[2 articles]
Vietnamese Buddhists seek asylum in France
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/17/vietnamese-buddhists-seek-asylum-france
Followers of radical leader Thich Nhat Hanh claim they are not safe
in Vietnam after standoff with authorities turns violent
17 December 2009
Hundreds of Vietnamese followers of a radical Buddhist leader have
called on the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to grant them
temporary asylum, a week after they were attacked by vigilantes
allegedly hired by the Vietnamese authorities.
Representatives of the followers yesterday urged Sarkozy to grant
them asylum "until it is safe for them to return to Vietnam to
practise their faith, together".
About 380 young monks and nuns were forced to flee Bat Nha monastery
in central Lam Dong province at the end of September after the
authorities reacted angrily to a call by their exiled spiritual
leader, Thich Nhat Hanh, to end religious intolerance and disband the
country's notorious A41 religious police.
Supporters say that several monks were beaten and four were sexually
assaulted, while two others were held under house arrest without charge.
The year long standoff between the Buddhists and the Vietnamese
authorities took another violent turn last week when the government
sealed off a temple where 200 followers had been taking refuge.
A 100-strong armed mob, allegedly directed by undercover police and
communist party officials, assaulted the occupants and attempted to
clear them from Phuoc Hue pagoda in Lam Dong province.
The attack forced an EU delegation to abandon a fact-finding mission
to the temple, and the abbot, Thich Thai Thuan, was forced to write a
note urging the followers to leave the temple by the end of the year.
"They pressured me to sign the paper to evict the monastic," he told
Radio France. "They forced me, so I had to sign."
Campaigners said the attacks were proof of Vietnam's contempt for
human rights and called on the international community to take action.
"Vietnam's international donors should insist that the government
halt the attacks on the monks and nuns in Lam Dong, allow them to
practise their religion, and prevent any further violent expulsions,"
said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.
"And they should make clear they will keep close tabs on the situation."
The EU, one of Vietnam's biggest donors, pledged $1bn in aid earlier
this month, but pressed the government to lift its restrictions on
the media and permit religious freedoms and political dissent.
"The vigilante action to prevent diplomats from meeting with the
monks and nuns is a real slap in the face to the EU," Pearson said.
"The EU needs to make clear that it has leverage and will use it."
The EU delegation was sent after the European parliament passed a
resolution last month condemning the Buddhists' violent expulsion.
Nhat Hanh helped popularise Buddhism in the west and was nominated
for the Nobel peace prize by Martin Luther King.
His followers, who describe themselves as the "most radical and
fastest growing" in Vietnam, say the government regards their leader
as a threat to its authority.
He was forced to leave the former South Vietnam in 1965 because of
his opposition to the Vietnam war.
During his exile in France he sold millions of books and brought
Buddhist thought to a new audience in the west through his Zen
teachings and peace activism.
His return to Vietnam in 2005 with the government's blessing
after 39 years in exile raised hopes for a new era of religious
freedom in the country.
All religious activity remains under state control, but the
government insists it respects the freedom to worship and described
the recent attacks as a dispute between rival Buddhist groups.
--------
Vietnam: End Attacks on Bat Nha Buddhists
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/12/16/vietnam-end-attacks-bat-nha-buddhists
EU, Other Donors Should Condemn Officials' Complicity in Pagoda Siege
December 16, 2009
(New York) - Heavy-handed tactics by Vietnam's central government to
disband followers of Thich Nhat Hanh, a prominent Buddhist monk who
has called for religious reforms, illustrate Vietnam's ongoing
contempt for human rights and religious freedom, Human Rights Watch
said today.
For three days, beginning December 9, 2009, orchestrated mobs that
included undercover police and local communist party officials
terrorized and assaulted several hundred monks and nuns at Phuoc Hue
pagoda in central Lam Dong province. Phuoc Hue's abbot has provided
sanctuary to the monastics since late September, when police and
civilian mobs violently expelled them from their own monastery of Bat
Nha, located in the same commune.
During last week's attack, mobs targeted Phuoc Hue's abbot,
threatening and haranguing him until they finally forced his consent
to a December 31 deadline for the Bat Nha monastics to vacate the pagoda.
"Vietnam's international donors should insist that the government
halt the attacks on the monks and nuns in Lam Dong, allow them to
practice their religion, and prevent any further violent expulsions,"
said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "And
they should make clear they will keep close tabs on the situation."
The three-day vigilante assault on Phuoc Hue disrupted a December 9
European Union (EU) fact-finding mission to the pagoda, which was
followed by an EU human rights dialogue with Vietnam on December 11.
A European Parliament resolution passed in late November called on
Vietnam to respect religious freedom and condemned the harassment and
persecution of Buddhists in Lam Dong, as well as of followers of
other religions and branches of Buddhism.
The EU, one of Vietnam's largest donors, pledged US $1 billion in aid
to Vietnam at a donor conference in early December. Sweden - the
current EU president - and other donors have pressed Vietnam to lift
its restrictions on independent media, religious freedom, and
peaceful dissent. A 1995 EU-Vietnam Cooperation Agreement affirms
that respect for human rights and democratic principles is the basis
for the cooperation.
"The vigilante action to prevent diplomats from meeting with the
monks and nuns is a real slap in the face to the EU," Pearson said.
