements (1954). In 1976, the Hanoi authorities undertook the reunification of the country. The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam expressed the wish to unify the masses of Buddhists, those from the North and those from the South, with the aim to revive the moral faith and rebuild the country after the terrible devastating war. The Venerable Thich Don Hau was appointed, on behalf of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, to meet with Nguyen Van Hieu, the then Minister of Culture, to request his authorization for the Church to prepare for the reunification of the National Buddhist community. Nevertheless, Nguyen Van Hieu categorically refused in the following terms: ‘ ... the reunification of Buddhists, that's fine, but only for revolutionary Buddhists. It is out of the question to reunify with reactionary Buddhists. By the words ‘reactionary Buddhists,’ Nguyen meant the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (An Quang Pagoda).

Persistent to this policy, the Government began a series of severe repressive actions, massively arresting monks, nuns, and lay Buddhist, destroying statues of Buddha, occupying pagodas, and confiscating the Church’s academic, cultural, social, and charitable centers all over Vietnam. At the end of 1981, to impose its law on our Church, the Government organized a Congress, which was headed exclusively by the government officials and not by the legitimate Church’s dignitaries, monks, or their followers as proceeded by and in accordance with the Vietnamese Buddhist traditions. That is the reason why we proclaim that this State-affiliated Church is simply a tool in the hands of the present regime. And, by serving the regime's interest, it no longer has anything to do with the great Buddhist community. A Church such as that has no mandate to take charge of the affairs of the traditional Vietnamese Buddhist Church. It is nothing other than a successor to a propaganda agency such as the so-called ‘Liaison Committee of Buddhist  and Patriotic Buddhists Association.’

The Vietnamese Communist Party and Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has persistently executed severe persecution against the Church and concentrated every effort to count out the presence of this Church, eliminating its clergy and exterminating its religious services and activities. In this way, the very existence of the Church is rooted out from the spiritual, moral, social, and educational life of the Vietnamese people.”  As regards the renovation policy of Communist Party Secretary-general Nguyen Van Linh, the Patriarch of the Vietnam  Unified Buddhist Church considered that the policy only created a few openings in various sectors of the population. Buddhism, in fact, benefited from this, although things only opened halfway.  In his opinion, this opening should not be considered as a gift. The State should imperatively give back what it illegally stole from the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and is requested to

 “ 1.  Restore the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam's right to exist and to carry out activities as before 1975;

 2. Bear the responsibility of and give an answer for: a) the death of the Venerable Thich Thien Minh, Vice-President of the Institute for the Propagation of Buddhist Faith of the Unified Buddhist Church, who was tortured to death at the National Security Headquarters in Ho Chi Minh Ville in 1978; b) the self-immolation by fire of 12 bonzes at the Duoc Su Pagoda in Can Tho; and c) the destruction of pagodas and statues of Buddha;

     

3. Free all Buddhist monks, nuns and followers, writers, journalists, politicians, etc., who are arbitrarily imprisoned without trial or as a result of unfair trials.  Observe respect for religious freedom and basic human rights. Restore freedom to all those whose fundamental rights have been violated, as is my [Huyen Quang] case and the cases of Thich Quang Do, Thich Duc Nhuan, Thich Tue Sy[Pham Van Thuong], Thich Tri Sieu (Le Manh That) and of the monks from other religions in Vietnam;

       

4. Restore, both at the national level and the local level, to the Unified Church of Vietnam all its pagodas, all its establishments and administrative quarters, as well as its cultural, social, and charitable centers which have been illegally confiscated over the past 11 years [1981-1992] by the Communist authorities. The monasteries in the North, which had been confiscated after 1945, must be returned to their rightful owners;

      

5. Restore the right of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam to maintain relations with its sections abroad, as was the case before 1975;

6. Judge my [Thich Huyen Quang] personal case for the period between 1945 and 1992 in a competent court. I [Thich Huyen Quang] cannot remain a prisoner without a trial. 7. Proclaim the innocence of all Buddhist monks, including myself [Thich Huyen Quang], in response to the 20,000 letters sent, within the past months, to Hanoi from different democratic human rights organizations in Europe, the United States, Australia, and Asia;

    

8. The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam is ready to participate in the country's national reconstruction. But it cannot do this under the authority of a regime to which the religion still remains the arch enemy and which incessantly interferes in and strives to control the church's internal affairs; and 

      

9. I  [Thich Huyen Quang] hereby vow to sacrifice my body to Buddhism and the Nation when this humiliation reaches a point where I can no longer bear.”

