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Press Release

February 12, 2002

NEWS ADVISORY

Committee on International Relations
U.S. House of Representatives
 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Sam Stratman
(202) 226-7875

Persecution of Religious Faithful in China, Vietnam
Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen Schedules Feb. 13 Hearing with Victims of Human Rights Abuses

BACKGROUND - As President Bush prepares to embark on a tour of Asian countries, there is new evidence of alleged violations of human rights and persecution of religious leaders and practitioners by Chinese authorities. This week, the Committee for the Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China and the Center for Religious Liberty of Freedom House unveiled Chinese government documents that provide chilling evidence of secret orders to persecute a wide-range of religious and spiritual groups inside China. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom also will be issuing this week its 2002 policy recommendations on the People’s Republic of China.

PANEL I: Michael K. Young , Commissioner, U.S. Commission on Int’l Religious Freedom;

PANEL II: Paul Marshal, Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House; John Ackerly, International Campaign for Tibet; Ningfang Chen, Falun Gong practitioner; Vo Van Ai, Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam; Dan Duy-Tu Hoang, Vietnamese-American Public Affairs Committee.

What is the Purpose of the hearing?

The Subcommittee will serve as a conduit for presentation of new information and evidence derived from testimonials from victims of Chinese torture and persecution, to help ensure a place of prominence for human rights and religious freedom issues in the upcoming discussions between U.S. and Chinese officials.

Amnesty International’s 2001 survey of Vietnam noted that "religious critics of the government were subjected to surveillance, harassment and denial of basic freedoms, including freedom of expression." In October 2001, Vietnam’s government sentenced Roman Catholic priest Rev. Thaddeus Bguyen Van Ly to 15 years in prison for "undermining national unity" and "public slandering" of the Vietnamese Communist Party. His crime: giving written testimony to the U.S. Congress about religious persecution in Vietnam.

Testimonies

Opening Statement by Hon. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chair

After the deplorable attacks of September 11^th, President Bush established a nexus between terror and democratic principles. He rightly underscored that, it was not simply the United States, a powerful nation, which had been attacked. It was the ideas and beliefs that it represents -- the freedoms that it defends throughout the world -- which were the targets of the attacks.

Conversely, the President illustrated the correlation that exists between the behavior of these states -- their treatment of their own population -- and their actions worldwide.

Therefore, after unveiling the atrocities committed by the Taliban against women, religious and ethnic minorities, and its people in general, it became abundantly clear that a regime which had no regard for the lives nor for the basic human rights of its own people, could not possibly place any significance on the lives of Americans, thousands of miles away.

And from the ashes of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon emerged a stronger, more determined United States -- a country with a reinvigorated vision of its global commitment and role as the vanguard of democratic principles and freedoms.

Religious freedom has always been at the core of American life since the inception of our society. Its place as the first of ten freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights is a reflection of our Founding Father’s assessment of it as the cornerstone of liberty.

It is therefore not surprising that the U.S. Congress placed such emphasis on the passage and enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act, which delineates U.S. policy, actions, and advocacy on behalf of individuals persecuted on account of their religious and spiritual beliefs.

The application of the Act to the pernicious conditions found in China and Vietnam will be a crucial part of our discussions today -- discussions which will be guided by the testimony of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a body created by the 1998 law.

However, freedom of religion and conscience, are not concepts exclusive to the U.S. psyche. These are universal rights endowed to all human beings.

The importance of safeguarding against religious oppression and defending those who are persecuted for their beliefs and spiritual conviction -- that is, the need for today’s hearing and related action -- is manifested in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The preamble states that: "disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind."

This Subcommittee and the U.S. Congress cannot be idle as Uighur Muslims are killed by members of China’s military police. We must give a voice to the increasing numbers of Falun Gong practitioners who are arrested, sent to labor camps, beatened, and tortured because they refuse to renounce their beliefs.

It is this Subcommittee’s responsibility to serve as a conduit for the presentation of evidence about the persecution, horrific torture, and deaths of Tibetan worshipers, particularly monks and nuns, for the courage to practice their faith.

It is our duty to highlight how Chinese officials have destroyed, closed or confiscated approximately 3,000 churches, temples and shrines (Christian, Buddhist and Daoist) in recent years.

We cannot turn a blind eye to recent reports obtained by Freedom House detailing the arrests and severe beatings of at least 25 South China Christian Church followers and the torture of other members with electric prods.

These deplorable and inhumane acts are part of a systematic and coordinated policy by China’s Communist regime to "smash" and "destroy" these "unauthorized religions" by whatever means necessary.

We will hear testimony today from Freedom House detailing the contents of top secret Chinese government documents which provide chilling evidence of secret orders to persecute a wide range of religious and spiritual groups inside China.

Two years ago, Freedom House obtained similar documents about the horrific practices designed and implemented by the Vietnamese authorities to severely suppress religious freedom.

The similarities in the official documents of these two Communist regimes and the methods they employ, combined with the frightening parallels in their internal conditions regarding religious worship, required a joint examination of the religious persecution in the two countries.

As has been noted in numerous reports on China and Vietnam, religious freedom is severely repressed in the manner common to Communist countries -- that is, through registration requirements; restricting religious practice to government-approved organizations and leaders; through monitoring and infiltration; through propaganda discrediting the nature or the various religions; and through coercive and violent forms of control.

Both countries, according to the State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and others, have taken major steps backward, particularly in the realm of religious freedom and tolerance.

In Vietnam, the terrifying abuses against the Montagnard people of the Central Highlands, have been the subject of numerous human rights reports and recent articles.

These chronicle how Vietnamese authorities destroy Montagnard church buildings, burn their house-churches, and force them to drink a mixture of liquor, goat’s blood, raw chicken liver, and raw pig’s intestine -- all in an attempt to force them to renounce God and promise not to tell others about Christianity.

Members of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and the Hoa Hao Buddhists have been disappeared, threatened, persecuted, and targeted for arrest.

The Unified Buddhist Church’s top patriarch remains under house arrest. Another senior spiritual leader of the Unified Buddhist Church died while under house arrest in January of this year. He had spent nine years in one of Vietnam’s squalid jail cells under trumped up charges of trying to overthrow the Communist regime in Hanoi.

In March of last year, two to four million Hoa Hao Buddhists were forcibly prevented to assemble on their sacred ground. Key leaders were arrested or their houses surrounded by police. Other devotees were reportedly detained on their way to the site.

The preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights talks about a world where people enjoy "freedom from fear" and persecution.

Unfortunately for the Hmong Christians in Vietnam, this is only a dream. They must also endure the most horrific forms of suppression of their religious liberties.

To summarize the disdain demonstrated by Vietnamese authorities toward the fundamental freedoms guaranteed to its people as human beings, I must mention the arrests of dissidents on the eve of the debate on the House floor of the Vietnam Human Rights Act and would like to end my statement with the case of Roman Catholic priest Father Thaddeus Van Ly.