"The EU needs to make clear that it has leverage and will use it."
Over the past year, government officials have intensified efforts to
disband the community of young monks and nuns that until September
was based at a meditation center at Bat Nha monastery established by
Thich Nhat Hanh in 2005. Authorities began to take steps to close the
center after Thich Nhat Hanh urged the government in 2007 to ease its
restrictions on religious freedom.
Thich Nhat Hanh first drew international attention in the 1960s as a
leader of South Vietnamese Buddhists opposed to the US war in
Vietnam, critical of all sides to the conflict. He continued his
anti-war activities from exile in France after he left the country in
1965. The government barred him from returning as he increasingly
took on human rights issues, including the plight of the thousands of
boat people who fled Vietnam after the communist victory in 1975 and
the persecution of Buddhist clergy and patriarchs.
Since the September eviction at Bat Nha, authorities have
relentlessly harassed and pressured the Bat Nha Buddhists to vacate
Phuoc Hue and other pagodas that took them in, periodically cutting
electricity and water and barring local lay people from providing
food and supplies. According to government documents obtained by
Human Rights Watch, in late November local officials were ordered to
begin organizing civilians to demonstrate against the monks and nuns
at Phuoc Hue, demand the expulsion of the pagoda's abbot, and
pressure the monks and nuns to return to their home provinces.
Mob action at Phuoc Hue
On December 9, more than 100 people marched into Phuoc Hue pagoda.
Many wore motorcycle helmets, baseball caps, and dust masks - common
attire on Vietnam's roadways but not inside Buddhist temples.
Coordinated by whistle-blowing leaders, the crowds dragged the abbot
out of his room, shouting insults, and demanding that he expel the
Bat Nha Buddhists. Video footage captured by some of the monastics
show the attackers shoving aside monks and nuns trying to protect the
abbot, and assaulting others trying to take photographs.
The crowds, which swelled to 200 people at times over the course of
the three days, included people brought in from as far away as Nam
Dinh province - 1500 km north of Lam Dong - who told observers they
had been mobilized by government officials for three days' work, at
200,000 dong (US $11) a day.
Police cordoned off the streets around the pagoda, with officers
posted at the homes of townspeople who had been providing food to the
monks and nuns, to prevent them from leaving their homes. The police
did nothing to stop the mobs - some armed with hammers and sticks -
from attempting to break down the door to the abbot's room,
overrunning the pagoda, and terrorizing the monks and nuns. When nuns
sat down to pray and chant civilians loomed over them, pulling at
their ears and shouting so close to their faces that the nuns had to
wipe away the spit.
Leaders of the mob, who included local cadre from party-controlled
mass organizations, used megaphones to blast the sounds of police
sirens and intensely loud electronic dance music into the pagoda
compound. In desperation, the monks began ringing the temple bell
constantly to sound an alarm. An ambulance was parked in front of the pagoda.
The provincial head of a special police unit within the Ministry of
Public Security called A41 was present during the three days of mob
activity. Often called the "religious police," A41 monitors groups
the government considers to be religious "extremists" throughout Vietnam.
"What's disturbing about this mob attack is that the Vietnamese
government not only failed to protect its own citizens, but that the
authorities actively participated in the abuses," said Pearson.
More than half of the Bat Nha monastics remaining at Phuoc Hue are
young Vietnamese women recently ordained as nuns. "The nuns don't
know where to go - they feel trapped now," one observer told Human
Rights Watch. "The whole experience was very traumatic - some were
pushed, shoved, spit upon, and even assaulted. Their community has
been spiritually killed. They are afraid to be split up and sent back
to their home provinces - they want to stay together, in a safe place."
The December 31 eviction deadline for the young monks and nuns at
Phuoc Hue coincides with an International Conference on Buddhist
women hosted by the Vietnamese government in Ho Chi Minh City. "It's
ironic that as young nuns and monks face the possibility of another
violent eviction on December 31, participants at a government-hosted
international Buddhist conference in Vietnam will be discussing the
role of female Buddhists in preventing conflicts and violence," said Pearson.
Orchestrated mob action is not a new phenomenon in Vietnam,
particularly in remote "hot spots," where authorities want to prevent
any interaction between local communities and international visitors
such as diplomats and journalists.
"What was different in Lam Dong is that diplomats saw with their own
eyes government-orchestrated suppression of religious freedom and
basic rights," Pearson said. "As such, the EU is uniquely placed to
convey its strong concerns to the Vietnamese government about what happened."
Human Rights Watch has obtained copies of a series of directives from
the government, ruling Communist Party, and government-appointed
Buddhist officials that appear to order the assault on the pagoda.
A November 26 directive from the government's Religious Affairs
Committee instructed local Buddhist officials and the Communist
People's Committee to "mobilize" the Bat Nha Buddhists to return to
their "proper residences" in their home provinces. Similar directives
were issued by the official Vietnam Buddhist Church - a
government-appointed body - on November 30, and by the local People's
Committee on December 7.
"The EU and other donors should make it clear that they hold the
Vietnamese government responsible for last week's events in Lam
Dong," Pearson said. "Vietnam's donors need to voice their strong
concerns, monitor the situation very closely, and do their best to be
physically present at Phuoc Hue pagoda on the December 31 eviction deadline."
.
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