Vietnamese Riot Police Target Followers Of Thich Nhat Hanh

[sabaijai]

Vietnamese riot police target Buddhist monk's followers

Vietnam's religious freedom tested as monks and nuns say they are being victimised

Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk, Friday 2 October 2009 14.29 BST

Hundreds of followers of a radical Buddhist teacher were seeking refuge in a temple in Vietnam today as police stepped up efforts to evict them in what is rapidly becoming a test of the communist country's commitment to religious freedom.

About 380 monks and nuns loyal to Thich Nhat Hanh, a monk who has helped popularise Buddhism in the west, have been holed up inside the temple after being forced out of their monastery by riot police and an angry mob last Sunday.

The followers said police and opponents had beaten them and dragged them from their dormitories while they were chanting and meditating at Bat Nha monastery in central Lam Dong province.

The mob, reportedly armed with sticks and hammers, smashed doors and windows and the authorities cut off the monastery's power supply.

The monks and nuns, most of whom are aged 18-25, claim they are being targeted because their spiritual leader, who now lives in exile in France, has called for an end to religious persecution and the disbandment of Vietnam's religious police.

"It is now clear that the police and the government are not satisfied with the forced closure and violent eviction of monks and nuns from Bat Nha monastery itself, but are intent on continued, aggressive persecution of this one group of people," they said in a statement.

The followers, who describe their monastery as the "most radical and fastest growing" in Vietnam, say the authorities regard Nhat Hanh as a threat to their tight control over religious observance.

The police, meanwhile, insist that the standoff is part of a dispute between the Nhat Hanh's followers and a rival Buddhist faction at the monastery.

Local reports suggest the police have stepped up their campaign since Sunday, placing the followers under 24-hour guard and ordering them to leave Phuoc Hue temple, several miles from the monastery.

The monks had reportedly been given permission to stay at the temple by the government-sanctioned Buddhist Church of Vietnam.

Nhat Hanh, who was nominated for the Nobel peace prize by Martin Luther King, was forced to leave the former South Vietnam in the 1960s because of his opposition to the Vietnam War.

He went on to sell millions of books and brought Buddhist thought to a new audience in the west through his Zen teachings and peace activism.

His return to Vietnam in 2005 – with the government's blessing – after 39 years in exile raised hopes for a new era of religious freedom in the country.

His supporters dismissed the gesture as an attempt by the government to persuade the US to remove Vietnam from its religious blacklist, gain membership of the World Trade Organisation and attract more foreign investment.

Nhat Hanh's followers were invited to settle at the Bat Nha monastery by the official Buddhist authorities and spent almost $1m developing the site, which includes a meditation hall that holds up to 1,800 people.

The crackdown on their activities reportedly began about a year ago. Earlier this week, about 15 monks left the temple under police pressure, while two senior monks had their identity papers confiscated and are said by friends to be living under virtual house arrest.

[camerata]

Hundreds of followers of a radical Buddhist teacher were seeking refuge in a temple in Vietnam today

Thich Nhat Hanh could hardly be called "radical!"

[sabaijai]

In a totalitarian state, any questioning of restrictions on religion can be termed radical. Why The Guardian accepts the description unquestioned suggests the reporting staff don't understand the context at all.

[Xangsamhua]

Reports from Bat Nha are at the links below:

http://phapnanbatnha.net/index.php?option=...y&Itemid=68

http://www.plumvillage.org/sangha-news/206...-destroyed.html

Messages of support can be sent to [email protected]

[Xangsamhua]

From the Plum Village website http://www.plumvillage.org/poetry/207-recommendation.html

There's a song you can download as well based on the poem.

Please pray for the 376 monks and nuns from Prajna Monastery to have peace and solidity. Please do not let hatred and despair awaken in us because of the violence that has taken place at Prajna Monastery. We would like you to enjoy a poem written by Thich Nhat Hanh "Recommendation". Written in 1965 for the young people in the School of Youth for Social Service who risked their lives every day during the war, recommending them to prepare to die without hatred.

Promise me,

promise me this day,

promise me now,

while the sun is overhead

exactly at the zenith,

promise me:

Even as they

strike you down

with a mountain of hatred and violence;

even as they step on you and crush you

like a worm,

even as they dismember and disembowel you,

remember, brother,

remember:

man is not our enemy.

The only thing worthy of you is compassion –

invincible, limitless, unconditional.

Hatred will never let you face

the beast in man.

One day, when you face this beast alone,

with your courage intact, your eyes kind,

untroubled

(even as no one sees them),

out of your smile

will bloom a flower.

And those who love you

will behold you

across ten thousand worlds of birth and dying.

Alone again,

I will go on with bent head,

knowing that love has become eternal.

On the long, rough road,

the sun and the moon

will continue to shine.

