Fbe Laity Protests

    

Self-Immolation by Fire

Protests ensued. On May 9, 2011, 1an attempt of self-immolation by fire occurred at Nga Nam cross-road, Hue. A man, soaked with gasoline attempted to set fire to himself. The security police came in time. The man was taken away to unknown whereabouts. The local authorities nevertheless failed to prevent the Buddhist laity from sacrificing themselves for faith.  Ho Tan Anh was one among them. He was best known as an ardent Buddhist believer. An official of the Movement of Buddhist Youth, he was devoted to his faith with firm determination. An ardent fighter for religious freedom, he voluntarily made himself a torch in protest against the nefarious religious politicy of the government.  The event aroused deep emotion  among the Buddhist circles. Sources reported that, on September 2, 2001, at 4:30 A.M., at the daybreak of the national Buddhist festival of Vu Lan, a leader of the Movement of Buddhist Youth. Ho Tan Anh,  immolated himself by fire. The incident took place in a park of Da Nang, a large city in Central Vietnam. It was an  act of protest against repression of the Communist Party. It was also an appeal to the totalitarian regime in Vietnam, demanding for the respect of the State for human rights, democracy, and freedom. In the letter dated the day of his death and addressed to his Vietnamese compatriots, Ho Tan Anh declared that his sacrifice was especially destined to denounce the religious persecution the Communist Party carried out against the Unified Buddhist Church during the two first weeks of June 2001 (EDA 333).

   

The brother of Ho Tan Anh, who learned the incident when he was listening to the news on a foreign radio station, came to the place, identified the burnt body of his brother, and brought it to the hospital of Thanh Khe. However, when he requested that the dead body of the victim be transported to his house for  funeral services, the police complicated the situation on the pretext that the papers he presented to them were invakid. The same day, the security furtively buried the burnt body at Go Ca  in the district of Hoa Cam in the western outskirts of Da Nang City. In an official declaration, the government simply acknowledged that it had discovered a burnt body.

      

Sources also reported that Ho Tan Anh, born on December 1, 1940, was a poor peasant mading a living on the rice-field. However a single, he raised 5 children confided in him by the parents who were poorer than he. Before he decided hissacrife for his Church, Ho Tan Anh had made kown his thoughts

 to fellow Buddhist his self immolation. On the day of his self-immolation, he said to his near relatives that he was going to pray at a pagoda. In the letter addressed to the International Buddhist Bureau of Information in Paris, Ho Tan Anh informed that thirteen other Buddhists of the Movement of Young Buddhists to which he belonged were ready to follow him in the struggle for religious freedom. The martyr also sent letters to diverse Buddhist dignitaries of the country and personalities of the international community. In the letter to the highest Buddhist leaders, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang and the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, Ho Tan Anh, after having excused himself for his deed, explained the reasons for which he decided to make himself a torch for religious freedom. It was the systematic repression of the Communist government had carried out against the Unified Buddhist Church since the change of regime in 1975 that made him decide to sacrifice himself..

After the self-immolation by fire of Ho Tan Anh, the police launched a  police operation throughout the region of Da Nang where leaders of the Movement of Buddhist Youth was in action. The operation had its objective to find out the identity of the 13 leaders who, followed the the example of Ho Tan Anh, vowed to follow his example. One of them was Vo Tan Sau, who was the arrested on September 5, 2001, in Saigon, where he was under medical treatment. Vo was brought back to Quang Nam.  He was incarcerated in an unknown place while his family members were assigned to residence surveillance or summoned to police headquarters for interrogation. Many Buddhist leaders of the province of Quang Nam were also convoked to “sessions of work. In Quang Nam, the local police arrested and detained a female Buddhist of Duy Xuyen District. The arrests of prominent Buddhists aroused resentment among the leadership and laity in the provinces in the Center. On May 3, 2002,  Nguyen Ly, a leader of the Buddhist Family, decided to immolated himself by fire for religious cause. The incident took place at Cau Moi Bridge, Hue. Nguyen was a native of Phu Bai Commune, La Vang Precinct, Hue City. He soaked himself with gasoline and set fire to his body while raising a cardboard with words of protest against the Communist’s acts of religious persecution. The security police rushed to the place and brought the body to Hue Hospital.

Protest resumed. On May 9, 2011, 1an attempt of self-immolation by fire occurred at Nga Nam cross-road, Hue. A man, soaked with gasoline attempted to set fire to himself. The security police came in time. The man was taken away to unknown whereabouts.

