Religious
Policy under Renovation
In 1985, Hanoi declared it had
completed the People's Democracy" period and advanced towards
"socialism." To achieve this goal, it intentionally carried out
programs of "socialist reforms." The Soviet-style New Economic Zone
agricultural reforms by Party Secretary-general Truong Chinh gathered little success,
and the initiatives to renovate the country following Gorbachev’s “openness and reconstruction” by Secretary-general Nguyen Van Linh failed to take shape. The
collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe in the later years that
ensued electrified the Communist Bloc. The impact on Vietnam was disastrous. Internal
conflict prevailed. Economic aids from
the USSR perished. The economy was in a shambles. Worse still, under international
pressure, Vietnam had to end the war in Cambodia, made peace with China and
sought, again, the patronage of China, after a decade of bitter relationship. To
the distress of the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, dissidence
calling for political reform and freedom of expression and of thought began to
rise.
Fearful of a
popular uprising in which religion would play a decisive role, the Communist
Party and State, on the one hand, cooed the religious leadership to alleviate
them from hardship, looking for them friendship and support from world
religious communities. They made every effort, on the other hand, to flatten
out any opposition with harshest measure possible. Religious repression, in
fact, is continual and lasting. As ever before, in September 1985, the
communist rule, again, executed successive operations of re-assessment of
private industry and business enterprise properties, making an inventory of all
these remaining establishments and facilities and incorporating them in State-controlled
cooperatives. The religion was not an exception. It had to be re-structured,
that is, "reformed." Buddhist pagodas and Catholic monasteries were
placed under permanent security inspection. Catholic priests were split into
small groups, and seminarians were sent home. Buddhist monks were advised to
return to their families or get married. The Order of Sisters for the Cross was
dissolved. All properties of Congregation of the Mother Coredemptrix at Thu Duc
were dispossessed. Father Tran Dinh Thu, the founder of the congregation and 22
priests were arrested. In an orchestrated attempt, in 1987, the State
Department for Religions and the Fatherland Front made every effort to
establish a China-styled national Catholic Church. The Communist rule nevertheless
met with peaceful but firm non-cooperation of the representatives in both
Catholic conventions in Hanoi and Saigon.
The
Laws
The 1983 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
assures of the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of
assembly, freedom of association and freedom to demonstrate in accordance with
the interests of socialism and the people (Article 67). “Citizens enjoy freedom
of, and may or may not practice a religion (Article 68). The latter provision raises doubts as to what extent
followers of all faiths may enjoy religious freedom. On March 31, 1991,
the Council of Ministers issued the Decree No. 89-HDBT, which is, in reality, a
negative photography of the Decree No. 297-CP of November 11, 1977. Both these laws are aimed at
placing all Churches under control of the State. Resolution No. 297of November 1977 elaborates
the principle of religious freedom while prescribing vague dispositions with numerous
restrictions, deterrents, and prohibitions as regards religious activities.
Most provisions in this resolution are reinstated in the Decree No. 89-HDBT of
March 1991. The one and the other law are
unconstitutional. The resolution is in violation of the 1946
Constitution, and the Decree, the 1983 Constitution.
The existence
of the Church as a legal entity is denied.
It is classified under the category of associations. Religious services
and activities are practiced under the laws, rules, and regulations as prescribed
the State. Celebrations are subject to
prior authorization. Infringements on internal affairs of the Church are common
practices. Formation, ordination and nomination of priests are conditional on
approval from the Council of Ministers. Of most rigorous constraint, collective
religious services are only performed within the worship place. Charitable
services are only allowed to conduct in locations approved by the
authorities. The law provides
rules and regulations to restrain and control religious activities and stifle
resistance to State control. The law purports to guarantee freedom of religion or belief, but it
ambiguously negates all rights to religious freedom with interdictions and restrictions.
It allows the authorities to punish activity construed as a threat to public
order and social security. Article 5 of the law, in particular, specifies that
“Any Activity which uses religion to sabotage or to oppose the State will be
liable to persecution, according to the law.” The vaguely-defined provision of
the law paved the way for the rude repression against the Buddhist clergy and
laity all through the 1990’s from Hue and the provinces in Central Vietnam to
Saigon and other cities and provinces in the South.
The Measures
Dark schemes for destruction of independent religious sects
were openly executed. State-sanctioned Churches and religious organizations
created in the 1980’s were vested with authority to wear down traditional
legitimate or independent Churches and organizations. Repression intensified.
