{"id":1614,"date":"2011-05-05T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queme.org\/all\/all\/at-the-asean-peoples-forum-2011-in-jakartavietnam-committee-denounces-brutal-repression-against-religious-freedom-in-vietnam\/"},"modified":"2024-10-08T12:25:45","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T12:25:45","slug":"at-the-asean-peoples-forum-2011-in-jakartavietnam-committee-denounces-brutal-repression-against-religious-freedom-in-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/at-the-asean-peoples-forum-2011-in-jakartavietnam-committee-denounces-brutal-repression-against-religious-freedom-in-vietnam\/","title":{"rendered":"At the ASEAN People\u2019s Forum 2011 in Jakarta:<\/em>
\r\nVietnam Committee denounces brutal repression against religious freedom in Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"

JAKARTA, 5 May 2011 (VCHR) – A delegation from the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights<\/strong> (VCHR) participated in the ASEAN Civil Society Conference\/ASEAN Peo<\/u>ple\u2019s Forum 2011<\/u> (ACSC\/APF) and associated events from 30 April-7 May 2011 in Jakarta, Indonesia, to draw attention to widespread human rights violations in Vietnam. The ACSC\/APF is a major civil society venue, organized as a parallel process to the annual Summit of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Hosted by Indonesia, this year\u2019s ASEAN chair, the ACSC\/APF brought together over 1,300 civil society participants from countries all over the world including the 10 ASEAN states, China, South Korea, Japan, Timor-Leste, the USA, Canada, France, Holland, Sweden, the UK… Civil society concerns raised at the ASCS\/APF will be forwarded to ASEAN leaders at the Summit which takes place this week-end (7-9 May 2011).<\/p>\n

Speaking on issues of civil liberties, Mr. Vo Tran Nhat, VCHR Executive Secretary noted the contrast between Indonesia\u2019s democracy and the totalitarian system in Vietnam. In 2010, whilst Vietnam held the chair of ASEAN and its new mechanism, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), the Vietnamese government pressured Thailand to prevent the VCHR and its partner, the FIDH, from holding a press conference in Bangkok to launch their report on human rights in Vietnam. FIDH representatives were also banned from attending the ASCS\/APF in Hanoi.<\/p>\n

Mr. Vo Tran condemned Vietnam\u2019s perception of legitimate human rights and pro-democracy activities as \u201cthreats against national security\u201d. \u201dThe government\u2019s paranoia is growing with the fast spread of new IT technology, the Internet and blogs\u201d, he observed, adding that \u201cVietnam is the second largest prison for \u2018netizens\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Whereas international opinion is well-informed on human rights violations in China or Burma, this is not the case with Vietnam, he said. One reason is Vietnam\u2019s sophisticated propaganda outreach, and its creation of a \u201ctwo-track\u201d human rights policy, one track \u201cfor export only\u201d<\/em> and the other for \u201cdomestic consumption\u201d<\/em>. The former upholds the respect of human rights internationally whilst the latter suppresses them at home.<\/p>\n

In addition, Vietnam has devised strategies that are often invisible to an outside observer: \u201cVietnam uses tactics of isolation, harassment, house arrest and surveillance to silence dissent. Critics not only face repression themselves, but for their whole families\u2013 wives are barred from work, children are expelled from school\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

The most blatant example of these policies is in the domain of religious freedom, and particularly the state\u2019s repression against the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), Vietnam\u2019s largest and oldest religious community. Having failed to suppress the UBCV with a campaign of ruthless repression launched in 1975 (arrests and murder of UBCV dignitaries, forced drafting of monks into the military, confiscation of property), the government sought to place Buddhism under control by creating a State-sponsored Buddhist organization in 1981 and banning the UBCV.<\/p>\n

This policy also failed, and today the UBCV is still alive and resisting government repression. But its members live in a climate of fear and face daily harassments, arbitrary detention, interrogation and threats. UBCV leader Thich Quang Do remains under house arrest without trial at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in Saigon after over 28 years in detention for his peaceful advocacy of religious freedom, democracy and human rights.<\/p>\n

Directives for religious repression are articulated in documents such as a 600-page training manual obtained by the VCHR, with a print-run of 1 million numbered copies, which provides for the formation of \u201creligious police\u201d and instructs religious cadres and police to \u201cstruggle against religions\u201d<\/em> and to \u201cpromote Buddhism with Socialist orientations\u201d<\/em>. Thousands of religious agents and security Police disguised as monks have infiltrated UBCV pagodas today.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Vietnam\u2019s government is masking this ongoing anti-UBCV repression by hosting spectacular public relations operations to support State-sponsored Buddhism, such as hosting the UN Vesak Day (Birth of Buddha) in 2008, or the construction of massive Buddhist temples such as Bai Dinh Pagoda in the province of Ninh Binh.<\/p>\n

As the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights made its report to the ASEAN People\u2019s Forum, new violations were committed in Vietnam. The arbitrary sentence of 5 years in prison and 3 years house arrest against on-line journalist Vi Duc Hoi on charges of \u201canti-socialist propaganda\u201d<\/em> was confirmed by the Appeals\u2019 Court (29.4.2011), and poet Bui Chat, founder of the Giay Vun (Scrap Paper) Publishing House was arrested at Tan Son Nhat airport, Saigon, as he returned from Buenos Aires where he had been awarded the 2011 Freedom to Publish award by the International Publishers Association (30.4.2011). He was temporarily released on 2 May, but remains under surveillance and subjected to interrogations by the Police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JAKARTA, 5 May 2011 (VCHR) – A delegation from the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) participated in the ASEAN Civil Society Conference\/ASEAN People\u2019s Forum 2011 (ACSC\/APF) and associated events from 30 April-7 May 2011 in Jakarta, Indonesia, to draw attention to widespread human rights violations in Vietnam. The ACSC\/APF is a major civil …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,98,64],"tags":[1782,499,1122],"class_list":["post-1614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-aichr","tag-asean","tag-vi-duc-hoi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}