A Buddhist monk and leader of a banned church who has been under house arrest for over a year has written to the Vietnamese government demanding his release, a Paris-based Buddhist support group said Thursday.
Thich Quang Do, the deputy head of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, sent the letter to Communist Party leader Nong Duc Manh, President Tran Duc Luong, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and National Assembly President Nguyen Van An, said the International Buddhist Information Bureau.
The letter, dated Monday, criticized the government for holding Do and church patriarch Thich Huyen Quang incommunicado in their monasteries for over a year, saying it violated Vietnamese laws, the group said. Neither has been charged with any crime.
"In the civilized world, I have never heard of any country that imprisons its citizens by mere 'verbal orders' as they do in Vietnam!" the letter said.
"We have never been told what crimes we have committed, and we have never been formally sentenced or convicted of any criminal offense. For the past four years, my telephone has been cut off, secret police have kept round-the-clock surveillance on my monastery and all visits have been strictly prohibited," it said.
Vietnamese officials did not immediately respond.
Do, 75, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, and Quang were put under house arrest Oct. 9, 2003, days after a church assembly was held to select new leaders, said the group, which serves as a mouthpiece for the church. Both have spent decades in detention.
Vietnam allows only a handful of government-sanctioned religious groups to operate, but it maintains that only lawbreakers are punished.
International human rights groups have criticized the communist country for intolerance and called for the release of political and religious dissidents. In September, the U.S. State Department listed Vietnam as a "country of particular concern," placing it among the world's worst violators of religious freedom. The designation could lead to economic sanctions if the situation is not improved.