In the Heat of Suppression

     

On the 65th anniversary of the foundation of the Church, May 18 of the Lunar Year Giap Than (2004), the Hoa Hao Council of Elders restated in its letter of confidence specifying that the nation was in danger and the religion, in peril. The signatories declared that “in the past years, our fellow countrymen have lived in despair and suffered patiently misery due to malevolence as the consequence of the corrupt factions of the holders of power at all levels who always lie in wait to  sweat the labor and steal the properties of the people. Although in the heart of  utmost suppression, the congregations of Hoa Hao Buddhism all in one with strong public support from all social classes inside the country and internationally determinedly stand up in a long war to face the peril and wait for the right time to restore national prestige and enlighten the Hoa Hao Buddhist Faith.”

A prestigious adept, Tran Huu Duyen, aged 83, who had spent 25 years in prison for religious cause, pledged to continue to serve his religious cause  He was nevertheless placed under residence surveillance following his visit to U.S. Consulate in Saigon  on February 13, 2004 and handed to the Vice-consul a letter, asking for the United States intervention so that the Hoa Hao faithful could have the rights to religious freedom and free  elections. The letter also specified that a Committee for Cult should be reestablished as instituted by the traditional worship of Hoa Hao Buddhism.  In the name of the Hoa Hao Buddhists, the religious wished that the Church be authorized to  fly Hoa Hao Buddhist banner, to organize Saint Days, and to reinstate the properties confiscated by the Stare. The venerable Tran Huu Duyen insisted, in particular, on the release of Hoa  Hao Buddhists currently imprisoned, among them was Nguyen Van Lia, a religious of prestige,  who had been incarcerated three years for having organized in his residence the commemoration of death of the founder of Hoa Hao Buddhism. This prestigious of prestige was condemned with false charge as he had also made a case with regard to the calumnies spread by the actual political regime towards the founder of Hoa Hao Buddhism, and  citing true historical incidents in the book entitled “Thirty Years of Resistance in Cochinchina, 1945-1975.”

     Arrests and Imprisonment

On February 25, 2005, the religious Tran Van Hoang, 47 years old, and his brother Tran Van Thang, 35, an inhabitant of  Hoa Thoi Hamlet, Thoai Son District, An Giang Province, were arrested on charges of conducting illegal propagation of religion at a private residence. Tran Van Thang’s wife was also arrested but was released two days after that. The Office of Hoa Hao Buddhism Overseas in South California, in its letter to urge on the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City and various international rights organizations, earnestly asked for help. The Chairman of the organization confirmed that the Communist administration intentionally suppressed the legitimate Hoa Hao Buddhist Church.

Incidents of arrest continued to take place in An Giang Province. On August 5, 2005, the security police arrested 9 Hoa Hao Buddhists. The unjust arrest led to unbent resistance of local Hoa Hao followers. Two among them decided to immolate themselves by fire. They were Vo Van Buu, a native of My An Commune, An Giang Province and Tran Van Ut known as Ut Hoa Lac, a resident in the northern quarters of An Giang Township. It was not known whether Vo Van Buu was alive or dead, but Tran Van Ut died instantly after the arrest.

The self-immolation by fire of two Hoa Hao adepts aroused deep anguish among the Hoa Hao Buddhist congregations in An Giang and elsewhere. The authorities nevertheless turned a blind eye to the aspirations of the Hoa Hao Buddhists. They even prepared to bring before the Court a number of Hoa Hao adepts on charges of causing social disorder. The venerable Le Quang Liem declared the that the authorities had increased suppression against the legitimate aspirants for religious freedom of the Church. He appealed to the Vietnamese communities in the country and overseas to support the Church's movement for religious cause. He urged on international personalities and rights organizations to support the Vietnamese people in their struggle for religious freedom. He would,, in the name of Hoax Halo Buddhists, bring Hanoi to stand trial before the international Court if it continued to commit crimes against Hoax Halo Buddhism.  

   

     Repression

Adepts of Hoa Hao Buddhism elsewhere in the country resisted with firm determination the suppression and resiliently served their faith.  On August 19, 2005, in a silent protest, Le Van Duong, a Hoa Hao Buddhist of renown in My Tho township, immolated himself by fire at the front gate of the U. S. Consulate in Saigon.  Before that, e had attempted to immolate himself by fire at the same place but saved in time. The self-immolation by fire was attributed to by the civil authority as an act of a lunatic. The Nguyen Van Coi, a Hoa Hao dignitary, on the contrary, contended that Le Van Duong’s self-sacrifice originated from desperate grievance. He resisted in vain against brazen abuse of power of a high-ranking Communist cadre who had unlawfully seized his property.  His death coincided with instances of self-immolation by fire in various Hoa Hao Buddhist communities and were thus  conducive to intensifying the resistance of Hoa Hao Buddhist laity against the authorities' increasing suppression.

