Help Bat Nha Monastery

Response to the Vietnamese Government’s statement of the 7^th October

Bat Nha monks and nuns – legal or not?

Young Vietnamese monks and nuns have been practicing Buddhism according to the tradition of Plum Village at Bat Nha for four years. If they were legal when they were ordained by the Abbot on Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh’s behalf, legal when they attracted 1m dollars of investment into Bat Nha’s buildings and land, and legal when they were proudly paraded by the government before thousands at UNESCO’s International Wesak celebrations in 2007, why are they not legal now?

They have made every effort to comply with all paperwork demands – but mysteriously, and contrary to due process, the government has refused to grant the very documents which they insist the monks and nuns must have.

If the Bat Nha monks and nuns were illegal in the eyes of the law, why were they not evicted in accord with national law? Why was there no eviction order and no court process?

They were expelled by the authorities only for “very vague reasons”, say 180 leading Vietnamese public figures who dared to speak out in an Open Letter to the President, Prime Minister and Parliament this week.

If they are not legal, it is simply because the communist government has arbitrarily decided they are not legal.

Government involvement of the worst possible kind

In its statement, the government attempts to cover-up its role in the violent eviction and repression of the Bat Nha monks and nuns, dismissing it as ‘an internal issue’ between Buddhists. It has even blocked all official Vietnamese media from reporting on the attacks.

Vietnam is a country where every religious activity is controlled and surveilled by the government’s Religious Affairs Dept. and their remarkably extensive Religious Police. Does anyone really believe that the violent eviction of nearly 400 monks and nuns in broad daylight could take place without the government’s involvement?

Unfortunately the authorities seem to have been involved in the worst possible way. Not only did the police refuse to intervene to protect their citizens from the violent attacks (ignoring all calls for help from the victims of attack), but witnesses even report seeing them at the scene of the eviction apparently directing the mob. What is more, a leaked memo shows that 10 days before the attack local authorities issued a directive to all their agents, including police, ordering that ‘they must move on’ the monks and nuns from Bat Nha.

Furthermore, when brothers Phap Hoi and Phap Sy were beaten, forced into taxis and abducted, it was into police custody that they were immediately delivered. Police continue to hold these innocent monks without charge, under house arrest many hundreds of miles from their spiritual community.

Government is attacking ‘the future of the country’

As part of their wider program of controlling religion, the government is persecuting the 379 Bat Nha monks and nuns in a bid to disperse them and force each ‘return to their local temple’. This is in attempt to break down the community and restrict their activities. This very demand is a breach of the monks’ and nuns’ fundamental human right to practice their own faith as a spiritual family, together – a breach of an international covenant to which Vietnam is itself a signatory.

Bat Nha was the home where these young Vietnamese were born into the monastic life, and the Bat Nha community is their spiritual family. The government’s demand that they disperse to other temples is an attack on the foundation of their spiritual life. The young monks and nuns firmly resist this unreasonable, illegitimate demand. Yet despite the extreme tension and difficulty of the situation, these young monks and nuns continue to maintain that the enemy is not the government itself, but  hatred, greed and ignorance.

Why is it so uncomfortable for the government that so many young people wish to repay their gratitude to their homeland in dedicating themselves to a life of service? Why can they not study, train and serve together as an independent community?

Embarrassingly for the Government, the Bat Nha monks and nuns are firmly supported by the regional Buddhist Church of Viet Nam (BCVN). In a leaked report issued on the 6^th October 2009, the BCVN testifies to the violence of the eviction, the abductions of senior brothers, and their harassment by police at Phuoc Hue. They boldly recommend that “all government levels…. do not impel the monastics temporarily residing at Phuoc Hue Temple to return to their native town, because they have the right to ordain, learn and practice according to their faith in our country.”

It is not only Buddhists who have courageously raised their voice at the highest levels in support of the Bat Nha monks and nuns. In a country where freedom of speech is strictly limited, it is extraordinary that 180 intellectuals, many of them closely associated with the communist government, have signed the Open Letter. They strongly demand an investigation into the “clearly illegal actions” in the presence of police who “ignored calls for help from victims of attack”.

The monks and nuns of Bat Nha simply request:

1. An end to all violence and attempts to disperse the community

2. That the government officially confirms their community’s right to practice, as is the case with other temples and Buddhist Institutes in Vietnam

3. To continue to take temporary shelter at Phuoc Hue Temple until the situation is resolved peacefully

   
   

The Venerable Thich Thai Thuan, abbot of Phuoc Hue Temple, is demonstrating extraordinary courage and generosity – and risking his own safety – in offering protective sanctuary to the 379 Bat Nha monks and nuns. He himself has shown great integrity under extreme pressure, vicious threats and persistent harassment from the police and government. It is with great sorrow we learn that the government is using his name to support their own untruths.