He was sentenced in October 2001 to 15 years in prison for "undermining national unity" and "public slandering" of the Vietnamese Communist Party. His crime: giving written testimony to the U.S. Congress about religious persecution in Vietnam.

Thus, as President Bush prepares to embark on his tour of Asian countries, including meetings and a press conference with Chinese leader, Jiang (yahn) Zemin(zeh-mihn), we ask him and his advisers to listen to the testimony which will be presented here today and use it as a catalyst.

Let the U.S. send a message throughout China and throughout the East Asian region and the world, that this country proudly stands with the oppressed and will continue to fight for their right to practice their religion and beliefs.

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TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL K. YOUNG,
CHAIR, U.S. COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
BEFORE THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

February 13, 2002

Commission Chair Michael K. Young testifies about religious freedom in China and Vietnam before the House International Relations Committee Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights.

Thank you, Madame Chairman for the opportunity to testify before this subcommittee on religious persecution in China and Vietnam, and I commend you and the members of the subcommittee for holding this important hearing.

CHINA

The widespread and serious abuses of the right to freedom of religion and belief in China are well documented by our Commission, the State Department, and religious and other nongovernmental organizations. In October 2001, for the third straight year, the Secretary of State concluded that the Chinese government severely and systematically violates freedom of religion and belief, and therefore named China once again a "country of particular concern" under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The Commission concludes that the hinese government's respect for freedom of religion and belief has deteriorated in the past year. The Government of China has committed numerous serious violations against members of many of China's religious and spiritual communities, including Evangelical Christians, Roman Catholics, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, as well as the Falun Gong and other groups that the government has labeled "evil cults."

In the wake of being granted Permanent Normal Trade Relations status by the United States and successfully bidding to host the 2008 Olympics, the government has tightened its control over religion in China. At China's December 2001 national religious-affairs conference, President Jiang Zemin stated, "Religion must never be allowed when it opposes the direction of the party or the socialist system, or destroys national reunification or ethnic unity." The government put this doctrine into practice just last month, when it intensified its crackdown on the religious association and practices of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Immediately after the religious-affairs conference, China further demonstrated its resolve to tighten its control of religious organizations and their activities by handing down a death sentence to Pastor Gong Shengliang of the underground Protestant South China Church. Other church members were given sentences up to life imprisonment. Their major crime? Using a so-called "evil cult" to "undermine the enforcement of the law." Last month, the same law was used to indict Li Guangqiang, a Hong Kong businessman, for allegedly smuggling Bibles to another underground Protestant group. Mr. Li was released last weekend in advance of President Bush's state visit next week.

The Chinese government also continues to deny foreign diplomats and human rights monitors, including UN representatives, access to the boy designated by the Dalai Lama to be the 11th Panchen Lama. He has not been seen since 1995.

Muslim Uighur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer remains in jail serving an eight-year sentence for "harming national security." Her crime: sending her husband in the U.S. clippings from Chinese newspapers, on which he commented over Radio Free Asia.

The Commission has adopted a new set of specific recommendations for the U.S. government that fall under four headings. It is this Commission's conclusion that, in order to protect freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief, the Chinese government must take effective steps in the following four critical areas. U.S. policy should encourage such steps and effectively respond, whether they are or are not taken.

China must end its current crackdown on religious and spiritual groups.
China must reform its repressive legal framework and establish an effective mechanism to hold officials accountable for religious-freedom and related human rights violations.
China must affirm the universality of religious freedom and China's international obligations and must ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
China must foster a culture of respect for human rights. The Commission is making its full set of new policy recommendations public for the first time at this hearing. In the interest of time, I won't review all of them now, but I respectfully request, Madame Chairman, that the full set of recommendations be included in the formal hearing record. I will focus on a few key points.

The Chinese government has used torture, detention, intimidating surveillance, discrimination, and other unconscionable practices against an untold number of persons simply because they openly practice their religion or belief. This must stop. The U.S. should use every diplomatic opportunity to urge the Chinese to cease these abuses and should integrate this effort into all aspects of bilateral cooperation and dialogue, including security and counterterrorism. In addition, the President should ensure that religious freedom is a prominent agenda item for state visits in either direction - indeed, after President Bush publicly expressed his concern for the Hong Kong businessman accused of smuggling Bibles, the charges against him were reduced and he was sentenced to a term much less than was originally sought. Before any state visit to China, the President should also receive assurances that he will have the opportunity to address a Chinese audience on human rights in a live and uncensored broadcast. President Reagan's similar address to Russian students at Moscow State University in 1988 was popular and memorable among Russians. The Commission wrote to the White House on January 31 to urge that the President obtain assurances from the Chinese government before he goes to China this week that he be given such a speaking opportunity.

The U.S. should emphasize to the Chinese government the positive contributions that religion and believers can make to Chinese society, as well as the need to permit both faith-based and secular organizations to provide humanitarian and social services freely within China.

The Commission welcomes the resumption of the bilateral human rights dialogue. We believe, however, that such a mechanism should not only communicate U.S. concerns about human rights violations in China. It must also establish measurable goals and practical steps for improvement. Mere dialogue should not be an end in itself.

The U.S. should also work multilaterally to foster human rights improvements in China. As a key component of this effort, we should continue to propose and promote a resolution to censure China at annual meetings of the UN Commission on Human Rights. We recently wrote to Secretary Powell, stating that it was extremely important that the United States serve as an active member of the UN Commission on Human Rights as the U.S. stands virtually alone in striving to focus world attention on specific violations of human rights. Furthermore, the U.S. government should seek to establish a diplomatic presence in Tibet and Xinjiang to demonstrate our concern and to monitor religious freedom and other human rights. I should note that, thanks to the work of the International Relations Committee, the House has adopted language calling for a branch consular office in Lhasa as part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which is awaiting action by the Senate.

The U.S. government's China policy should include a number of practical steps to promote religious freedom and other human rights. These include support and, as appropriate, funding for human rights advocates within China, as well as those, wherever found, who are promoting the rule of law, legal reform, and democracy there. The U.S. government should make sure that Tibetan and other ethnic minorities, as well as representatives of religious communities and other nongovernmental organizations, are included in exchange programs with China.

Madame Chairman, it is U.S. policy to oppose violations of religious freedom and other human rights throughout the world, not just in China. Through enhanced public diplomacy, the United States should directly and frankly explain to the Chinese people this message and the reasons for our concern. Such efforts should include the expansion of Radio Free Asia and Voice of America broadcasts throughout China. Since the U.S. permits Chinese media, including the official Chinese Central Television company, access to American markets, we should ensure that U.S. media, including broadcasting companies, are allowed a similar presence in Chinese markets. Also, the U.S. government should ensure that U.S. companies doing business in China do not engage in practices that would facilitate violations of religious freedom and other human rights, such as disclosing employees' religious or spiritual activities or affiliations to Chinese officials.

