Where God Weeps - Vietnam
Watch our latest short films about the situation of the Church in Vietnam.
As a recent CNA article indicates, beatings, Church raids, arrests and even deaths are increasingly being inflicted on Catholics by authorities in Vietnam over conflicts concerning property rights.
As land values increases throughout the country, corrupt officials are attempting to claim land where Catholic churches are situated. Authorities have also started looking at Church properties seized years before such as Church-owned land in Thai Ha, the nunciature in Hanoi, and monasteries in South Vietnam. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2010 Annual Report noted: “Property disputes between the government and the Catholic Church continue to lead to harassment, property destruction, and violence, sometimes by ‘contract thugs’ hired by the government to break up peaceful prayer vigils.”
The Commission recommended that the State Department re-title Vietnam as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) on account of the Vietnamese government’s repression.
"By the end of September this year, about 400 monks and nuns were displaced from the Buddhist monastery Bat Nha in central Vietnam. The monks were beaten and their temple was robbed. The monks and nuns came to the Bat Nha Monastery in 2005 at the invitation of the State Buddhist Church (VBC), which formally approves Buddhist groups in Vietnam. The clergy's spiritual leader, Thich Nhat Hanh, is known and appreciated worldwide as spiritual leader and peace activist. Although the monastery acts in accordance with the law, the authorities have changed their attitude towards Thich Nhat Hanh's disciples.
Since June this year, they have repeatedly tried to dispose of the monastery's inhabitants, including by turning off water and electricity. It is assumed on good grounds that it was the local authorities and the police who staged the brutal eviction. This is yet another in the line of brutal violations of human rights and religious freedom from the Vietnamese government in recent years. Hundreds of Buddhist priests and church leaders are held captive by the Vietnamese authorities for their convictions. The events in Vietnam were criticized and severely condemned by the United States government and by Human Rights Watch, which seeks to release the illegally imprisoned monks and nuns. I would therefore like to ask the Council the following question:
1. Does the Council take formal measures to counter human rights violations, including religious freedom, in Vietnam?
2. In what way has the Council implemented the European Parliament resolution of 12 July 2007 on human rights in Vietnam?"
Source: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-2009-5949+0+DOC+XML+V0//SV
