Vietnam monks 'in stand-off'
Eleven members of a banned
Buddhist organisation in
Vietnam are reportedly holed up
in a minivan in central Binh Dinh
province after a tense stand-off
with security forces.
According to the Paris-based
International Buddhist Information
Bureau (IBIB), which the monks
contacted by mobile phone, the
group included the 86-year-old
patriarch of the Unified Buddhist
Church of Vietnam, Thich Huyen
Quang, and his 75-year-old deputy, Thich Quang Do.
The minivan was reportedly surrounded by about 200 monks from a
nearby monastery and 1,000 Buddhist followers.
However, Vietnamese authorities said the van had now left, and that it
was the monks' supporters, rather than police, who had prevented it
from leaving.
According to the IBIB, Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do said
they had begun a hunger strike and would not move from the van in
protest.
The alleged stand-off began when Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang
Do set off for Ho Chi Minh City.
Thich Quang Do, who has been staying with Thich Huyen Quang since
last month, had been summoned by the authorities in the Vietnamese
capital, and Thich Huyen Quang was accompanying him to seek medical
treatment.
The pair said that they and six other monks and three followers were
held up by police, who demanded that Thich Huyen Quang return to his
monastery.
But Phan Phi Ho, deputy chief of the religious affairs committee in Binh
Dinh, said the cause of the stand-off was supporters of the monks, who
feared they would not return from Ho Chi Minh.
Penelope Faulkner, vice-chairman of the IBIB, said the two monks, who
have both been Nobel peace prize nominees and are high-profile
symbols of the human rights movement in Vietnam, were viewed by the
government as a threat.
"Therefore, when they're together, the government is very unhappy,"
Ms Faulkner told BBC News Online.
Pagodas 'surrounded'
The incident coincided with reported unrest in the city of Hue, the
traditional centre of support for the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam
(UBCV).
The IBIB said undercover security police had been preventing monks
and nuns from leaving 20 pagodas in Hue since Monday. Police there
denied the claims.
Ms Faulkner said monks from Hue, along with Thich Huyen Quang and
Thich Quang Do, had attended a meeting in September to discuss future
plans for the UBCV which was raided by the authorities.
Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do have both spent more than 20
years in prison or under house arrest, after the Communist Party set up
the state-approved Buddhist Church of Vietnam in 1981.
In June, the Vietnamese authorities released Thich Quang Do from
house arrest. The move was welcomed by human rights groups, who
believed it was a sign that the relationship between the government and
the UBCV was improving.
But Ms Faulkner said that since September the authorities had stepped
up interrogations and threats against the movement.
BBC News - October 08, 2003.
|