[Xangsamhua]

HANOI, Vietnam, Oct. 6, 2009

Buddhist Monks: Vietnam Police Still Harassing Us

Buddhists: Vietnamese Police Try To Oust Famed Monk's Followers From Second Temple

Followers of a world-famous Buddhist teacher who were forced out of a Vietnamese monastery over the weekend have taken refuge at a nearby pagoda, but they say they have once again been surrounded by police.

The monks' ongoing standoff with Vietnamese authorities has tested the communist country's sometimes edgy relationship with religion, which the government views as a potential rival power structure. The government closely monitors all churches in the country.

The Buddhists say the police are now pressuring them to leave the Phuoc Hue pagoda in Lam Dong province, even though local officials of the state-sanctioned Buddhist Church of Vietnam have welcomed them to stay.

The 376 monks and nuns are followers of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese-born monk who helped popularize Buddhism in the West, has sold millions of books worldwide and now lives in France. He was once nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King.

More at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/06/...in5365634.shtml

[sabaijai]

US condemns Vietnam's treatment of activists

(AP) – 20 hours ago

HANOI, Vietnam — The United States has condemned Vietnam's recent conviction of nine democracy activists, the arrest of a writer and the expulsion of Buddhist monks from a monastery where they practiced the teachings of a renowned Zen master.

The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi issued a statement saying it was "deeply disturbed" by last week's convictions of the activists, several of whom hung pro-democracy statements over highway overpasses.

"The activists were simply expressing their views peacefully and posed no threat to Vietnam's national security," the embassy said in the statement released Thursday night.

Vietnam has come under frequent criticism from Western governments and activist groups for its human rights record. The country's communist government does not tolerate challenges to its single-party rule.

The U.S. Embassy also said it was concerned about the arrest of Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, a writer who publicly expressed her support for the activists.

"No individual should be beaten, arrested or jailed for exercising the right to free speech," the statement said.

Like the activists, Thuy was previously convicted of violating Article 88 of Vietnam's criminal code, which broadly prohibits "conducting propaganda against the state."

The embassy statement also contradicted Vietnam's description of events at Bat Nha monastery in Lam Dong province, from which followers of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh were evicted on September 27.

Vietnam's foreign ministry has said the eviction was nonviolent and that police ensured the safety of the monks and nuns. But the embassy statement described the expulsion of the monks as "violent" and decried the Vietnamese government's "failure to protect them from assault."

The embassy said the government's actions in all three cases "contradict Vietnam's own commitment to internationally accepted standards of human rights and the rule of law."

Vietnamese officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese born, France-based Buddhist who has popularized Buddhism in the west and sold millions of books worldwide. He was expelled from South Vietnam during the war and has lived in exile for four decades.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[RickBradford]

This has less to do with Buddhism than to the existence of any alternative pole of attraction apart from the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). Catholics in Vietnam are also routinely beaten, jailed and even killed.

The ruling CPV cadre are mortally afraid of losing total control, leading to citizens seeing what they have been up to with the country's wealth these past 35 years. They have no legitimacy, and they know it, which is why they act so brutally against any organised groups. These are soulless people with dead hearts and considerable wealth to protect.

If you take the Noble Eightfold Path, and change the word "Right" to "Wrong", you have the essence of the CPV.

[Xangsamhua]

This lovely 9-minute video, made with the assistance of the Ontario Arts Council, shows the beauty of Bat Nha and the spitefulness of the Vietnamese authorities in evicting the sangha and destroying the temple's assets.

http://www.plumvillage.org/sangha-news/236...row-ripper.html

[sabaijai]

Buddhists in Vietnam appeal for UN protection

Monks and nuns are facing 'ever-stronger pressure' from authorities there. -AFP

Thu, Nov 19, 2009

AFP

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - Followers of the Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh are being harassed in his native Vietnam, and they need the United Nations to step in to protect them, a representative said Wednesday.

In a meeting this week with an official of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the representative, Trung Hai, appealed for 'protection' for monks and nuns who are facing 'ever-stronger pressure' from the authorities.

'We are hoping that the high commissioner (Navanethem Pillay) will put pressure on the government to reconsider more closely our situation and to find solutions,' the monk told AFP in Geneva.

The UNHCR official is to take up the issue with Vietnam's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Trung Hai added.

Thich Nhat Hanh, 83, has been a key figure in the growth of Buddhism in the West, but his opposition to the Vietnam war led to a life in exile in France where he established the Plum Village retreat in the Dordogne region.

He was allowed to return to his homeland for a visit in 2006.

Trung Hai, who has been living several months in France, was especially worried for fellow followers of Thich Nhat Hanh inside Vietnam who are facing what he called 'concrete threats' and 'harassment' from the authorities.

