Hạ Viện Tổ Chức Ðiều Trần Về Tình Trạng Nhân Quyền Tại VN

 Washington DC, Ngày 7 tháng 11 năm 2007

Uỷ Ban Tự Do Tôn Giáo Cho Việt Nam- CRFV

Ngày 6 tháng 11, Tiểu Ban Nhân Quyền thuộc Uỷ Ban Ðối Ngoại của Hạ Viện Hoa Kỳ tổ chức buổi điều trần về tình trạng vi phạm nhân quyền ở Việt Nam.

Trong phần mở đầu, DB William Delahunt, Chủ Tịch của Tiểu Ban, nhận định rằng tình trạng vi phạm nhân quyền ở Việt Nam ngày càng gia tăng và không có dấu hiệu gì sẽ cải thiện. Ông kêu gọi Bộ Ngoại Giao và Quốc Hội Hoa Kỳ phải có biện pháp cụ thể: "chúng ta phải cho họ biết rằng những việc họ làm sẽ dẫn đến hậu quả".

Ðặc biệt hơn các buổi điều trần khác, kỳ này các nhân chứng chính yếu lại chính là ba vị dân biểu với nhiều kinh nghiệm về vấn đề nhân quyền ở Việt Nam: Christopher Smith, Zoe Lofgren, và Loretta Sanchez. Cả ba vị dân biểu này đều đưa ra những nhận định sắc bén và kinh nghiệm bản thân về các hành động vi phạm nhân quyền. DB Sanchez kể lại việc mục kích cách đối xử tàn tệ của công an đối với hai phụ nữ được mời đến dự tiệc trà với bà tại tư gia của Ðại Sứ Hoa Kỳ ở Hà Nội. DB Lofgren thì nói về một cử tri của Bà, Ông Ðỗ Thành Công, đã bị bắt giam vì có những bài viết cổ xuý dân chủ–Bà nhấn mạnh rằng Ông Công là một công dân Hoa Kỳ và viết những bài này khi đang ở Hoa Kỳ.

DB Smith cho biết đã từng gặp LM Nguyễn Văn Lý, Hoà Thượng Thích Quảng Ðộ, LS Nguyễn Văn Ðài và BS Nguyễn Ðan Quế ở Việt Nam và nhận xét rằng những người này không hề có ý tưởng hận thù mà chỉ muốn xây dựng một tương lai tốt đẹp cho Việt Nam–một điều mà chính quyền cộng sản không muốn chấp nhận.

Kế tiếp Phụ Tá Thứ Trưởng Ngoại Giao Scott Marciel, Giám Ðốc Vụ Ðông Á và Thái Bình, khẳng định rằng Việt Nam đã có những tiến bộ cụ thể về tự do tôn giáo, với những dẫn chứng từ bản phúc trình mới đây của Bộ Ngoại Giao. DB Delahunt, chủ toạ buổi điều trần, đưa ra nhiều câu hỏi đặt nghi vấn về tính xác thực của bản phúc trình này.

Phần cuối của buổi điều trần gồm các nhân chứng đại diện cho một số đoàn thể và tổ chức: Ông Ðỗ Thành Công của Ðảng Dân Chủ Nhân Dân, Ông Hoàng Tứ Duy của Ðảng Việt Tân, Cô Sophie Richardson của Human Rights Watch, Bà Kathryn Porter của Leadership Council for Human Rights, và TS Nguyễn Ðình Thắng đại diện Uỷ Ban Cứu Người Vượt Biển và Uỷ Ban Tự Do Tôn Giáo Cho Việt Nam.

Ðặc biệt có bản điều trần của LM Phan Văn Lợi gởi từ Việt Nam. DB Delahunt tuyên bố đưa bản điều trần này vào hồ sơ Quốc Hội. DB Delahunt cũng đưa vào hồ sơ Quốc Hội Bản Phúc Trình Về Tình Hình Việt Nam do TS Nguyễn Ðình Thắng cùng một số chuyên gia soạn thảo. Một số dân biểu đã dùng một số dữ kiện từ tài liệu này trong buổi trần.

Dưới đây là bản điều trần của LM Phan Văn Lợi.

 Testimony of Father Phan Van Loi

Hue , Vietnam

(translated and submitted by Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam)

Human Rights Concerns in Vietnam

November 6, 2007

House Committee on Foreign Affairs

Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight

The Vietnamese Religious Scene in 2007

A superficial look at the current religious scene in Vietnam would cause one to believe that religious freedom has increased, as evidenced by the number of new places of worship, religious events (including those associated with traditional beliefs), and local and foreign religious personnel who travel to or from other countries. In reality, the appearance of religious freedom does not mean that there is religious freedom at the most fundamental level.