    

When asked about the incident,  the venerable Le Quang Liem replied that “Human life is most precious to human being, why on earth does he (Le Van Duong) have to destroy it?  It results from the desperate situation  he  could  not endure. Wrath and humiliation are so acute that he was unable to resist and find no way to get out. Being cornered to the dead end, the ultimate solution to many fervent Hoa Hao Buddhists is self-immolation by fire: Rather die in glory than live in shame!”

On June 3, 30 Hoa Hao Buddhists were obstructed from attending the commemoration ceremony for Ha Hai,  who passed away after release from prison. Being pushed back by the police, the adepts started on a hunger strike and engaged in a collective self-immolation by fire. To calm down the protesters, the  authorities managed to settle the matter. They nevertheless proceeded the arrest of 10 adepts. which act provoked the self-immolation by fire of two adepts of prestige, Tran Van Ut and Vo Van Buu. The former died in flame, and the latter died on August 3.  The police succeeded to disband the protest. Hoa Hao Buddhists sent petitions to the local and central authorities, expressing determination of the Church. They pledged to continue to fight for religious cause, if the authorities continued to repress their religion and obstruct them from visiting friends and relatives. As always, their protest came to no answer.  

On June 3, 2006, the local security police launched an operation in Dong Thuy Commune, Lap Vo District, Dong Thap Province and stormed the residence of Nguyen Van Tho, the chairman of the local executive board of Hoa Hao  Buddhism. The religious was then placed under detention  and isolated in the location. Hoa Hao adepts came to rescue. A hunger strike took place. The protesters denounced the authorities’ measure  as a means of repressive control over religious activities. The security police subdued the protesters with violence and disbanded the group instantly.

While repression was taking place in most communities of legitimate  Hoa Hao. the representative of the official Council of Administration of Hoa Hao Buddhism in An Giang Provinc34 pronounced that the religion developed significantly. More than two million adepts practiced religious services peacefully, and the celebration of the Holy Day would be a big event. The President of the Fatherland Front, Pham The Duyet, sent compliments to the Council. The representative of the Bureau of Religious Affairs also sent to the council best wishes. In reality, the conflict between the Council and the legitimate Church over legitimacy grew tense. The State sided with the former and  slashed pure Hoa Hao Buddhism.  On  June 13,  when the adepts of Hoa Hao in the province of An Giang prepared to celebrate the Holy Day to commemorate the foundation of Hoa Hao Buddhism, the local authorities multiplied measures of control to avert all religious activities and dissolve gatherings for fear of open opposition from the faithful when more than a million of Hoa Hao pilgrims from al over the South came to attend the ceremony. In Dong Thap Province, open protest broke out, leveling the opposition of the Hoa Hao community as regards the State’s rude treatment against pure Hoa Hao Buddhism. From May 30, the local authorities had arrested 16 Hoa Hao adepts  for having actuated a perpetual hunger strike to protest against the the repression by violence  of the local police forces.

Adepts of pure Hoa Hao Buddhism in distant communes were also the victims of police raids.  In most cases, they were finally brought to stand trial before the Court. In an interview with the press  on February 7, 2006, Nguyen Van Coi, the spokesman of Hoa Hao Buddhism Overseas in Washington D.C., U.S.A., reported that in September 2005, the local Communist administration  convicted in secret 7 Hoa Hao Buddhists from 5-7 years in prison. They were then imprisoned in Bang Lang, An Giang Province. On the eve of the Lunar Year (2007), the security police brought 5 of them in a covered truck to Xuan Loc prison in Dong Nai Province, 300 kilometres from An Giang. The move to a distant prison causes serious problems to family members every time they want to visit the prisoners. Among the prisoners  were Nguyen Van Dien, Vo Van Thanh Liem, Vo Van Buu, Nguyen Thanh Phong and To Van Mamh. All of  them are Hoa Hao Buddhist of prestige.

On the morning of November 11, 2007, on the order of the authorities of An Giang,  the police destroyed a library of pure Hoa Hao  Buddhists in Phu My District. They stormed and ransacked the facility. Hoa Hao adepts in the area came to the office of the State affiliated Hoa Hao Buddhism Council of Administration and asked for rescue. They were nevertheless told that the incident came out of the initiative of the State and that the State-run directory of Hoa Hao Buddhism held no responsibility whatsoever for it.         

The following day, many adepts were convoked to a “session of work” at the office of the district security service. They then learned that the destruction of the library had been officially managed on the direction of the superior authorities, and this action came out of necessary imposition. Concerned Hoa Hao Buddhists in the  local community maintained that the nature of problem lies in the documents displayed at the library. They are, in the view of the authorities, reactionary, anti-revolutionary, and anti-national. Anything that is related to non-sanctioned religious activities and Hoa Hao Buddhism under the direction of Le Quang Liem is banned. The representative of the directory had advised the interlocutors to turn away from Le Quang Liem, the leader of pure Hoa Hao Buddhism, a reactionary who opposes the State and who is wrong.