Some 100 monks were forced out of their monastery in Bat Nha, near Bao Loc city, in September, he said, while other followers have taken refugee in another nearby monastery where they are coming under 'strong police pressure'.

'For the authorities, we are illegal,' he said.

[sabaijai]

Vietnam crowd blocks EU probe of Buddhist conflict

By BEN STOCKING

Associated Press

2009-12-09 07:53 PM

An angry crowd disrupted a meeting Wednesday between European Union representatives and followers of a famous Buddhist monk involved in a tense standoff with Vietnamese authorities, a Swedish diplomat said Wednesday.

The crowd of roughly 100 people forced the EU delegation to postpone its session with followers of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who has popularized Buddhism in the West and sold millions of books worldwide, said Mary Louise Thaning, the delegation leader.

"They were very angry, so it was not useful to continue the meeting," said Thaning, the political counselor at the Swedish Embassy in Hanoi.

Nhat Hanh's followers say they are being persecuted because their teacher called on Vietnam's Communist government to end state control of religion and dismantle the country's religious police. The government says they have failed to follow Vietnam's laws on religion and must return to their home villages.

Wednesday's meeting was at Phuoc Hue pagoda in Lam Dong province, where Nhat Hanh's followers have taken refuge since being forcibly evicted from the nearby Bat Nha monastery on Sept. 27.

The EU delegation returned later Wednesday and succeeded in meeting with the followers and the Phuoc Hue abbot, Thich Thai Thuan, who has welcomed the monks and nuns.

Members of the angry crowd claimed to be longtime members of Phuoc Hue temple, but an assistant to the abbot said he did not recognize any of them.

Nhat Hanh's followers said they recognized several police officers in plainclothes among the crowd.

Calls to police in Bao Loc, the town where Phuoc Hue is located, were not answered.

Nhat Hanh's followers said the crowd returned after the EU delegation left Wednesday and entered the abbot's office, where they were demanding that he sign a statement requiring the followers to leave Phuoc Hue by Dec. 15.

"They are screaming that the abbot isn't worthy to lead this temple," Sister Thuan Khanh, one of 192 monks and nuns taking refuge at Phuoc Hue, said by telephone.

The EU delegation was on a three-day fact-finding visit. They met with the chairman of the local government on Tuesday and were to meet representatives of the province's officially recognized Buddhist church on Thursday. Vietnam only permits state-approved religious groups.

Vietnamese-born Nhat Hanh has lived in exile since being forced out of the former South Vietnam in the 1960s due to his opposition to the Vietnam War. He was warmly welcomed by authorities during a homecoming visit four years ago.

But during a 2007 visit, he suggested to President Nguyen Minh Triet that the government give up its control of religion and consider dropping the word "socialist" from Vietnam's formal name. Since then, relations have deteriorated.

Wednesday's events came two weeks after Vietnam's Committee on Religious Affairs issued a decree rejecting the offer of two monasteries to take in the monks and nuns if they leave Phuoc Hue, according to Nhat Hanh's followers.

The decree was issued Nov. 26, the same day the EU parliament passed a resolution criticizing Vietnam's human rights record and mentioning the events at Bat Nha.

[Xangsamhua]

I wonder why the Vietnamese authorities are engaging in such ham-fisted moves. If they want TNH's followers to be silenced or kept out of the public mind they can do that without destructive orgies or blatantly spurious "protests". What the authorities have achieved since they moved in on Bat Nha is raise the profile of the monastic community and draw the world's attention to their Stalinist approach to religious and human rights. I really doubt they welcome all the attention they're getting.

Is this a case where some local overlord is running his own agenda, without the permission of the central government, who now can't be seen to be supporting the sangha?

We had a case in Thailand (Songkhon, near Mukdaharn) in 1940 where over-enthusiastic local police decided to gun down seven Roman Catholics, including children. Why? They thought they might be spies? They thought Catholics were traitors? They thought the ultra-nationalist government in Bangkok might laud them for their efforts? I'm not aware of any order from Bangkok to this effect, however.

If Bat Nha is the product of local megalomania or curry-favouring, however, why hasn't the government in Hanoi stepped in?

[sabaijai]

Good questions.

[Xangsamhua]

There's a new petition and further updating from Sr Chan Khong of Plum Village, France.

She says: At Phuoc Hue, the monks and nuns continue to be harassed, and the most compassionate and elderly abbot of that temple, after much resistance, also has been violently forced to sign a letter evicting our monastics. As of December 31, 2009, these brothers and sisters will have absolutely no place to go, and in fact may be drafted by the government into the armed forces. Even if they return to their familial homes, the harassment is unlikely to cease unless and until they disrobe and abandon their monastic life completely.

The full text and link to the new petition are at: http://www.shambhalasun.com/sunspace/?p=13583