Now that PNTR status has eliminated the annual review of human rights in China, the work of this subcommittee in holding these kinds of hearings and continuing such reviews on an ongoing basis takes on even greater importance. The Commission on International Religious Freedom stands ready to join with you and cooperate in this effort.

VIETNAM

Moving now to Vietnam, the Commission has closely followed the situation there for quite some time. In both 2000 and 2001, we noted that the government of Vietnam had committed grave violations of religious freedom, and we urged the State Department to monitor carefully the conditions there. In February of 2001, we held a public hearing on Vietnam here in Washington, at which several overseas representatives of Vietnamese religious communities testified, as well as experts on U.S.-Vietnam relations. Also, in May 2001, we issued a set of recommendations for the U.S. government in a chapter of our annual report. A delegation from our Commission soon will be conducting a fact-finding mission to Vietnam at the invitation of its government - which we have sought since December of 2000. This visit hopefully will afford us additional first hand information and direct dialogue with that government.

Religious-freedom conditions in Vietnam have deteriorated since the release of our report in May. In particular, several leading religious figures have been imprisoned or placed under house arrest. In October, Vietnamese authorities sentenced Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly to 15 years in prison for "undermining national unity." Father Ly has been a persistent critic of the Vietnamese government's failure to protect religious freedom, and he provided written testimony to the Commission for its Vietnam hearing. As you know, the government took action against Father Ly despite protests by several members of Congress, the Administration and our Commission.

The Vietnamese government has also recently detained or imprisoned several leaders of religious groups that are not officially recognized, including The Venerable Thich Huyen Quang and The Venerable Thich Quang Do of the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam, The Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang of the Mennonite Church in Ho Chi Minh City, and Mr. Le Quang Liem of the Hoa Hao Buddhist Church. In addition, serious reports continue to emerge from ethnic minority regions of Vietnam, where the government has severely restricted access. A government-sponsored renunciation campaign appears to continue against ethnic Hmong Christians in the northwestern provinces as well as Montagnards in the Central Highlands. Montagnards who have fled to Cambodia to escape unrest in their home provinces have reportedly been subjected to ill-treatment upon their repatriation to Vietnam. While conversations between the Vietnamese government and leaders of the Catholic Church have led to some improvements, there remain a number of issues, such as admission of men to seminaries and licensing of priests, that indicate an unnecessary control by the government of Church activity. Finally, while the government early last year did recognize the Evangelical Church of Vietnam in the south, we have yet to see substantial evidence of that organization's independence from the state.

This kind of behavior does not help the Vietnamese government make its case that it deserves international loans or additional trade benefits from the United States while it fails to uphold its international human rights commitments. I would note that Father Ly was sentenced not two weeks after the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) was ratified. In light of the actions that the Vietnamese government has taken in the past several months, it remains imperative for our government to send the message that the protection of human rights, including religious freedom, is a continuing priority for the United States.

In this regard, the Commission praised the House for passing the Vietnam Human Rights Act (H.R. 2833) in September 2001. The Act not only expresses Congress's concern over violations of religious freedom by the Vietnamese government, it would implement several Commission policy recommendations. We support the bill and urge the Senate to pass it. In addition, the Commission made several other recommendations in our May 2001 report, and with your permission I would request that those also be made a part of the hearing record.

Madame Chairman, violations of religious freedom continue in both Vietnam and China, but we continue to hope that U.S. policy actions will precipitate a positive change in behavior by the governments of both these countries. Hearings like this one can only help focus the attention of the administration and the general public on these grave issues and put these governments on notice that their abuses will not be overlooked. I appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today and assure you that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, consistent with its statutory mandate, stands ready to work with you to encourage religious freedom in these countries and throughout the world.

I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

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Testimony of Paul Marshall,

Senior Fellow, Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House

before the

House Committee on International Relations

Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights

February 13, 2002

Thank you, Madame Chairman for the opportunity to testify before this subcommittee on these issues of religious persecution in China and Vietnam. Freedom House commends you and the members of the subcommittee for holding this important hearing. I respectfully request that my full written testimony be entered into the record as I will be summarizing it.

China

Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom is alarmed by mounting repression against the major religious and spiritual groups in China – Protestant Christians, Roman Catholics, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong, and Uighur Muslims. We are concerned that some dozen Catholic bishops are in prison or under house arrest, including Bishop Su Zhimin of Baoding in Hebei Province, who has been disappeared/in custody since October 1997, according to the Cardinal Kung Foundation. I wish to enter into the record today’s press release of the Vatican-based press service, Fides.

I will focus the remainder of my remarks concerning China on what has been revealed in secret, Chinese government documents, released this week, detailing an official crackdown

against large, unregistered churches and other religious groups nationwide. Copies of the documents, along with translations, were provided to Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom by Mr. Shixiong Li and Mr. Xiqiu (Bob) Fu of the New York-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China. The Center had the official documents authenticated by renowned expert and exiled former Chinese government journalist, Su Xiaokang and it released a detailed analysis of the documents on February 11. 

The seven documents, issued between April 1999 and October 2001, detail the goals and actions of China’s national, provincial and local security officials in repressing religion. (The Freedom House analysis and links to the seven documents are available online at: www.freedomhouse.org/religion). They show that China’s government, at the highest levels, aims to repress religious expression outside its control, and is using more determined, systematic and harsher criminal penalties in this effort.  Hu Jin-tao, designated as the successor of President Jiang Zemin is quoted in the document as endorsing the drive against the Real God church.  The Minister of Public Security is quoted giving the order to “smash the cult quietly.” (Document 4). 

Ye Xiaowen, the head of China’s Religious Affairs Bureau, wrote in January 2002 that repression is not working and suggested that a more nuanced approach is needed. In fact, the documents reveal that a brutal, but more clandestine approach, is being employed to crush unregistered churches and religious groups. 

As a result, normal religious activity is criminalized, and, as the December death sentences brought against South China church Pastor Gong Shengliang and several of his co-workers attest, the directives outlined in these documents are being carried out with ruthless determination.  

Several documents focus on measures to “smash" the Christian South China church and the Real God church, which, Chinese authorities state, rivals Falun Gong in its reach and dangerous effects.  Other documents list several Christian churches, Falun Gong, the Unification Church, and other banned religious groups.  In all, 14 religious groups are identified in Document 1 as “evil cults.” 

The documents indicate that Beijing may feel it is losing its battle to control religious expression. They note with palpable alarm that the Real God group is growing rapidly throughout 22 Chinese provinces. Document 4 says that “inner circles” of the communist party and government officials have secretly joined the banned Real God church, and instructs officials to find out who among them are members of the group.   