    

The malevolence of the authorities, sources said, was the cause that led to the destruction to the archives, ruining completely all documents, writings, and, especially, the files and records on the incidents of conflict during 1945-1947 between the Viet Minh and Hoa Hao Buddhism. In effect, in 1945, the leaders of Hoa Hao Buddhism embraced national independence and solidarity and allied with the Communist-led Viett Minh Front in the resistance against the French. Two years later, the prophet Huynh Phu So, the founder of the religion and Supreme Advisor to the Alliance, was trapped in an ambush and was killed by the Ally Viet Minh. This act of malice threw the leaders of Hoa Hao and adepts back to the French with whom they allied in their fight against the Viet Minh guerrillas. The officials intentionally erased all historical evidences of these tragic incidents. 

The Struggle for Survival of Hoa Hao Buddhism

 

 

    The Protest in Saigon

 

Hoa Hao Buddhists made a move towards actuating a struggle for religious freedom. Many members of pure Hoa Hao Buddhism, in March 2001, came to Saigon and tried to get contact with  President Bill Clinton, who was on his visit to Vietnam, and alert him on the situation of this Church.  To cope with this political malaise, the municipal authorities sought to abort the contact between the President and the believers of the Church. Hoa Hao demonstrators were immediately repressed. Gatherings of protesters were disbanded at Hoa Hao religious milieus Many adepts of the Church were the target of oppression. The venerable Le Quang Liem, aged 81,  Secretary of Hoa Hoa Buddhist Church, was summoned to the security police headquarters. He was instantly placed under house surveillance for “having provoked social troubles” with an attempt to organize a collective self-immolation by fire of his Church’ s adepts in Saigon. The State ‘s repression pushed the Hoa Hao Buddhists to such an extent that they could no longer hold frustration and anger and pledged to struggle for their religious faith, regardless of a brutal repression they might face in the days to come.

 

     Resistance to Repression

 

The year 2001 saw  the  resilient resistance of the Hoa Hao faithful against State control.  The Overseas Association of Hoa Hao faithful, which has its siege in the United States, on March 17, 2001, informed the public worldwide of a scourge of religious persecution in which Hoa Hao Buddhists suffered.  In Saigon, a great number of Hoa Hao adepts held rally in the city-park Le Van Tam to profess their wail and wrath. Armed with placards and signboards with slogans demanding for religious freedom and cans with gasoline and cotton, they prepared for a collective self-immolation by fire in protest against the political regime’s religious persecution, They protesters ran into collision with the police that instantly executed arrests of prominent leaders of the group, among whom was the venerable Le Quang Liem, the supreme leader and soul of the resistance. The Hoa Hao leader was then held in custody for 30 hours in the premises of the police where he reportedly suffered ill-treatment. He was then escorted back to his residence. He was later subject  to residence surveillance for two years. The spiritual leader of Hoa Hao Buddhism nevertheless refused to sign the police minutes in which he was held responsible for the incident.

 

     Suppression of Prestigious Leaders

 

      Le Quang Lem   

 

The resistance to State repression of Hoa Hao Buddhism  ever persisted, straining the friction between the State and the Church  The official journal Quan Doi Nhan Dan (The People’s Army) attributed to the Hoa Hao’ s activities as crimes of sabotage. The venerable Le Quang Liem was labeled an “evil doer.” He was accused of having abused the religion for propaganda purpose, fomenting  opposition to the State. The venerable Le Quang Liem,  in practice, not only gained confidence from his fellow Hoa Hao Buddhists inside the country and overseas but also received support from friendly religious circles. Regardless of warnings and threats from the authorities, Fr. Chan Tin,  the Redempttorist priest who had signed with the Hoa Hao leader and leaders of other faiths a number of statements on the State’ s breach of religious freedoms, diffused a letter of protest against the unjust  arrest of Le Quang Liem.  He demanded an immediate release of Le Quang Liem  and two other Hoa Hao adepts, the  dissolution of the State-instituted Administrative Committee  led by Muoi Ton,  the cessation of  State control over Hoa Hao Buddhism, and the restitution of the legal status of Hoa Hao Buddhism with Le Quang Liem as the spiritual leader of the legitimate Church.

 

      Nguyen Thi Thu

 

Indignant of the unjust arrest of Le Quang Liem, Nguyen Thi Thu, who was the responsible for the League for Women of Hoa Hao Buddhism, decided to immolate herself by fire as an act of protest against the Communist State. Sources reported that three days after the protest of Hoa Hao Buddhists in Saigon, a self-immolation by fire took place in the village of Tan Hoi, in the province of Dong Thap. The incident coincided with a demonstration organized by Hoa Hao Buddhism to protest against the arrest of their spiritual leaders.  Reports on  the self-immolation by fire of the Church's  female leader Nguyen Thi Thu  created an atmosphere mourning in the Hoa Hao circles in the province of An Giang and elsewhere in the southern provinces. The death of an official of the League of Women was not only an act of protest injustice but also of will and sacrifice for religious cause.

