<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to IBIB\u2019s information, Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 was forced to leave the monastery on 90 Tr\u1ea7n Huy Li\u1ec7u Street, Ph\u00fa Nhu\u1eadn Ward, Saigon, following pressure from the monastery\u2019s Superior monk Th\u00edch Thanh Minh. On 15th<\/sup> September 2018, Th\u00edch Thanh Minh \u201cinvited\u201d Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 to leave on the grounds that his presence caused political and economic problems to the monastery. Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 left immediately, taking with him only a small suit-case with three monk\u2019s robes. When his assistant came back later in the day to collect his sutras, books and belongings, Th\u00edch Thanh Minh had locked the staircase leading to his room and prevented the young monk from taking anything. Since then, Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9, 91, moved from one pagoda to another in Saigon with no permanent place to stay.<\/p>\n In fact, Thanh Minh Zen Monastery, where the UBCV Patriarch has been under house arrest without charge since 2003, does not belong to the UBCV but to the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS). Because Th\u00edch Thanh Minh was an old friend, Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 went to live there after 1975 when his own pagoda was confiscated by the State. Despite house arrest, Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 continued to speak out for religious freedom and human rights. Over the past two years, the authorities have stepped up pressure to move Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 away from the monastery to the State-sponsored V\u0129nh Nghi\u00eam Pagoda in Saigon, or to a pagoda in northern Vietnam. The UBCV Patriarch said he refused to move out unless Th\u00edch Thanh Minh asked him himself \u2013 which finally happened on 15.9.2018.<\/p>\n In a phone conversation with IBIB Director V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i, the UBCV Patriarch said he had decided to go to his home village in Ti\u1ec1n H\u1ea3i district in Th\u00e1i B\u00ecnh, northern Vietnam. \u201cDo not worry. I will never abandon the UBCV. Patriach is a title for life! Until my very last breath, I will defend the UBCV, and you must do so too !\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n IBIB is nevertheless concerned for the situation of this eminent Buddist leader who has paid such a high price for his nonviolent advocacy of religious freedom, human rights and democracy, and whose his access to communications, health care and visits from UBCV followers will undoubtedly be limited in this remote northern province.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Biography<\/strong>: Most Venerable Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 was born on November 27, 1928 in Thai Binh Province. Patriarch of the non-recognised Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) since 2008, Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 has been a lifelong advocate for democracy, religious freedom, and human rights.<\/p>\n A monk since the age of 14, Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 witnessed the summary execution of his religious master by a revolutionary People\u2019s Tribunal in 1945. Profoundly disturbed by this image, he resolved to devote his life to the pursuit of justice through the Buddhist teachings of non-violence, tolerance and compassion.<\/p>\n The Vietnamese authorities have repeatedly targeted, harassed, and detained Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 both for practicing his faith and for his tireless advocacy for religious freedom and human rights: 1977-78:<\/strong> 20-months in solitary confinement<\/strong> in Phan \u0110ang L\u01b0u Prison, Saigon, for denouncing human rights abuses; 1982-1992: 10 years internal exile<\/strong> for protesting the creation of a State-sponsored Buddhist church and the banning of the UBCV; 1995-8: 5 years in prison<\/strong> in Ba Sao and Thanh Li\u1ec7t prisons near Hanoi charged with \u201cabusing democratic freedoms to harm the interests of the State\u201d <\/em>for leading a humanitarian relief mission for flood victims. Released in 1998 thanks to an intervention by then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Vietnam pressured him to emigrate to the US, but Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 refused.<\/p>\n In 2001,<\/strong> he launched an \u201cAppeal for Democracy in Vietnam\u201d<\/a>, <\/strong>a democratic transition plan which received overwhelming support from over 300,000 Vietnamese and hundreds of international personalities. For this, he was detained incommunicado <\/em>at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery for 2 years, deprived even of medical treatment.<\/p>\n During a brief reprieve beginning in June 2003, Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 attempted to participate in a UBCV Assembly called by then Patriarch Th\u00edch Huy\u1ec1n Quang. But in October 2003, authorities accused him of \u201cpossessing state secrets\u201d and again confined him to Thanh Minh Zen Monastery where he has been under constant surveillance and effective house arrest ever since.<\/p>\n Despite house arrest, he continued his action and appeals, assisting the movement of farmers (D\u00e2n Oan)<\/a> protesting State confiscation of lands (2007);<\/strong> expressing solidarity with democraticy movements in Burma<\/a> and Tibet<\/a> (2008);<\/strong> launching a campaign of Civil Disobedience to stop environmentally-damaging Bauxite mining in the Central Highlands (2010);<\/strong> supporting thousands of young people in Hanoi and Saigon demonstrating against Chinese encroachment on Vietnamese lands (2011);<\/strong> calling for multi-party democracy and the abrogation of Article 4 of the Constitution<\/a> on the political monopoly of the Communist Party during a government consultation on constitutional reform (2013); <\/strong>launching an appeal for a \u201cbroad-based movement for the democratization of Vietnam\u201d <\/em><\/a>as the sole way to protect Vietnamese sovereignty (2014). <\/strong>These efforts brought him renewed interrogations, harassment and accusations of \u201cviolating national security\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 has been nominated 16 times for the Nobel Peace Prize. In November 2015, 91 international personalities<\/strong><\/a>, including four Nobel Peace Prize laureates, signed a letter to US President Obama calling for his release. Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 was awarded the Rafto Memorial Prize <\/strong><\/a>by the Norwegian Rafto Foundation in 2006 for his role as a \u201cunifying force\u201d <\/em>and a \u201csymbol of the growing democracy movement in Vietnam<\/em>\u201d, the \u201cDemocracy Courage Tribute\u201d<\/strong><\/a> by the World Movement for Democracy in 2006, and the \u201cHomo Homini\u201d<\/strong><\/a> Prize by the Czech Foundation People in Need 2003, under the auspices of the late President Vaclav Havel. He is an honorary member of PEN International, and is adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has pronounced Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9\u2019s detention to be a violation of international law (Opinion 18\/2005).<\/p>\n In April 2018,<\/strong> US Congressman Alan Lowenthal <\/strong><\/a>and Kristina Arriaga<\/strong><\/a>, Vice-President of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) adopted Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 as a prisoner of conscience through the \u201cDefending Freedoms Project\u201d of the US Congress\u2019 Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PARIS, 8 October (VCHR – IBIB) \u2013 The International Buddhist Information Bureau informs the international community with deep concern that Buddhist dissident and Supreme Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 boarded a train for the northen province of Th\u00e1i B\u00ecnh at 9:00am on Friday 5th October 2018 after …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":40308,"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":[97,137,113,98,64],"tags":[697],"class_list":["post-40320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-ibib","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-thich-thanh-minh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40320","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\/434"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"UBCV](\"http:\/\/queme.org\/\/app\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-1005c-tqd.jpg\")
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![\"UBCV](\"http:\/\/queme.org\/\/app\/uploads\/2018\/10\/2018-1005b-tqd.jpg\")