Dissident monk makes rare public appearance in Vietnam
HANOI - A dissident Buddhist leader being held under "pagoda arrest" in communist Vietnam made a rare public appearance to support protesters rallying against land seizures, his church said Wednesday.
Thich Quang Do the 79-year-old deputy leader of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), snuck out early Tuesday to support the demonstrators outside the National Assembly building in Ho Chi Minh City.
"This is the first time in 26 years of detention and house arrest that prominent dissident Thich Quang Do, a 2007 Nobel peace prize nominee, has addressed a public demonstration," said the UBCV in a statement.
It said Do and other UBCV monks had left their pagodas separately to avoid police attention.
"Thich Quang Do cannot leave his pagoda except to visit the doctor once a month," spokesman Vo Vai Ai told AFP, adding that the monk had returned immediately after the rally in the southern city, formerly called Saigon.
Lu Thi Thu Duyen, a 34-year-old protester, said thousands of people had listened to the monk address the demonstration against land seizures and corruption among local authorities.
She said Do had called on the demonstrators to "try their best to fight and take back the assets that had been robbed."
"The security police surrounded the demonstrators, they took photos and shot with cameras, but there were no clashes," she added.
The UBCV was banned in 1981 for refusing to submit to Communist Party supervision. Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and Do, his deputy, have been in detention or under what activists call "pagoda arrest" ever since.
For almost a month, hundreds of peasants from across Vietnam have demonstrated in the former Saigon against land seizures.
Conflicts over land have become increasingly common in the booming communist country, amid rapid industrialisation and urbanisation.
Local officials are frequently accused of embezzling compensation payments, which are generally judged as inadequate, but it is rare for such protests to last for such a long time here.
Carl Thayer, an expert at the Australian Defence Force Academy, said it appeared authorities had turned a blind eye to the monk's escape, possibly as a result of the negative public response to recent acts of repression.
"His appearance is unprecedented," said Thayer. "Local security must have been told to keep (their) hands off for a while."
Earlier this year, Vietnam arrested a number of dissidents for allegedly disseminating anti-government propaganda.
The crackdown provoked criticism from other countries, notably during President Nguyen Minh Triet's historic visit to the United States.
By Aude Genet - Agence France Presse - July 18, 2007.
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