Religious repression still rules in Vietnam

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Dec 10, 2001 | by John Elvin

Though some parallels have been drawn, media attention is focused a long distance away from Vietnam. That point was made by a reader who sent along a story from the newsletter of the Free Vietnam Alliance. "Missed seeing this in the Washington Post," our correspondent noted, alluding to a tendency in the elite media to spare audiences any negative news from Vietnam. The newsletter headline reads: "Self-immolation in Protest of Religious Oppression."

The story is about Ho Tanh Anh, a Buddhist youth counselor who set himself on fire in a park in Quang Nam-Da Nang province in early September to protest severe religious oppression by the communist government. He was 61. His church, the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, has been banned and replaced by a government-run church, according to the report. Ho Tanh Anh said in letters he left that there were 13 other counselors prepared to follow him in fiery protest of the government's brutal suppression of religions during the last 26 years.

Earlier, the League of Clergies for the Defense of the Faith had sent a letter of protest to government leaders regarding arrests, detainments, threats and terrorization of not only members and clergy of the Buddhist faith but also Catholics, Protestants and followers of other religions that do not have official approval.

Elsewhere in the newsletter it is noted that those calling for political reform have met fates similar to those seeking religious freedom. More information is available on the Free Vietnam Alliance's Website at www.fva.org.

JOHN ELVIN IS THE NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT FOR Insight