The documents are notable for their crudeness in understanding the religions the government purports to control. Revealing a fundamental misunderstanding or deliberate misinterpretation of the New Testament, Document 1 uses a basic Christian doctrine that Christ is in every believer to accuse churches of “deifying” their leaders, a practice defined as "cult-like." China is an officially atheist state that  -- as Center Director Nina Shea found out first-hand while participating in the official U.S.-China human rights dialogue last fall -- arrogates to itself the authority to define orthodoxy, determine dogma and designate religious leaders. 

Document 2 betrays deep paranoia on the part of Chinese officials. It raises particular concerns about public unrest over China’s entry into the WTO which  it ties to Western support of democracy movements (“Democratic Party of China”), and religious groupings, especially Falun Gong; it accuses the Vatican of “still waiting for any opportunity to… draw the patriotic religious believers up to them and incite them to rebel.”    

In Document 4, “Praying for world peace,” ecumenical relations between churches, printing religious publications, and developing a diocesan, parish and prayer group-like organizational structure, are all seen as dangerous activities. 

Document 4 also views with alarm ecumenical relations between the Protestant house-church Real God and the underground Catholic Church. Real God is also said to have ties with Tianenmen Square student protest leaders. 

Measures to be taken against banned religious groups include surveillance, the deployment of special undercover agents, the gathering of “criminal evidence,” “complete demolition” of a group’s organizational system, interrogation, and arrest, as well as the confiscation of church property, and homes in which meetings are held. Document 2 repeatedly refers to the use of “secret agents” to infiltrate “cults,” underground Catholics, businesses, joint ventures, people with “complicated political backgrounds,” prestigious colleges and universities, and other organizations. 

President Bush, who has repeatedly voiced concern for religious oppression in China, should speak out forcefully and publicly in support of religious freedom during his state visit to China next week. 

Vietnam 

In 2001, while Vietnam sought to gain full normalization of relations with the United States with the approval of the Bilateral Trade Agreement by Congress, it intensified persecution against all non-approved religious communities. Freedom of religion continues to be severely curtailed and followers were subjected to grave abuses of their freedoms and rights. Secret Vietnamese government documents released by the Center for Religious Freedom over the past two years, titled “Directions for Stopping Religion” and “Correct Thinking in Vietnam”, reveal government policies to repress tribal Christians.   The major concerns are : 

Buddhists: The independent Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) remains the major target of religious repression. The UBCV Supreme Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang (84-years-old) continued to be held under house arrest in the remote village of Nghia Hanh in Quang Ngai Province after 20 years of detention without trial. In 2001, Security Police repeatedly subjected him to interrogations and harassment. Supreme Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang is seriously ill as a result of harsh detention conditions and malnutrition, yet he is refused access to medical care. 

In May-June 2001, a widespread crackdown was launched against the UBCV. All over Central and Southern Vietnam, UBCV Pagodas were surrounded, and phone lines to 115 Pagodas were cut. Hundreds of UBCV monks and nuns were placed under house arrest. On June 1, the Ho Chi Minh Police sentenced Thich Quang Do to two years “administrative detention.” He is still detained incommunicado at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in Saigon, deprived of all right to communicate or receive visits. The crackdown on the UBCV was launched after Venerable Thich Quang Do announced his intent to lead a delegation of UBCV monks and followers to Quang Ngai to escort detained Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang to Saigon for medical treatment. In September 2001, repression against the UBCV reached such a pitch that a leader of the “Buddhist Youth Movement”, 61-year-old lay-Buddhist Ho Tan Anh immolated himself in protest on September 2^nd 2001 in the central city of Danang. 

Hoa Hao: Several members of this Buddhist group were arrested and detained in 2001 for taking part in celebrations of their founder, Huynh Phu So. Truong Van Duc and Ho Van Truong were sentenced, respectively, to 12 and 4 years in prison by a court in An Giang Province on May 11,  2001. 

Catholics: On October 19, 2001, 55-year-old Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a Roman Catholic priest from the diocese of Hue in Central Vietnam was sentenced to 15 years in prison and 5 years probationary detention at a one-day, closed trial in Hue on charges of “undermining national solidarity.” He had been arrested on May 17 and detained incommunicado for 5 months on charges of “blackening socialist Vietnam and distorting the party and state policies” for testimony he had submitted to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, as the annual U.S. State Department religion reports note. Father Ly had previously spent 10 years in prison for his religious beliefs. The government also continues to restrict the number of entrants and graduates from seminaries and the number ordained, thereby creating an acute shortage of priests and suppressing Catholic religious expression. 

Protestants: While Vietnam has shown some increased openness with registered groups, legalizing the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South) (ECVS) on March 16, 2001, it has attacked other protestant groups ferociously. Christians in the Northwest and in Northern and Central Highlands have in the last year been persecuted, beaten and arrested on account of their beliefs. In February-March 2001, thousands of ethnic Christian Montagnard tribespeople in the Central Highlands demonstrated to protest official confiscation of land and a government ban on conversion to Protestantism. The authorities reacted by deploying troops, helicopters and riot police to brutally quell the protests, and forced people to renounce their Christianity. Martial law has since been installed in the Central Highlands and a media black-out has been imposed. Hundreds of Montagnards have fled to Cambodia to seek political asylum, and many have been forcibly repatriated. At a closed trial on September 26, 2001, fourteen Montagnards were condemned to sentences of between 6 and 12 years in prison for taking part in demonstrations in the provinces of Dak Lak and Gia Lai. In late December, 2001, Siu Kron, Rmah Nui and three other Montagnard Christians were reportedly tortured to get them to reveal the location of a Christmas prayer vigil. About a dozen others were arrested. The Montagnard Foundation reports that 300 Degar (Montagnard) refugees were stopped as they attempted to flee to Cambodia. The Foundation gives information on 169 of these, including women and children, who were subsequently tortured. In this respect the January 12, 2002, tripartite agreement between Cambodia, Vietnam and the UNHCR to (nonvoluntarily) repatriate 1,000 Montagnards currently in Vietnam is a cause of great concern. 

The government has also systematically attacked Christians among the Hmong in the Northwest. It has threatened to destroy the homes of those who do not reconvert, and forces people to destroy their own homes, before being chased away. About 10,000 Hmong Christians have fled the area in the last five years. I have appended a list from a reliable source in Vietnam of  twenty Hmong church leaders who were in prison as of January 2002. I have also appended three official complaints to the Vietnamese government from Hmong Christians that describe their being subject to forced conversion, beatings and being driven from their homes.  

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 Committee on International Relations
Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights

 Statement of John Ackerly, President
International Campaign for Tibet

February 13, 2002

Thank you Madam Chairwoman for inviting us to testify before this Committee. 

In the last year there have been no significant improvements in religious freedom in Tibet. The highest-ranking religious leader left inside Tibet, the Panchen Lama, remains in detention since 1995. 

