Quê Me Quê Me: Action for democracy in Vietnam & Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
PARIS, 28 September 2006 (IBIB) – The International Buddhist information Bureau is informed that the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) Supreme Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang is being taken to a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for treatment today. The UBCV Patriarch left Binh Dinh Hospital in an ambulance at 8 am this morning (Vietnam time) accompanied by a doctor from the hospital and a delegation of UBCV monks from Binh Dinh.
The decision to move Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang came after UBCV Deputy leader Venerable Thich Quang Do held an urgent meeting of the UBCV’s Executive Institute “Vien Hoa Dao” (Institute for the Dissemination of the Faith) on 27th September 2006. Esteeming that the Binh Dinh hospital was inadequately equipped to treat the UBCV Patriarch’s grave condition, a UBCV delegation travelled to Binh Dinh to request the hospial authorities to urgently transfer Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang to Saigon. The hospital authorities agreed.
Yesterday, Venerable Thich Quang Do issued an appeal to all UBCV monks, nuns and followers in Vietnam and around the world, to UBCV representative offices in the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia to hold services to pray for the Patriarch’s speedy recovery. Born on 19.9.1920, the Patriarch is 86 years old.
Buddhists in Vietnam and overseas are overjoyed to learn that the UBCV Patriarch is leaving the remote Nguyen Thieu Monastery in Binh Dinh for Saigon, where he can receive proper medical treatment as well as care and support from his followers. Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang, who was formerly based in Saigon, was arrested in 1982 for protesting the ban on the UBCV and sentenced to internal exile in Quang Ngai, then Binh Dinh under the sole charge : “by exercising religious activities, you are ipso facto exercising political activities”. He has remained under detention since then. During his 24 years under house arrest, he continued to launch appeals for religious freedom, human rights and democracy in Vietnam. In 1992, he issued a landmark “Declaration” calling for political reforms including free elections, multiparty democracy and the abolition of Article 4 of the Constitution (on the mastery of the Communist Party of Vietnam).
In April 2003, UBCV Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang was received in Hanoi by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai – the very first time a political prisoner held talks with a top Communist official in Vietnam. Premier Khai made promises of increased religious tolerance. However, in October 2003, when the UBCV held its first Assembly to test these promises and appoint a new leadership, the government launched a fierce crack-down, arresting virtually all the UBCV leaders, including Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do. Since then, both UBCV dignitaries have been detained under house arrest in their respective monasteries in Binh Dinh and Saigon, subjected to permanent Police surveillance and forbidden to travel.
Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang, 86, has spent many years under detention for his beliefs. In the 1950s, during the resistance movement against French colonial rule, he was arrested by the Communist forces for protesting anti-Buddhist repression and spent 4 years in prison, released thanks to the 1954 Geneva Agreement. In 1977, under the Communist regime, he spent 20 months in solitary confinement, and was released thanks to international pressure. Resuming his life of almost ceaseless detention and exile, Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang once said : “I am a prisoner with no crime, a citizen with no home, a pilgrim with no road, and I will die a man with no grave”.
The Vietnamese government continues to pressure the UBCV leadership to cease its appeals for religious freedom and the UBCV’s right to existence. Just recently, on 21st September, General Nguyen Khanh Toan, Vice-Minister of Public Security visited Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang in Binh Dinh to persuade him to “retire” from the UBCV leadership. He also advised the UBCV Patriarch not to discuss Buddhist affairs with Thich Quang Do. The US State Department’s Human Rights report released in September noted that Vietnam refused to recognize the UBCV under the leadership of Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do.
