Thich Tri Tuu is placed under house arrest again
The following was released by the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, based in Paris, Vo Van Ai chairman.
For Immediate Release
Geneva, 27th March 1997
Released after 4 years in prison, UBCV monk Thich Tri Tuu is placed under house arrest in Vietnam - FIDH & Vietnam Committee on Human Rights file Urgent Appeal at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva
At the 53rd Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva yesterday, Mr Vo Van Ai, Vice-President of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and President of the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights filed an Urgent Appeal Procedure with the UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, Mr Abdelfattah Amor, for the release of Buddhist monk Thich Tri Tuu and four other monks from the now-banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV).
According to a Statement from the UBCV received in Geneva, Venerable Thich Tri Tuu, Superior monk of Linh Mu Pagoda in Hue was released on 5th March 1997 after serving a four-year prison sentence. However, instead of being allowed to return to Linh Mu (also known as Thien Mu) Pagoda and resume his religious functions, Security Police took him straight from Ba Sao Reeducation Camp to a Pagoda belonging to the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church (VBC) in Hue, where he is now detained under house arrest.
The UBCV said that Thich Tri Tuu was due to be released on March 5th 1997, but when monks from Linh Mu Pagoda travelled to Ba Sao Camp (Nam Ha Province, Northern Vietnam) to bring him home, they were told he had been taken away the previous day by Lieutenants Ngoc and Linh, two Security Police officials from the PA/16 Bureau in Hue. He was taken to Tay Thien Pagoda in Thuy Xuan hamlet, 5 kilometres from Hue. This Pagoda's Superior monk, Thich Tu Phuong, is an official of the State-sponsored VBC. The UBCV statement deplored that "today, monks are being used to imprison monks, and Pagodas are turned into prisons". Thich Tri Tuu (secular name Le Quang Vinh), has lived almost all his life at Linh Mu Pagoda. Born in 1953, he became a novice at the age of 5, and entered Linh Mu Pagoda when he was 8 years old. As the closest disciple of late UBCV Patriarch Thich Don Hau, Thich Tri Tuu was chosen to succeed Thich Don Hau as Superior monk of Linh Mu after the Patriarch's death in 1992. He has therefore every right to live at the Linh Mu Pagoda, especially since it is the residence address on his Identity Card (No. 190448882), i.e. Huong Dien district, Binh Tri Thien Province, Hue.
Thich Tri Tuu was arrested on June 5th 1993 along with Thich Hai Tang, Thich Hai Thinh, Thich Hai Chanh and five Buddhist lay-followers following a demonstration of 40,000 Buddhists in Hue on 24.5.1993. The demonstration was triggered off by the immolation of a young Buddhist, Nguyen Ngoc Dung, at Linh Mu Pagoda on 21.5.1993, after which Thich Tri Tuu was questioned by Police and subsequently taken into custody. Monks staged a sit-down protest, and a full-scale demonstration ensued. Although he remained in Police custody throughout the demonstration, Thich Tri Tuu was accused of "heading the riot", and sentenced to four years imprisonment on charges of "disturbing public order" at a one-day closed trial held in the barracks of the People's Army in Hue on 15.11.1993. He was detained under extremely harsh conditions at Ba Sao Reeducation Camp, and forced to perform hard labour in spite of his poor health.
The detention of Thich Tri Tuu is a one more step in the Government's plan to suppress the independent UBCV by eliminating one if its most active centres of dissent, the Linh Mu Pagoda. In October 1996, the Pagoda was declared a "national heritage site" by the Vietnamese authorities and put under control of monks from the State-sponsored VBC. Since then, all UBCV monks have been systematically expelled and forced to return to their native villages where they are detained under house arrest and forbidden to practice their religious activities.
Such is the fate of the three other UBCV monks arrested after the 1993 demonstration, i.e. Thich Hai Tang, Thich Hai Thinh and Thich Hai Chanh, who have all been placed under house arrest after their release from prison. Thich Hai Tang, released on 5.12.1996, is detained in Trieu Thuong hamlet, Quang Tri Province ; Thich Hai Chanh, released on 30.4.1995, was arrested at Linh Mu pagoda on 22.11.1996 and is now detained in Trieu Trung hamlet, Quang Tri province ; Thich Hai Thinh, released on 5.3.1996, was also arrested on 22.11.1996 and is now detained in Phu Hoi, on the outskirts of Hue. Another UBCV monk, Thich Hanh Duc, Superior monk of Son Linh pagoda in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, was also expelled from his Pagoda after serving a 3-year sentence, and is forbidden to practice his religious functions.
Mr Vo Van Ai informed the UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance that the arbitrary detention of these monks violates Articles 68, 70 and 71 of the Vietnamese Constitution which guarantee the right to freedom of movement and residence, the right to religious freedom and to the inviolability of the person. He called on the UN investigator to urge the Vietnamese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release these monks and allow them to return to their Pagodas and resume their religious activities.
UN Commission on Human Rights expresses concern on Human Rights Violations in Vietnam :
At the 53rd Sesion of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, several UN human rights investigators and Governments expressed concern on the situation of human rights in Vietnam. In his report to the Commission presented on March 26th, Mr Nigel Rodley, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture invoked the case of UBCV monk Thich Hai Tang who had been subjected to grave ill-treatment in prison in 1996. Mr Rodley had filed an "Urgent Procedure" to the Vietnamese Government on this case in conjunction with Mr Louis Joinet, Chairman of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The report of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention also raised the cases of Communist dissidents Do Trung Hieu and Hoang Minh Chinh. The two men were declared to be "victims of abritrary detention" in the Report presented to the UN Commission on Human Rights yesterday.
Mrs Alexandra Arriaga, speaking for the US Government delegation on the subject of religious intolerance on March 24th, put Vietnam on a list of countries abusing religious freedom, stating that "the Government of Vietnam continues to restrict the activities of Buddhists, Catholics and Protestants". The Statement of the Irish delegation, delivered by Mr John D. Biggar on March 21st, expressed concern that Vietnam had failed to respond to the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance's request to visit Vietnam and investigate religious abuses in situ. He called on Vietnam to respond positively to this request.