Help Bat Nha Monastery

UPDATE 30^th December

On Tuesday 29^th December the last of the Bat Nha monks and nuns dispersed from Phuoc Hue temple in Bao Loc town. A 31^st December deadline had been forcefully imposed for them to leave, following three days of government-led mob attacks on Phuoc Hue temple two weeks ago. Threats, harassment, and tight surveillance by police continued throughout the last fortnight, including a late-night police search of Phuoc Hue temple on Christmas Eve and menacing visits from the Veterans’ Association. The monks and nuns fled ahead of a further attack by police officers and young soldiers, threatened to strike on the 31^st .

Many high monks and temples all across Vietnam who have tried to take in the monks and nuns have been blocked by the religious police. The authorites allege that the Bat Nha monks and nuns, who spend their days in sitting and walking meditation, studying and play, are ‘political reactionaries’, and that anyone who hosts them will be troubled. In this way they have made it impossible for the monks and nuns to take refuge in temples, their spiritual home.

The forced dispersal comes after 16 months of bitter persecution, denunciations, harassment, threats and defamatory propaganda from government police, aimed at breaking the monks’ and nuns’ spirit. The 330 Bat Nha monks and nuns who had taken refuge at Phuoc Hue since late September have now gone into hiding to keep their spiritual practice alive and protected, and to resist government pressure to force them to disrobe.

The French Foreign Ministry and Immigration authorities are currently considering the monks’ and nuns’ request for temporary visas to enter France, where their teacher, Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, is based.

The Bat Nha monks and nuns do not want to leave Vietnam their deep wish is to stay in their homeland to serve their families and society. But they cannot face more attacks. They know they are not safe there. In the past two weeks, lay followers who have tried to shelter them have been found out, threatened by police and forced to ask the Bat Nha monks and nuns to move on: police have been hunting down and moving on the monks and nuns wherever they go.

The Bat Nha monks and nuns have every right to practice freely their faith in Vietnam. It is a fundamental right guaranteed not only by Vietnam’s own constitution, but the numerous international treaties on human rights to which Vietnam is a signatory.

The Bat Nha monks and nuns themselves have broken no law. And they have faith that, if the authorities look deeply into the situation, they will see there is nothing to fear from the their simple lives of peace and service. The monks and nuns continue undaunted on their path of practice, offering peace and compassion to their society. They are confident that change will come in Vietnam and that before too long, this winter of persecution will thaw.