Plum Village 2 July, 2009
Dear Honorable Minister of the Foreign Affairs Ministry,
Dear Honorable Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,
Dear Resected Vietnamese Governmental Leaders who have directly or indirectly helped and supported 400 Vietnamese monks and nuns practicing Plum Village Dharma teaching at Bat Nha Monastery
Respected Gentlemen:
Today is July 2, 2009. It is the 5th day without electricity, food and water for 400 young Vietnamese Buddhist monks and nuns at Bat Nha Monasterỵ. They are kept prisoners in their own residences and cannot walk around freely even within the Monastery compound. On June 28, 2009, about 200 aggressors armed with machetes, iron bars, spades ad human waste came and threw out all the furniture and personal belongings of 400 Bat Nha monastics. These are young Buddhist monks and nuns aged 16 to 35 living in 5 residences in Bat Nha Monastery in Hamlet 13, Dam Bri Village, Lam Dong Province. The violent mob came and robbed them of their dining hall, kitchen, and all the perishable and non-perishable foods from the pantry. The aggressors also occupied the large meditation hall and a residence called Beginning Heart. They all carried machetes, axes, iron bars and spears to butcher and wreck everywhere they went. They chased out a number of young practicing Buddhists from Beginning Heart Residence, and hit those still lingering outside or those trying to stop them. They also smashed the generator. Under the directive of the Lam Dong Province government, Bao Loc Power Company refused to reconnect the power line and deprived the monatics from electricity since June 27, 2009.
On June 30, 2009, when the Lam Dong Province Vietnamese Buddhist Association Leaders came to visit those 400 monastics, they were attacked with human waste, rocks, iron bars. The Venerable of the Bao Loc County Buddhist Leadership was wounded. A report has been sent out to different government agencies. (See attached.) At the same time, Giac Ngo (Enlightenment) Magazine, the government official voice, was allowed to publish this news; so was the Vietnamese Buddhist website in Hanoi. We are very grateful that Respected Ministers of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Public Security Ministry and the Interior Ministry have kindly listened and sent for investigations. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, spread the good news around and thanked the Lam Dong Province Buddhist Association leadership. It seemed the whole world who cared and worried about those 400 young monastics could sleep well on the nights of July 1 and July 2, 2009.
But dear respected gentlemen, we have followed the news all day today and the situation did not get better. In fact it is getting worse. In spite of promises, the power is still out, the water pipes continues to be demolished before the eyes of the Security Police. Small buses carrying food for the monastics run by Buddhist sympathizers have been stopped by Dam Bri Village Police and Bao Loc County Police. The Lam Dong Province administrators promised that Bao Loc Power Company would restore electricity on June 30. Today it is July 2 and the power is still out. All the pipelines have been destroyed gradually by the aggressors and witnessed by the Security Police. This morning the last pipeline was destroyed too.
Dear Respected Gentlemen, please have compassion and save us!
Dear Respected Gentlemen, please have pity and help protect us through this difficult time.
Dear Respected Gentlemen, please avoid the kind of intervention like the one on November 11, 2008: Have a meeting, make a decision to support without issuing an official order (just an empty promise), and surreptitiously send out henchmen to sabotage and countermine what was agreed upon in the meeting.
Respectfully yours,
Sister Thich Nu Chan Khong
Plum Village Dharma Teacher