            1- Legal Perspective

            After issuing the June 18, 2004 Executive Order on religious beliefs and Decree No. 22/2005/ND-CP, Vietnam's communist government distributed in July 2007 two documents specifying how the Executive Order must be implemented. These are the People's Committees Administrative Procedures Concerning Religious Matters – Sub-district and Village Levels, and the People's Committees Administrative Procedures Concerning Religious Matters – Metropolitan Areas .

a         The People's Committee Administrative Procedures Concerning Religious Matters – Sub-district and Village Levels includes the following requirements and associated forms:

1        Registration of the proposed program of annual activities of the religious entity

2        Notice of intent to hold religious events

3        Registration of new clergy

4        Notice of intent to carry out minor modifications or repairs to the place of worship

5        Notice of intent to solicit donations

b        The People's Committee Administrative Procedures Concerning Religious Matters – Sub-district and Village Levels lists the following requirements and associated forms:

1        Registration of activities of the religious entity

2        Notice of intent to transfer clergy to another location

3        Registration of transferred clergy

4        Notice of intent to solicit donations

5        Proposal for activities not previously registered

6        Proposal  for annual meetings or other major meetings and celebrations

7        Proposal for processions and other ceremonial activities conducted outside of the place of worship

8        Proposal for evangelical activities outside of the place of worship

9        Registration of religious order or seminary

10    Construction permits

Whether couched as "registration", "notice", or "proposal", the government really meant "request for approval" and reserved the right to approve or not.

c         In Questions and Answers Regarding Religious Matters , a document issued by the government's Board of Religious Affairs in June 2006, Item 16 shows that the government has recognized only 16 religious entities/organizations associated with 6 religions (Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Cao Dai, Hoa Hao, and Islam). The 16 entities are:

-     the Vietnamese Buddhist Church

-     the Vietnamese Catholic Church

-     the Association of Protestant Denominations ( Northern Vietnam)

-     the Alliance of Protestant Denominations (Southern Vietnam)

-     the Tay Ninh Cao Dai Denomination

-     the Tien Thien Cao Dai Denomination

-     the Minh Chon Dao Cao Dai Denomination

-     the Cao Dai Evangelical Denomination

-     the Ban Chinh Dao Cao Dai Denomination

-     the Bach Y Cao Dai Denomination

-     the Chieu Minh Long Chau Cao Dai Denomination

-     the Chon Ly Cao Dai Denomination

-     the Cau Kho – Tam Quan Cao Dai Denomination

-     the Governing Council of Hoa Hao Buddhism

-     the Islamic Community of Ho Chi Minh City

-     the Islamic Community of An Giang Province

The list does not include the Unified Buddhist Church (led by Most Venerable Huyen Quang), the Pure Hoa Hao Buddhist Church (led by First Elder Le Quang Liem), the Mennonite Denomination (led by Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang), and the Thong Cong Protestant Association (led by Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh).   These entities continue to suffer repression. Additionally, many others applied a long time ago but have not received a license.  These include the Tinh Do Cu Si, Buu Son Ky Huong, Tu An Hieu Nghia, Ba La Mon, Bahai, Seventh Day Adventist, Evangelical, and Baptist Faiths, among others.

d- In 2007 the government forced the religious entities to submit information prescribed on Form Data Collection from Places of Worship (shrines, pagodas, churches, etc.). The information includes: (1) name of the place, (2) address, (3) information about the highest official, (4) date of establishment and date of initial operation, (5) number of persons working in the building as of July 1, 2007, (6) income and expenses, and (7) methods of communication.

            e- The government's Board of Religious Affairs shall monitor and approve all dealings with international organizations, including activities involving the religious entity, and its believers, clergy, and other personnel.

From a legal perspective, it is evident that the communist government is maintaining   its grip on all aspects of a religious organization's mode of operation and its personnel, activities, finances, and communication.  Yet these are essential to the life of a religious organization.

            2- The Actual Situation

            a- On June 8, 2007, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung signed Decision No. 83/2007 QD-TTg aiming at training approximately 22 thousand government employees to work on religious matters. The training program was developed by the Interior Ministry and the Ho Chi Minh Institute of Public Administration (two organizations that monitor the people's activities on behalf of the Communist Party). This large number of government workers dedicated to religious affairs will monitor, control, cause difficulties to, and report on the religious entities/organizations.

            b- The communist government has been meddling with the ordainment of high-level clergy in the Catholic Church, i.e., bishops, and, in the process, diluting the Vatican's authority. This resulted in the ordainment of several bishops who did not quite meet the criteria set by the Catholic Church and its canon law. Two bishops resigned as a result - Bishops Nguyen Van Yen (Phat Diem) and Nguyen Tich Duc (Ban Me Thuot).   Prior to 1975 this issue had never arisen in Vietnam.