The claims by the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang on June 25, 1992 came to no answer. The leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party kept silent on the issue but called on the Buddhists to heighten vigilance to support the Communist Party and Government in the unification of the country and religions. The leadership of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam reacted by initiating a non-cooperation movement throughout the South. On the other side, the administration stepped up stricter measures of control. In Saigon and other provinces, police agents spied on activities at pagodas. Secret agents, disguising themselves as monks followed the monks' activities at pagodas and wherever they went. There were more police under-covers than monks in pagodas.

Being fearful of similar upheavals in the countries of the former Communist Eastern Europe, the Communists eased favors on the state-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church but laid heavy hands on the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. In Hue, Nha Trang and several other cities and provinces, they allowed State-affiliated Buddhist association or monks to establish or reopen institutes for studies of Buddhism. However, the candidates to priesthood must have good political backgrounds and acquired political achievements, and of much more importance, they must acquire approvals from the Party and State. Student priests were subject to similar conditions.

The following tabulation of arrests recognizes cases of arrest and incidents of repression of the Unified Buddhist Church’s clergy at the outset of the period of ” renovation .”

      Cases of Arrest

The Venerable Hanh Duc whose secular name is Vo Van Hanh.,  the guardian monk at Son Linh Pagoda since 1983,  was expelled from it by the government in February 1993 for having dissociated himself from the State-created Buddhist Church. He was arrested in July 1993 on charge of conducting activities against the laws and disseminating documents hostile to the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. He was sentenced to three years in prison in January 1994 by the People’s court of Ba Ria- Vung Tau on allegedly having organized armed resistance the government security police.  

The Venerable Thich Tri Luc was arrested on October 2, 1992, in Saigon for having circulated a text to protest against the political regime’s suppression of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church, demand the release of the Most Venerable Thich Huyyen Quang and the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, and urged on the Communist government to respect human rights. He was placed under house arrest in March 1993.

After the funeral for the Patriarch of Thich Don Hau in April 1992, many members of the hierarchy of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church were put in prison either without  trial’  .Among them  Without a trial. The Venerable Thich Khong Tanh and the Venerable Thich Nhat Ban were condemned to five and four years in prison, respectively, for having organized a convoy of aid to relieve the flood victims in the Mekong delta. The Venerable Thich Hue Dang was condemned to twenty years in prison. The Venerable Thich Thien Minh was twice condemned to life imprisonment. The Venerable Thich Tri Tuu, the superior monk of Thien Mu Pagoda (Pagoda of the Celestial Dame) in Hue was under house arrest.

The Venerable Thich Nhat Lien was arrested on unspecified grounds on December 2, 1992. He was then placed under house arrest at Long Tho Pagoda, Dong Nai Province.

The Venerable Thich Tri Tuu (Le Quang Vinh), showed vigilance against the State repression. A superior monk at the famous Linh Mu Pagoda, Hue - Thua Thien, he was arrested in June 1993 for ungrounded reasons. He was first incarcerated in Thua Phu Prison in Hue the transferred to Nam Ha Prison, Nam Ha Province, North Vietnam. He  was brought to stand trial  in November 1993. He was accused of being the leader of the May 1993 protests against the regime. He was sentenced to four years in prison on charge of disturbing public disorder.

The Venerable Thich Hai Thinh (Le Phu Thinh), a monk at  the Linh Mu Pagoda, Hue - Thua Thien , was arrested along with the Venerable Thich Tri Tuu in June 1993. He was brought to stand trial and was accused of inciting extremist elements in the masses during the protests of Buddhists in Hue in May 1993. particularly to stop  a police car, roll it over, and set fire on it. He was sentenced  to three years in prison on November 15, 11993.

The Venerable Thich Hai Tang (Nguyen Dinh Hoa) was the superior monk at the Long An Pagoda, Quang Tri Province, Central Vietnam. He was arrested on June 5, 1993 along with the Venerable Thich Tri Tuu and the Venerable Thich Hai Thinh. His arrest occurred during the Buddhist demonstration  that followed the self-immolation by fire of a Buddhist on May 21, 1993.  He was brought to stand trial and was accused of having incited the masses to stop a police car, roll it over and set fire on it.   He was sentenced to five years in prison  in November 1993.

The Venerable Thich Hai Chanh, vigilant Buddhist monk, was arrested on July 1993 along with the Venerable Thich Hai Dan and the Venerable Tich Hai Lac both of whom had been reportedly released. His arrest was in connection with the Hue incidents. He was brought to stand trial and sentenced to three years in prison on November 15, 1993.

The Venerable Thich Thien Tho, a member of the State-instituted Buddhist Church himself, the monk was arrested  together with Thich Hanh Duc during the police attacks on Son Linh Pagoda. He was brought to stand trial at a People’s court in Ba Ria- Vung Tau on charges of activities against the law and was sentenced to house arrest for 18 months in January 1994.