 

 

Reasons for Repression

 

 

The Communist administration ever targeted pure Hoa Hao Buddhism with repression.   Immediately after the Communist takeover of South Vietnam, showed anti-Hoa Hao stance, notably in the months of February and March, the period of the year during which the faithful of Hoa Hao Buddhism prepared for the celebration of  the anniversary of death of the founder of the religion, the Prophet Huynh Phu So, who was assassinated by the Communist Viet Minh in 1947. The great event is marked by effervescence due to religious fervor and reverence towards the Master of the faithful. The civil authorities, on the other side, fearful of popular opposition, usually obstruct the Church’s activities or even interdict all forms of celebration on this occasion.    

 

The announcement of the Hoa Hao Buddhist Association Overseas specified that the official of the League of Women of Hoa Hao Buddhism, Nguyen Thi Thu who sacrificed herself after having showered herself with gasoline. The witnesses to the immolation heard her proclaim her faith according to which she willingly sacrificed herself for religious freedom. The police of the Vinh Long Province, which is adjacent to Dong Thap, affirmed the sacrifice of Nguyen Thi Thu by revealing that the woman was dead from  the fact taking plac ein the village of Tan Hoi. They said, however, that they did not know the reason for her death. Sources from Hoa Hao Buddhism reported that approximately one hundred policemen came to the place, dispersed the gathering with cudgels and brought away the body of the victim, regardless of the protest of Hoa Hao Buddhists who wished to bring it to her family.

 

Sources  stated that incidents of protest developed at the Hoa Hao founder's birth-place in March 2001. the Venerable Le Quang Liem, aged 81, secretary of the Buddhist Church of Hoa Hao had been in various instances summoned for interrogation by public security and placed under residence surveillance for two years on charges of provoking "social troubles" and fomenting an attempt at inciting a collective immolation by fire of Hoa Hao adepts of Saigon. was convoked for “a session of work” at a Saigon police headquarters when Nguyen Thi Thu, aged 75, a dignitary of the League of Women of Hoa Hao Buddhism immolated herself by fire to protest against his detention .

 

    The Trial of Truong Van Duc

 

On May 11, 2001, many adepts of Hoa Hao Buddhism were condemned on crimes of causing public disorder and inciting opposition to the police. The People’s Court of the province of An Giang sentenced 30 Hoa Hao Buddhists to various prison terms. Two Hoa Hao dignitaries were among the convicts  One of them, Truong Van Duc, aged 58, was sentenced to 12 years  in prison, and the other, Ho van Trong, aged 76, faced four years. Both belong to the branch of Hoa Hao sect that refuses to submit themselves to the State-instituted Hoa Hao Buddhist Committee of Administration operating under the patronage of the official Fatherland Front of Vietnam.

    

According to the authorities, the accused might have participated in a demonstration organized by members of  a Hoa Hao group antagonistic to the State-instituted Council of Administration. This group was the organizer  of the  protest  led by Le Quang Liem in the district of Tan Phu on February 20, 2001 . The demonstrators “beat and wound many policemen that come to disperse them.” The accuser specified that while the police was enforcing the law, Truong Van Duc might have incited the troublemakers  to resist and encouraged Ho Van Trong to immolate himself by fire. The latter might have been saved by the public. The authorities did not mention the reason  for the demonstration, however. 

 

    Tran Ngoc Dinh

 

On  May 5, 2002, Tran Ngoc Dinh, a Hoa Hao Buddhist in An Giang, circulated a letter of protest in which he expressed indignation against the Communist authorities’ nomination of candidacy to the National Assembly of Nguyen Tan Dat assigned as a representative of Hoa Hao Buddhism. Tran Ngoc Dinh  attested the fact that Nguyen Tan Dat was the vice-chairman of the State-created Hoa Hao Buddhism Executive Council at An Giang and that he was only an instrument in the hand of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Nguyen Tan Dat was in no capacity whatsoever to represent the Hoa Hao faithful. Indifferent to Tran Ngoc Dinh s protest,  the authorities in An Giang proceeded with their plan. Complaints against abuses of power of he local authorities in matters of religion fell to the deaf ears. 

 

To the distress of pure Hoa Hao Buddhism, Hoa Hao Buddhists who practice the religious commandments legitimately handed down by His Holiness Huynh Phu So are targeted with all forms repression. The chairman of Long Dien Commune, as a case in point, insisted on breaking down the gate at Quang Minh Tu Temple, Long Dien A under the pretext that it had been constructed without authorization. He commanded that within 5 days the gate be destroyed; otherwise, the authorities would have it brought down.  Such an unruly act is regrettably seen elsewhere in the country!

