Vietnam's prime minister spoke with the leader of a banned Buddhist church about religious freedoms, an international Buddhist support group said Thursday as it hailed the meeting as "a significant event."
Thich Huyen Quang, patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, has been under house arrest in a remote pagoda in central Vietnam since 1982.
Quang was sent to Hanoi last month to have a growth removed near his eye and requested a meeting with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, which took place Wednesday, according to the Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau.
"The fact that a prime minister holds talks with a prisoner of conscience who has spent 21 years in detention and is still under effective house arrest is a significant event," said Vo Van Ai, the bureau's director, in a statement.
Ai quoted Quang as saying the 45-minute meeting was open and friendly, but no decisions were made regarding the status of the church, which was banned in 1981.
The patriarch was quoted as saying that the prime minister made no promises to release him or Thich Quang Do, the church's second-in-command, who is currently under house arrest in Ho Chi Minh City.
As for re-establishing the church's status, Khai was quoted in the statement as saying: "We already have the Vietnam Buddhist Church. That's quite enough."
Khai also expressed hope that Quang would work for both Buddhist and national development as revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh would have wanted, the English-language Viet Nam News reported.
The bureau's statement quoted Quang as saying the meeting was "a promising step" and that he would continue to press the government.
The communist government permits only seven religious organizations to operate. Quang's group refuses any leaders imposed by Hanoi.