Following is the testimonial statement of Rev. Nguyen Huu Le, a Catholic clergyman, to the US Congress on the condition of religious oppression in Vietnam today.

OCTOBER 6, 1999

STATEMENT OF REV. NGUYEN HUU LE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
COMMITTEE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN VIETNAM (CRFV)
900 S. WASHINGTON STREET, SUITE 302
FALLS CHURCH, VA 22045
Tel: 703-533-3865

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Subcommittee,

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to testify not only on behalf of the Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam but, more important, also for the victims of religious persecution who have absolutely no voice and who continue to suffer tremendously in Vietnam.

Our committee applauds the publication of the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom in compliance with Public Law No. 105-292. It is one positive step in the right direction. We are however troubled by its lack of depth, its omissions of critical facts, and the inaccuracy of some information contained in the section on Vietnam. The following evaluation of the report is based on information that members of our Committee know first hand or on accounts obtained from reliable, well-placed sources inside the country.

First of all the report gives the false impression that religious repression in Vietnam does not stem from a sustained, consistent policy of the central government but arises from the arbitrary actions of local authorities. Vietnam's communist government is anti-religion by virtue. Its communist doctrine views religions as enemies of the people. Its policy is to ruthlessly weed out all religious activities that it cannot control and exploit for its own ends.

Immediately after its takeover of South Vietnam in 1975, the communist government cracked down on the Protestant and the Catholic Churches, and outlawed the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), the Hoa Hao Buddhist Church, and the Cao Dai Church. The government confiscated most church properties, including temples, cathedrals, schools, hospitals, libraries, orphanages... Hundreds of priests, nuns, and lay leaders were arrested, detained, tortured, humiliated, raped; many died in detention.

I myself spent 13 years in re-education camp for having defended religious freedom. During those terrible years I witnessed the death of many religious and political prisoners. I was tortured, beaten, and sent to three years of solitary confinement after a failed escape attempt from "re-education" camp.

While the government's treatment of religions appears to have improved in recent years, the reality behind this facade is as deplorable and as appalling as ever.

On April 17, 1997 Vietnam's Prime Minister issued Decree 31/CP on administrative detention, legalizing the arbitrary detention of suspects for up to two years without a charge. All religious leaders released as part of last year's general amnesty are currently held under administrative detention. The Most Ven. Thich Quang Do, Secretary General of UBCV, recently remarked that he had been released from one prison only to be placed in another prison: his own temple.

In order to wipe out all vestiges and influence of the independent Churches, the government replaces them with state-sanctioned organizations. The role of these organizations is to help the Government enforce its policies on religions. For example, the Committee of Hoa Hao Buddhist Representatives formed in May of this year is headed by Muoi Ton, a communist cadre. This Committee has since prohibited the celebration of major Hoa Hao holidays, any reference to the Hoa Hao Holy Land, and the use of the Hoa Hao religious emblem. In its section on Hoa Hao Buddhism, the Department of State made a mention to this Committee but fails to elaborate on these facts.

As for the Catholic Church, the government has deftly created "a Church within a Church" to "divide and conquer" the Vietnamese Catholics. The role of the government-created Catholic Patriotic Association is to infiltrate the Catholic community, control all Church matters, and keep tab on non-conformist priests. Priests who belong to this association are rewarded with privileges unavailable to their ordinary brethren: opportunities to travel abroad, the right to collect donations, permission to renovate their churches. The "wide latitude in practicing their faith, including some educational and humanitarian activities" reported by the Department of State is accorded only to religious persons who work with or for the government.

The Government has set up and is perfecting a multiple-layer system to control all religious matters. The Government's Office of Religious Affairs makes and enforces policies at the national level. The activities of individuals are monitored at the local level by the public security police. The Committee on Religions, part of the Communist Party's Fatherland Front, runs religious organizations. The People's Committees, staffed with local communist party members and sympathizers, control the day-to-day activities of black-listed priests, lay leaders, and followers.

In recent months, the government has stepped up its rigorous effort to harass, intimidate, and persecute religious leaders, and to impose further restrictions on religious activities. On April 19 Prime Minister Phan Van Khai signed Decree 26/ND-CP ordering that "Congresses and assemblies or religious organizations at the national level... shall obtain authorization of the Prime Minister," that "the printing and publication of prayers, of books, of religious publications... is under the regulation of the State," that "buildings, land and other properties passed on ... to the organs of the State... are now the property of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam."

In May the public security police raided a Bible study session of the Assemblies of God and arrested its two prominent pastors, Paul Tran Dinh Ai and Lo Van Hen. Also in May, members of the Committee on Religions and the security police interrupted the summer retreat of Buddhist monks in Saigon and threatened harsh punishments if the latter were found to support the banned UBCV. In August, Most Ven. Thich Quang, Ven. Thich Duc Nhuan and Ven. Thich Tue Si were taken into custody for questioning. On September 7, Ven. Thich Khong Tanh, released in 1998 after three years of imprisonment, was arrested the same day Secretary Albright arrived in Vietnam; after intense interrogation, he was told that the government had a pending order to re-arrest all UBCV leaders. Mr. Tran Quang Chau, a Cao Dai leader, is being held under house arrest after he co-signed an open letter last month asking the government to recognize independent Churches and to return all confiscated church properties.

While the Department of State's report recognizes some on-going acts of religious repression, it attributes them to the arbitrary, isolated attitude of certain local officials in certain remote areas. In reality, religious repression is a policy of the central government that is being carried out systematically throughout the country. In the major cities such as Saigon and Hanoi, this intensifying repression against religions is better camouflaged and therefore not as easily detectable. This may have contributed to the regrettable omissions and inaccuracies in the report.

We would like to note that the UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, Abdelfattah Amor, made a brief visit to Vietnam late last year. Despite his brief stay and the many restrictions he faced in Vietnam, the Special Rapporteur's report is in many aspects more comprehensive, more thorough, and closer to reality than the Department of State's report. In his report, the Special Rapporteur concluded that the serious lack of religious freedom in Vietnam "arises both from legislation providing the authorities with unlimited powers and the policy of a Government and Communist Party anxious to use an elaborate system of control to prevent the emergence of any organizations capable of questioning their power and influence."

We understand that the Bureau of International Religious Freedom will make recommendations to the President based on its findings. We would like to suggest the following.

1. The Department of State should work to facilitate the visit to Most Ven. Thich Huyen Quang, Supreme Patriarch of UBCV, by a delegation of American Buddhist leaders and medical doctors. The Most Ven. Huyen Quang, 81, has been detained for the past 22 years. His health is deteriorating because of old age and lack of medical care.

2. The U.S. consular offices in Vietnam should make every attempt to identify victims of religious persecution and process their applications for refugee status.

3. The U.S. should use all diplomatic and trade-related leverages to persuade Communist Vietnam to release all religious prisoners, to officially recognize the independent Churches, to allow these Churches to freely conduct charity and humanitarian work, and to return all confiscated church properties. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit a partial list of confiscated church properties for inclusion in the congressional record of this hearing.

We hope that next year the Department of State will include in its report a detailed account of the progresses and an evaluation of Vietnam's cooperation in these particular areas.

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