SaigonUSA Newspaper

(SaigonUSA) Vào hôm thứ Năm 31.03.2005, trên các diễn đàn Internet Việt ngữ có phổ biến một bức thư của Phòng Thông Tin Phật Giáo Quốc Tế do ông Võ Văn Ái gởi đi để yêu cầu ký giả Ben Stocking của báo San Jose Mercury News "đính chính nguồn tin không thật" về một bản tin đăng trên tờ báo này: Thích Nhất Hạnh đã gặp Hòa Thượng Thích Huyền Quang tại Việt Nam vào hôm thứ Tư, trái ngược với bản tin do PTTPGQT phổ biến cũng trong ngày hôm đó "Tại Bình Ðịnh Ðức Tăng thống Thích Huyền Quang nhập thất không tiếp Sư Ông Nhất Hạnh". Chuyện phanh phui này bắt đầu từ một bản tin do do thành viên của diễn đàn có tên "nguoi ti nan" phóng lên Internet và gởi đến PTTPGQT để tìm hiểu đâu là sự thật có tựa đề: "SJ Mercury News Phịa Tin: Thich Nhat Hanh đã gặp HT Thich Huyen Quang ???!!!?" Chúng tôi xin đăng lại toàn bộ để độc giả phán xét.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Nuoc_VIET/message/40296

From: "Que Me" <queme@...>
Date: Thu Mar 31, 2005 9:14 pm
Subject: Re: SJ Mercury News Phịa Tin: Thich Nhat Hanh đã gặp HT Thich Huyen Quang ???!!!????

Thưa quý Anh Chị điều hành Người Tị Nạn,
Xin thành thật cám ơn quý Anh Chị đã cảnh giác Bạn đọc về cách loan tin sai lạc của ký giả Stocking đăng trên tờ SJ Mercury News hôm nay 31.3. Sáng nay, giờ Paris, chúng tôi đã viết thư cho ký giả này qua E.mail để yêu cầu đính chính nguồn tin không thật ấy. Dưới đây là mấy dòng yêu cầu đính chính của chúng tôi cùng với bản Thông cáo báo chí bằng Anh ngữ.

Kính thư,
Võ Văn Ái

Dear Mr Stocking,

We have just seen your article in the Mercury News, 31st March, "Monk returns home, one pagoda at a time".

Mr. Vo Van Ai, Director of the International Buddhist Information Bureau and International Spokesman of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, wishes to correct your report that "Wednesday, Hanh met with one of Vietnam's best-known dissidents, Thich Huyen Quang"... In fact, Thich Huyen Quang refused to meet Thich Nhat Hanh when he came to the Nguyen Thieu Monastery today. Thich Huyen Quang, who is under house arrest at Nguyen Thieu, went into retreat on 28th March. He informed local officials by letter on March 20-th that he would not meet Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Huyen Quang, Thich Quang Do and other UBCV leaders have publicly voiced their deep concern over Thich Nhat Hanh's visit, which comes at a time when UBCV leaders are suffering repression and detention. The fact that Thich Nhat Hanh is allowed to travel freely all over Vietnam, with the blessing and sponsorship of the Vietnamese government and the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church, gives the impression to uninformed people that religious freedom is respected in Vietnam. At a time when Vietnam is on the State Department's list of "Countries of Particular Concern", the Vietnamese government is very anxious to give this impression, in order to mask the ongoing violations of members of non-recognized religious movements, including the UBCV.

We enclose our Press Releases for your information, and ask you to correct this erroneous information in the next edition of the Mercury News.

PHÒNG THÔNG TIN PHẬT GIÁO QUỐC TẾ I CƠ QUAN THÔNG TIN
VÀ PHÁT NGÔN CỦA GHPGVNTN
INTERNATIONAL BUDDHIST INFORMATION BUREAU
OFFICIAL INFORMATION SERVICE
OF VIEN HOA DAO, UNIFIED BUDDHIST CHURCH OF VIETNAM
B.P. 63 - 94472 Boissy Saint Léger cedex (France) l Tel.: Paris (331) 45 98 30 85
Fax : Paris (331) 45 98 32 61 l E-mail : ubcv.ibib@buddhist.com l Web : http://www.queme.net