Campaigns of denigration against religion were activated with ardor. Ardent
leaders and followers who resisted State control were subject to repression
with violence, arrest, and imprisonment. Indigenous Cao Dai Church, Hoa Hao
Buddhism, the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church , Evangelical Christianity, and
the Roman Catholic Church were all viewed the most dangerous “inside
enemies.” Following Deng Xiao-ping’s
example, it sought international support, finance, and trade, particularly,
from Western democracies and the United States. On the one hand, as always, it
wooed the Churches to help it not only because of economic needs but also for
humanitarian purpose. On the other hand, it tightened control on all Churches.
Taking advantage of the critical political situation in the Communist Bloc, they
charged various religious sects and organizations with crimes of fomenting
uprisings to overthrow it. As always, it never hesitated to crackdown all
resistance, even though it was always submissive and peaceful.
The Persecution `
The Cao Dai Church
Strict measures were executed to place the Church
under control. Assemblies for prayers and religious activities were restricted.
Temples and places of worships were appropriated. During the period of
“People’s Democracy,” the administration seized in total 35 physical
structures, including the Holy Temple in Tay Ninh and the entirety of the
Church’s administration offices, and cultural, social, and educational
establishments throughout South Vietnam. In particular, in 1989 it seized the
Cao Dai Shrine in Hanoi. The clergy and
prominent leaders continued to be harassed, arrested and imprisoned following
bloody executions of Cao Dai religious leaders and the followers during the
later years of 1970’s and the beginning years of 1980’s. Reports cited, until
June 1990, in the province of Tay Ninh, 5,500 Cao Dai religious leaders and
followers were arrested on charges of “harboring reactionary and
counter-revolutionary troops.”
The Hoa Hao Buddhist Church
The authorities continued to pursue furtive measures
to obliterate the legitimate Hoa Hao Buddhist Church. Incidents of protest
intensified. On February 18, 1992, an unprecedented event took place in the
heart of Saigon. A man clad in a brown tunic of Hoa Hao Buddhism climbed atop
an automobile stationing in front of the well-known floating hotel at Bach Dang
Wharf. The militant follower calmly spread a yellow and tree red stripes flag of
the Republic of Vietnam and waved it in silence. Foreign reporters rushed to
the place. Police dashed in and disbanded the crowd. The adamant protester was
taken away to unknown whereabouts. The protest lasted about ten minutes but
made the population well agog at it. The
administration accelerated repressive measures against the Church. The
State-created Buddhist Church led by the ex-communist Nguyen Van Ton was vested
with authority to put independent Buddhist sects under control. In Long Xuyen Province,
a major home town of Hoa Hao Buddhism, the followers of pure Hoa Hao Buddhism
were forbidden to practice worship even within their residence. Refusal to
abide by the interdiction results in beating and arrest. On March 9, 1993, the
People’s Council of Cho Moi District ordered the dignitary Le Minh Triet to
destroy his house on charges of “having violated the State’s residence status
and religious regulations.” Police said that the offender used his house as a
pagoda, and thus he was in violation of the law.
Vile trick was schemed to denigrate the founder of
Hoa Hao Buddhism. In the video-film Dong Song Tho Au (The River of Childhood)
scripted by Nguyen Quang Sang, screen played by Le Van Duy, and produced by
Bong Sen (Lotus) Films Productions at the Ho Chi Minh Department of Culture and
Information, His Holiness Huynh Phu So was ridiculed as “crazy and vile,” and
Hoa Hao Buddhist’s religious practices as some forms of debased superstition. Petitions
from the leader Le Quang Liem and other leaders were sent to the local People’s
Council and offices of the Fatherland Front requesting them to revoke the
permit for publication of the film. Tran Anh Sang, a Hoa Hao notable, denounced
Nguyen Quang Sang’s and the authorities’ intentions as an act of sabotage
undermining the religious policy of the Communist Party and State and requested
an investigation. Both requests were ignored.
Reports sent to Hong Van Hoanh, a Hoa Hao notable in California, U.S.A.
in January 1995, presented a somber picture. Hoa Hao Buddhists in Chau Doc and
Long Xuyen provinces were living under police control. Assembly of three people
was liable to illegal activities.
The Vietnam Unified Buddhist
Church
To dismantle the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church, the
administration determinedly stifled the Church which it had outlawed.
