[2 articles]
Zen master:
Vietnam paid mobs to evict followers
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_VIETNAM_BUDDHIST_STANDOFF?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-01-11-07-55-40
By BEN STOCKING
Jan 11, 2010
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- A famous Zen master has accused Vietnam's
communist government of hiring mobs of people to violently evict his
Buddhist followers from two monasteries.
Thich Nhat Hanh, who helped popularize Buddhism in the West and has
sold millions of books worldwide, has also called on Vietnam to lift
restrictions on religious freedom and respect human rights.
The government denied any involvement in forcing Nhat Hanh's
followers from the monasteries, saying the eviction stemmed from a
dispute between two Buddhist groups.
Nhat Hanh made the comments in a letter to his Vietnamese followers
in late December, days after they were pressured by a mob and
government authorities to leave the Phuoc Hue temple in the southern
province of Lam Dong.
"Our country does not yet have true religious freedom, and the
government tightly controls the Buddhist Church machinery," Nhat Hanh
wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated
Press on Monday. "The Buddhist Church is helpless, unable to protect
its own children. This is a truth clearly seen by everyone."
The monks and nuns had sought refuge at Phuoc Hue after being forced
from the nearby Bat Nha monastery on Sept. 27.
"In the case of Bat Nha and Phuoc Hue, government officials hired the
mobs and worked together with them," Nhat Hanh wrote in the letter,
dated "the last days of 2009."
At a news conference Monday, Vietnamese officials denied the allegations.
"This is a dispute between two Buddhist factions," said Nguyen Ngoc
Dong, vice chairman of the Lam Dong provincial government. "We have
tried our best to ensure safety and social order for the people involved."
Nguyen Thanh Xuan, chairman of Vietnam's central Committee on
Religious Affairs, said the group's eviction was the result of
disagreements between it and Duc Nghi, the abbot at Bat Nha and a
member of the official Buddhist Church.
Vietnam tightly controls religion, and only officially sanctioned
churches are allowed to operate. The government, however, initially
gave Nhat Tranh's followers permission to worship on a temporary
basis. Now it says that authorization has expired.
But Nhat Hanh's followers say they have been harassed because their
teacher called on Vietnamese authorities to abolish government
control of religion during a 2007 meeting with President Nguyen Minh Triet.
Asked about that accusation Monday, Xuan did not directly respond.
In his letter to his followers, Nhat Hanh said the mobs at Phuoc Hue
and Bat Nha were hired by police and the Fatherland Front, a
communist party organization. At Phuoc Hue, they were paid 200,000
Vietnamese dong ($11) a day, he wrote.
"Where did the money come from to pay these mobs? Was it tax money?"
asked Nhat Hanh, 83, who was born in Vietnam but has lived in exile
for more than four decades. He now teaches at his Plum Village
monastery in France.
Since the dispute between Nhat Hanh's followers and the government
erupted in late June, Nhat Hanh has maintained a low profile. He
wrote one previous letter praising his followers for remaining
peaceful throughout the conflict.
He did so again in the new letter. They remained calm, Nhat Hanh
wrote, even though some of their senior monks were "dragged,
throttled, choked and thrown into cars as if they were trash cans."
The conflict between the government and Nhat Hanh marks a dramatic
turnaround from 2005, when Nhat Hanh returned to his homeland, a move
seen by many as a step forward for religious freedom in the communist country.
His return made the front pages of state-run newspapers. While his
teachings may be more popular abroad, particularly in the West, he is
well known in Vietnam, but it is impossible to say how many people
follow him there.
In spite of the conflict, Nhat Hanh said in his letter that he
believes Vietnam will eventually open up its society. Young
Vietnamese, he wrote, "realize that Vietnam needs more democracy,
more citizen rights and more human rights."
Xuan of the Committee on Religious Affairs said Nhat Hanh had "turned
his back" on invitations to sit down and meet with Vietnamese
officials to discuss the conflict at Bat Nha.
Nhat Hanh's followers say he was unable to make a proposed meeting
last fall because he was in the U.S.
"Thich Nhat Hanh is willing to meet with representatives of the
Vietnamese government at any time," Phap Linh, a monk at Plum
Village, said by telephone Monday evening. "We've made repeated
approaches to them."
--------
Monk's Followers Flee
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/flee-01072010153232.html
Followers of an activist Vietnamese monk are forced underground.
2010-01-07
BANGKOK Followers of a hugely influential Zen Buddhist monk say
they have been forced to go underground after being evicted from the
pagoda where they had been living.
Some 200 monks and nunsdevotees of Thich Nhat Hanhfled Dec. 31 from
the Phuoc Hue pagoda in central Vietnam after visits by what
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch described as "orchestrated" mobs that
included police.
"We are now scattered everywhere, and it's hard to settle down," one
nun said in an interview. "The authorities won't let us stay wherever
we go. They are trying to split us up."
"So we travel in small groups. Some people who have families in the
same area go togetherand we can stay in one place for only a short
time," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"If we stay more than a week, the local authorities come and ask for
our papers. So we have to move all the time."
"At first, we wanted to go together and stay in one placewe wanted
legal papers that allow us stay together, all 400 people, in our
country," the nun said.
Some 400 disciples of Thich Nhat Hanh, who has helped to popularize
Buddhism in the West, were evicted from the Bat Nha monastery in Lam
Dong province in September.
Nearly 200 then took refuge at the nearby Phuoc Hue pagoda, but they
were ordered to leave by Dec. 31 and have asked for asylum in France.
Vietnam's communist government, which closely monitors religious
affairs, had been trying to remove the monks and nuns from the
monastery for several months.
Harassment reported
This was the second time since September the group was forced to flee
after a stepped-up government effort to disband the community of
young monks and nuns.
They first fled from Bat Nha monastery after "thugs and undercover
police" armed with hammers descended upon it, Human Rights Watch said.
Both the U.S. embassy and the European Parliament have voiced concern.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen monk and peace activist, is based at the Plum
Village monastery in France and teaches "socially engaged" Buddhism.
He traveled to the United States in 1966 to call for an end to the
Vietnam War and was barred from returning by both the U.S.-backed
Saigon regime and the communist government that has ruled reunified
Vietnam since 1975.
He visited the country in 2005 and 2007.
Ven. Thich Toan Duc, vice president of the state-run Vietnamese
Buddhist Association of Lam Dong province, said he didn't know where
the group might have gone.
"Right now, there are no followers of Plum Village in Lam Dong. I
don't know where they are now," Duc said.
Local police declined to comment and said they knew nothing about the
fleeing nuns and monks.
Official stance
In October a foreign ministry spokeswoman described the matter as an
internal Buddhist dispute and denied that hundreds of people had been
forced from Bat Nha.
The government of Vietnam says it respects freedom of belief and
religion, but all religious activity remains under state control.
Human Rights Watch has said the ousting of Nhat Hanh's followers was
"clearly linked to his call for religious reforms."
The government accuses Nhat Hanh's followers of sowing discord and
defying central authorities by worshiping without official approval.
But Nhat Hanh's followers say they believe the government is cracking
down on them because their teacher has called on the communist
government to end its control of religion and disband its religious police.
.
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