The leadership

    Tight Control

On June 3, 2001, the Most Venerable Thhich Quang Do was placed under house arrest as he resolutely formed a delegation to come to Quang Ngai to  bring Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang back to Saigon for medical treatment. The administration, on its part, tightened control on UBCV pagodas in Saigon. At Thanh Minh Monastery where the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do was a monk in residence, security police tightened control. Checkpoints were posited at major intersections along Highway Route I from Saigon to Hue. They  kept a close watch on the Buddhist delegates arriving from Saigon and the provinces that were going to come to see the Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang who was kiving in exile at Hoi Quang Pagoda in Quang Ngai.

The Shanga

     In the Heat of Reppression

Targeted with repression, even monks sought to evade the country. On September 19, 2003, the spokesman of the Foreign Affairs Ministry Le Dung announced that Hanoi would bring the Venerable Thich Tri Luc to stand trial before court on charges of instigating in liaison with  overseas Vietnamese organizations a plot to overthrow the Communist regime. The Venerable Thich Tri Luc, a member of the Unified Buddhist Church, evaded to Cambodia in 2002 and was granted political refugee status. He would  be resettled in Canada under the auspices of the UN High Commission or Refugees. In July 2003, the Vietnamese security police, however, came to Cambodia; arrested the monk, and brought him back to Vietnam.

According to the International Buddhist Information Bureau in Paris, the Vietnamese security police executed oorder without regard to international law to abduct a Vietnamese monk who evaded the country as a result of repressin and took refuge in a foreign country. The Venerable Thich Tri Luc, who fled from Vietnam and came to Cambodia in April 2002. The priest, who had narrowly escaped from an instance of religious persecution in his country, disappeared while in residence in Phnom Penh, July 25, 2000. On that day, according to sources in Cambodia, a unidentified person clad in civil clothes suspected to be an agent of the Vietnamese security police. might have come to the shelter of the monk. Since then, there had been no news  of the religious who, in  the previous month, had been accorded the status of political refugee of the UN High Commission for Refugees. The International Buddhist Information Bureau expressed its fear that the interested might have been kidnapped, brought back by force to Vietnam where he could have been interned or possibly eliminated.

The Vietnamese secret police, in fact, had operated raids in Kampuchea and pursued the Montagnards who fled in groups from the Central Highlands of Vietnam and Vietnamese dissidents who sought to come to seek refuge in this country as well. Sources reported that fhe Venerable Thich Tri Luc, aged 58 and a native of the province of Thua Thien – Hue is a disciple of the Most Venerable Thich Don Hau, Since the change of political regime in 1975, the religious had suffered an eventful life. Arrested the first time in 1992 and imprisoned for 10 months, he faced constant pressure from the Communist authorities who had vainly incited him to become a secret agent for  the security police. He  envisaged a self-immolation himself by fire as an act of protest, instead. Later, in 1994, he took part in a Buddhist relief delegation to rescue flood victims in the Mekong plains. He was nevertheless prevented by the police from accomplishing his task. At the court trial that took place in Ho Chi Minh City, August 15, 1995, the monk was accused of crimes of public disorder and sentenced to five years in prison. He served his sentence in a reeducation camp in Xuan Loc, Dong Nai Province. This internment was followed by an assignation to residence surveillance and interdiction to perform public religious activities. As a result of this, the situation became so unbearable for the religious that he made up his mind to flee to Cambodia.

   

After the disappearance of Monk Tri Luc, twenty-two deputies and senators, members of the Party of Sam Ramsey voiced their protest against the arrest of the monk to the Cambodian government. At the European Parliament, the Deputy Olivier Dupuis raised the question regarding the disappearance of the religious. In August 2002, the Honorable Mary Robinson, the U<N< High Commissioner for Human Rights reminded Prime Minister Hun Sen of her fear concerning the abduction of Monk Thich Tri Luc to Vietnam in connection with the case of  two adepts of the religious sect “Falungong” who were abducted to China. International associations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch showed their concerns about the fate of the religious and intervened besides the Cambodian government but gained no  result.  (EDA 350)

The State Subjugation of the Buddhist Churches

       The Patriach Thich Huyen Quang under Siege (1992-2001)    