Dignitaries and leaders who refused to join the sanctioned Vietnam Buddhist
Church were placed under house surveillance or arrested. Religious activities at the once VUBC pagodas
and monasteries were paralyzed. Reports sent to overseas Buddhist organizations
estimated that, following the year 1981 from 85 to 90 percent of the clergy
joined the Vietnam Buddhist Church. Nevertheless, resistance against the
State’s repression was still vigorous, facing violence, active VUBC clergy and
fervent followers adamantly struggled for their faith, denouncing and opposing the
administration’s hideous measures to divide Buddhism and destroy the Vietnam
Unified Buddhist Church.
A movement for religious freedom led by the UBCV
leadership took shape. The Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang and the Most
Venerable Thich Quang Do were placed under house arrest. Over 300 Buddhists
were reportedly arrested. Tensions aggravated the situation. The State intervention
in the Church’s religious internal affairs was increasingly alarming. It
reached climax in April of the same year, following the funeral of Patriarch
Thich Don Hau in the Old Capital Hue, Central Vietnam. Police broke into Linh
Mu Pagoda, disbanding Buddhists who were assembling for prayers. It squelched,
at the same time, a hunger strike at Tu Dam Pagoda and operated a search–through
raid in and around the pagoda. Repression evoked deep resentment. Nguyen Van
Dung, a Buddhist of Hue, immolated himself by fire as an act of protest against
religious persecution. A demonstration
of 40,000 Buddhists in Hue and from the adjacent provinces took place in Hue.
The old capital was in chaos. Police moved in on a crackdown on monks and
Buddhists who were about to stage a hunger strike on Le Loi Street. Clashes
broke out. Three policemen were injured. About 20 protesters were beaten up and
several others were arrested. Following the incident, police launched “a
cascade operation,” to fatten out all demonstrations. Fourteen Buddhist were
reportedly killed, and hundreds of them were arrested. In June 1992, the new
Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang issued a “Declaration of Nine-Point Claims,” re-stating
the demands of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. It particularly called
for the re-establishment of the legal status of the Church and the release of
imprisoned monks. The demands came to no answer, and the patriarch was placed under
surveillance at Hoi Nghia Pagoda, Quang Ngai Province.
As opposition spread, from Hue to other provinces in
the Center and the South, the authorities executed harsh measures to repress
the clergy and the laity. The Shanga and lay associations were placed under
control. Guardian monks were harassed, arrested, and imprisoned. In Thua-Thien-
Hue, The Venerable Thich Tri Tuu and the Venerable Thich Hai Tang were given
each three years in prison. Five lay Buddhists Nguyen Van Minh, Nguyen Hoang,
Nguyen Khuong Hai Tri, Tran Xuan Quyen, and Nguyen Van Vinh were sentenced from
two months to 2 years in prison. In Hoi
An, Quang Nam Province, at Giac Vien Pagoda, police squelched the assembly
hundreds of Buddhists attending the ceremony commemorating Pham Gia Binh who
made himself a torch for Buddhism in Connecticut, U.S.A. In Quang Ngai
Province, a Buddhist nun and a male Buddhist, whose name were not disclosed,
immolated themselves by fire for Buddhist faith. In Lam Dong the Venerable Thich Tri Luc was
placed under house arrest.
In Dong Nai Province, the Venerable Thich Nhat Lien
of Long Tho Pagoda, who vowed to sacrifice himself for faith, was detained for
interrogation. In Vung Tau Province, troops and police attacked Linh Son Pagoda
where 2,000 Buddhists formed a line to defend religious leaders and the worship
place. The attacking forces destroyed the defense and arrested 25 monks and a
hundred followers. The guardian monk Thich Hanh Duc was later brought to stand
trial and sentenced to three years in prison.
In Saigon, the Venerable Thich Thien An
of Hue Nghiem Pagoda, Thu Duc District died of a doubtful death .The
Venerable Thich Khong Tanh was arrested on charges of “propagating anti-socialist
propaganda and undermining the policy of union.”
Resistance spread further South. On May 25, 1994,
the Venerable Thich Hue Thau Le Van Hoa of Vinh Long Province soaked himself
with gasoline, made himself a torch in protest against religious persecution of
the State. Persecution moved on. On August 15, 1994, hundreds of Buddhists
participated in a three-day sit-in demonstration in front of the People’s
Council of Ho Chi Minh City protesting of oppressive policy of the State. The
authorities accelerated harsher repressive measures, operating raids even on
activities for humanitarian purpose. The Venerable Thich Long Tri and members
of the Buddhist Committee of Flood Relief Mission were subject to interrogation
and were forbidden to do their work. On November 5, police disbanded with
violence a group of monks, nuns, and followers of another flood relief
mission.
