The Struggle for Faith of the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang

  

  

On April 6, 1977, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quangwas arrested in a police raid at the An Quang Pagoda in Sai.  The Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang was detained without trial for a year and a half. He was then brought to stand trial in December 1978 for “working against the “Revolution,” actuating counterrevolutionary propaganda, and exploiting religion to undermine security and order. Given a suspended sentence, he was placed under house arrest in February 1982 for “reactions” to the suppression against Buddhism of the State and the creation of a State-sponsored Buddhist Church. He was exiled to his native village in Quang Ngai Province although had been nominated the Patriarch of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church in April 1992 following the funeral for the late Patriarch Thich Don Hau.

On June 25, 1992, the Patriarch sent an 8-page petition to the leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party and government demanding the rights to religious freedom. The petition specified, among other things, the repressive measures the Communist rule had exercised against the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church in the past 41 years. It brought forward as proofs the dissolution of the Buddhist Churches for National Salvation in the Binh-Tri-Thien Inter-provincial Zone V in 1951, the annexation of Buddhist associations into the Lien Viet (Viet Alliance Front), which is now the Fatherland Front, during the War of Resistance (1945-54), the arrests of Buddhist monks in South Vietnam following the Communist takeover of Republic of South Vietnam in April 1975, and the dissolution of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam.

In July of the same year, the Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang held a meeting at Hoi Nghia Pagoda and laid out plans to cope with the situations, thus waiting for favorable times to regularize the An Quang Buddhist Church. Following up the developments, the authorities of Quang Ngai, under the direction of the local party leadership, put strict  control on him. On one occasion, they allowed a number of “Buddhists” to come to Hoi Nghia pagoda to complicate the situation, accusing the dignitary of having committed acts of opposition to the State. He had come to Hue to attend the funeral for the Most Venerable Thich Don Hau and  actuated deranging activities.

The Patriarch was given order not to use Hoi Nghia Pagoda as the headquarters of the Institute for the Propagation of the Buddhist Faith He was forbidden to use  the seal of the An Quang Church for services on no occasion whatsoever. He was to give this official mark to the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church or the authorities of Quang Ngai province. He was also subject to strict administrative measures such as he had to  ask for permission whenever or wherever he might wish to go.

    

On November 11, 1992, the Paris-based Committee on Human Rights charged Hanoi with serious violations of the religious freedom as regards the State repression against the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang.  The committee brought forward as proof a secret memo dated August 17, 1992, and signed by Phan Minh Tanh, the, Chairman of the Central Section for Civic Actions of Quang Ngai Province. The document, in particular, leveled charges against the long-standing Buddhist organizations and Buddhist dignitaries in the South, in general, and the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, in particular. It charged these organizations and prominent Buddhist figures with crimes of vile schemes of sabotage such as the following:,

“After the liberation of the South, a number of An Quang Buddhist monks on the side of Thich Tam Chau had actuated hostile activities against the State, against the unification of Buddhism, which was established on  request by the great majority of Buddhist followers and dignitaries. Because of illegal activities, the revolutionary government punished them.  Still, a number of belligerents have furtively maintained their opposition. Taking advantage of the funeral for Thich Don Hau, they sought to restore their legal entity, striving to attract and get support of Buddhist dignitaries monks, and nuns. After the funeral of the Most Venerable Thich Don Hau, Huyen Quang openly used the seal (of the An Quang faction) and self-proclaimed the legal representative of the Institute for the Propagation of the Buddhist Faith. He sent letters to honorable attendants at the funeral and petitions to the Central Party leadership. At the same time, they spread propaganda throughout the country and abroad. On the mid-autumn ceremony of this year [1992], Huyen Quang sent notices to the Buddhists of the An Quang faction inside and outside the country inciting them to demand for the legal recognition of the old Buddhist organization that had existed before the liberation. They openly recognized the monks in asylum camps and encouraged opposition from exiled monks of the An Quang faction living in the United States.”

