Hanoi shuts down a monastery.
The U.S. State Department will soon release its annual list of countries of particular concern for religious-rights violations. Hanoi's recent crackdown on a Buddhist community shows why the authoritarian government needs to be reinstated on the roll of offenders.
The group at issue are followers of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist based in France and well known outside Vietnam. Hanoi has been trying for a year to shut down the community's Bat Nha monastery in the central highlands. In late September, the authorities finally resorted to violence to evict the 350 monks and nuns after cutting off the electricity supply didn't work. They have taken shelter in a nearby monastery, but the government may not give them residence papers for their new address, in which case they could be forced to return home.
Hanoi claims the Bat Nha incident was an internal sectarian affair. But leaked government documents show that Hanoi has had the monastery in its sights for at least a year, largely because of what it calls Mr. Nhat Hanh's "political" activities. That's likely a referral to the monk's public calls for the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet—a statement that surely angered Hanoi's friends in Beijing. He also leaked 10 recommendations he made to the Vietnamese government in 2007 on improving religious freedom, including a request to disband the country's religious police.
Meanwhile, his teachings simply became too popular. Mr. Nhat Hanh is a charismatic leader preaching a progressive form of Buddhism. Crowds of hundreds of Vietnamese regularly flocked to the monastery for special events to pray alongside the monks.
That Hanoi should view all this as a threat to communist one-party rule is predictable and routine. The regime has long harassed religious groups that don't accept full Communist Party control, whether Protestant Montagnards in the central highlands, members of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam wanting to practice their faiths, or Catholic parishioners protesting state seizure of church lands. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an agency within the White House, posts a detailed survey of abuses on its Web site.
But the Bat Nha case still stands out. Mr. Nhat Hanh's visit to Vietnam in 2005, after 39 years of exile, was heralded as a breakthrough for religious freedom, as was the fact that he was allowed to establish the Bat Nha community. He played by the rules early on, toning down public statements to avoid offending Hanoi. He even tried to effect a reconciliation between the state-run Buddhist church and the underground UBCV. Yet the authorities eventually cracked down on his followers anyway.
That's something for State to remember as it decides whether to name Vietnam as a Country of Particular Concern. Hanoi was listed from 2004 to 2006, and then removed as a reward for limited liberalization. Vietnam remains the only country that has changed its laws explicitly to get itself removed from the roster. The government made it easier to register religious groups, dropped some egregious policies such as forcing believers to renounce their faith, and improved its relations with the Vatican.
The Bat Nha example exposes how prone to backsliding Hanoi is if it's not forced to follow such early steps with further progress. Now is a good time to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure again.
The U.S. State Department will soon release its annual list of countries of particular concern for religious-rights violations. Hanoi's recent crackdown on a Buddhist community shows why the authoritarian government needs to be reinstated on the roll of offenders.
The group at issue are followers of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist based in France and well known outside Vietnam. Hanoi has been trying for a year to shut down the community's Bat Nha monastery in the central highlands. In late September, the authorities finally resorted to violence to evict the 350 monks and nuns after cutting off the electricity supply didn't work. They have taken shelter in a nearby monastery, but the government may not give them residence papers for their new address, in which case they could be forced to return home.
Hanoi claims the Bat Nha incident was an internal sectarian affair. But leaked government documents show that Hanoi has had the monastery in its sights for at least a year, largely because of what it calls Mr. Nhat Hanh's "political" activities. That's likely a referral to the monk's public calls for the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet—a statement that surely angered Hanoi's friends in Beijing. He also leaked 10 recommendations he made to the Vietnamese government in 2007 on improving religious freedom, including a request to disband the country's religious police.
The Bat Nha example exposes how prone to backsliding Hanoi is if it's not forced to follow such early steps with further progress. Now is a good time to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure again.
That Hanoi should view all this as a threat to communist one-party rule is predictable and routine. The regime has long harassed religious groups that don't accept full Communist Party control, whether Protestant Montagnards in the central highlands, members of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam wanting to practice their faiths, or Catholic parishioners protesting state seizure of church lands. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an agency within the White House, posts a detailed survey of abuses on its Web site.
But the Bat Nha case still stands out. Mr. Nhat Hanh's visit to Vietnam in 2005, after 39 years of exile, was heralded as a breakthrough for religious freedom, as was the fact that he was allowed to establish the Bat Nha community. He played by the rules early on, toning down public statements to avoid offending Hanoi. He even tried to effect a reconciliation between the state-run Buddhist church and the underground UBCV. Yet the authorities eventually cracked down on his followers anyway.
That's something for State to remember as it decides whether to name Vietnam as a Country of Particular Concern. Hanoi was listed from 2004 to 2006, and then removed as a reward for limited liberalization. Vietnam remains the only country that has changed its laws explicitly to get itself removed from the roster. The government made it easier to register religious groups, dropped some egregious policies such as forcing believers to renounce their faith, and improved its relations with the Vatican.
The Bat Nha example exposes how prone to backsliding Hanoi is if it's not forced to follow such early steps with further progress. Now is a good time to ratchet up the diplomatic pressure again.