Quê Me Quê Me: Action for democracy in Vietnam & Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
The International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) has received urgent information that Security Police have expelled Buddhist nun Thich Nu Thong Man and all her novices from Dich Quang Pagoda in Ninh Hoa district in the central province of Khanh Hoa. Mr. Nguyen Van Ba, head of the local village authorities, ordered the nuns to leave the Pagoda today, 1st June, before 6.00pm (Vietnam time).
Security Police accuse Thich Nu Thong Man of “disturbing public order” on the pretext that she does not have a residence permit. Yet Thich Nu Thong Man has been Superior Nun at Dich Quang Pagoda for the past ten years, and her Pagoda was officially inaugurated in February 2005 in presence of local Communist Party and Religious Board officials.
In fact, Thich Nu Thong Man has been the target of incessant harassments, threats, public “denunciation sessions” and Police repression since December 2005, after she became a member of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam’s (UBCV) Khanh Hoa Representative Board (see IBIB Press Release 15.3.2006). The local Religious Board and Security Police accuse Thich Nu Thong Man of “committing wrongful acts by being a member of the Unified Buddhist Church, in violation of the [State-sponsored] Vietnam Buddhist Sangha’s Charter and the laws of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”. They have ordered her to renounce membership of the UBCV Representative Board and cut off contacts with the banned UBCV, but Thich Nu Thong Man has systematically refused.
In order to force her to leave the pagoda, the authorities have sought to intimidate the UBCV nun. During the night of 28th May 2006, a gang of 10 youths broke into Dich Quang Pagoda grounds, smashing everything in sight, cursing loudly and banging on the doors. Terrified, Thich Nu Thong Man called local Buddhists for help on her cell phone. The Buddhists arrested one of the youths, and Thich Nu Thong Man filed a complaint to the local Police and authorities, but they took no action. On the contrary, the following day (29.05.2006) the Head of the local Government Religious Board, Mr. Lac, summoned Buddhists from her congregation and told them that the vandals were acting on orders from the Head of the local Communist authorities, and would “continue these acts of sabotage until Thich Nu Thong Man is forced to leave”. Security agents also threatened the parents of young novices at Dich Quang Pagoda with “grave consequences” if they did not oblige them to leave Dich Quang Pagoda.
Thich Nu Thong Man told IBIB by telephone today that she had committed no crime, and remains faithful to the banned UBCV. However, she said she had decided to leave Dich Quang Pagoda because she was too frightened to stay. Security Police routinely break into the pagoda at night for “identity checks” and make insulting or threatening phone calls, she said. With these recent outbreaks of violence, she fears for her life if she and the young novices do not leave at once.
Venerable Thich Tam Tri, head of the UBCV’s representative board in Khanh Hoa sent two letters (30.5.2006 and 31.5.2006) to Venerable Thich Quang Do, Deputy UBCV leader and Head of the UBCV’s Executive Institute “Vien Hoa Dao”, protesting these acts of repression. He said that Thich Nu Thong Man was singled out for such harsh persecution because of her strong attachment to the banned UBCV. For over a decade in 1980-90, she regularly visited UBCV Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do in internal exile in Quang Ngai and Thai Binh provinces, and brought food parcels to senior UBCV monks detained in A20 Camp, Xuan Phuoc (Phu Yen), Z30A Xuan Loc (Dong Nai) and Ba Sao Prison (Nam Ha).
The case of Thich Nu Thong Man is just one example of Vietnam’s systematic repression of members of the 13 UBCV Provincial Representative Boards set up since July 2005 to defend the fundamental rights of local people in the poor provinces of Central and Southern Vietnam. The government has declared these boards “illegal” and subjected all their members to harassments and continuous Police interrogations, where they are accused of “engaging in political activities”, “plotting to overthrow the government” and “advocating democracy and pluralism”.
UBCV monk Thich Chon Tam Ph.D., Head of the UBCV Representative Board in An Giang province and UBCV Commissioner for Education has been systematically harassed over the past 6 months for his membership of the UBCV board. In May 2006, he was offered a bribe of 4.8 million dongs (approx. $US 320) by the Deputy Head of the local Communist Party’s Propaganda and Mobilisation Department, Mr. Ha Minh San, if he accepted to become a informer for the Communist Party on the activities of the UBCV. This is an enormous sum of money for a Buddhist monk in Vietnam, where the average worker earns merely $US 264 per year. When Thich Chon Tam adamantly refused, Mr. San entreated him : “Don’t feel embarrassed about taking the money. You won’t be the only one doing this. We have our informers in all the other religious communities…”