     Police Raid

    

On March 9, 1993, thirty state servicemen broke into Hoi Nghia Pagoda, where the Unified Buddhist Church stationed the Institute for the Propagation of the Buddhist Faith. They searched through the pagoda for three hours while the Buddhist delegates from the provinces of Quang Tri, Thua Thien, Quang Nam, and Da Nang were paying respect to Buddha  and discussing religious services. Buddhist monk Hai Tang was arrested because of he was in possession of a copy of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Administration of Quang Nai Province tightened control on the Most Venerable Huyen Quang who was under house surveillance thereafter.

   

The Vietnam Unified Church of Vietnam considered the administrative decision against the Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang  a mild measure. His use of the seal of the Institute for the Propagation of the Buddhist Faith could only be served as an excuse. However, it could also be a vile trick aimed at soothing the Buddhist population's anger that had ever risen since the Hue incident ib May 1993.

     Campaign of Distortions

   

In June 1993, the Office for the Propagation of the Buddhist Faith in Exile issued its statements of protest, denouncing the Vietnamese Communist administration’s intention to debase the Buddhist Churches. Proofs of vile schemes were self-evident. A secretary at the Office of Liaison of the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church  had reportedly received from the Communist authorities 3,000,000 dong and a monthly allowance of 150,000 “dong” to initiate and carry out campaigns to distort the long-standing Buddhist organizations' noble cause of struggle for religious freedom. Hundreds of articles were published in the official newspapers during May and June 1993 to attack and denigrate the Sangha.

   

   The Situation of the Church Reported by Venerable Thich Hanh Dao

  

Speaking to an audience of about 200 Vietnamese in a news conference in Westminster California, July 24, 1993, the Venerable Thich Hanh Dao reported with his words stuck in his throat that the Vietnamese Communist authorities increasingly tightened its control on the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church. They consistently harassed prestigious monks by convoking them to "work at" --the term meaning “to be interrogated at”-- police headquarters. The Most Venerable Thich Long Tri in Hoi An Township, the Venerable Thich Long The in Da Nang Township, and the Venerable Thich Long Tri in Ba Ria Province, for instance, were among the prime targets. In addition to this, the Communist State sought all vile tricks to denigrate the Church’s leadership. In July 1994, a 15-year-old Buddhist youngster who served as a mail deliverer for the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, the Chairman of the Institute for the Propagation of Buddhist Faith, was arrested and forced to bear false witness at the police headquarters. The Most Venerable Huyen Quang was then subject to restriction of movement. The activities at the Institute of Propagation for Buddhist Faith were thus entirely paralyzed. 

      

     Denunciation by The Venerable Thich Nguyrn Lac

    

Facing the challenge, the Venerable Thich Nguyen Lac signed a circular among the Buddhist circles denouncing the Communist administration's vile intention of eradicating the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church. It specified that the Vietnamese Communist Party Politburo decided, in July 1993, to set up a Special Political Office for Internal Affairs. This State agency was particularly responsible for studying and carrying out plans to battle out the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang's prestige and the Buddhists’ movement for religious freedom. Nguyen Dinh Huong was assigned the head of the new organ. A special detachment of the security police and units of troops of the People’s Army in North Vietnam were sent to the South to reinforce the local authorities to suppress the movement. The situation was described as "serious and dark."

    Interdiction on the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang

In August 1993, the Vietnamese Communist government issued a formal interdiction on the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang's activities. Despite this, the 77-year-old Chairman of the Institute for the Propagation of Buddhist Faith firmly advocated the legitimacy of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and made public his appeal for religious freedom and respect for human rights. To apply pressure on the monk, the Vice-chairman of the People's Council of Quang Ngai Province, Hoang Ngoc Tran sought to meet with the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang at Hoi Nghia Pagoda. On August 4, 1993. during the meeting, Hoang gave him the Religions Central Section's ultimate administrative decision which itemized, among other things, the indictions on the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang'’s activities, which were to him acts of violations of the law: The monk must observe the State's regulations on religion. The State cadre also commanded him to stop assuming the title “Pro-tempore” Rector of the Institute for the Propagation of Buddhist Faith, to stop using the seal of the Institute, to stop using Hoi Nghia Pagoda or any other pagodas in the province for the use for the office for the Institute, and, most importantly, to stop forthwith deranging the official Buddhist Church of Vietnam.

