Help Bat Nha Monastery

26 Nov. 2009

On 27th September over 350 monastic disciples of world-renowned peace activist, Vietnamese Buddhist Zen Master and best-selling author Thich Nhat Hanh were violently expelled by a mob, directed by government agency,  from their monastery in Vietnam’s central highlands. For the past 8 weeks they have taken emergency refuge at Phuoc Hue temple in the nearby town of Bao Loc.  Two senior brothers continue to be held by police under house arrest without charge; and two more have been threatened with arrest if police find them.

After significant international press coverage and pressure from the international community, as well as public outcry in Vietnam, the government’s attempts to break up the refugee community seemed to ease in October.  However, even though certain members of the government have tried to protect the Bat Nha monastics, in the last few weeks government officials in the religious police have stepped up their persecution.

The government has now begun moving to forcefully disband the community wherever they go, threatening violence if they fail to comply. They have set an end-of-November deadline for the monks and nuns to leave Phuoc Hue temple; Their fundamental intention is becoming increasingly clear: To systematically persecute the Bat Nha monks and nuns, preventing them from going to any temple, from practicing together anywhere – in an attempt  to force them to give up their monastic life of peace and service.

All these actions are in breach of Vietnamese law and numerous international covenants and partnership agreements to which Vietnam is party.

Read on to see a brief timeline of events…

Timeline

• 2005: Thich Nhat Hanh returns to Vietnam after 39 years of exile. Bat Nha Monastery is offered before a crowd of thousands to Thich Nhat Hanh by its abbot, Venerable Duc Nghi, as a monastic training center in the tradition of Plum Village. The establishment of the Bat Nha practice center was supported by the Government of Vietnam and the official Buddhist Church of Vietnam. Five hundred monastics were ordained in the Plum Village tradition between 2005 and 2009.

• 2008, August: Abbot Duc Nghi pressured by the national government to withdraw his sponsorship of the 500 monks and nuns.  Local police begin to harass Bat Nha monks and nuns.

• 2008, October: Leaked central government memo condemns the international Plum Village community’s activity as “a threat to national unity”, and directs policy to expel Bat Nha monks and nuns practicing in the Plum Village tradition. Within days the official Buddhist Church of Viet Nam issues a counter-document supporting the Bat Nha monks and nuns. Intense harassment by police and government officials begins.

• 2009, June: Utilities to the monastery cut (electricity, phone, water). Property ransacked. Physical abuse of Bat Nhat monastics and also abuse of visiting Buddhist officials of Lam Dong province.

• 2009, September 27 and 28:  379 monastics forcibly expelled from Bat Nha Monastery.  Monks brutally beaten and four monks sexually assaulted. Two senior monks were taken into police custody and are under house arrest to this day. Monks marched 17 kilometers in torrential rain to Phuoc Hue Temple in Bao Loc town. Bat Nha nuns, harassed and threatened, join them the next day.

• 2009, September 27 to October: Local police harass and attempt to disperse the Bat Nha monastics from the Phuoc Hue Temple (issuing propaganda on radio, print, and loud speakers).  International attention, public statements, and national criticism causes harassment to be scaled down for about 10 days, but police surveillance and efforts to disperse Bat Nha monastics continues.

• 2009, November 2: Government pressure intensifies and an end-of-November deadline is set for the Bat Nha monks and nuns to leave Phuoc Hue Temple. The Head of Da Lat Province Government demands the Phuoc Hue Temple Abbot expel the monks and nuns, threatening violence if he does not comply. Six Bat Nha nuns who had travelled to Tu Duc Temple in Khan Hoa Province are harassed by 7 policemen and ordered to leave immediately. Local street vendors and poorer citizens of Bao Loc Town are blackmailed by government into signing a petition against Bat Nha monks and nuns.

• November 9: Plum Village receives an e-mail threatening ‘the death of Plum Village’ in Vietnam by the end of the month. A similar e-mail was sent before the first attack on the monastery in June, and before the violent expulsion on 27 Sept.

• November 10: Thích Thái Thuận, the abbot of Phuoc Hue Temple, gives his first media interview with Radio France Internationale Vietnam. In  response to a question as to whether he thinks the monks and nuns are safe in Phuoc Hue Temple, he replies that they are safe “temporarily” but reports that the police are busy checking the papers “of monks between the ages of 18-25 as part of military draft procedures”.

• November 19:  A second email threat is received, attacking the Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh for “dirtying the nation of Vietnam and Vietnamese Buddhism internationally, by opening his begging hands to ask the United Nations to intrude their hands and their beaks into our Vietnamese internal affairs” and says the leaders of the international Plum Village community are “like the ca cuong insects [eaten in North Vietnam] which approach very close to their death but are not able to open their eyes to see clearly”.  On the same day, Venerable Minh Nghia, a senior monk in the Saigon region who had stepped in to offer to host the community, is summoned by local police, threatened, and forbidden – without legal justification – from taking in Bat Nha monks and nuns.

• November 21: 22 ‘aspirants’ from the Bat Nha community are ordained at Tu Hiêu Temple in Hue (the temple from which the Plum Village  tradition traces its lineage, the ordination temple of Thich Nhat Hanh). Right after the ordination police arrive at the temple furious that the ceremony has taken place. A senior brother explains that ordinations are an internal temple matter and nothing to do with the police. Surveillance and harassment at Tu Hiêu Temple dramatically increase. Police demand that every one of the Bat Nha monks and nuns leave, but without anywhere to go.

• November 22: [update 22.11.09] Police threaten Venerable Abbot Giac Vien, the abbot of Tu Duc Temple in Cam Ranh. He gave sanctuary to 21 nuns and 7 monks from Bat Nha, who came to his temple for relief from the extreme surveillance and harassment they were subjected to at Phuoc Hue temple. Police now visit, harass, and threaten the abbot and monks and nuns at the temple almost daily, demanding that the Bat Nha monks and nuns leave. The abbot is summoned to the police station repeatedly for long interrogations. Police demand that even those who already have residence permits in Khanh Hoa Province, but who are ‘Bat Nha monks and nuns’, leave his temple.

• November 26: European Parliament speaks out in a resolution condemning the violence at Bat Nha and calling on Vietnam to curb its violations of freedom of expression, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly, and respect its human rights commitments and Vietnam’s own constitution. Heidi Hautala, Chairwoman of the Parliament’s Human Rights sub-committee, calls the situation “extremely worrying”, and announces that the United Nations Human Rights Council has made recommendations that a United Nations Special Rapporteur be sent to Vietnam to examine the situation. The Parliament calls for the cessation of all persecution and harassment, and for monks and nuns to be allowed to practice Buddhism according to the tradition of the Thich Nhat Hanh monastic community, in Bat Nha and elsewhere;