For Immediate Release Paris, 30th March 2005

UBCV monk Thich Vien Phuong is arrested after visiting Thich Quang Do
Communist authorities press Thich Huyen Quang to receive Thich Nhat Hanh in Binh Dinh
The International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) has received urgent information from the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) that UBCV Buddhist monk Thich Vien Phuong was arrested in Saigon by Security Police today (Wednesday 30th March 30th) at 5.30 pm Vietnam time. Security Police arrested him on his motorbike at the Phu Nhuan crossroads, at the intersection of Phan Dang Luu, Hoang Van Thu, Phan Dinh Phung and Nguyen Kiem streets. Thich Vien Phuong had just left the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery, where he had visited the UBCV’s Deputy leader and prominent dissident Thich Quang Do.
According to eyewitnesses, Security Police arrested Thich Vien Phuong on the pretext that his dilapidated Honda had no wing mirror. A number of passers-by protested this action, arguing that Police might fine the monk, but they had no right to arrest him for such a minor offence. A crowd began to gather, and someone suggested to Thich Vien Phuong that he take a cab and go home. He hailed a motorcycle taxi (xe om) and set off towards the Giac Hoa Pagoda, where he currently lives. However, Police intercepted the motorcycle and dragged him into a taxi. Thich Vien Phuong has not been heard of since. Venerable Thich Vien Dinh, Superior monk at Giac Hoa Pagoda told IBIB that he had called the local police in Binh Thanh Ward, but they knew nothing about the arrest. At 9.00 pm Vietnam time, the monks at Giac Hoa pagoda still had no news of Thich Vien Phuong’s whereabouts.
IBIB Director Vo Van Ai declared: “This virtual kidnapping of a peaceful Buddhist monk in broad daylight shows Vietnam’s total contempt for its citizens rights, and its double standards in regards to international human rights obligations. Whilst its diplomats attend the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, its Police arrest law-abiding citizens on the streets of Saigon without any justification. Vietnam extols religious freedom in its speeches, but in its actions, as this recent incident proves, it blatantly violates the rights and freedoms of religious followers”.
The arrest of Thich Vien Phuong takes place at a time when Vietnam is under scrutiny for its religious freedom violations. In September 2004, the United States blacklisted Vietnam as “country of particular concern” for religious freedom abuses. The US has given Vietnam a delay to prove that it has made concrete improvements, otherwise it could impose a range of measures, including economic sanctions, on Vietnam.
Following the announcement by UBCV Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang, 87, that he would not receive France-based Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village delegation when they come to Nguyen Thieu Monastery in Binh Dinh (see IBIB Press Release, 22.3.2005), IBIB is informed that Security Police, local communist party and religious officials have made several visits to Nguyen Thieu Monastery to press Thich Huyen Quang to receive Thich Nhat Hanh on Thursday, 31st March. Thich Nhat Hanh is on a 3-month speaking tour sponsored by the Vietnamese government and the State-sponsored Vietnam Buddhist Church, and it would enhance the government’s “religious freedom” image if he was received by the prominent UBCV leader. Thich Huyen Quang refused to meet with the local officials and told monks to inform them that he would not receive Thich Nhat Hanh. Since Monday 28th March, the UBCV Patriarch has gone into retreat. Monks put a sign upon his door forbidding entry to his room during his period of meditation. Immediately, Security Police tore the sign down. Thich Huyen Quang put up a new sign, with his own handwriting and seal. So far, the Police have not attempted to remove it, but it is clear that tensions are rising between the authorities and the monks at Nguyen Thieu. D

----- Original Message -----
From: nguoi ti nan
To: queme@free.fr ; SaigonHaiNgoai ; Nuoc Viet
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 8:31 PM
Subject: SJ Mercury News Phịa Tin: Thich Nhat Hanh đã gặp HT Thich Huyen Quang ???!!!????

Theo bản tin của Phòng Thông Tin Phật Giáo Quốc Tế tại Paris vào ngày thứ Tư, 30.03.2005 thì Đức Tăng Thống Thích Huyền Quang đã từ chối tiếp sư ông VC Thích Nhất Hạnh tại Bình Định theo bản tin có tựa đề "Ðại đức Thích Viên Phương bị bắt tại Saigon vì đến vấn an Hòa thượng Thích Quảng Ðộ - Tại Bình Ðịnh Ðức Tăng thống Thích Huyền Quang nhập thất không tiếp Sư Ông Nhất Hạnh ".

Nhưng vào ngày hôm nay, thứ Năm 31.03.2005 tờ báo đã từng có thành tích thân Cộng Sản VN ra mặt: San Jose Mercury News có bài của ký giả Ben Stocking hiện ở Hà Nội (Mercury News Vietnam Bureau) viết về chuyến đi lưu diễn VN của phái đoàn Thích Nhất Hạnh với tựa đề: "Monk returns home, one pagoda at a time" có đoạn "Vào hôm thứ Tư, Hạnh đã gặp Thích Huyền Quang, lãnh đạo Giáo Hội Phật Giáo VN Thống Nhất bất hợp pháp ......." (Wednesday, Hanh met with one of Vietnam's best-known dissidents, Thich Huyen Quang, the leader of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, a sect separate from Hanh's.)"

