by Vu Kim Chung
11-6-2001
Vietnam's communist authorities launched a renewed clampdown on religious dissidents just as the US Congress prepared to consider ratification of a key trade agreement, exiled church leaders said on June 3, 2001. The clampdown targeted leaders of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, the church's Paris office said in a statement. Security police placed the church's No 2, Thich Quang Do, under house arrest on June 1 after detaining three other monks the previous day. Monks loyal to the dissident church were "threatened and harassed" at pagodas across southern Vietnam over the previous 10 days as police launched a wave of interrogations.
They arrested the three monks in the commercial capital of Ho Chi Minh City on May 31 after they repeatedly refused requests to come in for questioning. Ten security police have been posted inside the city's Thanh Minh Zen monastery and another 100 outside to enforce the two-year "administrative surveillance" order against Do. Telephone lines to the monastery have been cut and Do's mobile phone confiscated.
Do, one of Vietnam's best-known dissidents, was nominated for the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize by 30 US congressmen. Freed in an amnesty in 1998, Do spent more than 18 years in prison or under house arrest for his persistent criticism of Vietnam's human rights record. He was ordered to appear before municipal authorities in Ho Chi Minh City in May to explain a string of "erroneous actions".
Do appeared to have provoked the wrath of the authorities with a well-publicised campaign to secure the release of the church's ailing 83-year-old patriarch, Thich Huyen Quang, who was under house arrest at a remote pagoda in central Vietnam. The church's No 2 had announced he intended to lead a convoy of the church's supporters to Quang Ngai province on May 31 to bring Quang back to Ho Chi Minh City for medical treatment.
The renewed crackdown on the outlawed church came as the US Congress prepared to consider ratification of a trade agreement with Vietnam, which would lift punitive tariffs on Vietnamese goods. The church's leaders and other dissidents repeatedly called on US lawmakers to delay the agreement's ratification pending improvements in Vietnam's record on religious freedom.
In May, Vietnam has jailed two members of the dissident leadership of the Hoa Hao sect and arrested a prominent Catholic priest. Father Tadeus Nguyen Van Ly was detained for breaching a house arrest order imposed in March after he spoke to representatives of a statutory US body about violations of religious freedom. The church's exiled spokesman, Vo Van Ai, said the continued crackdown on dissidents had dashed hopes of a more liberal line from Vietnam's new Communist Party chief, Nong Duc Manh.