   

    The Charges 

The following day, on August 5, 1993, the official daily Nhan Dan (The People), published in Hanoi, ran a circular of the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church. It condemned the Most Venerable Huyen Quang' s activities as “wrong and illegal.” The circular also asked the State authorities to stop him from using his false title and position To mete out the civil authorities’ artifices, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang. In a communiqué to the Sangha and Buddhists on August 6, 1993, explained why he had refused to give the local authorities the Institute's seal. The Decision of the State Section for Religions and the administration of Quang Ngai Province were to the Unified Buddhist Church a death certificate. Once the seal has been given to the State authorities, the Institute's role is terminated, and the Church is killed. The notice also affirmed that the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church was instituted by a general congress of the Buddhist faithful. It could only be killed by a general congress. The administration's decisions were unacceptable since they violated human rights and the rights to religious freedom. It also said that the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang anticipated every difficulty facing the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church. Together with the Church associations around the world, he would accept all disastrous consequences to protect the Church.

    Support from the Church Overseas

    

The Overseas Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam in Canada declared, in a circular on August 10, 1993, that the Communist administration step-by-step carried out systematically its plan to eradicate the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and its leadership, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang.  In December 1993, the State-affiliated Buddhist Magazine Giac Ngo, published in Saigon, circulated fiery articles attacking the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, his associates, and sympathizers in Hue. It charged them with crimes such as violations of the law, destruction of solidarity, and taking advantage of religion for personal interests. In a concerted effort, the administration of Quang Ngai continually convoked the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang to its headquarters for interrogation, terrorizing him into silence. In January 1994, a pro-government delegate of Buddhists came to Hoi Nghia Pagoda to question the old monk with an attempt to obstruct his activities and defame his cause for the struggle for religious freedom. The magazine Giac Ngo, again, elaborated unfounded charges against him such as violations of the law, destruction of solidarity, and abuses of religion for personal interests.

   

      Reactions

In his letter to the Sangha and Buddhist believers on Buddha's Birthday in September 1994, the Most Venerable Huyen Quang, in his address to the Buddhist faithful, renewed his concerns over the disastrous consequences the Vietnamese people suffered under the Communist regime. The Vietnamese people, it said, “have endured sufferings as a result of poverty, backwardness, social segregation, hatred, moral demotion, cultural degradation, repression, and terrorism.” It particularly reminded the Communist leadership of their malicious behavior as regards “the severe measures they have executed against Buddhism.” The Vietnamese people are lenient and peace-loving by nature. They are ready to forgive those who show repentance and mend their ways. The address specified that “the current favorable situation gives the Communists genuine opportunity to return to the people their rights and serve the country.” Their concrete tasks then “consist in respecting human rights, allowing the people to exercise these basic rights as stipulated in the International Bill of Human Rights.”

Uptight Conflict

         

The division between the Buddhist Churches was widely cracked. The ditch that separated the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church and the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam became increasingly large. In its issue of October 1994, the bulletin of information of the Vietnamese Communist Party, the press organ reserved only for the members of the Party, published a report on the political situation of the country for the year 1994. In many passages were devoted to the description of the actual state of beliefs and religious institutions in the country. The author of the report particularly showed  attentive to the expansion of activities and actual growth of religious movement in Vietnam. He signaled the multiplication of activities of the religious type as well as the reinforcement of ecclesiastic structures. The bulletin also reported that concrete evolution marked that the religions in Vietnam. The development of movement and restitution and construction of churches and pagodas, or, still the growing number of claims from the religious authorities and the conflict on land and establishments confiscated by the State and used for non-religious purposes.

     

The bulletin drew up in broad traits a list of the situation of particular religions. In the Buddhist circles. specially among the young adepts. it  specified the rebirth of movement of the youth inspired more or less by Boy-scout movement called Gia Dinh Phat Tu  (Buddhist Family). This movement “has continued to develop in the coastal provinces of Central Vietnam and those in the highlands. It attracts to it many youths and students . In some places, this organization manifests itself henceforward in a public manner, as, for example, at the pagoda of Bao Lam in Ban Me Thuot. The bulletin even added that a certain number of cadres, members of the Party’ abd teachers became the leaders of the movement of the Buddhist Family.  