By the end of March 2001, the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, in his petition to the highest authorities, demanded that  the Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang be released from housesurveillance. In a letter to various agencies of the government, the Buddhist laity requested the release of the highest dignitary of the Church. The  ailing Patriarch ever reminded in the alarming state of health, and the poor living conditions under which he had endured were deplorable. The authorities’s treatment of the religious was evidently in contravention with the administrative conduct of residence surveillance. A letter, diffused by the Paris International Buddhist Bureau of Information of April 10, 2001, specified that the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, the Rector of the Institute for the Propagation of the Dharma, described the actual health situation of the Patriarch as “serious” and warned the authorities in advance that the Buddhists would take their own initiatives to take care him in case the administration hesitated to allow him to return to Saigon. He also emphasized that the role of the exiled Patriarch in the direction of the propagation of the Buddhist Faith and the leadership of tens of millions of Buddhists in this world of turmor was crucially important.  Furthermore, “he has suffered the penalty for a mistake he had not known.” He further stressed that “the Patriarch is very aged and sick, he lives alone and was only helped by a laborer who was allowed to come in the daytime to prepare meal for the Patriarch. For nineteen years in exile, he has permanently suffered high blood pressure due to strict police surveillance. Worse still, , he has constantly been subject to interrogation.” He himself describes his actual situation: "I live without a residence, and I will die without having a tomb. I walk on a road to nowhere, and I am imprisoned for a crime I never commit!"

    

The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do also enumerated the inconsistency in the enforcement of the law of the authorities. On November 28, 1997, the  security police of Quang Ngai informed the Patriarch of a decision according to which his term of residence surveillance had terminated. Nevertheless, in December 1997, the same security  organ ordered that he must apply for permission for his residence at the address of locality where he was currently living. The Patriarch refused to comply with the order: The reason was he was arrested in Saigon, he should be brought back to his veritable  domicile, which is at the An Quang Pagoda, where he had been a resident ever before February 1982.

The Oppression

      The Leadrship

The administration seemed to ignore the requests of the leaders of the Unified Buddhist Church, but took precautions to mete out the Church’s protests, instead. It kept a vigilant watch on  the Church’s activities in Saigon and Thua Thien Hue as well. The security police was particularly used to abort any attempts of protest. To show their authority, the administration put the Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang under strict control. The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, again, requested the Communist Party and State to lift up the repressive measures facing the Church, if not, it would take any initiative to help itself out of trouble before May 2001. The announcement of the Rector of the Institute for the Propagation of the Buddhist Faith was followed by his 8-point appeal issued in April 2001. In it, the dignitary advocated, among other things, a peaceful transition of the totalitarian Communist regime towards a pluralistic democracy. Responding to the request, the Fatherland Front weighed in with accusations against the highest dignitaries of the Church, implying that the Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do were only veritable troublemakers.

The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do decided to make his trip to Quang Ngai, regardless of police obstruction. From June 4-14, 2001, the authorities mobilized all means to counter his stance, which is to bring back the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang from Quang Ngai to Saigon. The Patriarch, who had been on sickbed, on June 6, 2001, was convoked by the local Fatherland Front section to its office for an interrogation that lasted all day. He was told that the Unified Buddhist Church “is the enemy of the people.”  He then realized that the Communist Party and State were determined to destroy his Church. He  confided to his disciple:  “I thus decided that the only means for me to protest was to offer my body to the flame to denounce the repression against the Unified Buddhist Church and all other religions in Vietnam.”

On May 17, 2001, the authorities of the precinct of Phu Nhuan, Saigon, convoked the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do to their headquarters for interrogation. In spite of blood pressure exerted on him, the Buddhist leader, in a second letter, on May 20, 2001 addressed to the new secretary-general of the Communist Party and leaders of the State, renewed his demands for democratization for the country. He also specified the objective of his travel to Quang Ngai, inviting the ailing Patriarch to come back to Saigon. The journey would start on June 7, 2001.

     The Shanga

In the ancient capital of Hue, the cradle of the Unified Buddhist Church, the state suppression of the Church was increasingly suffocating. The local authorities sought to prevent religious services and activities of the Church. Subsequent to repeated repressive operations, the faithful of the Church submissively served their faith in impending doom. In Thua Thien - Hue, sessions of prayers were openly conducted at pagodas belonging to the State-sanctioned Church only. Beginning on February 8, 2001, the believers frequented the ancestral temple To Dinh of Tu Hieu Pagoda met with trouble. The worship place was  under management of the Sangha of the province and a congregation. The monks in residence were all targeted with security surveillance. Religious services were retricted, and movement otside the pagoda wa limited.