And the elderly teacher who was the head of the monastery where the Panchen Lama should be in training today, Chadrel Rimpoche, was scheduled to be released from prison last summer and then last month, but China has inexplicably refused to release him. 

These are two foremost examples of China's continued repression of Tibetan Buddhism which President Bush should raise when he visits China later this month. He should raise these issues not only because religious freedom is a priority of the United States, but because it is a priority of the Tibetan people and is at the very heart of Tibetan culture. 

There has been one recent, notable release of a political prisoner, Ngawang Choephel, a Tibet Fulbright scholar who studied ethno-musicology at Middlebury College.  Arrested while conducting research in Tibet in 1995 and sentenced to 18 years on a trumped up charge of espionage, he was released in January after serving more than a third of his sentence. Ngawang Choephel was the opposite of prominent leaders such as the Panchen Lama and Chadrel Rimpoche, which partially explains why it was he who was released. He was one of the thousands of unknown young Tibetan boys and girls swept through a brutal system maintained by China's occupation forces in Tibet. His only distinction was that he had studied at Middlebury College in Vermont, and if it weren't for the perseverance of the Vermont Congressional delegation, he would certainly still be in prison. 

This shows that pressure can work in some cases, but it also shows that China is still apparently unwilling to make significant steps toward improving in human rights and religious freedom in Tibet. 

The President should also raise the systemic, structural forms of religious repression in Tibet in addition to the imprisonment of prominent religious leadership. China permits a carefully orchestrated degree of religious freedom for laity and officially sanctioned monks and nuns. In addition, there are many monks and nuns practicing their religion outside of China's strict bureaucracy and regulations, often simply because they live in such remote areas that the long arm of the police state has not yet reached them. China's emphasis on building more roads and now a railroad to Tibet is in part meant to address this. A majority of traffic on many roads in Tibet is the military and security services and they are still the primary beneficiary of Tibet's transportation network. Tibetans, and Tibet's economy, are  secondary beneficiaries.  

Last year, China's strict regulations controlling permissible expressions of Buddhism came sharply into focus at two remote locations in eastern Tibet, now under Sichuan Province: Larung Gar and Yachen Gar. At both of these monastic centers, and there are likely more that we don't even know about, Chinese security personnel came and demolished or ordered the demolition of large parts of the monks' and nuns' living quarters and expelled thousands of monks and nuns. China maintains limits on the numbers of monks and nuns allowed at each monastery, often not allowing entrance into a monastery before the age of 18 and forcing monks to leave after the age of 60. Chinese officials have established these and other kinds of restrictions on religion to ensure that the rejuvenation of Tibetan Buddhism and culture does not outpace the nearby Chinese governmental infrastructure to keep control of it. 

Crackdown at Larung Gar 

"Two armed policemen entered my wood hut and threw my Buddha statue on the floor. They dragged me out of the hut and one of the policemen tossed my daily recitation book [of Buddhist scripture] into the wood stove," a nun recalled of her treatment in June of last year. "It is just like in the late 1960s,"she said, referring to the massive destruction of Tibetan monasteries during the Cultural Revolution. 

The destruction at Larung Gar, to be repeated at Yachen Gar later in the year, is ominously reminiscent of the physical destruction of monasteries in the Cultural Revolution.  Over two thousand mediation huts and homes were reportedly destroyed at Larung Gar. (mention of the photos ICT obtained). 

The crackdown was overseen by an official named Wang, head of the "United Front" for Sichuan province, according to new reports. He is known as Wang Putrang, ("chief Wang"). Wang led officials from the United Front in Beijing and troops of armed police and work teams that descended upon Larung Gar to carry out the expulsions and demolition in June. Although their living quarters were torn down and monks and nuns were expelled, no retaliation by monks or nuns was reported. 

Larung Gar is a monastic encampment, not a monastery, and its inhabitants have come on their own accord based on Larung Gar's reputation that has spread by word of mouth.  Students have been drawn by a charismatic teacher, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok, who established Larung Gar a decade ago as mountain hermitage. Its monks and nuns from all areas of Tibet and China form a loose-knit community where students have to provide for themselves and are not under the formal control of any abbot. 

The encampment numbered between 7,000-8,000 monks and nuns, of which nearly 1,000 were Chinese. The majority of the inhabitants were nuns.  Often the Tibetans who came to this remote area study for a limited period of time before returning to their home monastery to teach others. 

Larung Gar is a place where "the sacred landscape of Tibet was being revived," and is a "marked contrast to the alienated state in which institutionalized Buddhism finds itself in many parts of Tibet," according to Professor David Germano of the University of Virginia in the 1998 book Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet. Because of the unique opportunity to receive a comprehensive Buddhist education, Larung Gar was one of the few places on the Tibet Plateau that was attracting students.  That is now a thing of the past. Today, Larung Gar is neither attracting students, nor training them as it once was. The official ceiling of 1,000 monks and 400 nuns is now being enforced, dealing a severe blow to one of the very few institutions in Tibet which was providing genuine and complete religious training for monks and nuns. 

It is also important to note that there was no political activity at Larung Gar which authorities deemed subversive. This crackdown was entirely based on religion exceeding the narrow, strictly controlled scope that China has deemed appropriate. 

Crackdown at Yachen Gar 

Just months after the demolition of thousands of homes at the Larung Gar monastic encampment in Serthar, Chinese authorities ordered the demolishing of monks and nuns living quarters at Yachen, another large monastic encampment in eastern Tibet. As of October 10, more than 800 homes had been destroyed at Yachen Gar by order of the Pelyul (Chinese: Baiyu) County Government officials. 

According to recent interviews with four nuns who have fled Yachen Gar after their homes were destroyed, work teams of five to nine officials from Pelyul came to Yachen every other week from July to the beginning of September. The nuns said officials were making extensive notes and maps of the monastic encampment situated in the remote grasslands of Tromthar in eastern Tibet. 

During the first week of September officials arrived and painted numbers on the houses marked for destruction along with the Chinese character "chai" (meaning "demolish"). Officials told the nuns that only those monks and nuns from Pelyul County could remain at Yachen and that if their homes had been marked with the Chinese character "chai," the monks and nuns themselves must destroy their home. If they did not destroy their homes, a work team would come and demolish the home and the monk or nun would be charged 200 Yuan ($25), the nuns said. The official government notice said, "If these homes are not destroyed, Pelyul County People's Government will forcefully demolish the living quarters, and in accordance with the current legal framework, legal action will be taken against those individuals who have not abided by this order." 

Monks Flee to India 

Are Tibetans content with the carefully calculated amounts of religious freedom that China permits? Two of the very top religious leaders in Tibet, the Karmapa and Ajia Rimpoche, voted with their feet: they fled to exile, citing the impossibility of exercising their religious duties under the demands that China imposes on religious leaders. 