c- The government force the seminaries (where future priests are educated) to teach Marxism, the history of the Communist Party and the laws of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. After requiring test scores to be heavily weighted towards these subjects, the government has been using the scores to determine if a student is allowed to become a priest or not.   Having to study an atheistic, materialism-based theory concurrently with a humanistic, religious doctrine has caused the seminary students' conscience to be incapable of being sensitized to the regime's actions.   Consequently, the new clergy members focus only on worship-related tasks, or, if they are engaged in humanitarian activities, they focus only on assisting victims of natural disasters at the exclusion of the victims of man-made disasters (victimized by Communist Party members and government employees). One can count on the fingers of one's hands the number of priests fully involved with the struggle to establish religious freedom, human rights and democracy.

            d- The Vietnamese Bishops' Council, in Item 19 of its 2007 Bulletin issued on October 12, 2007, wrote: "Regrettably the door is still shut with respect to religious organizations' participation in educational activities: the government does not authorize their opening of schools beyond the kindergarten level. In spite of the Catholic Church's unceasing efforts to perform authorized activities such as seminars on humanitarian topics or establishing a scholarship fund for poorer or handicapped students, the Church must stand aside and be content with being an observer while educational needs in Vietnam go unmet."   Through this statement, the Bishops' Council pointed to a major violation of human rights. Religion's role is to inculcate moral and spiritual values through preaching to the believers and educating the young. The Church is also invigorated and grows through such activities. By not approving the participation of religious entities in the education sphere, Vietnam's government has contributed to the deplorable decline in our   educational system and moral turpitude among our nation's youth.

            e- Many religious figures continue to be: (1) jailed ( e.g., Father Nguyen Van Ly); (2) placed under surveillance with travel restrictions (Venerable Huyen Quang, Venerable Quang Do,  Father Phan Van Loi, etc.); (3) harassed (Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, Most Venerable Khong Tanh, Most Venrable Minh Nguyet, etc.).   Many believers are in prison, such as the following Hoa Hao Buddhists: Le Van Tinh, Bui Tan Nha, Nguyen Van Dien, Vo Van Thanh Liem, Vo Van Buu, Mai Thi Dung, Nguyen Thanh Phong, Nguyen Thi Ha, To Van Manh, Nguyen Thanh Long, Nguyen Van Thuy, Nguyen Van Tho, Duong Thi Tron, Le Van Soc, etc.)

            f-   The government continues to deny the rights of religious entities to their newspapers, publishers, and radio and television stations. The two weekly publications Catholicism and the People and Vietnamese Catholics are still communist mouthpieces under the guise of  religious publications.  Priests and Catholics whose allegiance is with the Communist Party are in charge of these publications. The Bishops' Council may produce only 6 newsletters (titled "Hiep Thong") per year, and only 100 copies of each newsletter, approximately 250 pages, for 6 million Vietnamese Catholics. The number of new Catholic book titles that the government has allowed to be printed can be counted on the fingers of one's hands. Only the government-owned religious publishing house may produce religious books. The Church's basic communication tool, the Vietnamese Catholic Church's Annual Review (published in 2005), was heavily censored. For example, "sanctified martyrs" had to be changed to "witnessed saints". Out of the Council's 25 annual bulletins, the government authorized the printing of only the 1980 and 2001 bulletins because their content is more pleasing to the government. The bulletins' sections about the five other religions (Protestantism, Buddhism, Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, and Islam) were written by officials of the government-controlled churches associated with the five religions.

g- The communist government confiscated properties belonging to the various religious groups (for convenience, we use the date of confiscation as post-1975) and has yet to return any of the seized properties. Let us hear Venerable Quang Do's words when he spoke to the citizens who were demanding justice in the Second Office of the Communist National Assembly on July 17, 2007: "Like you, the Unified Buddhist Church is a victim of the regime. The government seized all our properties, including those dedicated to education, charity, worship... Over the past 30 years we have continued to demand justice. Although we have submitted over a thousand petitions, they have not responded or taken any action. They treat the people like dirt."   As to the Catholic Church, the communist government still keeps 102 out of 107 ha of Thien An Institute in Hue, 17 out of 23.5 ha of the Holy Site of La Vang in Quang Tri, and thousands of facilities that the Church had used as seminaries, schools, hospitals, child care centers, orphanages, etc. Recently, on September 1, 2007, Bishop Francisco Le Van Hong of Hue Archdiocese, issued the "Notice re. Request for Certification of Right to Church Properties" to all parishes and orders, to ask the government to return seized properties. The communists declared that the deadline for submitting the paperwork to local government units is November 1, 2007. While nobody knows the basis for this deadline, it is clear that the communists intend to legalize their ownership of the Catholic properties that they took 32 years ago.   Perhaps the government wants to use one of the property laws, namely "after 30 years, anyone who has an unclaimed property becomes its legitimate owner", to legitimize their   possession of properties seized from various religious entities.

The above material is a summary of the current religious situation in Vietnam, with an emphasis on the Catholic Church.

Trân trọng kính báo,

Ngô Thị Hiền

UBTDTG/VN

P.O.Box 342111