~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Testing the faith of communist Vietnam

HANOI - It's still early, but the Phu Tay Ho temple on the shores of Hanoi's West Lake is already crowded. Throngs of people are preparing offerings to effigies of Vietnam's ancient aristocracy - fruits, flowers, candy, cigarettes, rice wine, money - in the hope that such offerings will bring them prosperity.

Nguyen Thi Minh, 45, says she comes here religiously on the first and 15th day of each lunar month to pray for health and good fortune. "In the past I didn't come so much, but now many pagodas and temples have been restored and the tradition is coming back," she said. "I don't know for sure if it works, but I like to believe it does." Outside, elderly and learned-looking men translate requests made of the aristocrats - who ruled Vietnam about 1,000 years ago - into ancient Vietnamese script, so that the gods can understand their devotees' prayers. The requests are burned at the temple's "post office" together with photocopies of US$100 bills, proving the durability of not just traditional ancestor worship, but the patterns of patronage which still dominate Vietnamese culture.

This is a country with a reputation for dogmatic religious intolerance, where Marxist-Leninist principles define the worship of anything other than socialism as a tool of repression. But according to Professor Do Quang Hung, the director of Hanoi's Institute of Religious Studies, today's Vietnam is seeing a surge in spiritualism. "Studies we have conducted over the past years reveal there has been a resurrection in religious belief," he said, adding that the Government recently allowed Buddhist and Catholic clergy to travel overseas for religious conferences. "For the first time in modern history we don't have problems with the Buddhists or Catholics. We try to study these religions to discover their good points. The Government has sanctioned the restoration of temples, pagodas and churches all over the country and has officially recognised the right to practise religious faith." Sceptics might see that as more communist propaganda. One Buddhist group recently accused Vietnam of persecuting its devotees, and the World Evangelical Fellowship alleged last month that the mistreatment of Protestants among the country's ethnic minorities was particularly widespread.

But the party line does have support. In its annual assessment of human rights for 1999, the US State Department acknowledged some progress towards tolerance of religion. "The Government [still] restricts freedom of religion and significantly restricts the operation of religious organisations other than those approved by the state. However . . . conditions for religious freedom improved during the year . . . [one Buddhist sect] was recognised for the first time officially," the report's preamble reads. The report concluded that, at the time of publication, there were at most 150 political or religious prisoners of conscience in Vietnam, and noted that a Communist Party official responsible for the destruction of three Protestant churches in southern Binh Phouc province had been dismissed.

Following a 1998 visit, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Abdelfattah Amor, concluded that more than 15 million Vietnamese - 7.5 million Buddhists, five million Catholics, 400,000 Protestants and more than three million Muslims and other religious believers - openly practised their faith. He also found there were more than 50,000 clergy from Vietnam's six recognised religions and, excluding household shrines and temples, 21,000 places of worship. The deputy head of the Government's Committee on Religion, Vu Gia Tham, says that historically Vietnam has absorbed foreign religions and now has no problems with any of the world's major religious codes. "We are not really afraid of foreign influence through religion, especially at this point of history, and we are prepared to integrate them into the Vietnamese way of life. But we will not welcome religions which are politically oriented."

Yet Mr Tham evades questions on mistreatment of members of Protestant churches, particularly among ethnic hill tribes. The US State Department cites "credible" reports that last year 25 Hmong Protestants were illegally detained in the remote northern province of Lai Chau which borders China and Laos. Ten were reported still to be in detention when the report was published. The Singapore-based World Evangelical Fellowship alleges that the Hmong minority faces regular persecution for its newly acquired Christianity. "In some places authorities have forced Christians to signify their return to animism by forcing them to drink the blood of sacrificed animals," the fellowship says.

Professor Hung denies any knowledge of such coercion, but expresses concern about the emergence of evangelical sects, particularly in remote parts of the country. "In [northern] Son La province we had one case of mass suicide where as many as 40 ethnic tribespeople killed themselves. Fortunately, the remaining villagers have come back to 'normal' life," he said. "The authorities changed the name of the village to help the people forget this terrible thing - it was a very dangerous belief." Professor Hung and Mr Tham would not comment on whether the use of ethnic minorities as mercenaries by opposing French and American forces had led to greater suspicion of and crackdowns on these groups.

But the resurgence of spirituality is bringing other problems. Stories of scams, fraudsters and cults which forbid their adherents to eat or accept medical treatment are being heard daily. "It is difficult for us to determine what is actually religion and what is superstition," Professor Hung said.

By Huw Watkin - South China Morning Post - May 8, 2000.