 

On a visit tour to Quang Minh Tu at Long Hoa Hamlet, Long Dien A Commune, Cho Moi District, An Giang Province on June 24, 2002, the official of U.S. consulate in Saigon James Walter was prevented from contacting with  Vo Van Thanh Liem, the guardian at the temple. The religious, who had repeatedly protested against the oppressive measures of the  communal authorities against him.  He had been followed and had many times taken away from home on ungrounded charges. He was then put on constant watch by the security police. He was forbidden to see anyone. Accidentally the American official met with Le Minh Triet,  a Hoa Hao Buddhist religious who had been imprisoned for 8 years and was still placed under house arrest. During conversation, Le Minh Triet exposed the malaise in which the Hoa Hao faithful serves their faith and expressed disbelief in the religious policy of the totalitarian regime. 

 

State repression against pure Hoa Hao Buddhists intensified. The venerable Vo Van Thanh Liem announced he would kill himself if the security police lowered the banner of the religion and  notice boards at the Church’s temple in Cho Moi District. Also, a number of  Hoa Hao adepts pledged to immolate themselves by fire to protest against the authorities’ scheme to repress Hoa Hao Buddhism. During 5-11 November, 2002, on the order the provincial authorities of An Giang, the security police  flocked to Phuoc Long Temple at Phu Ha Hamlet,  Cho Moi District, to intimidate Hoa Hao believers there. They ordered them to destroy the temple and pull down the banner. All religious services and activities were strictly forbidden.

The Administration's Security Measures

    Charges and Arrests

Religious practices by members of pure Hoax Hao Buddhism were forbidden. No religious celebration was permitted to practice even within the residence. In March 2000, the security police burst into the house of Truong Van Thuc, a prestigious Hoa Hao adept in the hamlet of Thoai Son, while he was celebrating the anniversary of death of a family member. The agents of the communal security police executed an act of  brutal violence against the victim and his fellow believers without justification, beating and dispersing the 13 participants at the ceremony. Two old men were injured and brought to the hospital. Two younger participants were  seriously injured. They nevertheless refused to be taken care of by the public health service as a protest against the interference of the authorities in religious service. Three other participants were arrested.

On March 23, 2000, Truong Van Thuc and ten other Hoa Hao adepts sent a letter of protest to the Prime Minister and the Secretary-general of the Vietnamese Communist Party to protest against the brutality of the police and demanded for the liberation of the adepts who were being detained. A delegation from the People’s Office of Public Prosecutors of An Giang effected an on-the-spot investigation on the matter and an examination on the claims by the signatories of the letter of protest. Having suffered a string of interrogations, they were all  released, but Truong Van Thuc was arrested the following day.  

    

To mete out opposition to the State of the Hoa Hao adepts, the local authorities stepped up police search-and destroy operations against the adepts from inside and outside the local community, obliterating any religious r activity, if necessary. They obstructed parties of pilgrimage  to the Hoa Hao Holy See to attend the anniversary of death  for  the Church’s Founding Father. On March 28, 2000, the security police penetrated the Hoa Hao Holy Site to arrest a number of Pure Hoa Hao Buddhists among whom was Truong Van Thuc. The police charged him with such unfounded crimes as activating an “anti--government” scheme.  He was led, his hands in handcuffs, to the An Giang prison where he was incarcerated without a trial. That was not the first time when a Hoa Hao adept was falsely charged and imprisoned.  

Fervent Hoa Hao Buddhists are always a prime target of persecution in and outside the prison. The Overseas Bureau of Hoa Hao Buddhism informed human rights organizations of the cruelty a Hoa Hao inmate had to suffer.  On the morning of Tuesday, September 26, 2000, the People’s Court of An Giang in a trial that lasted only several hours convicted six Hoa Hao adepts to diverse penalties. The two principal convicts were Nguyen Chau Lang  and Tran Van Be were convicted to 3 years in prison.  Three others were given each a penalty of three years in prison,  and  the sixth convict, one year in prison. The accusations the court had attributed to them were “to have abused democratic rights, troubled social order, and resisted government officials’ enforcement of the law,” having failed to produce evidences of any kind.

      

The six convicts were arrested at the end of March 2000. Previously, on March 20, one of them, Truong Van Thuc, and 10 Hoa Hao adepts had sent a complaint to the prime-minister and secretary-general of the  Communist Party of Vietnam to protest against the police brutality against Hoa Hao Buddhists and demanded the liberation of three imprisoned Hoa Hao adepts. The arrests were destined to obstruct the preparations for the celebration of the anniversary of the death of the founder of Hoa Hao Buddhism, His Holiness Huynh Phu So, scheduled on March 30, 2000. The To Dinh  (ancestral temple), the birth place of the founder, where the ceremony would take place had been surrounded by a chain of police checkpoints.

On Monday, March 25, a demonstration, an act of protest of pure Hoa Hao Buddhism  against the unjust trial took place outside the court room while the court was in session. One of the convicts, of September 26, 2000, Nguyen Chau Lang, who was incarcerated on September 26, 2000  allegedly on false charge at Bang Lang prison, was  subject to ill-treatment by the prison guards. They ordered him to cut off his coiled-up hair --a traditional hair style-- and his beard that are borne by pure and fervent Hoax Halo adepts as marks of their adherence to their faith. The convict, resisted in vain and was strangled and choked by the prison guards who forced him into submission . He could not drink  and eat for many days after that.

