Diplomats from the European Union and the United States have met with the hospitalized patriarch of a banned Buddhist church for the first time in more than two decades, a Paris-based Buddhist support group said Monday.
Thich Huyen Quang of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam was visited last Wednesday by two members of the European Union delegation of the European Commission to Vietnam and a representative from the U.S. Embassy, the International Buddhist Information Bureau said.
Quang, 86, has been under house arrest since 1992. He was sent to Hanoi from central Vietnam to undergo surgery on a growth near his eye following international pressure to move him after it was determined local medical facilities were inadequate.
Quang was too weak to attend a meeting the following day, but he sent another member of the church who met with eight diplomats from Austria, Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Sweden and Italy, the Paris group said in a statement.
They discussed the ban on some religions and the detention of Quang and Thich Quang Do, the second-highest member of the Unified Buddhist Church, who is also under house arrest, the statement said.
In 2001, the European Parliament passed a resolution directing a delegation to meet with detained religious leaders and appraise religious freedom in Vietnam. However, that request was turned down by the Vietnamese government.
Quang's Unified Buddhist Church is one of a number of independent religious groups banned by Vietnam's Communist government, which permits only seven religious organizations to practice. The church has refused any leadership imposed by the government.
Vietnam says its citizens enjoy religious freedom and insists it holds no prisoners of conscience. But it forbids any independent organizations that might challenge its political and social control.
Vietnamese officials were not available for comment Monday.