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Viewing cable 06HOCHIMINHCITY435, CAO DAI ACTIVIST JAILED

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06HOCHIMINHCITY435 2006-04-25 10:09 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Consulate Ho Chi Minh City
VZCZCXRO3634
RR RUEHHM
DE RUEHHM #0435/01 1151009
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 251009Z APR 06
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0744
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI 0538
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 0777
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 000435 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIRF SOCI VM
SUBJECT: CAO DAI ACTIVIST JAILED 
 
REF: 05 HCMC 994 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  On April 14, a Cao Dai activist, Tran Huu 
Phuoc, was sentenced by a Tay Ninh court to two years' 
imprisonment for "slandering" government officials and members 
of the GVN-recognized Cao Dai Executive Council. 
Government-controlled press in Tay Ninh Province subsequently 
accused Phuoc of being mentally ill.  Based on our review of 
Phuoc's writings and our discussions with other Cao Dai 
activists, there is reason to suspect that the charges against 
him were prompted, at least in part, by his outspoken criticism 
of the GVN and GVN-recognized Cao Dai church.  We will follow up 
with Phuoc's family and HCMC and Tay Ninh officials to obtain 
additional details on the case of Tran Huu Phuoc.  End Summary. 
 
 
2. (SBU) In April, a member of the Cao Dai community alerted 
ConGen that Tay Ninh provincial authorities had arrested a Cao 
Dai activist named Tran Huu Phuoc.  On April 14, Phuoc was tried 
and sentenced to two years in prison for "slandering GVN and Cao 
Dai officials."  According to an April 17 press report in the 
official Tay Ninh newspaper, Government officials held the 
one-day trial not in a courthouse, but in a district-level 
cultural house.  Officials apparently encouraged the public to 
attend to make an example of Phuoc.  The press report stated 
that at the trial, Phuoc confessed and apologized to his 
"victims". 
 
3.  (SBU) The newspaper portrayed Phuoc as a "professional 
slanderer" who had written numerous letters to the GVN and 
international leaders, including UN SYG Kofi Annan, attacking 
the competency and motivations of local officials and accusing 
them of targeting him and his family.  The article claimed he 
had created a "rift between Cao Dai followers and the police" 
when he falsely accused a district police leader of harassing a 
Cao Dai church.  The press report alleged he had circulated 
letters labeling the Executive Council's HCMC representative 
Kieu Ngoc Minh as a terrorist.  According to the newspaper, Cao 
Dai officials requested authorities to prosecute Phuoc. 
 
4.  (SBU) Provincial media also characterized Phuoc as mentally 
unstable and recommended that he be treated for mental illness. 
The press reported that, at police request, Central Medical 
Examination Center II in Dong Nai had diagnosed Phuoc as a 
"paranoid schizophrenic".  However, the hospital found that 
Phuoc was competent to be tried as a criminal. (Note: Per 
reftel, Central Medical Examination Center II is the same mental 
institution in which Baptist Pastor Than Van Truong was 
committed involuntarily for close to a year.  End Note.)  The 53 
year-old Phuoc had worked as a barber in Hoa Thanh district, Tay 
Ninh Province, until his arrest. 
 
ConGen's Earlier Intermittent Contact With Phuoc 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
5. (SBU) In June 2005, Phuoc sent post copies of letters he had 
written to Prime Minister Khai, the King of Cambodia, UN SYG 
Annan and others, stating his opposition to GVN and Cao Dai 
Executive Council plans to repatriate the remains of the Cao Dai 
Conservator Pham Cong Tac from Cambodia to Vietnam.  Phuoc 
maintains that the Conservator demanded that his remains stay in 
Cambodia "until democracy was restored in Vietnam."  (Note:  The 
Cao Dai Conservator died and was buried in Cambodia in 1959, 
following his self-exile from Vietnam to protest the failure of 
the 1954 Geneva accords.  According to one historical source, 
the Conservator willed that his body not be returned to Vietnam 
until "the country becomes reunited, peaceful and neutral."  End 
Note.)  Phuoc's letters also called for dissolution of the Cao 
Dai Executive Council because it had altered Cao Dai traditions. 
 He denounced provincial authorities for appropriating Cao Dai 
church lands in Tay Ninh and urged the GVN to respect democracy, 
human rights and religious freedom as a precondition for entry 
into the WTO. 
 
6. (SBU) In October 2005, Phuoc sent a second letter to ConGen, 
postmarked from his village in Tay Ninh Province, alleging that 
in mid-September Tay Ninh police had confiscated Cao Dai 
religious materials from his home.  Phuong also sent us a copy 
of the police decision dated September 12, 2005 to investigate 
him for slander.  In his letter, Phuoc stated that he had been 
sent to the Bien Hoa mental hospital in Dong Nai for psychiatric 
evaluation.  We did not hear from Phuoc or about him again until 
his colleague reported to us on his trial. 
 
Mentally Ill Slanderer or Human Rights Victim? 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
7. (SBU) Following the trial, post contacted Ha Ngoc Voi, a 
retired clergyman of the pre-1975 Cao Dai Church of Vietnam. 
Voi dismissed claims that Phuoc suffered from mental illness. 
HCMC-based dissident and retired Cao Dai historian Le Quang Tan 
concurred with Voi's comments, stating the sentence handed to 
Phuoc was GVN retribution for his outspoken views. 
 
HO CHI MIN 00000435  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
8. (SBU) Post subsequently spoke with Cao Dai Executive Council 
Chairman Thuong Tam Thanh who claimed ignorance of Phuoc's trial 
and conviction, and declined to discuss the issue further.  Post 
also spoke with official HCMC Cao Dai representative Kieu Ngoc 
Minh.  Minh confirmed that Phuoc had made accusations against 
him.  Minh stated that Phuoc was among the Cao Dai's "radical 
element" who openly criticize the church and Executive Council 
policy, including its plan to repatriate the Conservator's 
remains.  Minh avoided giving his personal opinion and only 
repeated the clinic's diagnosis, but said that he had hoped that 
Phuoc would receive a lenient sentence during his trial. 
 
9. (SBU) Comment:  Phuoc received the maximum possible sentence 
although, under the law, Phuoc could have received a verbal 
reprimand.  Phuoc's public trial and two years' imprisonment 
smack, at least in part, of government retribution for his 
inflammatory epistolary.  So too does Tay Ninh's public labeling 
-- or libeling -- of Phuoc as mentally ill.  Undercutting the 
credibility of the outspoken has been a GVN tactic to discredit 
or silence political and religious dissidents, as was the case 
of Protestant pastor Than Van Truong and political dissident 
Tran Khue.  As next steps to develop additional information on 
his case, we will explore Phuoc's predicament further with his 
family and with other members of the Cao Dai community, and will 
raise the case with the HCMC External Relations Office and Tay 
Ninh officials.  End Comment. 
WINNICK