The sources further mentioned that Nguyen Day Tam of Phi My in the province of An Gang, another Hoax Halo adept, of prestige, was placed under house surveillance on unfounded charge for two years. This measure was carried out on order of the People's Council of the province of An Gang of September 14, accusing Nguyen Day Tam of "having retained and reproduced documents of distortions, inciting hatred, and appealing for opposition to overthrow the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam."  In truth, during a house search at Nguyen Duy Tam’s residence, the police found several disks on which a certain number of emissions in Vietnamese of the Radio Free Asia were recorded. Nguyen had been targeted with suspicion, being a signatory of a complaint against the local authorities   and a participant in a public protest.

      

Unable to hold wrath, hundreds of Hoa Hao adepts managed to come to Long Xuyen, the township of An Giang Province to rally a  protest in front of the Bang Lang prison where the ten victims of repression were imprisoned. They were stopped then dispersed by the local police.  Ahead oh the incident, several Hoa Hao adepts had been arrested by the police in the outskirts of Saigon. Hoa Hao followers from An Giang were stopped from coming to the metropolitan city. Some were arrested; others were put under house surveillance. Among the Hoa Hao arrested in Saigon was the secretary of the legitimate Hoa Hao Buddhist Church Ha Hanh. He was brought back to An Giang and was placed under detention in the prison of Cho Moi.On October 17, 2000, the spokesperson of the Vietnamese Foreign Affairs, in a press conference, qualified  the accusations against the authorities by the Overseas Bureau of Hoa Hao Buddhism as pure invention. However, she added that the prisoners had bowed to the internal regulations of the prison.

      The Repression

The conflict between the civil authorities and pure Hoa Hao Buddhists who resisted the patronage of State-installed Committee of Administration doubled the intensity on the occasion of the anniversary of birth of the founder of the Church. On December 7, 2000, a demonstration in support for the Hoa Hao responsible Ha Hai, who was imprisoned at Cho Mo rolled out.  It was severely repressed. Protests ensued. Repression continued. In the repression of December 20, many adepts among whom was the 81-year-old Hoa Haot leader Le Quang Liem were bludgeoned.   

     

Before the Holy Day, the police had posted its agents all along the waterways to Hoa Hao Village, Tan Chau District, An Giang Province. Regardless of the authorities’ obstruction, thousands of adepts coming from all parts of the country, largely in small river boats, sailed to To Dinh (the Ancestral Temple) even though  the holy place was tightly locked up by the State-installed Hoa Hao Committee of Administration. In various areas along the road to the Ancestral Temple,  the police used tear gas grenades to disperse crowds of pilgrims. Many of them  were brutality beaten. Police forces threw off their clothing or tore it off. The venerable Le Quang Liem was bludgeoned. Others were injured.  The spokesman of Hoa Hao Buddhism Truong Van Duc, being forced into submission, protested against police acts of brutality of the authorities. He was dragged  to the Phu My prison.  Later, he was released in a coma and brought back to his domicile.  The venerable Le Quang Liem was forced to return to Saigon, with bruises on his face and shoulders.

     

    

The Resistance to Persecution of  Legitimate Hoa Hao Buddhism    

On the 62nd anniversary of the foundation of Hoa Hao Buddhism (2001), the Church officially proclaimed in a circular the unshakable determination of its leadership and faithful to preserve and protect the legitimate Hoa Hao Buddhism whose religious quintessence is translated in the teachings of His Holiness Huynh and whose filial piety tenets that  are well versed in the Vietnamese spirit of harmony and benevolence of Buddhism. Many Hoa Hao religious have professed their faith and devotion to this religious cause. In a letter published in the review Duoc Tu Bi (Torch of Compassion), Vo Thanh Liem, a respectable Hoa Hao religious, drew up a list of  instances of harassment he had suffered since his engagement in religious services and vowed to loyally commit to the service of legitimate Hoa Hao Buddhist cause. In his post-scripted, Vo Van Thanh Liem whose religious name is Nhat Quang Minh listed all affronts  inflicted on him since 1975 until then. He had been arrested and put into prison 22 times by the local authorities on unfounded  or false charges..

The religious reported, on January 31, 2001, the police made an incursion into his pagoda, destroyed the construction of a hostelry on the land of the pagoda. Having failed to arrest the religious, who resisted the arrest  behind closed doors, the police broke in and destroyed some articles of cult.  On October 31, the 15th day of the lunar month when the community of Hoa Hao were assembling in the interior of his pagoda to attend a preaching through the loudspeakers, the agents of the Fatherland Front and the security police surrounded the place of cult and intimidate the adepts in attendance. Two days later, the attendants at the preaching were called to a “session of work”  at the headquarters of the commune and interrogated. On November 6, the local authorities convoked the attendants to inform them  of the violations of the law that Vo Van Thanh Liem had committed . He had constructed without permission a hostelry, organized a session of preaching on the writings of the founder without authorization, organized the activities of opposition against the local authorities, and so on. Besides, he had never replied to the convocations that the local authorities had sent to him.