   Other Measures

 

The conflict between the Communist authorities and the Unified Buddhist Church became increasingly uptight. The Quang Ngai Buddhist Sangha, in a letter to the Paris-based Commission of Human Rights in Paris in November 1994,  reported that  Hoi Nghia  Pagoda was under strict police contro. The Most Venerable Huyen Quang was very ill; his blood pressure was alarmingly high. Yet, the security police refused to let the medical doctor enter the pagoda to give him treatment. Buddhist monks from the neighboring Tu Quang Pagoda were prevented from paying visit to the Patriach. Buddhist believers in Quang Ngai were menaced with threat and frightened away." The letter also wrote: "Two Buddhist monks and two lay Buddhists, Thich Nguyen Man, Thich Dong Hoa, Ly Nam, and Nguyen Dinh Truc came to ask about the Most Venerable Huyen Quang's health. They were instantly arrested at the pagoda's gate and subjected to three days of nonstop interrogation. The security police force them to sign a statement declaring that they would seek no further contact with the Most Venerable Huyen Quang."

   

   Abuse of Power

The Commission of Human Rights declared that the government must bear full responsibility for the life of the Most Venerable' life if it refused to let him see a doctor. The second letter, dated November 15, 1994, was issued by the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang himself. It was sent to the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, who was living in Saigon. The letter stated that for two weeks, the security had kept tight control on the Church's office. All helpers including were expelled. Monks, nuns, and Buddhist followers were forbidden to come. “I don't know who I would ask for medical treatment,” the ailing patriarch said. Expressing his views on the police restrictions  and his state of health, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang issued in his decision to assign the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do to the position of secretary-general in the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church, he emphasized that “the aim of the struggle for religious freedom and human rights to bring this second wave of repression against Buddhism to an end."

    

On December 29, 1994, the police arrested the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang after his hunger strike to demand the government's respect for religious freedom. The security police took over Hoi Nghia Pagoda. They confiscated the Church's official seal and seized all its documents.  By doing this, the civil authorities would think that they had successfully stripped off the Patriarch’s legitimacy as the supreme leader of the Vietnam Unified Church. The late Patriarch Thich Don Hau had bequeathed to the Most Venerable Huyen Quang the official seal, which is the symbol of leadership of the Church. By virtue of this transference of legitimacy he assigned the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang to the highest position of the Church’s hierarchy in 1992. The seal was only officially conferred to him at the late Patriarch's funeral at Linh Mu Pagoda, Hue, on May 3, 1992.

  

      The Most Venerable Thich Huyen Qung in Self-exile 

  

The Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang had established the headquarters of the Unified Buddhist Church in Exile in Hoi Nghia Pagoda, where he had been detained under house arrest without charges since 1982. The old Headquarters of the Unified Buddhist Church, which was located in An Quang Pagoda, Saigon.  in Ho Chi and which  had been confiscated long before that, in 1981. The Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang's arrest was followed by a clamp-down police operation on a Unified Buddhist Church group of monks, nuns, and believers on a their journey to collect and distribute relief aid  to the victims of flood in the Mekong Delta where 500,000 people became homeless and over 300 people died. During the operation (November 1994) the security police arrested the leaders of the Unified Buddhist Church in Saigon. It placed the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang under tight security detention in his pagoda thereafter.

     Under Solitary Confinement

 

During December 1994 the patriarch of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church had become the target of condemnation with regard to his negative attitude towards the Communist administration. The religious, in effect, refused to come to a meeting with the civil authorities. On December 28, three days after he affected a hunger strike to protest against the blockade of Hoi Phuoc Pagoda where he had been in residence, the police made incursion into the pagoda. The following day, at midday, they arrested the religious and brought him to a car. Those who were present in the pagoda  at this moment were conducted to the police headquarters for interrogation. The documents found   at the place were confiscated. At about 7 o’clock in the evening of the same day, the Venerable Thich Huyen Quang had already been laced under house arrest at Quang Phuoc Pagoda in the district of Nghia Hanh, 15 kilometers from Hoi Phuoc Pagoda. Since then, the religious had sent emissaries to inform the public of his situation under detention. However, there was no possibility to penetrate the pagoda or even to go nearer the pagoda. The place of detention, in reality, is a place of detention which is like a concentration camp, is located in an isolated region. 