Xin Phòng Thông Tin Phật Giáo Quốc Tế yêu cầu và đòi hỏi tờ báo thân CSVN San Jose Mercury News phải lên tiếng đính chánh vì phịa .... tin (Hy vọng 2 ông ký giả Ben Stocking và Hạnh Dương không học chung 1 trường báo chí). Dưới đây xin đăng lại nguyên văn bài báo:
Monk returns home, one pagoda at a time
FAMOUS BUDDHIST HAD BEEN BANNED FROM VIETNAM
By Ben Stocking
Mercury News Vietnam Bureau
Mar. 31, 2005
................................
.........................

Ý KIẾN ĐỘC GIẢ:
- Huy nguyen: (Sat, 9 Apr 2005 15:45:53 -0700)
Dear San Jose Mercury News Staff,
On March 31, Ben Stocking, a writer of VET Mercury News, wrote something too good to be true of the Monk Thich Nhat Hanh, "Hanh had been shut out of Vietnam for 40 years and his passionate opposition to the Vietnam War earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., along with the enmity of the former South Vietnam."
1) The above statement seems to make him become a peace making hero rising above the Vietnam War. In fact, Hanoi government always suspect anything that can share their dictatorship power, they even put to death their own son, the South Liberation Front, so it is understandable that Hanoi should shut Hanh out of Vietnam also.
2) Ben Stocking mentioned a person named Kornfied who believed Hanh as a humble man! In fact, Hanh is not humble. Every pagoda he visited he requested the reception with full and glorious rituals; take a look of him in this picture http://www.saigonusanews.net/binhluan/binhluan_phaidoanhatboithichnhathanh.htm
3) The Vietnam War is a war between the people love freedom & democracy and the cruel Vet communist party who wish to take the whole country under communists' iron fist! In his anti-Vietnam War campaign, Hanh did not mention about the invasion and atrocities of North VET communist forces and the intervention of China and the former Soviet Union in the Vietnam War, but Hanh insisted that the immediate solution to the end of the Vietnam War be disarming the world freedom defending South Vietnam army forces! Hanh's anti-freedom and anti-democracy attitude was disguised as a pretending anti-war one!
4) All things Hanh and his followers have said and done ultimately boost up the image of the cruel Hanoi government and go against the democracy.
a) When the USA government prepared to fight back the terrorism in all over the world, Hanh hastily came to New York to preach the tolerance and to tell a big lie about the Vietnam War in the past, not because he loved peace but because he wanted to help and concert with Hanoi, another kind of terrorism and
dictatorship, in an effort to destroy the will of the USA people defending the democracy on the global scale!
b) When reporters asked why some Buddhist people in Vietnam were banned in their religious activities, Hanh's wife Chan Khong replied that those people had hidden the former free South Vietnam flag.
c) When the China imperialism brutally killed many innocent Viet people in the Tonkin Gulf, where is Hanh's anti-war, anti-imperialism attitude?
d) Hanh deliberately turned his eyes away from the suffered and oppressed in Vietnam. Hanh always explained the Buddhist persecution in Vietnam as the result of misunderstanding between the Hanoi government and the Buddhist leaders. Hanh many times visited pagodas in an effort to lead them back under the control of Hanoi government. While many social problems are happening in Vietnam, many hungry
dying Viet people sell themselves as sex-labor, and moral values depreciate, such as the widespread phenomenon that high rank officials used their illegally rich money to buy virgin teen girls to satisfy their sinful sexual desire, Hanh closed his eyes and asked his followers to breath in and breath out to realize the "wonderful moment" (Ben Stocking, page 12A). To me, Monk Hanh acts so many monkey things to temporarily tranquillize the social upheaval!
5) HoChiMinh, a Viet war criminal ever earned a UN nomination as a great man in the literature! another War Criminal Le DucTho received a Peace Nobel prize! so did the anti- truth, anti-democratic, and hypocrite Monk Hanh earn the Nobel Peace nomination! However, It did not make the Monk Hanh become a more human!
Did you Ben Stocking, VET Mercury News, not want to beautify the ugly face of criminal Hanoi government with this kind of writing, did you?
Sincerely,
SJ Reader

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