While executing repressive measures against the Buddhist
clergy and organizations operating outside the sanctioned Vietnam Buddhist
Church, the administration was vested authority to put independent Buddhist
groups under control. The Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang was subject to isolation
at Hoi Nghia Pagoda, Quang Ngai Province. In August 1993, it formally
interdicted all his activities. On December 29, 1994, police arrested the
Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang following his hunger strike to demand the
government’s respect for religious freedom. The VUBC faced obliteration. The Most
Venerable Thich Quang Do resiliently faced difficulties. Released from house
arrest at Vu Thu Village, Thai Binh Province, North Vietnam, (1982), he was
placed under house surveillance at Thanh Minh Monastery on Tran Huy Lieu
Street, Saigon. As Secretary-general of the Vietnam Unified Buddhist Church, he
strongly opposed the intervention of the State’s in the Church’s internal
affairs as it unilaterally instituted an organizing committee for the funeral
ceremony for his Eminence Thich Don Hau. In August 1994, he sent to Party
Secretary-general Do Muoi a letter, along with a 44-page memoir “Analysis of
the Errors of the Vietnamese Communist Party toward the Nation and Buddhism.” On
October 14, 1994, he issued directives recommending the VUBC clergy to demand
the State to return to the Church its physical properties. On January 4, 1995,
he was re-arrested. The Vietnam Unifies
Buddhist Church’s activities were paralyzed.
Evangelical Christianity
Repression against Evangelical Christianity
perpetuated in all regions throughout the South. In May 1990, seven ministers
from diverse minority groups in the Central Highlands were arrested; they were brought
to stand trials at Dak Sun and on charges of “illegal religious propaganda.”
Police in the province of Lam Dong, on April 3, 1994, arrested nine tribal
House Church Evangelicals of Tan Ha while they were celebrating the Easter Sunday.
During the raid, police confiscated Bibles and personal properties, then
escorted the participants to police headquarters where they were put in cells
soiled with human excrement. Evangelicals in the region equally faced harassment
and groundless arrest. On December 20, 1994, the authorities at Ba To, Quang
Mgai Province arrested two leaders of the House Church Movement, the Reverend
Nguyen Duc Loi and the Reverend Nguyen Van Vui, probably as a result of the
rapid growth of Evangelical Christianity among the local Hre tribe. In Da Nang,
where the House Church movement was on the rise, security forces broke down an
unregistered Church meeting, arresting 30 church members following the raid, at
least five members were detained in a lockup for four days and fined $ 25
each. In the South, Evangelical
congregations in the provinces of Thuan Hai and Song Be, arrest took place
after assembly for prayers at house church was forbidden. In April 1990, the two Church leaders Son and
Minh of Thanh My near Phan Rang Township were arrested on charges of illegal
religious practices. During December 1990, the Reverend Vo Tong Xuan, the
Reverend Tran the Thien Phuoc, and the Reverend Nuyen Ngoc Anh were arrested on
the same charges. In Saigon, conflict between
police and unregistered Evangelical groups was increasingly tense as security
forces accelerated raids on house churches congregations. In early April 1994,
the police of Binh Thanh District launched a search-through raid on an unregistered
church associated with Pastor Tran Dinh Ai of the House Church Movement.
‘Officials reportedly threatened church members with further police action if
they continued to use houses for “illegal assembly.”
While House Church assemblies and parties for prayers
in the provinces in the South were frequently interrupted by police raids,
Evangelical Christians in the Central Highlands faced brutal violence, being
blamed for affiliation with the DEGA. Authorities launched anti-Christian
campaigns to disband religious services and activities. Arrests and
interrogations usually ended in physical abuses. In some cases, the victims
simply disappeared. Resistance persisted, and unrest broke out in various districts
of Dak Lak Province. In February 2001, thousands of people from the ethnic
minorities marched in the streets of Pleku, claiming for their ancestral lands
and demanding religious freedom. Authorities launched waves of harsh
repression, alleging that the protesters were acting in line with the
reactionary FULRO’s incitement and action. The mass protest was flattened
out. Spiritual and prominent Evangelicals
were arrested and tried before the People’s Court on charges of disabling
public disorder and sabotaging national security. Many others sought to evade the
country, seeking refuge in the neighboring country. In October 2002, 503 people
178 0f whom were women and children reportedly escaped their homeland to seek
asylum in Kampuchea.