   

After the arrest of the Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, the spokesman of the Foreign Affairs Ministry affirmed that “ the Venerable Thich Huyen Quang had never been arrested. He simply left Hoi Phuoc Pagoda for Phuoc Quang Pagoda at his request and the adepts of Quang Ngai,”

    The Struggle for Faith of  the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do

The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, whose secular name is Dang Phuc Tue, is one of the first Unified Buddhist Church leaders who confront the government gradual attrition of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. He is also one of the most ardent advocates of religious freedom, democracy and human rights for Vietnam.  Together with the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, he was first arrested on April 6, 1977. He was then imprisoned, tortured, and detained for 20 months. He was acquitted on December 9, 1978, following an international support campaign during which Irish Nobel winners Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire nominated both the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang and him for the Peace Nobel Peace Prize. On March 2, 1982, he was again nevertheless arrested, this time for protesting against the government's establishment of the Vietnam Buddhist Church. On March 2, 1982, he  was banished to Vu Thu Commune in Thai Binh Province, North Vietnam. He was detained under house arrest without charge. In the same year, the then Interior Minister Mai Chi Tho [Phan Dinh Dong] visited him and offered him a position in the State-sponsored Church's hierarchy at Quan Su Pagoda in Hanoi. He refuted the proposal, however.

  

In early March 1992, Hanoi released the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do from house arrest. He returned to the South and resided at Thanh Minh Zen Monastery at 90 Tran Huy Lieu Street, Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. He resisted the order to expel him from the city by Major Le Van Lam, Head of the Administration and Social Order Office at the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department. He sent a letter to the chairman of the People's Council of 14th Ward, informing this local authority that he was in residence at Thanh Minh Zen Monastery, where he had been living before he was arrested (February 25, 1982). In a letter to Major Le Van Lam, the Most Venerable asserted that his residence at Thanh Minh Zen Monastery was legal, that he would continue living there, and that he would accept whatever consequences that might occur to him.

 

As Secretary-general of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church, he strongly opposed the intervention of the State in the Church's internal affairs when it unilaterally instituted an organizing committee for the funeral ceremony in Hue for the late Eminency Thich Don Hau. In August 1994. He sent a letter and a 44-page memoirs entitled “Analyses of the Errors of the Vietnamese Communist Party toward the Nation and Buddhism” to the Vietnamese Communist Party Secretary-general Do Muoi.   A copy of this document was handed to representatives of the UN Action Team on Arbitrary Detention during their visit to Saigon on October 30, 1994. His letter, in part, specified:

“If we believe in the law of natural selection, all that constitutes an answer to a natural need survives, and that must be restored even if we have already concealed it. On the contrary, all that does not respond to any of the needs of mankind will eventually destroy itself. After having actually lived in a Communist regime, I can affirm that this regime does not respond to the needs of mankind. Morally, it oppresses and paralyzes mankind. Materially, it impoverishes and starves mankind. That situation is so true nowadays. This regime will be resigned to learn and accept capitalism, to follow the path to market economy.

  

Nowadays, Communism no longer has a context; it is only an empty word. Communism in Eastern Europe and in the old Soviet Union scuttled, simply because it did not respond to any human need. Nothing other than the regime makes war against itself, and, and certainly, not Buddhism, which, on the contrary, is never freed from being the target for its attack, persecution, and to destruction. According to the same law of natural selection, in my point of view, Buddhism responds to the need of humankind. That is why it is very difficult to have it disappeared. The fact can be explained  from what had happened to the pagodas in North Vietnam. In the old days [during he Indochina War], the Communists ruthlessly destroyed pagodas and even transformed them into rice fields. Nowadays,, wherever a pagoda whose foundation still stands, people build a thatch-covered house on it, and, in better-off communities, they even build a brick edifice so that they could have a place to worship Buddha. In the old days, the Communists ordered people to burn prayer books in Vietnamese. They classified them into the category of "decadent literature".  Nowadays, many adepts of the Buddhist faith in the North go to the South to buy them, copy them by hand, and then passed them around for everyone to say prayers. That is another proof showing that the population still needs Buddhism. Nevertheless, this is not the case for some other forms of worship: If I remember well, at one time, every family in the North was forced to hang the portraits of grandiose Communist leaders such as Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Malenkov, Mao Tse-Tung, Kim Il Sung,... in the home. But by the time I was exiled to the North in 1982, I could not find these portraits at anyone's house, even at a party member's domicile.