On February 11, 2001, to disquiet the authorities, the Shanga conducted the litany in silence. The prayers were “that the peace of the world and the happiness of the people be assured, that fighters sacrificing themselves for the nation and victims of natural disaster of the century be delivered from the cycle of rebirth, that the religions in Vietnam be fast liberated from fetters and chains, that the Unified Buddhist Church freely perform religious activities, that the Vietnamese people get rid of the yoke of totalitarianism, and that human rights be respected.”  (EDA 325)

   

In a letter addressed to religious personalities in and outside Hue, the Church recommended peaceful moments of silence of commemoration. These religious services and activities nevertheless could not escape being watched by the eyes of the Communist rule. Beginning on January 31, 2001, the agents of the secret police of the province Thua Thien – Hue carried out strict measures to force the Buddhist clergy at pagodas as well as Buddhist families to conduct or attend such “illegal” religious services. They suggested to them to ask the official Organizing Committee for Prayers to apply for authorization.

    

On February 7, 2001, the Assistant to the Chief of Public Security Service of Hue, accompanied by another official, made contact with the guardian monk at Tu Hieu Pagoda and warned the monk of his responsibility, applying for authorization for religious services, The monk then reported the trouble to the Church’s organizing committee. This committee contended that the sessions for prayers at the pagoda were performed in conformity with the provisions stipulated in the Constitution of Vietnam and the Decree 26. There was nothing to do with applying for authorization.  In the afternoon of the same day, in a notice by the People’s Council of the commune of Phu Xuan, the authorities in the locality where sessions of prayers had been organized, notified the organizing committee of the fact “that authorization is necessary, that the police has to perform the task to assure security at the place and that the guests that come from other places had to get registered for attendance with the police of the commune.” In the evening, the monks and believers at the pagoda waited in vain for authorization. They only obtained an evasive answer.

    

On Februart 6, regardless of repressive measures, the Venerable Thai Hoa declared that the Buddhist faithful continued to observe their faith, performing religious services as planned. Monks and believers joined in regular sessions for prayers af Tu Hieu Pagoda. Thousands of people came to Hue. Believers who were unable to come to the place communicated to the organizer that they prayed in silence at home or at the workplace. An atmosphere of  empathy pervaded everywhere in Hue, in the adjacent areas, and in other provinces. The news warmed up the Shanga’s and laity’s confidence. Everyone enjoyed  praying personally at home. The State heightened vigilance. Sessions for political indoctrination intent on educating public servants on the subject and keeping them from joining in the movement were conducted at public offices. In Hue, teachers and students in schools at all levels were grouped to attend sessions of political indoctrination lectures on weekend. they no longer had chance to  participate in sessions of prayers. Many participants were convoked to police headquarters for interrogation.

Facing totalitarianism, the Buddhists inside the country made every effort to counter the State pressure on the Church. The Sangha of Thua Thien - Hue decided to resist repression firmly. To energize the laity, on February 8, 2001, it decidedly organized a mass ceremony of prayers in the old Capital. It was, in practice,  an act of protest against the State’s  decision to obstruct the trip of the Most Venerable Thai Hoa to New York to attend the World Grand Ceremony for the New Millennium. To neutralize opposition, the security police blocked the entrances to pagodas and temples and quieted those Buddhists who came to  attend the ceremony. For months following the incident, the Sangha and laity in Hue were resigned to practice religious services in silence.

    The Buddhist Family   

With the birth of the State-affiliated Vietnam Buddhist Church, the State had all its advantages “to normalize” various independent factions of Buddhism that resisted its control. Under renovation, repression against Buddhist congregations, especially those of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, was even tantamount to apogee. Facing utter repression, two hundred leaders of the Buddhist Youth Movement vowed to immolate themselves by fire if the State would seek measure to recoup their members. The movement identified itself with the Gai Dinh Phat Tu (Buddhist Family). It claimed to be associated with the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church, which institution the State dissolved on January 13, 1987. The legal dissolution of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam took effect during the Fifth Congress of the State-affiliated Buddhist Church of Vietnam sponsored by the Fatherland Front. The dissolution was to most Buddhist congregations, among which was the Buddhist Youth Movement, not only a intervention of the State in the internal affairs of the Buddhist Churches but also a violation of the rights to religious freedom.