Under no circumstance had the religious made protest  against the allegation attributed to him by the security police. He suffered injustice in peaceful resistance. The police then launched an operation with a troop of  people to attack on his pagoda and proceeded the arrest of the religious.  Out of fear, he did not know how to react  but to climb up to the top of a tree of about 20 meters high. For two days, the police deployed a larger troop in and around the pagoda. The religious cut off himself a piece of muscle of his thigh and threw it on the group to show his unbent resistance. which act successfully made the police withdraw from the place. However, it  laid siege on the pagoda. On November 9, the police no longer allowed the religious to stay in his position high in the tree. He descended on the ground but wrote a letter “at unbent will.” If the police force penetrated the pagoda again, he would commit suicide or immolate himself by fire as an act of protest against the Communist authorities in an instance of religious persecution of which he was the victim.

Persecution made fervent Hoa Hao Buddhists evade the country and sought asylum in Cambodia. On January 15, 2001, the People’s Court of An Giang sentenced Bui Van Hue to three years in prison for breaking the law on house surveillance. Bui had been put under house surveillance since 1999 and left for Phnom Penh without the authorities’ permission. He was arrested by the Phnom Penh authorities and transferred to the Vietnamese authorities. Other resilient adepts of the Church resisted persecution and suffered repression.

Destruction of Worship Places

The local authorities of My Dong Ward in cooperation with the security on July 19, 2012, proceeded with its  land eviction at the Cao Dai Temple area in the township of Phan Rang, Ninh Thuan Province. They brought down the temple without a notice to members of the Church there. The temple had been under construction since 1951. In 1987, while it was still being constructed, the security police arrested  the representatives responsible  for the construction of the local Church  and ordered them to hand it over to the State. The church  officials nevertheless refused to comply with the order. The authorities of My Hai Commune drew up minutes, accusing  one of them of  behaving like a thug. Incidents of oppression as such happened again and again in My Dong. Members of the Church  made multiple claims beside competent authorities; no solution came to avail, however. The State-affiliated Cao Dai Church at Tay Ninh suggested that there must be a proper solution. A piece of fertile  land should be exchanged for compensation.  However, an area of hollow land was given in exchange without any other compensation for the premises taken down by the authorities, instead. Without proper compensation, the members of the Church at My Dong could in no way construct a new one. Complaints were, again, made to high competent authorities.

Nguyen Dinh Lien, Vice-director of the Department of Religious Affairs of Ninh Thuan Province, evaded the question over the problem in question and kept silence. The authorities of My Dong Commune maintained that there had already been conspiracy of silence on the part of the Cao Dai Church at Tay Ninh and the authorities.  On March 5, 2013, the local authorities of Long Binh District, Tien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta broke into the temple of a branch of legitimate Cao Dai Church.  The police got in, assaulted an assembly of  60 members who were attending ceremony at the temple. Police disbanded the assembly and told the leader to hand over the control and ordered the attendants to go to and practice faith at a State-affiliated temple. The worshippers resisted. Some were beaten; others were  handcuffed, and six of them among whom was Le Ngoc Diep, the temple guardian,  were arrested and  detained.  Temple members claimed that “they only serve faith. They need to keep this temple so that can follow the traditions as they have in the past. They don’t need legal status”  The group had refused earlier the authorities’ order to surrender the facility to the State-affiliate Church at Tay Ninh. 

Sources said that on June 11, 2014, local authorities and officials of the State-affiliated Church at My Dong had thugs thrown excrement and filth  on the worshippers while they were performing religious services at a place of cult. These bad elements were also given order to chain the wheels of the vehicles of the worshippers who attended the services. These are punishing measures common used by the authorities to place under control Dissident Cao Dai who refuse to affiliate with the State-sanctioned Cao Dai Administrative Council at Tay Ninh. 

THE HOA HAO BUDDHIST CHURCH

The State Elimination of Legitimate Hoa Hao Buddhism

  

The struggle for religious faith of legitimate Hoa Hao Buddhism was enduring and challenging. Not only do Hoa Hao faithful face constant State repression but also have to take risk to preserve faith and fight for survival. To pacify members of the Church, the authorities sought to reconcile with church leaders, wooing them to join the Party affiliates in a State-instituted directory “to normalize” the Church’s affairs. On May 20, 1999, under the patronage of the State, a congress of Hoa Hao Buddhism voted on the nomination of 11 selected members of the Council of Administration. Nguyen Van Ton alias Muoi Ton, a protégé of the administration, was nominated the chairman. This was an effort on the part of the authorities to replace the leaders of the legitimate Church with the State affiliates. This new organ would officially represent the entire laity of Hoa Hao Buddhism and operate under the supervision of the State through the intermediary coordination of the Fatherland Front. This process of “normalization” of the Church, according to the administration, should follow methods of application established for non-authorized factions of any other religions.

