Sect 'planned mass suicide'

Vietnam denies allegations of religious suppression

Vietnam's communist authorities have accused the leadership of an outlawed Buddhist sect of having planned a mass suicide at a rally in Ho Chi Minh City last weekend.

In response, they have imposed travel restrictions on the leader of a dissident branch of the Hoa Hao sect, Le Quang Liem, 81, for two years, according to the official People's Army newspaper.

But exiled members of the sect say the rally was merely a peaceful demonstration for religious freedom.

The state order, which bars Mr Liem from travelling outside a set area without permission, was effective from March 17, when he was detained and reportedly beaten by the security forces after the protest.

'Mass self-immolation'

"He (Liem) has many times gathered and agitated bad elements in the Hoa Hao to oppose Party and state policies on religion," the paper quoted a police official as saying.

Thu killed herself in protest

Some of the women at the protest are alleged to have said they had been "asked to go to Ho Chi Minh City" for a "mass self-immolation", and been carrying petrol-soaked cotton.

One sect member, the director of the group's Women's League, Nguyen Thi Thu, did burn herself to death, US-based activists said, but that was two days later in protest at Mr Liem's detention.

"Mr Liem was arrested for no reason whatsoever; that is what sparked the flame and set everything off," said the secretary of the Maryland-based Overseas Hoa Hao Buddhist Association Inc, Chau Nguyen.

Religious freedom 'under threat'

Last month, Mr Liem and three other dissident religious leaders formed the Vietnam Interfaith Council to promote religious freedom.

One, Catholic priest Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, was put under restriction earlier this month after urging the US Congress not to ratify a historic trade pact with Vietnam because of human rights abuses.

The Hoa Hao are a neo-Buddhist sect combining Buddhism, animism and Confucianism.

They claim about four million adherents in Vietnam and have long complained of persecution stemming from their armed opposition to communism during the Vietnam war.

The mainstream Hoa Hao church organisation is recognised by the state, but radicals from the sect, who have made suicide attempts and threatened immolations in the past, are not tolerated.

Several Buddhist monks burned themselves to death in famous protests in the early 1960s against repression by the then government of South Vietnam.