SYDNEY, Dec. 9, 2008 - The Federation of Vietnamese Catholic Mass Media strongly denounces the continual manipulation of the justice system by the Vietnamese communist government as it keeps using public court as a tool for persecuting and threatening Hanoi parishioners in their quest for the truth and justice.

On Dec 8, 2008, the People's Court in Hanoi tried 8 Thai-Ha parishioners on false charges of "damaging state property and disorderly conduct in public". To these charges, each and every one of them pleaded not guilty. Despite clear and convincing evidences which were overwhelmingly supportive of their claim, seven of those defendants eventually received unjust stayed sentences ranging from 12 to 17 months.

Immediately after the trial, state-owned media knowingly and purposely reported that Catholic defendants "admitted their sins" and therefore "received reduced sentences in pursuant to tolerant policies of the party and the government". This was a blatant distortion of the truth by all accounts.

We would like to report to the international community and our fellow-countrymen living at home and abroad about the nature of the trial, and the true color of the so-called "tolerant policies of the party and the government". We also vehemently protest the imposing sentences as they are unjust, immoral and absolutely unconstitutional to the 8 defendants who have done nothing against the law.

The nature of the trial

"Property" and "public domain" mentioned in the Vietnam government's complaint were in fact the lot belonged to Thai Ha parish which was purchased by the Redemptorist priests since 1928 to build a church and a monastery. The monastery was dedicated on May 7, 1929, and the church to follow 6 years later in 1935.

After the communists' takeover of the North in 1954, most Redemptorists were deported or jailed until death leaving Fr. Joseph Vu to run the parish alone. Despite persistent protests of the priest, local authorities had managed to nibble bite by bite the parish's land until the area had been reduced from 61,455 square meters down to 2,700 square meters.

Since 1996, Redemptorists and Thai Ha parishioners have been faithfully filing their petitions for the restitution of their land seized illegally over the years, but to no avail. Public protests began in January, 2008, after Thai Ha parishioners discovered that local government officials had secretly sold their land to other private owners.

Protests first took place outside a surrounding brick wall, built decades ago, on which protesters have been hanging their icons and crosses, until the eve of the feast of our Lady of Assumption on August 14. After days of drenching rain, part of the wall collapsed on that fateful day. Foreseeing that other parts (of the wall) would soon collapse in a domino fashion, possibly causing injury to participants at the prayer vigils, parishioners removed several feet of the wall and moved the icons and statues to a more secure location.

For that reason local government hastily accused parishioners of "damaging state property." The state Valuer General's Office of Dong Da district claimed on state-own media that damage caused to the wall was about 200 USD worth, and a dozen parishioners were arrested for their part in the demolition. At least four of these protestors have been detained for weeks until the end of the trial without a plausible explanation from the state.

As the public wondering how important the wall would be in the eyes of the law that those who were accused of damaging it should be dealt with as criminal, the government bulldozed the wall and surrounding area shortly after the incident that gave rise to the charges, announcing that the area would now be converted into a public park.

Why would the government throw the full force of prosecution behind an effort to punish ordinarily law-abiding citizens for such a comparatively minor matter?

The reason is obvious: it is the government intimidation tactic. They are determined to send a powerful message to the public as a whole that anyone with the same dispute should either forget about it or face jail term if they challenge the state the same way Thai-Ha parishioners did.

During the trial, the eight parishioners insistently pleaded not guilty, challenging the government to prove that the property was seized legally in accordance with Vietnam law. They reserved their rights to pray on their land and to destroy part of the wall that deemed threatening to the safety of their fellow Christians.

It is worthy to note that just days before the trial, six parishioners to be tried were summoned individually by police. They were coerced to "co-operate" with the government at the trial in order to receive "light sentences".

It has become increasingly clear that for Vietnam government, the trial was nothing more than a theatrical stage to deceive the international community by using its justice system to manipulate the innocents and to conceal its violations of human and religious rights. From the eye witnesses' accounts, Vietnam government has been unlawfully, knowingly and intelligently employing both forces of violence and the court as their mean to maintain their control over the people. The so-called People's Court in Vietnam is nothing more than a place where many innocents get punished for simply demanding the government to do its job.

Only when Vietnam courts stop being such a tool for political agendas and learn to interpret the law according to what the constitution had dictated; justice is still a distant dream for many ordinary Vietnamese whose exposure to it goes as far as what it means in the dictionary.

