Freed Vietnam monk urges linking trade to rights
HANOI - A top Vietnamese dissident monk said on Tuesday he
and a group of followers had been held for questioning for seven hours at the
weekend and strip-searched by police after visiting the detained head of his
outlawed group.
Thich Quang Do, deputy head of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam
(UBCV), told Reuters the treatment he and six followers had received
showed the need to link economic and trade contacts with Vietnam to human
rights and religious freedoms.
Do, 73, said he was twice detained by police in central Vietnam on Sunday
after making a Lunar New Year visit to UBCV Patriarch Thich Huyen
Quang, 82, in Quang Ngai province.
It was only the second time since his release from prison in 1998 that Do had
visited the patriarch, who has been under detention at his pagoda since 1981.
The UBCV says police broke up the first meeting in March 1999 and
interrogated both monks before escorting Do back to his monastery in Ho
Chi Minh City.
Do said police this time had stopped and searched his car in the provinces of
Quang Ngai and Nha Trang, and in the latter location he and his followers
were forced to undress while officers looked for subversive documents.
Forced To Undress
``It was a very detailed search...all clothes except for underwear -- it was
terrible, only the underwear they did not search,'' he said. ``They searched in
the robes and my trousers and my shoes.''
Do, who spoke by telephone from his monastery in Ho Chi Minh City, said
police found no incriminating documents and he and his party were eventually
freed at 1:00 a.m. on Monday morning.
Do made his visit ahead of a meeting of a U.S. commission in Washington on
February 13 to examine Hanoi's religious rights record -- something that
could have a bearing on ratification of a historic bilateral trade pact signed last
July.
Do denied there was a connection between the two events.
``That is a coincidence,'' he said. ``My journey coincided, I had no intention
of that.''
However, Do, who has spent more than 20 years in detention or jail for his
campaigns for religious freedom and democracy, said there needed to be a
linkage between trade and economic ties with Vietnam's communist
government and human rights and religious freedoms.
``In my opinion if you do something for the communist government, you must
do it with conditions,'' he said.
``They must make real reforms. Step-by-step, gradually at least, we must
have full freedom. You must connect these things with economic
developments or trade.
``If you do these things without conditions, you only have communist Vietnam
strengthening its power in order to repress us strongly more and more.''
The Foreign Ministry has not responded to a request for comment on Do's
detention and police could not be reached.
The ruling communists require all churches to be officially recognized and the
UBCV was effectively outlawed in 1981 when Hanoi authorized a single,
pro-government Buddhist church.
Among the questions to be considered by the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom next week is whether Washington should
consider sanctions to press Hanoi to improve its rights record and what effect
giving Normal Trade Relations status to Vietnam would have on religious
freedoms.
NTR is provided for under the landmark trade pact between the former
enemies, subject to annual renewal. The pact still has to be ratified by the
U.S. Congress and Vietnam's National Assembly
By David Brunnstrom - Reuters - February 5, 2001.
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