Terrorism

   

Terrorism plagued pagodas throughout the city. On September 5, 1992, the security police broke into Hue Nghiem Pagoda in Thu Duc District, Saigon, and arrested Monk Thich Thien An Vo Van Man. The monk  was reportedly tortured to death at the police headquarters at 3:00 p.m. on the same day. His dead body was later transported to and kept at the morgue in Cho Ray Hospital, Saigon. Only his mother and a relative were given permission to attend the funeral. About 50 policemen in uniform and plain clothes were present. The Buddhist monk was buried in the backyard of Hue Nghiem Pagoda. Witnesses said that his grave was filled with concrete and was guarded by the security police until the concrete solidified. Buddhist followers in the area said that the city police killed Buddhist monk Thich Thien An. They maliciously destroyed the evidence for a post-mortem examination by glazing his grave with concrete. The city security police said that the monk killed himself by jumping off the third floor of the police headquarters. Such an explanation could not convince public opinion with credibility. The floors of the headquarters, which were formerly Chi Hoa Prison, were sealed with barbed wires which left no opening for any man to jump off. 

The laity in the city resisted in silent protest and opposition. On April 30, 1993, a male Buddhist immolated himself by fire in the open street in Saigon. The man soaked himself with gasoline and made himself a torch in front of the City Theater. The police on guard nearby rushed to the place, extinguished the fire, and hastily shoved the body into a pickup truck. The incident took place several days after the first commemorative ceremony in Hue honoring the late Most Venerable Thich Don Hau. News from the AFP reported that the male Vietnamese showered himself with gasoline and set fire to himself. The incident took place in front of Rex Hotel in the center of Saigon. His death  was an act of protest against the Hanoi regime. He died on the way to the hospital. The incident reminds the people of Saigon of the scenes of chaos during the Buddhist struggle for faith reached climax in 1963: The Most Venerable Thich Quang Duc immolated himself by fire on Le Van Duyet Street, Saigon, in opposition to the Ngo Dinh Diem government's repression against Buddhism. His death eventually led to the overthrow the government of President Ngo Dinh Diem on November 11, 1963.

     Protests and Arrests 

Protests took place, but the administration gave no sign of concession. On August 15, 1994, a hundred Buddhists joined in a three-day sit-in demonstration in front of the  People's Council City Hall. The demonstrators chanted slogans of protest and demanded the Communist rule to return to the people the rights to religious education, religious practices activities, and grant the Buddhist Churches the permission to reconstruct ruined pagodas and the pagodas and monasteries it had destroyed.  Nine Buddhist monks and 15 followers led by Monk Thich Giac Nguyen traveled from Tra Vinh Province to Saigon. The demonstration started on April 1, 1994 and attracted a large group of fellow Buddhists in the old Capital of the South to join them in the protest. The security police had to forestall the participation of other Buddhists with threats; otherwise, the more participants would come. On the fourth day, August 4, 1994, the security police, with arms, crammed the protesters into military trucks that brought them to unknown whereabouts.

