For Vesak, Hanoi increases controls and threatens "unofficial" monks
Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews
/ Agencies) - The Vietnamese authorities have launched a new campaign of
repression against an Buddhist organization, not officially recognized by the
government, in view of the festivities celebrating the birth of Buddha. The 2556thVesak
in the history of Buddhism is celebrated tomorrow, May 5, and represents a
major religious festivity for the faithful around the world. These days, the International Buddhist Information Bureau
(IBIB), headquartered in Paris, has reported a
crackdown by Hanoi
against the Unified Buddhist Church of
Vietnam (CBUV), an outlawed movement that has suffered decades of
persecution and is a victim of the communist government .
According to the IBIB in the central
provinces of Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam-Danag, Phu Yen
and Binh Thuan pressures and threats of the police against the elder monks are
increasing and traditional celebrations for the feast of Vesak have been banned.
In particular, Hue
authorities have forced the faithful to remove billboards and special banners
for the festivity and, in recent weeks, several religious leaders were taken
and subjected to interrogation. However, the monks have opposed the ban and
intend to continue the celebrations and to pursue non-violent struggle with
sit-ins and peaceful demonstrations.
For more than two thousand years Vesak is the most important festival of the
Buddhist calendar. According to reports from Radio Free Asia (RFA), the country's Buddhist monks fear a harsh
action by the Vietnamese authorities designed to block prayers and
celebrations. "... The situation reflects the continuing raids and
mistreatment - underline IBIB activists - that the members of the organization
CBUV, outlawed throughout Vietnam,
suffer." Among these there is also the condition of the patriarch Thic
Quang Do, 84, leader of the movement and fresh from a nomination for the Nobel Peace
Prize in 2012.
The CBUV, which is not recognized by the government, was the main Buddhist
organization in the southern and central Vietnam until 1975, when the
government took over direct administration of all its property and
institutions. In 1981, following its refusal to submit to the Communist Party,
the government disbanded it and replaced it with the Buddhist Church of Vietnam, which is effectively controlled by the
state, but the CBUV has never recognized the authority and has not stopped the its
religious activity. Since the '1990s, many monks have been arrested, while the
"Supreme Patriarch" Thich Huyen Quang - who died in July 2008 - has
often been threatened for his opposition to the government and has spent long
periods under house arrest at his pagoda.
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