For Immediate Release
Friday, 17th September 1999
Buddhist monk Thich Khong Tanh is arrested and interrogated for 5 hours in Saigon l Security Police seize Thich Tue Sy's computer : both monks are accused of "seeking to overthrow the Government" l Police warn : "We didn't hesitate to throw UN official Amor out of Vietnam, so don't think you have any chance !"
The International Buddhist Information Bureau is informed that Venerable Thich Khong Tanh, Buddhist monk and well-known advocate of religious freedom and human rights, was arrested in Saigon at 5.00 p.m on Thursday September 16th (Vietnam time) and detained for several hours on accusations of "seeking to overthrow the Government".
Security Police arrested Thich Khong Tanh near Ben Thanh Market as he returned to his residence at Lien Tri Pagoda (Thu Duc) from Thanh Minh Zen Monastery where he visited Thich Quang Do. He was taken to Pham Ngu Lao Security Police Station (Binh Thanh Ward) and subjected to intensive questioning for 5 hours. Police confiscated several documents he had in his possession concerning the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV). They accused the monk of belonging to an "illegal organisation" which was "attempting to turn Vietnam into a new Kosovo" and "conniving with foreign powers" to overthrow the regime. They tried to force Thich Khong Tanh to sign a statement confessing his "crimes". He refused, declaring that the UBCV had no intention of overthrowing the Government, but simply called for human rights and religious freedom for all Vietnamese citizens and the legitimate right to existence of the UBCV. The Police officers continued to pressure Thich Khong Tanh, but eventually allowed him to return home at 10.00 p.m.
56-year-old Thich Khong Tanh has been constantly interrogated and threatened with re-arrest by the Security Police since his release from prison on November 10th 1998. He is under permanent Police surveillance and his freedom of movement is severely curtailed. On September 7th 1999, whilst US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Saigon, Thich Khong Tanh was detained at the Police Stateion for questioning all morning, and Security Police remained outside Lien Tri Pagoda throughout the day. During a previous interrogation session, Police officers Lai Hong Phi and Xuan asked his opinion of religious freedom in Vietnam. Thich Khong Tanh replied that "there is no real freedom of religion in Vietnam". He said that behind the facade of new Churches and Pagodas, the Government resorts to devious, underhand methods of repression, concealing its violations from the public eye. Police officer Phi banged his fist on the table and shouted : "Even the American imperialists, with all their power and sophisticated espionage technology can never uncover our violations, so don't try telling us that you can!".
Thich Khong Tanh has spent more than 15 years in prison for his support of the banned UBCV and his outspoken advocacy of human rights. After 1975, he was detained for 10 years in reeducation camp for protesting the forced conscription of Buddhist monks. In November 1994, he was again arrested and sentenced to 5 years in prison for organizing a UBCV-sponsored Rescue Mission to distribute relief aid to flood victims in the Mekong Delta and handing a manuscript by Thich Quang Do to Mr Louis Joinet, Chairman of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention during his visit to Vietnam in October 1994. The UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, Mr Abdelfattah Amor visited Thich Khong Tanh in Z30A Reeducation Camp in Xuan Loc, Dong Nai during his investigative mission to Vietnam in October 1998, but the meeting was cut short after interruptions by the Camp wardens. Thich Khong Tanh is adopted as a victim of arbitrary detention by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Opinion 7/1998, 15 May 1988).
l Prominent Buddhist monk, dissident and former political prisoner Thich Tue Sy, Secretary General of the UBCV Institute for the Propagation of the Dharma, was also detained and subjected to intensive questioning this week (September 14th) by Security Police in Go Vap Ward from 8.00 a.m. until noon. Police have confiscated the hard disk of his computer and accuse him of "seeking to overthrow the Government". According to Thich Tue Sy, his computer simply contained recent translations of Buddhist Sutras and certain internal UBCV documents and UN texts on religious freedom and human rights. Security Police Lieutenants Mau and Xuan (the same officer who interrogated Thich Khong Tanh) threatened him in violent terms, and warned : "We know that you are secretly plotting to turn Vietnam into a kind of Kosovo or East Timor". He added "We didn't hesitate to throw the UN official Amor out of Vietnam, so don't think you have any chance !"
Thich Tue Sy is already familiar with the charge of "attempting to overthrow the Government". He was arrested in 1984 and sentenced to death on this charge in 1988. His sentence was later commuted to 20 years imprisonment as a result of international pressure (including a personal intervention by the then Prime Minister of Sweden, Ingvar Carlsson). He was granted amnesty in 1998 after serving 14 years in prison.
The International Buddhist Information Bureau is deeply concerned for the safety of Thich Khong Tanh and Thich Tue Sy. The crime of "seeking to overthrow the Government" is amongst the most serious of all "national security" offences, punishable by the death penalty (Article 73 of the SRV Criminal Code). The I.B.I.B. believes that these men were simply exercising their legitimate right to freedom of opinion and expression guaranteed in Article 69 of the 1992 SRV Constitution which states that : "The citizen shall enjoy freedom of opinion and speech, freedom of the press, the right to be informed" and Article 19 of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam is State Party, which stipulates that "everyone has the right to hold opinions without interference (...) and the right to freedom of expression ; this right shall include the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers..."
The intimidation and harassment of these monks follow a series of increasingly open threats against the UBCV in official media and fora - often a method of preparing public opinion for a forthcoming Government crackdown. On 28.08.1999, in a speech to the Fifth Congress of the Communist Party's Fatherland Front in Hanoi, Venerable Kim Cuong Tu, Vice-President of the Executive Committee of the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church (VBC), long-time Communist Party member and Deputy in the SRV National Assembly, strongly attacked "reactionary, dogmatic people" who ally with overseas forces to "oppose unity and reconciliation amongst Vietnamese Buddhists". On 03.09.1999, an official of the Government Board of Religious Affairs also virulently criticized the UBCV and certain of its leaders in a speech to the State-sponsored VBC's Executive Committee Congress in Ho Chi Minh City.