The new council nevertheless met with resistance from the majority of various Hoa Hao congregations. The veteran leaders, particularly the venerable Le Quang Liem, firmly professed to revere the religious principles as inscribed in the Sacred Books of Teachings by the Master of the Church, legitimate lines of organization of the Church,  and traditional practices of the Church. To preserve legitimacy, the Church began to function with the aegis of Hoa Hao Thuan Tuy  (Pure Hoa Hao Buddhism). The Church then has unavoidably faced with constant persecution ever since.  

To cope with increasing persecution, a Council of Elders for the Protection of Hoa Hao Buddhism comprising long-standing members of the rational Hoa Hao Buddhism was formed. The new leadership practiced new lines of direction, observing Hoa Hao faith in silence acceding to the laws of change but resiliently meting out oppression following the law of struggle "where there is oppression, there is  resistance."  The reality shows that, following the takeover of South Vietnam in April 1975, the Communist administration has brutally forbidden  the masses of Hoa Hao Buddhist to serve their faith. Hoa Hao worshippers have stood firm to preserve their faith although with sacrifices and sufferings. The new leadership called for support from Vietnamese leaders inside and oversees and world personalities and organizations and vowed to persistently struggle for religious faith and national urbanity.

Following the foundation of the Council of Elders, independent factions of pure Hoax Halo Buddhism hold firm resistance and received warm spiritual support from friendly religious circles in the country. The Reverend Chan Tin, a Catholic priest, a prominent advocate for democracy and freedom, nationwide, associated himself with members of legitimate Hoax Halo Buddhism.  He publicly protested against the State’s repressive measures the Church. The priest circulated his appeal for support for the venerable Le Quant  Lime and Hoax Halo adepts.  In the text, dated December 1, 1999, the priest denounced  brutal acts of violence  that the authorities had inflicted on the people of the province of An Giang most of whom were Hoa Hao believers. These practices of terror, immersed in fear the entire population in the province. Involved in the action were the authorities of the province, among whom were the secretary of the  section of the Communist Party of the province, the chairman of the People’s Council of the province, and  the chairman of the Fatherland Front of the province. The priest affirmed that “they were the haughtiest state officials notorious for extortion and flaunted themselves above “everyone else in all over the Mekong Delta.” They were those State cadres who rolled in money and possessed luxurious residences that were worth of billions of “dong,”  which barefaced act even the central administration was at a loss to disaffirm.

The priest equally specified that the local administration had executed malicious practices  against Hoa Hao Buddhism with the publication of articles denigrating the religion and ridiculing its founder of the Church in the official review An Ninh The Gioi (The Police World Security). The appeal called for the respect for human rights and the abrogation of Article 4 of the 1992 Constitution which, in his view,  immerses the country under the thumb of the Communist Party of Vietnam. He  demanded an immediate dissolution of the servile Hoa Hao Committee of Representatives that solely consisted of the henchmen of the regime.

Suppression followed suit. On December 26, 1999, the security forces arrested Hoa Hao adepts when they went to To Dinh (Ancestral Temple) to prepare for the Church’s anniversary celebration. This commemoration of the death of the Founder of Hoa Hao Buddhism is to the Communist a reminder an act of bad faith and betrayal to the Communist Viet Minh. Hoa Hao believers, on the contrary, ever consider this a vile fabrication.  The founder of the Church was practically assassinated by the Viet Minh, and his death is commemorated by the Hoa Hao faithful on February 25 every year). This yearly commemoration ceremony is forbidden by the actual political regime. Police raids, attempts of intimidation, and arrests on unfounded charges ate the common practices. They were  part of a  of repression programs destined to prevent the Hoa Hao  faithful  to organize, attend, and celebrate Holy Days. To the authorities, celebrations of this kind not only creates a “show of force” but also a manifestation of resistance against the regime of the pure Hoa Hao, which  act of defiance the authorities cannot look the other way.

On this day of celebration, the To Dinah, the birthplace of the Founder of Hoa Hao, was surrounded by a chain of police checkpoints aimed  to  block all entrances to the site. Reports from the Hoa Hao community in the United States said that telephone communication was cut off.  A little less than ten thousand Hoa Hao adepts were waiting for this even to take place. Repression was on the way. the resistance persisted, and the event rolled on in chaos. Police detained the worshipers without a charge.  Under detention, the adepts suffered ill-treatment. They were released only after the intervention of U.S. Congress and, particularly, the expression of  deep  concern about religious freedom in Vietnam of the Honorable Christ Smith whom the Hoes Halo adepts had met several days before that. Sources said that right after their liberation when dispossession of the Church's properties was in full swing , they repeatedly sent  letters of protest to Vietnam Prime Minister and the Supreme People’s Court to present their case, but no answer came to avail (Truing Tan. Report on Religious Persecution. February 2000)