FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Hue, Vietnam, 1/8/2021) --- Since the beginning of October, central Vietnam has been pounded by consecutive tropical storms and typhoons, which have brought widespread flooding and landslides to the region. At least 1.5 million people have been affected by flooding and 235 people have died.
Consecutive powerful storms, coupled with discharge of water from hydropower dams, have caused widespread devastation and severe economic damages to the Central Vietnam region. International donations were coming in from governments and NGOs to help offset this economic and humanitarian disaster.
The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), responding to a call from the Most Venerable President of its Executive Council, has actively raised fund toward the humanitarian effort. The UBCV Relief Team has worked tirelessly to deliver aid to those who have been most affected by the disaster from the hard-hit provinces of Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, and Binh Dinh. Present effort is on-going in Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa, the two southern most provinces which were affected.
Long Quang Monastery, the seat of Office of the Executive Council of UBCV, is located in Huong Tra Town of Thua Thien-Hue Province. The UBCV volunteers have distributed vouchers to the storm victims for picking up relief packages at the Long Quang Monastery. However, the Huong Tra authorities confiscated all the relief vouchers and prohibited the storm victims to come to the Monastery on the ground that the UBCV was an “illegal Church” and receiving aid from the UBCV was against the law.
Not unlike many other countries, Vietnam does not have law prohibiting individuals or organizations from giving emergency aid. Thus, the prohibition of aid by the UBCV is a discrimination based on religion and a violation of the freedom of religion and belief. Other than the obvious humanitarian grounds, almsgiving is also a legitimate religious activity by a Church formally organized 57 years ago and historically dated back two thousand years in Vietnam.
On behalf of the UBCV, the Executive Council strongly condemns the anti-religious, anti-FoRB and non-humanitarian actions of the authorities of Huong Tra, Thua Thien-Hue. The Council directs its Director of Communications and Office of External Affairs to respectfully submit a report to religious and human rights protection agencies of the United Nations and around the world, the US Congress, the US Department of State, the US Embassy and Consulate in Vietnam, and the embassies and consulates of the States having an abiding interest in the UBCV, which is still persecuted, discriminated, and banned. The Council asks them to intervene and pressure the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Vietnam authorities to restore the legal rights of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and allow the UBCV the freedom to practice religion, a right afforded by the international conventions of which Vietnam is a signatory.
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