The Roman Catholic Church
Facing aggravating economic problems after the
failures of industrial and agricultural reforms, the communist took cautious
measures to flatten out potential opposition from the religion. The collapse of
the Eastern European Bloc, in the later years of the 1980’s added weight to the
wariness of involuntary uprisings, it promulgated new religious laws,
tightening control on all Churches. The Roman Catholic Church whose solid unity
and unshakable faith were eminently superior became a most adamant spiritual
and moral force to challenge the monopoly of power of the Communist rule. Subsequent
to sophisticated maneuvers to dispossess the Church’s physical properties and
institutions and to control the Church’s clergy, all through the period of
Peoples democracy, the Communist administration continued to pursue its unchanging
policy of religious intolerance to subdue the Church under its control. In 1985, the police department of Ho
Chi Minh City, in particular, selected Thu Duc District as a pilot community to
administer testing measures monitoring possible reactions from the Catholic
population to the new regime’s religious policy. The district harbored a large
number of Catholic parishes whose parishioners were refugees from North Vietnam
in 1954. It was an ideal Catholic community for it to exploit advantages and disadvantages
to implement a new policy to be executed as regards Catholicism.
Carrying out sophisticated
plans of this policy, on May 15, 1987, the local authorities and police
dispossessed the last and principal monastery of the Order Dong Cong (Congregation
of the Mother Coredemptrix) at Thu Duc. Before that, since the fall of the
Republic of Vietnam, all physical properties of the Order in the provinces—Binh
Dinh, Da Lat, Di Linh, Lam Dong, Phuoc Long, and so on—had been one by one
confiscated, and 15 priests in residence had been abducted to unknown whereabouts.
This time, the administration forces burst into the monastery and arrested the
Reverend Trab Dinh Thu, the founder of the Order. Other members were arrested on charges of
“carrying out counter-revolutionary activities.” Recognized among them were
Father’ Dinh Van Hieu, Father, Pham Ngoc Lien, Father Doan Phu Xuan, Father Do
Tri Tam, Father Dinh Tri Thuc, Brother Nguyen Chau Dat, Brother Mai Duc Chuong,
Brother Vu Thanh Dat, Brother Nguyen Thien Phung, Brother Tran Van Hieu,
Brother Vu Son Ha, Brother Dinh Khac Kinh, Brother Nguyen Minh Quan,
Brother Pham Ngoc Chi, Brother Mai Huu Nghi, BrotherNguyen Thien Quoc,
and laymen such as Le Xuan Son, Nguyen Van Ban, and Nguyen Van Chuong. Subsequently, repression befell both priests
and laymen. Most of them were charged with ungrounded charges of
counter-revolutionary activities. Recognized among them were Siater Tran Thi Tri, Father Nguen Van De,
Sister Nguyen Thi Ni, Father Ngo Quang Tuyen, Ngo Van An, the laywter Doan
Thanh Liem, Father Chan Tin, and the journalist Nguyen Ngoc Lan. In the High
Plateau of North Vietnam, two preachers of the H’mong tribe, Ly Van Dinh and
Sung Khai Pha Pha were arrested for unknown reasons.
While eliminating priests and prominent lay
Catholics from the religious leadership, the authorities sought wither the
religious life of the Church, tightening restrictions on the formation,
ordination, and nomination of priests. All seminaries were forced to close until
1988. Due to critical political events in East Europe that might foment an
uprising in the country, the authorities gradually allowed the Church to reopen
several diocesan seminaries in Saigon, Hanoi, Vinh, and Nha Trang. The need for
greater formation of priests was critical. In their October 993 appeal, the
bishops requested major seminaries in Da Lat, Phan Thiet, Xuan Loc, Thai Binh,
Bui Chu, and Haiphong to be allowed to reopen. Still, restrictions befell the
candidacy to the priesthood. Admission to and graduation from the seminaries
was strictly limited by regulations. Each diocese could only receive 10 to 15
seminarians every six years. Still, ordination of new priests was conditional
on authorization. Graduates had to ask the authorities to be ordained. Because
of the need of priest, the bishops sought to ordain priests “in hiding.” Besides,
rude restriction on the formation and ordination of priests, the faced the hindrance
of nomination of bishops left many dioceses without one. The diocese of Saigon
with a Catholic population of a half of million was without effective
administration. The old-age and ailing Archbishop Nguyen Van Binh was in poor
health, and the Vice-archbishop Nguyen Van Thuan was persecuted and under
imprisonment. The measure of cleaning Vitiation’s nominations of bishops was
self-evident. The head of the diocese of Bac Ninh was a 73-year old bishop. The
Vatican appointed new bishops with Hanoi’s approval.
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