Zen master: Vietnam paid mobs to evict followers

[February 04, 2010]  HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- A famous Zen master has accused Vietnam's communist government of hiring mobs of people to violently evict his Buddhist followers from two monasteries.

Thich Nhat Hanh, who helped popularize Buddhism in the West and has sold millions of books worldwide, has also called on Vietnam to lift restrictions on religious freedom and respect human rights.

The government denied any involvement in forcing Nhat Hanh's followers from the monasteries, saying the eviction stemmed from a dispute between two Buddhist groups.

Nhat Hanh made the comments in a letter to his Vietnamese followers in late December, days after they were pressured by a mob and government authorities to leave the Phuoc Hue temple in the southern province of Lam Dong.

"Our country does not yet have true religious freedom, and the government tightly controls the Buddhist Church machinery," Nhat Hanh wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press on Monday. "The Buddhist Church is helpless, unable to protect its own children. This is a truth clearly seen by everyone."

The monks and nuns had sought refuge at Phuoc Hue after being forced from the nearby Bat Nha monastery on Sept. 27.

"In the case of Bat Nha and Phuoc Hue, government officials hired the mobs and worked together with them," Nhat Hanh wrote in the letter, dated "the last days of 2009."

At a news conference Monday, Vietnamese officials denied the allegations.

"This is a dispute between two Buddhist factions," said Nguyen Ngoc Dong, vice chairman of the Lam Dong provincial government. "We have tried our best to ensure safety and social order for the people involved."

Nguyen Thanh Xuan, chairman of Vietnam's central Committee on Religious Affairs, said the group's eviction was the result of disagreements between it and Duc Nghi, the abbot at Bat Nha and a member of the official Buddhist Church.

Vietnam tightly controls religion, and only officially sanctioned churches are allowed to operate. The government, however, initially gave Nhat Tranh's followers permission to worship on a temporary basis. Now it says that authorization has expired.

But Nhat Hanh's followers say they have been harassed because their teacher called on Vietnamese authorities to abolish government control of religion during a 2007 meeting with President Nguyen Minh Triet.

Asked about that accusation Monday, Xuan did not directly respond.

In his letter to his followers, Nhat Hanh said the mobs at Phuoc Hue and Bat Nha were hired by police and the Fatherland Front, a communist party organization. At Phuoc Hue, they were paid 200,000 Vietnamese dong ($11) a day, he wrote.

"Where did the money come from to pay these mobs? Was it tax money?" asked Nhat Hanh, 83, who was born in Vietnam but has lived in exile for more than four decades. He now teaches at his Plum Village monastery in France.

Since the dispute between Nhat Hanh's followers and the government erupted in late June, Nhat Hanh has maintained a low profile. He wrote one previous letter praising his followers for remaining peaceful throughout the conflict.

He did so again in the new letter. They remained calm, Nhat Hanh wrote, even though some of their senior monks were "dragged, throttled, choked and thrown into cars as if they were trash cans."

The conflict between the government and Nhat Hanh marks a dramatic turnaround from 2005, when Nhat Hanh returned to his homeland, a move seen by many as a step forward for religious freedom in the communist country.

His return made the front pages of state-run newspapers. While his teachings may be more popular abroad, particularly in the West, he is well known in Vietnam, but it is impossible to say how many people follow him there.

In spite of the conflict, Nhat Hanh said in his letter that he believes Vietnam will eventually open up its society. Young Vietnamese, he wrote, "realize that Vietnam needs more democracy, more citizen rights and more human rights."

Xuan of the Committee on Religious Affairs said Nhat Hanh had "turned his back" on invitations to sit down and meet with Vietnamese officials to discuss the conflict at Bat Nha.

Nhat Hanh's followers say he was unable to make a proposed meeting last fall because he was in the U.S.

"Thich Nhat Hanh is willing to meet with representatives of the Vietnamese government at any time," Phap Linh, a monk at Plum Village, said by telephone Monday evening. "We've made repeated approaches to them."

[Associated Press; By BEN STOCKING]

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