Press Release

UBCV Spokesman Vo Van Ai welcomes USCIRF report and recommendation to re-designate Vietnam as a “Country of Particular Concern”

PARIS, 5 May 2008 (IBIB) – Mr. Vo Van Ai, Director of the International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) and International Spokesman of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), warmly welcomed the US International Commission on International Religious Freedom‘s report on Vietnam, made public in Washington D.C. on Friday. …

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Security Police in Lam Dong force entry into UBCV Giac Hai Pagoda to prepare State-sponsored UN Vesak Day celebrations

PARIS, 3 April 2008 (IBIB) – With less than two weeks to go before the 5th United Nations Day of the Vesak (Birth, Enlightenment and Passing away of the Buddha) is celebrated in Vietnam, Security Police in Lam Dong Province continue pressure to expel UBCV monk Thich Tri Khai, Superior …

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Buddhist dissident leader Thich Quang Do seeks to joins protests at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch relay in Saigon

PARIS, 29 April 2008 (IBIB) – The Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, prominent dissident and second-ranking leader of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) left house arrest to attend a rally protesting the Beijing 2008 Olympics torch relay in Ho Chi Minh City today, but found the streets …

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Secret Communist Party Document orders repression against the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam

PARIS, 18 April 2008 (IBIB) – The International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) has obtained a copy of a secret Communist Party document that reveals a state-orchestrated policy of repression against the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), contrasting starkly with the government’s claims of “respecting religious freedom” in Vietnam. The …

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World Movement for Democracy holds Fifth Assembly in Ukraine

KYIV (UKRAINE), 10 April 2008 (VIETNAM COMMITTEE) – From 6-9 April 2008, 531 democracy activists, practitioners and scholars from 112 countries gathered in Kyiv, Ukraine, for the Fifth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy (WMD) under the theme “Making Democracy Work: From Principles to Performance”. Founded in 1999, the …

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As Hanoi prepares to host UN International Vesak Day in May 2008, Vietnam expels monks of Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam from pagodas in Lam Dong and Quang Tri and intimidates Buddhists

PARIS, 3rd April 2008 (IBIB) – The outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) informs the International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) that Security Police, local authorities and sections of the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church (VBC) are accelerating measures to “terrorize and harass” UBCV followers by seizing control of UBCV pagodas …

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UNDP awards Hanoi a million-dollar grant to continue human rights abuses in Vietnam

PARIS, 28 March 2008 (VIETNAM COMMITTEE) – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Hanoi has just signed a $US 1.238-million project with the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry to help “implement human rights treaties in Vietnam”. The 4-year project, signed on 20 March 2008, is aimed at “raising Vietnamese officials’ awareness” …

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Buddhist leader Thich Quang Do sends Message of Solidarity to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the people of Tibet

PARIS, 16 March 2008 (IBIB) – In face of the Chinese government’s violent military crackdown on peaceful protests of Buddhists in Tibet, the Very Venerable Thich Quang Do, Deputy leader of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) has sent a “Message of Solidarity from the Unified Buddhist Church …

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Vietnam Committee condemns crackdown on Tibetan Buddhist monks

PARIS, 15 March 2008 (VIETNAM COMMITTEE) – Quê Me: Action for Democracy in Vietnam and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights strongly condemns the Chinese government’s recent brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrations of Buddhist monks, nuns and lay-followers in Tibet, and calls for an urgent UN inquiry into the violence. …

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State Department official disregards grave religious freedom violations in testimony to key Senate Hearing on Vietnam

PARIS, 13th March 2008 (Vietnam Committee) – Only one day after the US State Department roundly condemned Vietnam’s human rights record in its 2007 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Christopher Hill gave a contradicting evaluation of Vietnam’s “expanded” …

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