{"id":2666,"date":"2016-05-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queme.org\/vi\/police-prevent-ubcv-deputy-thch-thanh-quang-and-youth-leader-l-cng-cu-from-meeting-australian-diplomats-in-saigon\/"},"modified":"2016-09-09T13:39:13","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T13:39:13","slug":"police-prevent-ubcv-deputy-thch-thanh-quang-and-youth-leader-l-cng-cu-from-meeting-australian-diplomats-in-saigon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/police-prevent-ubcv-deputy-thch-thanh-quang-and-youth-leader-l-cng-cu-from-meeting-australian-diplomats-in-saigon\/","title":{"rendered":"Police prevent UBCV Deputy Th\u00edch Thanh Quang and Youth leader L\u00ea C\u00f4ng C\u1ea7u from meeting Australian diplomats in Saigon"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS, 13 May 2016 (VCHR) \u2013 The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights<\/strong> (VCHR) strongly protests the unlawful activities of Police in Hue and Danang who prevented the Deputy leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) Th\u00edch Thanh Quang<\/strong> and UBCV Youth leader L\u00ea C\u00f4ng C\u1ea7u<\/strong> from travelling to Saigon to meet diplomats from the Australian Embassy in Hanoi who are visiting UBCV Patriarch Thich Qu\u1ea3ng D\u1ed9 in Saigon on Friday 13th May 2016.<\/p>\n

Diplomats from the Australian Embassy in Hanoi, including Political Counsellor, Nadia Krivetz and Second Political Secretary Rose McConnell asked to meet UBCV Patriarch Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in Saigon, where he is under effective house arrest. Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 invited L\u00ea C\u00f4ng C\u1ea7u and UBCV Deputy leader Th\u00edch Thanh Quang to join him at the meeting to brief the Australian diplomats on current persecution against the UBCV.<\/p>\n

However, as L\u00ea C\u00f4ng C\u1ea7u prepared to leave Hue on Thursday 12th May, Security Police intercepted him and banned him from travelling. L\u00ea C\u00f4ng C\u1ea7u is currently under investigation for his activities in support of the UBCV which Police say is an \u201cillegal\u201d oganization. They are threatening to prosecute him under Article 258 of the Criminal Code for \u201cabusing democratic freedoms to encoach on the interests of the State\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

The same day, at 4:45pm, UBCV Deputy leader Th\u00edch Thanh Quang was also incercepted by Police and numerous plain-clothed Security agents at the gates of the Gi\u00e1c Minh Pagoda in Danang and banned from travelling. Th\u00edch Thanh Quang immediately sent a \u201cLetter of protest against the Vietnamese authorities\u2019 violations of the rights to freedom of movement and residence\u201d<\/strong> to the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights in Paris denouncing this arbitrary treatment and calling on the VCHR to alert international opinion about this incident.<\/p>\n

In the letter, Th\u00edch Thanh Quang said he had told Police that he was going to Saigon because the UBCV Patriarch had invited him to meet the Australian delegation, and also because it is traditional practice for Buddhists to pay respects to their elders in the season of Vesak (Birth of Buddha). When he asked Police why they banned his trip, they replied: \u201cYou know very well why we are preventing you from travelling\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Th\u00edch Thanh Quang also reported in the letter that since 2011, for the past five years, Security Police had kept 24-hour watch on his pagoda, which is also the headquarters of the UBCV\u2019s Buddhist Youth Movement, intimidating Buddhists and systematically preventing him from celebrating Buddhist events such as Vesak, All Saints Day or even the Lunar New Year. Th\u00edch Thanh Quang said Police actions constituted a \u201cgrave violation of the rights of citizens guaranteed in the Vietnamese Constitution and UN human rights treaties to which Vietnam is State party\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cVietnam has an ongoing human rights dialogue with Australia, and it is about to receive a visit from US President Barack Omaba in which human rights is reportedly on the agenda\u201d<\/em>, said VCHR President V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i. \u201cVietnam cannot seriously consider strengthening ties with democratic countries whilst continuing to use Police harassment, arbitrary detention, denial of freedom to travel and communicate to silence free-thinking citizens. It is unworthy of a country that hold a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS, 13 May 2016 (VCHR) \u2013 The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) strongly protests the unlawful activities of Police in Hue and Danang who prevented the Deputy leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) Th\u00edch Thanh Quang and UBCV Youth leader L\u00ea C\u00f4ng C\u1ea7u from travelling to Saigon to meet diplomats from …<\/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":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-vchr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666","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=2666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}