The movement had about three hundred thousand (300,000) members, from 6-18 years old. The statistics by the State specified that 60% of the members were about 15-16 years of age. The movement came into existence under the Republic of Vietnam. It had been exposed to ostracism of the civil authorities after the change of political regime in 1975. It distacd itself from the official Buddhist Church of Vietnam after its creation by the State in 1981. The Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang also mentioned this event in his open letter in September 1992 when he appealed to the Buddhist faithful for a struggle for the legal restoration of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church. In his appeal, the Patriarch asserted that the State-affiliated Buddhist Church of Vietnam had disintegrated the Buddhist Family from its cradle, forcing it to scurry without direction. It is believed that the Buddhist Family is  a Buddhist organization that has acquired outstanding merits all through the contemporary history, As such, it will ever continue to be a foundation upon which the Buddhist Faith flourishes.

      

Within a short period of hard time, the movement was successful in redressing its leadership. Its coming back was warmly welcome. The Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang affirmed in his letter to the Buddhist laity that “in the course of the recent years, the groups of Buddhist Family, from Quang Tri to Ca Mau, have resumed their activities and can’t be suppressed.” The coming back of the organization couldn’t escape the eyes of the authorities that ever kept a close watch over its activities. In October 1994, the Bulletin of Information of the Communist Party weighed in with particular insistance on the rebirth of the movement and showed concern over its influence on the Buddhist laity. “If it (the organization) continues to develop in the provinces along the coast of the Center and in the high plains, it will attract new members among young students. In some places, that organization manifests itself publicly.”

   

Leaders of the movement claimed that the objectives of organization were purely religious. It was affiliated with the non-sanctioned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam as it had been before the change of political regime in April 1975. The rebirth of the Buddhist Family appeared to many Buddhists circles to bring forth a remedy to the increasing degradation of the public educational system. It illustrated old traditional cultural values, which were still new valuable concepts to the youth that was becoming more and more eager  to do away with  the official ideology --Marxism.

On March 3, 1995, to deface the image of the Buddhist Youth Movement, a decree of the State Office of Religious Affairs (No.I-TT-GCP) confided in the State-sponsored Buddhist Church of Vietnam the responsibility to take charge of the Buddhist youth organization operating within its orbit. The Church, under the pressure of the State, changed its appellation from Gia Dinh Phat Tu (Buddhist Family) to “Nam Nu Phat Tu” (Buddhist Men and Women).  In practice, after the congress of the leaders of the organization  in Da Lat in 1995, Monk Thich Tu Man, who was in charge of the Executive Committee of the Buddhist Church of Vietnam of the province of Lam Dong, was forced to execute the decision, giving the organization a new name. The following year, the Central Committee of Communist Youths published a document entitled “Orientations for Action Regarding the Ardent Adepts of the Movement “Nam Nu Phat Tu.”  It recommended the Communist Youths organization to operate a campaign of propaganda for the “Nam Nu Phat Tu,” incorporating it into the Fatherland  Front.

The official dissolution of the Buddhist Family put an end to the existence of the Buddhist Youth Association, which, for a time, operated outside the orbit of the Fatherland Front. However, the Buddhist laity still believed that whatever appellation the organization might be labeled, it would never be an dependent religious organization. There always exist a non-sanctioned Buddhist  association that functions without allegiance to the Fatherland Front, a satellite organization of the Communist Party.

The Buddhist Family had ever been the target for intimidation. In 1997, two hundred leaders of the Movement of the Buddhist Youth vowed to immolate themselves by fire if the government resumed repressive measure to dissolve the Unified Buddhist Church. The movement foresaw that this tragic day would come. Under strict control of the State, a dramatic reduction in the membership of the organization was in sight. Within a few years, approximately 300,000 members from 6 to 18 years of age were absent from action. The statistics of the government specified that 60%  of thesemembers were from 15 to 16 years of age. Previously, the movement had been decimated in the struggle against the ostracism of the civil authorities  after the fall of the political in regime in South Vietnam. However, during the years that followed reunification of the country, the movement regained vigor. This revival was closely watched by the authorities.  The “Tap Chi Cong San” (Communist Review ), in 1992, noted that “among the adepts were the youths who are not the least component. In the provinces in the Center and the South, the activities of the Buddhist Family have been reactivated, and the movement has reassembled thousands of youths.” (Vu Duy Anh, “Reflections on the Religious Life Today,” Communist Review, August 1993)  (EDA 171).

 

To negate international accusation of religious intolerance on Vietnam, the spokesman of Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, on September 26, 1996, declared: “There is absolutely no such a problem. The government respects religious activities and create favorable conditions for the Buddhists so that they will be able to participate in these activities under the direction of the official Buddhist Church of Vietnam and in conformity with the law.”