   

Harsher restrictions  were imposed on the religious services and activities .  The authorities even forbade the Church’s clergy and laity to organize charitable services and activities were. On October 29, 1994, the Venerable Thich Long Tri was arrested when he arrived in Saigon to lead a group of volunteers to rescue the flood victims in the Mekong Delta. On November 3, 1994, members of the flood-relief team including Monks Thich Lang Quynh, Thich Nguyen Nhu, Thich Nguyen Ly, Thich Tam Van, Thich Quang Ton, and Thich Nguyen Thinh were summoned to the police headquarters for interrogation. They were warned with threats and forbidden to participate in the mission. On November 5, 1994, the police arrested the lay Buddhist Nhat Thuong Pham Van Xua and female Buddhist Dong Ngoc Nguyen Thi Em. On the evening of November 6, 1994, they blocked the streets and searched for the Venerable Thich Khong Tanh and the Venerable Thich Nhat Ban. On November 5, 1994, approximately 60 Buddhist monks, nuns, and followers, who drove in a convoy of 10 trucks carrying medicine and supplies of food, clothing, and aid materials, were stopped and beset on the streets in Tenth Precinct, Saigon, while they were preparing for their journey. The security police tore off all  banners of Buddhism and placards with slogans of protest, and disbanded the group. A number of monks, nuns, and followers were arrested. The security police also took advantage of the situation to arrest a group of influential members of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church.

      Long An

The movement of opposition quickly spread southwards. Monk Thich Giac Nguyen,  a son of a high-ranking Communist war martyr, openly protested against the local authorities’ ruthless religious repression. He was a  monk in residence at Long An Pagoda, Can Long District, Tra Vinh Province, South Vietnam. Indignant at the authorities' rudeness,  reflected the situation to the higher local administration and the Fatherland Front. Nevertheless, his petition was ignored. 

    Dong Nai

   

Harassment against the clergy of the Church in other provinces of the South were noticeable. The Venerable Thich Nhat Lien, the monk in residence at Long Tho Pagoda, Dong Nai Province was among the victims  of violence. The AFP, on December 24, 1992, reported that the Venerable Thich Nhat Lien, a Buddhist high dignitary, was ready to sacrifice himself to protest against the authorities’ harsh police measures.  Since the funeral of the Most Venerable Thich Don Hau, the local Communist rule had harassed members of the Church in the province to the point that they could only practiced their faith in silence.  It allowed its security police contingents at all levels to hold arrests or grant releases of Buddhists monks as they pleased. In a letter to his disciples and relatives, the Venerable Thich Nhat Lien disclosed that if such an atrocious “Stalinist policy” against Buddhism and the dignitaries persisted, he would be ready to sacrifice himself for national cause and the Buddhist Faith.

   

The Most Venerable Thich Nhat Lien was summoned to the police headquarters for interrogation for ungrounded reasons for nine consecutive days, and was detained for three days, from December 9 to 12, 1992.  In his letter to the Sangha and his followers on December 15, 1992, he claimed that he was terrorized and suffered such a nervous strain that he almost became a man without a soul.  He further disclosed that what he reported to the police while he was “working with” them was only a fabrication. He did that at the police's request and under pressure. He vowed to immolate himself by fire for his faith and the Vietnamese people’ national cause. Subsequent to the interrogation, the Most Venerable Thich Nhat Lien was placed under house arrest at Long Tho Pagoda, Xuan Loc District, Dong Nai Province.

       Ba Ria

The opposition of the Buddhist clergy and laity to the Communist authorities expanded as far as the eastern seacoast province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.  On July 9, 1993, the People’s  troops and the police attacked  the Buddhist monks and believers who were saying prayers at Linh Son Pagoda. The authorities in Ba Ria Province even mobilized the local troops flanked by tanks and police force to attack Linh Son Pagoda. About 2,000 Buddhist  formed a line to defend their religious leaders and protect the worship place. The troopers and security forces stormed the pagoda and stifled the resistance. Twenty-five monks and about 100 believers were arrested. The 25 monks arrested were Nguyen Van Cu, Nguyen Viet Ngoc, Nguyen  Tuan, Do Ngay, Pham van Du, Tran Thanh Son, Nguyen Van Hoa, Phan Van Thanh, Nguyen Phi Hung, Vo Van Chinh, Phan Van Lai, Nguyen Huu Phuoc, Ngo Van Hua, Tran Dai Minh, Tran Quang Dinh, Nguyen Minh Cuong, Do Huy Cuong, Nguyen Van Thien, Nguyen Ngoc Tan, Nguyen Viet Ai, Phan Van Vinh, Nguyen Quoc, Pham Van Due, Hoang Son, and Nguyen Van Loc.

