50 Buddhist clergy demonstrate in Hanoi to protest death, torture and arbitrary detention of Buddhist monks and lay-followers in Bac Giang

Venerable Thich Duc Son pleads innocence at the appeal trial

PARIS, 10 July 2006 (IBIB) – More than 50 monks and nuns of the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church (VBC) staged a demonstration outside the People’s Supreme Organ of Supervision and Control (Supreme Procuracy) in Hanoi on 6 July calling for “justice and human rights”. They were protesting the death of Very Venerable Thich Duc Chinh, 70, beaten to death in prison, and the unfair imprisonment and torture of three other Buddhist monks and five lay-followers, who were released on June 28th after almost three years in prison Bac Giang (northern Vietnam). This is the first time that Buddhist clergy have demonstrated in the Vietnamese capital to denounce human rights abuses.

Venerable Thich Tam Thuong, 33, told foreign media correspondents that nine Buddhists (four monks, four lay-men and one lay-woman) were arrested by Police in Bac Giang province in late 2003 and early 2004 on false accusations of stealing 27 Buddhist statues. Police brutally tortured the men to extract “confessions”. 70-year-old Very Venerable Thich Duc Chinh (secular name Phan Huu Huong) died in Xa Prison, Bac Giang as a result of severe beatings. “We eight people were beaten in different ways”, said Thich Tam Thuong. “They hung me up and beat me on the chest, in the stomach and even the genitals”. Thich Nguyen Kien, 44, was stripped naked and beaten on the genitals. He was also suspended by his feet, and Police smashed his head against the wall. Lay-Buddhist Pham Manh Hung, 37, was handcuffed and suspended, and showed media correspondents the scars on his wrists. “They forced us to plead guilty” said lay-Buddhist Duong Phuc Thinh.

Thich Nguyen Kien’s mother, Nguyen Thi Tam (sitting) and 4 Buddhists carrying posters of protest. Mrs Tam’s poster says : “Vietnamese people living under the communist regime are seriously deprived of their human rights”

After more than 18 months of continuous torture and abuse in the provincial Ke prison in Bac Giang, the group were sentenced in June 2005 to fines of up to US$11,000 and prison terms of three to nine years as follows : Venerable Thich Dao Son, secular name Nguyen Quy Doan, 26 years old, 9 years in prison ; Thich Nguyen Kien (Duong Van Trung, 44) 3 1/2 years ; Thich Tam Thuong (Le Van Thuong, 33) 8 years ; Pham Manh Hung, 38, 8 years ; Duong Phuc Thinh, 36, 8 years ; Ta Minh Dang, 48, 7 1/2 years ; Le Ngoc Lân, aka Le Ngoc Hoa, 47, 3 years ; Ms Nguyen Thuy Lan, 55, 9 months suspended sentence. The men continued to plead innocent of these crimes. Police continued to torture them during their detention.

The local people of Bac Giang and Ha Tay provinces were deeply shocked by these arrests. From late 2003 onwards, 1,400 families from the congregation of two Buddhist pagodas in Phuong Que and Vinh Loc villages, where Venerable Thich Nguyen Kien was Superior monk, launched non-stop protests to the authorities. Mrs Nguyen Thi Tam, 81, a “revolutionary mother” and the mother of Thich Nguyen Kien, said in a letter to the authorities (2.6.2006) that “The Bac Giang judicial authorities blatantly usurped their powers, torturing and beating innocent people like animals. My son was subjected to savage abuse and torture far more brutal than under the colonial imperialists’ rule”… For almost three years, 1,400 families have demanded justice from the authorities, but received not a word of reply”. She said her son had lost 20 kilos in prison and suffered from serious kidney problems because of the beatings, but had received no medical treatment.

Buddhist monks and followers from Phuong Que and Vinh Loc villages at the appeal trial (19-28 June 2006)

Finally, the local people obtained an appeal trial at the Bac Giang Provincial People’s Court which opened on 19.6.2006. Thousands of people from Bac Giang and Ha Tay provinces flocked to the trial, but only close family of the defendants were allowed into Court. Although all eight men pleaded innocent, the Bac Giang People’s Procuracy persisted in claiming their guilt. However, lawyer Nguyen Viet Hung from the Hanoi Bar Association produced eye-witnesses and evidence to prove that the Buddhists were not in the locality on the time of the alleged crimes, and that certain elements of the so-called “incriminating evidence” were submitted two days before the thefts actually took place. On 28 June 2006, the court ordered the temporary release of the eight Buddhists, citing lack of evidence. The demonstration in Hanoi was staged to demand their complete acquittal, and protest the lack of due process of law and brutal torture used against them by the local police.

These recent acts of religious persecution, as well as on-going harassment of members of 13 UBCV Provincial Representative Boards justifies Vietnam’s designation by the US State Department’s as a “Country of Particular Concern” for violations of religious freedom.