Of the approximately 3,000 Tibetans who flee to India each year, about one third are monks and nuns.  Some have been imprisoned and mistreated, others expelled from a monastery or nunnery, and others simply cite their desire to receive a religious education that they cannot obtain in Tibet. 

Another factor cited by many monks is the ongoing intrusion of “work teams,” teams of officials who come to monasteries for days or weeks and conduct political reeducation classes.  The teams force monks and nuns to state their loyalty to the Party, to the Party’s choice of reincarnations, such as the Panchen Lama, and to renounce the Dalai Lama.  This process is also, of course, a calculated way to uncover who harbors nationalist views and who is willing to publicly verbalize them.  Work teams also inspect the monastery to see if they display banned photos of the Dalai Lama. 

Recommendations: 

The International Campaign for Tibet and our colleagues in the human rights community continue to battle for serious consideration of human rights in the foreign policy debate. The Presidents' summit in Beijing is an important focus for us and the many Americans who support our work.  In the last week alone, thousands of Americans have sent messages to the White House asking President Bush to honor the commitment he gave to the Dalai Lama to urge a negotiated solution for Tibet when he meets with President Jiang. 

In addition to the opportunity for a frank discussion with President Jiang on Tibet, President Bush should use the occasion of his remarks at Qinghua University to express concern for the fundamental importance of religious freedom in Tibet. 

The importance of dialogue between the Chinese leadership and the Dalai Lama or his representatives cannot be underestimated for the realization of human rights and especially religious freedom in Tibet. Although the Chinese government claims to guarantee religious freedom for its citizens, that guarantee merely papers over a policy of control and repression which is causing further resentment of Chinese rule and undermining the ability of Tibetan Buddhism to transmit teachings from one generation to another. 

Important religious leaders and many clergy continue to be held for their religious beliefs and we ask the President to urge for their immediate release, including the Panchen Lama and Chadrel Rinpoche, whose sentence has already expired.  In addition there is a group of 14 Tibetan nuns who have suffered terrible torture and reprisals in Drapchi prison and whose sentences have been extended in connection with singing songs of freedom while in prison. Among them are Ngawang Sangdrol, who has already served nearly 10 out of 22 years in prison and Phuntsog Nyidron who has served 12 out of 17 years.  Both are imprisoned for peaceful expressions of their national identity. 

We also call on the Administration not to bargain away U.S. concern for human rights in Tibet at the upcoming session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva which starts on March 16.  The U.S. should stand firm and express our desire to support and co-sponsor a resolution on China if there are not significant human rights improvements. 

The International Campaign for Tibet would also ask the administration to press for an invitation for the UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom to conduct a return visit to Tibet this year to assess any progress made in implementing the recommendations resulting from his November 1994 visit.  In addition the U.S. should press for an agreement to the terms of a visit by the new UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Ill-Treatment including a visit to Tibet. 

Finally, we want to reiterate how important the vigilance of the U.S. Congress has been for the people of Tibet and their struggle for human rights and religious freedom.  

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Congressional Subcommittee Hearings: Religious Persecution in Vietnam & China

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U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
HEARING ON RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN CHINA AND VIETNAM
February 13^th 2002, Washington D.C.

  STATE TERRORISM AND RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN VIETNAM

Testimony by VO VAN AI
President, Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
Overseas Spokesman of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam
Director of the International Buddhist Information Bureau

Madam Chairwoman,
Distinguished Members of Congress,

I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to testify on behalf of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam at this critically important Hearing in Congress today. Coming in the aftermath of the shattering events of September 11^th, this Hearing underscores the crucial role of religious tolerance in combating extremism to build a peaceful world. It also allows us to sound the alarm on another form of terrorism that is wreaking destruction on a massive scale – the terrorism of States against their people. In China and Vietnam, totalitarian regimes wage a daily war of terror against their own citizens, crushing their democratic aspirations and brutally violating their fundamental freedoms and rights.

2001 was a black year for religious freedom in Vietnam. It was also a year of paradox : Hanoi obtained one of its most coveted awards – the ratification of the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement by Congress – at the same time that it embarked on a frenzied repression campaign against Buddhists, Montagnard Christians, Catholics, Protestants and Hoa Hao followers all over Vietnam. 

Buddhism, Vietnam’s most widely practised religion, is a major target of religious persecution because of the continuing conflict between Hanoi and Buddhists of the independent Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV). Since the Communist Party took power after the end of the Vietnam war, it has systematically suppressed the UBCV, seizing its property, banning its activities and placing its members in prison or under house arrest.

The reason for this fierce repression is that the UBCV has an authority independent of the ruling one-Party state. Representing a religious tradition of over 20 centuries and adhered to by over three quarters of the Vietnamese population, the UBCV represents a tradition of social activism unique in South East Asia. For UBCV Buddhists, practising Compassion does not just mean meditation and prayer, but an active engagement in the daily combat against social injustice and oppression. Buddhists are thus at the forefront of the movement for religious freedom, democracy and human rights in Vietnam, and because of this, Hanoi’s leadership is intensifying efforts to suppress the independent UBCV:

l Only last month, on January 21^st 2002, Venerable Thich Duc Nhuan, one of the UBCV’s most respected leaders and prominent dissident died under house arrest in Saigon. A fierce advocate of democracy and human rights, he was placed under house arrest in June 2001 after a nation-wide clamp-down against the UBCV. He had previously spent nine years in reeducation camp for his religious beliefs. Immediately after his death, Security Police sealed off Thich Duc Nhuan’s room at the Giac Minh Pagoda and seized all his personal papers. The family were ordered to cremate his body immediately instead of burying him to prevent his grave from becoming a focus point for UBCV dissent. No funeral ovation was allowed. Many UBCV monks and nuns from the central provinces and Saigon were prevented from attending the funeral, and Security Police detained Thich Khong Tanh and a number of other monks for interrogation, releasing them only after the funeral was over.

l The UBCV’s Deputy leader and Nobel Peace prize nominee Thich Quang Do was arrested  several times in 2001 and is now detained incommunicado at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in Saigon. He was first arrested for launching a landmark “Appeal for Democracy in Vietnam” in February, on the eve of the Vietnamese Communist Party’s Ninth Congress in Hanoi. (I respectfully submit the full text of this Appeal for entry in the Hearing record). The appeal, a radical 8-point transition plan for democratic change, received overwhelming international support, with the endorsement of over a hundred international personalities and some 300,000 Vietnamese around the world. Thirty six prominent Members of Congress – many of whom are on the distinguished panel today - hailed the Appeal as a “enormous leap forward in the democracy movement” because it sought to rally together Vietnamese of all different religious denominations and political affiliations in a common democratic initiative. Thich Quang Do was accused of “threatening national security”, and repeatedly interrogated by the Ho Chi Minh City Police. Controls were intensified around the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery, and Thich Quang Do’s telephone was cut off on April 9^th.

l UBCV Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang was also subjected to intensified Police controls. Police surrounded the Phuoc Quang Pagoda in Nghia Hanh district, Quang Ngai Province, where Thich Huyen Quang has been detained without trial since 1982, blocking all visits and communications. The 84-year-old Patriarch even received death threats from the local Security Police who claimed that the “CIA” was plotting to assassinate him. Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and Venerable Thich Quang Do have both spent more than 20 years in prison for their advocacy of religious freedom and human rights.

l In May-June, the authorities launched a full-scale crack-down on the UBCV. This was sparked off by a letter written to the Vietnamese leadership by Thich Quang Do on March 29th, in which he called on the Vietnamese government to immediately release Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and allow him to return to Saigon for medical care. Thich Huyen Quang, who suffers from high blood-pressure, arthritis and stomach ulcers, is gravely ill as a result of harsh detention conditions. Thich Quang Do announced that if the Patriarch was not released before June 2001, he would personally lead a delegation to Quang Ngai to escort him to Saigon.