    The Venerable Thich Hanh Duc

   

The conflict between the Communist authorities of Ba Ria and the monks at Linh Son Pagoda became increasingly edgy after Venerable Thich Hanh Duc, the superior monk at Linh Son Pagoda, came back from the funeral ceremony for the Most Venerable Thich Don Hau in Hue in April 1992. The indignation of the Sangha and believers in Xuan Son Commune over the administration originated from the Fatherland Front and the Ba Ria People Council's decision to expel the Venerable Hanh Duc and 33 other monks, and novices from Linh Son Pagoda on ungrounded charge that they were illegal residents. The expulsion of the priests and novices aroused anger among the Buddhist congregations in the province. The Venerable Thich Hanh Duc had been in residence at Linh Son Pagoda for ten years. Moreover, he and the other monks in residence belonged to the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church. They were practically legal residents at the pagoda. The use of violence against them was thust inessential. The Communist rule apparently intended to show power to whoever dared to oppose to it.

    

On January 5, 1994, the Venerable Thich Hanh Duc was brought to stand trial before the People's Court of Ba Ria Province. He was accused of "intending to cause public disturbance" and was sentenced to 3 years in prison. Two other monks, the Venerable Thich Dong Hy and the Venerable Thich Dong Hai, were placed under administrative detention at Linh Son Pagoda. The trial proceeded in a military barrack near Ba Ria Township. The relatives of the defendants were not informed about it. On July 7, 1994, the Venerable Thich Hanh Duc began a hunger strike at Phuoc Co prison in the province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. He only demonstrated an act of  protest against the Court's unjust indictment.

In his letter sent outside, the monk declared that if the authorities did not set him free, he would continue his hunger strike until death. On August 1, 1994, the People's Court of Vung Tau confirmed in a retrial that the conviction of Monk Thich Hanh Duc to a three-year imprisonment sentence. The local government maintained that the State-affiliated Vietnam Buddhist Church, founded in 1981, is the only legal authority. Monk Thich Hanh Duc and other Buddhist dissidents supported the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, which had been the main Buddhist organization under the former Republic of Vietnam in the South, was outlawed.  He and other monks at Linh Son Pagoda had thus practiced illegal religious services and activities. The Venerable Thich Hanh Dao was not allowed to return to Son Long in after his release from the Gia Trung “reeducation” camp in the middle of 1996. The authorities executed the same measure against a number of Buddhist monks who were released from the prison or camp (1997). They were forbidden to rejoin their pagodas of origin.

    Vinh Long

     

The movement of opposition moved further south and flamed up in the populous province of Vinh Long following the self-sacrifice for faith of the Venerable Thich Hue Thau. The monk, whose secular name is Le Van Hoan, immolated himself by fire on May 25, 1994. He soaked himself with gasoline then made himself a torch. The incident was covered up, but the news reached the Paris-based International Center of Information, Vietnam when a monk of the Sangha for the Protection of the Buddhist Faith in Vinh Long escaped from prison and wired the news to the agency. According to the monk, after the celebration of Buddha's Birthday on May 25, 1994, the Venerable Thich Hue Thau, with a banner of Buddhism, led a group of 47 Buddhist monks and believers to gather in a demonstration to protest against the Communist rule at the headquarters of Vinh Long People's Council. The demonstrators demanded the rights to religious freedom- to repair pagodas and abbeys, to allow the followers to visit pagodas to pay services to Buddha, to study Buddha's teachings without State interference, and to become a Buddhist monk. They also demanded the State to restore the legal status for the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. Their demands nevertheless came to no result.

   

The Venerable Thich Hue Thau, 43, was in residence at Ngoc Pha Commune, Tan Binh District, Vinh Long Province. The self-sacrifice for religious faith of the monk aroused discontent amonf Buddhist congregations. The  local Communist administration nevertheless denied the report on the self-immolation of a monk by the name Thich Hue Thau. They said there was only a monk by the name Thich Thien Tam who voluntarily killed himself because of "personal reasons" at a pagoda in Vinh Long Province.