HANOI, March 31 (Reuters) - Vietnamese authorities set up road blocks and put barriers across waterways to stop members of the Hoa Hao Buddhist sect from attending a key event in the country's south, a local religious source said on Friday.
The source said fewer than 1,000 followers eventually showed up at a pagoda on Thursday in the Mekong River Delta to mark the anniversary of the execution of the sect's founder, Huynh Phu So, by Communist Viet Minh forces in 1947. Up to two dozen Hoa Hao members had been detained in the weeks leading up to the event, although most had since been released, the source said. Government officials were not available to comment.
Hoa Hao -- which counts three to four million adherents in Vietnam -- is a neo-Buddhist sect which emphasises home worship, and amalgamates Buddhism, animism, Confucian doctrine and other indigenous practices. Followers of the sect, like other religious orders, have long complained of persecution in Communist Vietnam.
The source said the anniversary in An Giang province on Thursday went peacefully but many more followers would have attended if not prevented. Between 500,000 and one million Hoa Hao believers gathered in the province in mid-1999 over several days to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of their sect.
That was the sect's first permitted big festival since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
The Hoa Hao sect was persecuted by French colonial rulers before entering an uneasy alliance with Viet Minh guerrillas in 1945. Two years later the Viet Minh executed So on charges of treason.
International organisations and some foreign governments say Hanoi limits religious freedom and imprisons people for the peaceful expression of religious or political beliefs -- charges rejected by the communist authorities.
News Source:
Reuters
Hanoi, Vietnam
Date: March 31, 2000
Time: 7:00 AM
Last Modified March 31, 2000
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