Vietnamese Bat Nha monks and nuns seek temporary safety in France .
Statement from Thich Trung Hai, 16 Dec. 2009,
on behalf of 400 Vietnamese monks and nuns of Bat Nha Monastery
Given alongside Heidi Hautala, Chairwoman of the European Parliament Sub-Committee on Human Rights, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
Our government is killing our spiritual aspiration. I am one of the 400 Bat Nha monks and nuns from Vietnam. We have come together to practice peace and nonviolence as a community since 2005.
16 months ago our government began to harass and repress us. In June 2009 they cut electricity and water. In September they violently expelled us from our Bat Nha monastery. After this expulsion we took refuge in Phuoc Hue temple and the persecution escalated up until last week.
The government terrorized the abbot to the point that he had to sign a promise that December 31st is the last day that we can stay together.
Wherever we go in Vietnam we are not safe.
For the sangha to break is the most catastrophic thing that can happen in a monk or a nun’s spiritual life. To destroy a monastery, and to kill a community of monks and nuns is a great misfortune for our traditional culture. We love our nation – we love our people – and we have devoted our whole life to practice being peace, being non-violent, as a concrete contribution to our society and to world peace.
But the government and system of law in Vietnam has shown their inability to protect this peaceful community – so we ask for your protection.
We ask the international community, especially President Sarkozy of France to give us temporary asylum. As soon as our government will allow us to practice and stay together as a community we will return right away to serve our people and not be a burden to France.
Letter from Thich Trung Hai to President Sarkozy
Letter from Thich Trung Hai to Catherine Ashton, Foreign Minister for the European Parliament
I pray every day for the monks and nuns in Vietnam and also ask that those in the Vietnamese government may have their eyes opened to the cruelty and injustice of what they are doing, may their ignorence be eliminated and they see the truth and so rectify their attitude.
From the heart, Katherine from Barcelona, Spain
I sincerely hope that Presidentt Sarkozy will grant them temporary political asylum. This gesture will reinforce France’s tradition of rescuing victims of political and cultural persecutions and their very special image as an ideal ground for intellectual and spiritual liberation, especially when the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh has chosen it to be his permanent home for the last 40 years.
I knew nothing about this, and am shocked and saddened to hear of it. I hope President Sarkozy will indeed take in these people of peace, and that the Vietnamese government will stop harrassing them.