December 30, 1999
Hanoi (dpa) - Tensions are running high in southern Vietnam after a recent series of clashes between Vietnamese security forces and followers of the strongly anti-communist Buddhist Hoa Hao sect, said a sect leader on Tuesday.
The clashes, which have resulted in scores of arrests and injuries, appear related to an upcoming anniversary when believers will mark the 80th birthday of their prophet who was killed in 1947 by Communists.
The clashes have occurred as Hoa Hao believers have tried to assert nominal religious freedoms, only to to be stopped by heavy-handed police responses in southern An Giang province.
This past Friday 300 Hoa Hao pilgrims clashed with police who blocked a visit to the birthplace of their prophet, Huynh Phu So, resulting in numerous injuries, reported Le Quang Liem, a sect leader.
In retaliation police rounded up 11 people from their homes Sunday morning and brought them to the Phu Thuy commune police station, where they were reportedly beaten up.
Roughly 100 protestors, mostly women and children of the arrested, showed up at the police station Monday morning and maintained a vigil until all were released - the last one at three in the afternoon, he said.
The last one released, Tran Van Nghia, 39, was reportedly very severely beaten and police were said to be afraid that when his condition became known that it would further excite the crowd.
"Police are doing this to terrorize believers to try to discourage them from coming to the area because they know a lot of people will be coming during the anniversary," said Liem, speaking from Ho Chi Minh City.
The assassination of the Hoa Hao prophet by the Viet Minh appears to be at the heart of abiding anti-communism sentiment among many, if not most sect believers.
Vigorously anti-Viet Cong during the American War, the Hoa Hao has probably been the most suppressed of all Vietnam's official religions since the Communist vicotry in 1975.
Although Vietnam's Communist leadership have recently taken some steps toward relaxing restrictions, Liem complains the existing controls are no longer acceptable.
A series of other recent clashes with police seems to bear out mounting frustrations felt by some portion of Hoa Hao believers, who are said to number between two and four million concentrated in the Mekong Delta area.
A Vietnamese group based in California warned of potential bloodshed during the anniversary, claiming that the Vietnamese military had mobilized "large number of troops and tanks" in the area.
The statement was released last week by the Liberty Flame Foundation, but the information could not independently confirmed.
Liem, a former South Vietnamese soldier, who is still regarded as a troublemaker by authorities, said he had been informed that all local security forces had been ordered to remain on duty through the New Year period.
He said he could not confirm the report about troops or tanks.
State religious officials said at the weekend that while the situation was still "complicated" it was well under control.
Two other clashes between several hundred Hoa Hao and police took plaec on December 16 when believers tried to hang religious signs and pictures of their prophet, which so far is allowed only in one place.
In one incident, a policeman pulled down the sign and stomped on it, infuriating outraged believers, who quickly surrounded and scuffled with police.
"The policeman jumped on the sign; that was unacceptable, intolerable," said Huynh Be Hai, a local resident in To Dinh town and follower, who was there at the time.
He said the followers were merely trying to erect a sign that read 'The Home of Buddhist Pacifism' (Phat Giao Hoa Hao)" in order for people to know where their faith started.
He said the location had been widely known before the Communist takeover of former South Vietnam.
"The sign is a symbol of our faith, our respect," said Hai. "That action is an act of oppression of religion; I have never seen this anywhere else; people are outraged; we can't stand it."
In apparent retaliation for a prophet's birth place, police there rounded up the heads of households and some sons - close to 100 in all - and hauled them off to the local Phu Tan police station on December 21, according to Liem.
The police, who said they were checking residential registration, kept the men overnight, added Liem, who seems to speak for an undetermined portion of the community.