Police Attack Hoa Hao Anniversary Gathering
RFA -
06-26 -2013
A leader of an
unsanctioned Hoa Hao Buddhist group in southwestern Vietnam slit his belly to
protest a police attack on followers celebrating the anniversary of the sect's
founding this week.
Vo Van Thanh Liem, the once-imprisoned head of the Quang Minh Tu pagoda in Choi
Moi district of An Giang province, slashed his stomach after police blocked his
followers from worshiping at the pagoda on Tuesday.
More than 100 police and security forces had beaten and thrown chairs at and
sprayed dirty sewage water on worshipers on both Monday and Tuesday, followers
said.
The worshipers were trying to gather at the pagoda to observe the 74th
anniversary of the founding of Hoa Hao, sect indigenous to Vietnam which which
has some 2 million followers countrywide.
Vietnam’s government officially recognizes the religion but imposes harsh
controls on dissenting Hoa Hao groups who do not follow the state-sanctioned
branch.
Liem’s brother Vo Van Diem said the leader had cut his belly to protest police
harassment.
“My brother slit his belly and the cut is more than 1 centimeter [half an inch]
deep and 10 centimeters [4 inches] long,” he told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
“After seeing that, the police left. My brother fainted and we carried him to my
mother’s house,” where they treated him and others injured in the attack, he
said.
The police had set up fences along the road to the pagoda and blocked the
worshipers from going there, he said.
“Policemen threw chairs at us, and they sprayed dirty water on us…. They also
cursed at us,” he said.
Followers of unsanctioned Hoa Hao branches have faced imprisonment over their
beliefs, including Liem, who has been in jail 34 times and was most recently
released from a six-year jail sentence in February last year.
Barred from pagoda
A member of the group that was attacked said the police had told the Quang Minh
Tu worshipers to go to another Hoa Hao pagoda that is sanctioned by the
government.
“They told us that they would not let us go in to the pagoda and did not give
any reason,” the woman, named Tuyet, said.
“They told us to go the Hoa Hao church registered with the government,” she
said.
To block them from the church, police had thrown chairs at women’s heads and hit
the men in the stomach, said Tuyet, whose nephew was injured when he was hit by
a chair in a similar attack the day before.
On Monday, police had attacked a group of 20 people who were going to Quang Minh
Tu after beginning preparations for the anniversary commemoration at Liem’s
mother’s house, worshipers said.
Phone calls to local police to inquire about the attacks rang unanswered on
Friday.
Rights groups have said authorities in An Giang and Dong Thap provinces, have
regularly harassed followers of the unsanctioned Hoa Hao branches, prohibiting
public readings of founder Huynh Phu So’s writings and discouraging worshipers
from visiting pagodas in An Giang, Vinh Long, Dong Thap, and Can Tho provinces.
Reported by An Nhien for RFA’s
Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.