This announcement unleashed a wave of Police repression against UBCV followers all over central and southern Vietnam. UBCV Pagodas in Saigon, Nha Trang, Phu Yen, Binh Dinh, Quang Nam, Da Nang and Hue were surrounded, and phone lines to 115 Pagodas were cut. Hundreds of UBCV monks and nuns were placed under house arrest, and subjected to quasi-daily interrogations. 108 UBCV monks who were preparing to join Thich Quang Do’s delegation to Quang Ngai were harassed, beaten and forcibly obstructed by Security agents and gangs of youths acting in connivance with the local Police.

l On June 1^st, 30 Security Police and local officials broke into the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery and sentenced Thich Quang Do to two years “administrative detention”. Thich Quang Do is now denied all contacts with the outside and not even allowed to visit the hospital to receive treatment for his diabetes, high blood pressure and stomach disorders. A jamming device has been set up outside the Pagoda to block telephone communications, and the local Post Offices and fax kiosks have received strict instructions not to accept any letters or faxes sent by Thich Quang Do. A Member of the European Parliament, Olivier Dupuis, attempted to visit him on June 6^th, and staged a peaceful protest outside the Monastery calling for the monks’ release. Mr Dupuis was arrested and immediately deported by the Ho Chi Minh City Police.

The Vietnamese Government has announced that Thich Quang Do’s two year sentence is a “reactivation” of a 5-year probationary detention sentence for which he was amnestied in 1998. This is a gross violation of international law. The “reactivation” of an amnestied sentence is tantamount to a second punishment, and therefore gravely violates Article 14 (7) of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Vietnam acceded in 1982, which stipulates that : "no one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he has already been finally convicted and acquitted".

l On 2^nd September, Vietnam’s National Day, a 61-year-old farmer and leader of the Quang Nam Province Buddhist Youth Movement (Gia dinh Phat tu) Ho Tan Anh immolated himself in the central city of Danang to protest persecution against the UBCV. In letters addressed to President George Bush, the UN Secretary General and other world leaders, which he sent through my Committee in Paris, Ho Tan Anh said he had set fire to his body to alert international opinion to persecution against all religious denominations in Vietnam. Police tried to cover up the incident, but his family found his body after hearing the report by my Committee broadcast over Radio Free Asia. In the aftermath, Police arrested Buddhist Youth leaders Vo Tan Sau, Dinh Ngoc Thu, Huynh Chung, Nguyen Quang Ca, Le Tan Hung, Nguyen Cam and subjected them to intensive interrogations. Their wives and children were also harassed and terrorised by the local Police.

l On 11^th November, 64-year-old Venerable Thich Nhat Ban was beaten unconscious and gravely wounded in the head by unidentified assailant acting in connivance with Security Police. The man, armed with a knife and a wooden club, told the monk to cease his support for the UBCV. Thich Nhat Ban had photographs taken of his wounds so he could lay a complaint, but the photos were confiscated by the local Police.

l Buddhists are not the only victims of religious persecution. Throughout the year, religious followers from all denominations were brutally repressed for the peaceful expression of their beliefs.

-         In February-March the authorities deployed tanks, military troops and riot police to crush peaceful demonstrations of thousands of ethnic Christian Montagnards in the Central Highlands with incredible violence. The Montagnards were protesting official confiscation of land and the government’s classification of Protestantism as an “illegal religion”.  Martial law has since been installed in the Central Highlands and a media black-out has been imposed. Hundreds of Montagnards have fled to Cambodia to seek political asylum, and many have been forcibly repatriated. At a closed trial on September 26, 2001, fourteen Montagnards were condemned to sentences of 6-12 years in prison for taking part in demonstrations in the provinces of Dak Lak and Gia Lai. Many were arrested and beaten in December 2001 as they gathered peacefully to celebrate Christmas ;

-         On October 19^th 2001, 55-year-old Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Roman Catholic priest from the diocese of Hue in Central Vietnam was sentenced to 15 years in prison and 5 years probationary detention at a one-day, closed trial in Hue on charges of “undermining national solidarity”. He had been arrested on May 17 and detained incommunicado for 5 months on charges of “blackening socialist Vietnam and distorting the party and state policies” because he had urged the U.S. Congress in a written testimony to postpone approval of the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement. Father Ly had previously spent 10 years in prison for his religious beliefs ;

-         Several members of the Hoa Hao Buddhist sect were arrested and detained in 2001 for taking part in celebrations of their founder, the prophet Huynh Phu So : Truong Van Duc and Ho Van Truong were sentenced respectively to 12 and 4 years in prison by a court in An Giang Province on May 11^th  2001.

The above cases are not isolated incidents, nor are they due to excesses committed by overzealous Security Police or local officials. The fact is that religious persecution is a State Policy in Vietnam today, orchestrated at the highest echelons of the Communist Party and the government. It is this policy, which imposes the monopoly of Marxist-Leninism as a State religion, which is the real impediment to religious freedom in Vietnam.

A glimpse at Vietnam’s legislation illustrates how deeply the seeds of religious persecution are implanted in domestic law. The 1992 Constitution guarantees religious freedom but states that “no-one can… misuse belief and religion to contravene the law and State policies” (Article 71). Religious Decree 26, adopted in 1999, guarantees the same freedom but warns that “all activities using religious belief in order to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam… will be punished in conformity with the law” (Article 5). The exercise of religious freedom is further restricted by a whole range of legislation under the catch-all notion of “endangering national security”. The 1986 Vietnamese Criminal Code provides prison sentences of up to fifteen years for vaguely-defined offences such as ”sowing division between religious believers and non-believers”... “undermining national solidarity” (Article 87)” abusing democratic rights to encroach upon the interests of the State” (Article 258a). Under Decree 31/CP on “Administrative Detention” (adopted on 14.4.1997), local Police have extrajudicial powers to arrest and detain anyone suspected of “threatening national security” for up to two years without a Court order.