Those were the reality of the so-called public trial for the eight defendants who were standing trial for "damaging state property" with $200 worth in damage, and "disorderly conduct" while participating in prayer vigils in the premise rightfully theirs.

The true color of the so-called "tolerant policies of the party and the government"

One might ask why the Thai Ha defendants under so much pressure and coercion from the authority still refused to "co-operate" in the trial that took on political connotations? The answer lies on life-long experience they have under this regime. They knew too well about the nature of "tolerant policies of the party and the government".

The facts are:

On August 31, at least 20 parishioners were hospitalized after police disrupted their religious procession, spraying a priest, altar boys, and lay people with tear gas at close range.
On Sep. 21, Thai Ha's Saint Gerardo Chapel was vandalized, with statues destroyed and books torn off shelves and thrown on the floor. The invaders "yelled, smashed everything on their way, threw stones into our monastery, and shattered the gate of Saint Gerardo Chapel," reported Father Matthew Vu Khoi Phung, the Redemptorist superior. In addition, "the gang yelled out slogans threatening to kill priests, religious, faithful and even our archbishop," he added.

Again on Nov. 15, hundreds of people, backed by the People's Committee of Quang Trung precinct, attacked the chapel. The violence began after representatives of the People's Committee had asked the Redemptorist priests for an urgent meeting at 10pm local time. The Redemptorist community was convinced that the meeting had been scheduled as a diversionary tactic to clear the way for the mob violence. Obviously, it was an organized attack at nighttime. Summoned by priests, who ran the monastery's bells, hundreds of local Catholics rushed to save the church. However, as the mob ransacked the chapel, police concentrated their efforts on keeping the Catholic rescuers away from the building.

And again on Dec. 7, in a great effort to ascertain the result of this infamous trial, hundreds of plain clothed police were deployed to Sunday morning Mass at Thai Ha in order to cause disturbance as well as impose more serious threats on potential audiences at the trial. According to the witnesses' account, they were mostly women undercover police who displayed such an obnoxious attitude and vulgar language toward the parishioners with the intention to discourage them from coming to the site of the trial.

All had been done with an unmistakable intention to create a culture of fear among the daring parishioners.

How does "tolerance" fit in when the government was the driving force behind both the law enforcements and thugs, both state-media and justice system in dealing with unarmed parishioners after having robbed their land and quashed their legitimate aspiration?

For the aforementioned reasons, the Federation of Vietnamese Catholic Mass Media is opposing the sentences being imposed on the 8 Thai Ha defendants by The Hanoi People's Court and urges the Vietnam government to do the followings:

1. Vacate the unjust sentences imposed on 8 Thai Ha defendants.

2. Stop the hate campaign against the Catholic priests and the faithful as well as followers of other religions.

3. Stop persecuting the Catholic priests and the faithful as well as followers of other religions. Also to restore law and order in worshiping areas to prevent violence aimed at participants.

4. Respect the law they promulgated and return the properties which rightfully belonged to the Catholic Church and other religious groups.

Contact:
Fr. Paul Van Chi Chu
Tel: (02) 9773 0933
Mob: 0410 552 650

Mons. Peter Tai Van Nguyen
Director of Radio Veritas Asia
Buick St. North Fairview,
Quezon City, Philippines
P.O. Box 2642
Email: rvaprogram@rveritas-asia.org

Fr. John Nghi Tran
Director of VietCatholic News Agency
435 Berkeley Ave
Claremont, CA 91711, USA
Tel (909) 581-8888
Email: conggiao@gmail.com

Fr. Joachim Viet-Chau Nguyen Duc
Director of People Of God Magazine in America
PO Box 1419 Gretna,
LA 70053-5440, USA.
Email: danchuausa@yahoo.com

Fr. Anthony Quang Huu Nguyen
Director of People Of God Magazine in Australia
715 Sydney Rd. Brunswick Vic 3056
Australia
Email: danchuaucchau@gmail.com

Fr. Stephen Luu Thuong Bui
Director of People Of God Magazine in Europe
Magazine Catholique
Katholische Monatszeitschrift
Monthly Catholic Magazine
Email: info@danchua.de

Fr. Paul Van-Chi Chu
Director of Gospel and Peace Radio, Sydney Australia
92 The River Rd - Revesby
NSW 2212
Australia
Email: paulvanchi@yahoo.com