Religious freedom in Vietnam is thus conditioned to compliance with the policies of the one-Party, Marxist-Leninist State – a State that is fundamentally hostile to all religious beliefs. Such legislation enables Vietnam’s leaders to jail prisoners of conscience as simple common criminals, and to cynically claim in international forums that “there are no religious or political prisoners in Vietnam”.

There can be no true religious freedom until such laws have been amended or repealed, and this fact must be publicly denounced. Vietnam is aware that it must move towards the rule of law in order to attract economic investment and aid. But it is seeking to do this by developing an increasingly sophisticated machinery of repression to give the regime a mantle of impunity, enabling it to persecute religious communities at home whilst reaping the benefits of economic and diplomatic relationships abroad.

I believe it is therefore vital that Vietnam be placed on the State Department’s list of “countries of particular concern” so that, under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, the United States may adopt specific policies to promote religious freedom in Vietnam. The recent massive violations against all the religious communities more than justify such a step.

In respect to the Buddhists in particular, I urge the United States to press Vietnam to:

a)      reestablish the legitimate status of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, and guarantee it full freedom of religious activity ;

b)      immediately release the Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and ensure that he may return to Saigon to receive urgent medical treatment ;

c)      lift the arbitrary “administrative detention” sentence on Nobel Peace Prize nominee Venerable Thich Quang Do, and restore his full religious and citizenship rights ;

d)      repeal or amend all legislation which restricts religious freedom and bring religious legislation into line with the provisions of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Vietnam is a State party. In particular, Article 4 of the Constitution on the mastery of the Communist Party should be abolished so that all religious and political families may equally participate in reconstructing a democratic and prosperous Vietnam.

During a Congressional Hearing in May 2001 following the publication of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s Annual Report, Congressman Henry Hyde warned that if the United States did not stress the critical importance of religious freedom as part of the “normalization” process, it “risk[ed] sending a message to Hanoi that it doesn’t matter how brutally they treat their people; they will get what they want from the United States no matter what”. By pressing Vietnam to respect its binding international commitments and implement the above points, the United States will effectively combat State terrorism in Vietnam, and protect the victims of religious persecution.

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Statement of Dan Duy-Tu Hoang
Vice President of Public Relations, Vietnamese-American Public Affairs Committee (VPAC)

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights
of the House Committee on International Relations

Hearing on Communist Entrenchment and Religious Persecution in China and Vietnam
February 13, 2002

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Dear Madame Chairman and Members of the Committee,

It is a privilege to testify before you today on behalf of the Vietnamese-American Public Affairs Committee (VPAC), a national grassroots organization of Vietnamese American voters. VPAC is deeply concerned by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam’s monopoly on religious worship and persecution of religious leaders.

My testimony will summarize these abuses through the example of several religious leaders and offer suggestions on what Congress could do to promote greater openness and religious liberty in Vietnam.

Repression of Religion in Communist Vietnam

At this moment, the Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, the 84-year old patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) is confined to a pagoda in a remote area of central Vietnam, where he has been kept under house arrest for the last 20 years. His sole crime is to be the leader of a religious organization not sanctioned by the government. Just like there are newspapers in Vietnam but no freedom of the press, there are also religious organizations but no freedom of religion. This is because the government monopolizes all religious activity in organizations under its control.

In Saigon, the deputy leader of the UBCV, Venerable Thich Quang Do, has been under house arrest since June 2001 with no prospect of a trial in sight. Under Hanoi’s administrative detainment policy issued in 1997 (“Directive 31/CP”), security forces can detain inpiduals for up to two years without charges (for what are renewable two year terms). Venerable Thich Quang Do’s apparent offense was to publicly announce that he would bring the UBCV’s ailing patriarch, Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, back to Saigon for urgent medical care.

In a remote prison camp in northern Vietnam, Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly is serving a 15-year jail sentence for “undermining the national unity.” What he had actually done was publicly call for religious freedom—including in written testimony for a hearing last year by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom in which Father Nguyen Van Ly urged the Congress to delay ratifying the Bilateral Trade Agreement until Hanoi eases restrictions on religion. Vietnamese authorities waited exactly two days after President Bush signed the BTA, when it convicted Father Nguyen Van Ly in a two-hour trial, without a defense lawyer, on October 19, 2001.

These three cases epitomize the Socialist Republic of Vietnam’s repressive policy on religion:

• The 20-year house arrest of Buddhist patriarch Thich Huyen Quang symbolizes the intolerance for independent religious organizations and, thus, true religious freedom.
• The confinement of Venerable Thich Quang Do highlights the use of arbitrary arrest and detention to silence peaceful dissent.
• The heavy prison sentence of Father Nguyen Van Ly shows that economic engagement alone won’t magically turn Vietnam into a freer society.

And these are just a few examples. Vietnamese of other faiths like the Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, and Protestants continue to be persecuted also.

Suggestions for Congress

Clearly, human rights—including freedom of worship—are not an American concept or something that Americans invent for others. Rather, they are basic rights which Vietnamese themselves desire and of which many are risking their lives to achieve.

The US Congress can and must play an active role in supporting aspirations for freedom. We in the human rights community were very heartened when earlier this year 48 Members of Congress—including the distinguished Chairwoman of this subcommittee, Rep. Chris Smith, and Rep. Adam Schiff—nominated two Vietnamese religious leaders, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Do and Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their courage and sacrifices for freedom. We strongly appreciate such public expressions of support.

Let me conclude by offering three actions to address religious persecution in Vietnam:

• Organizing a congressional delegation to Vietnam. This is the most direct way to gain insights on the religious situation and communicate concerns to the government. And while meetings arranged by Vietnamese authorities may yield some value, Members should take the opportunity to visit with the full spectrum of Vietnamese society: Monks belonging to the non-sanctioned UBCV, Christian ‘house churches’ in the central highlands, and imprisoned religious leaders such as Father Nguyen Van Ly.
• Insisting on reciprocity in the bi-lateral relationship. Vietnamese nationals and government officials in the US can go anywhere in this country, meet with any person, and attend any place of worship. It is an outrage that Americans in Vietnam, from embassy officials to NGOs, face restrictions on where they may go and who they may see.
• Enacting mechanisms to promote human rights. Last fall, the House passed by a vote of 410-1 the Vietnam Human Rights Act (H.R. 2833). This legislation conditions non-humanitarian assistance to Vietnam on verifiable human rights improvements and provides for key democracy promotion programs. Equally important, it sends a message to the Vietnamese government that trade with America cannot be construed as tacit approval for on-going human rights abuses. We would welcome your help in urging Senate colleagues to support this much needed legislation. Furthermore, we believe a US Human Rights Commission on Vietnam (similar to the one created for China) to monitor human rights abuses should also be established.

It is in the interest of the United States to encourage Vietnam’s progression into the community of nations. Such a progression, however, cannot be achieved in a climate of religious repression.

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today.

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