Zen master decries Vietnam's treatment of monks

— A renowned Buddhist teacher has decried the eviction of his followers from a monastery in southern Vietnam, and Vietnamese intellectuals have issued a petition to support them, an unusual move in this communist country where free speech is restricted.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese-born Zen master who popularized Buddhism in the West, wrote a letter last week to President Nguyen Minh Triet in which he criticized the police who evicted nearly 400 of his followers from a monastery — the first time the teacher has spoken out about the incident. His followers say a mob including undercover police descended on the Bat Nha monastery in Lam Dong province on Sept. 27, damaged buildings and forced the monastics out, beating some with sticks.

The dispute at Bat Nha has raised questions about Vietnam's record on religious freedom, which has drawn criticism from human rights groups.

This week, a group of Vietnamese intellectuals, artists, former Communist Party members and dissidents began circulating a petition calling on Vietnam's top leaders to investigate events at Bat Nha and allow the media to report on the standoff, which Vietnam's state-controlled media has ignored.

Hoang Hung, a journalist and poet from Ho Chi Minh City who initiated the petition, is asking the government to launch an independent investigation. The document has been signed by over 200 people, roughly half from inside Vietnam and half Vietnamese living overseas, Hung said.

Supporters are also asking the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to help them arrange a meeting with Vietnam's U.N. ambassador. Vietnam currently holds the presidency of the United Nations Security Council.

On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga described the standoff at the as a nonviolent dispute between two Buddhist factions.

"The reports claiming that there were clashes and that some monks were arrested or injured are completely false," Nga said, speaking at a regularly scheduled press briefing. She said local authorities had protected everyone's "security, dignity, life and property."

The events at Bat Nha represent a remarkable turnaround from 2005, when Nhat Hanh returned to his homeland after nearly four decades in exile. He was warmly welcomed by Vietnamese authorities, and the abbot at Bat Nha, Duc Nghi, invited Nhat Hanh's followers to settle there.

But the monastics' relationship with authorities began to deteriorate about a year ago, after Nhat Hanh called on Vietnam's government to disband its religious police and remove the word "Socialist" from the country's official name.

In his letter to President Triet, Nhat Hanh said the behavior of the police was contrary to the spirit of the revolutionaries who ousted French colonialists from Vietnam and brought the communists to power.

"These police and public security officers are certainly not children of the revolution," Nhat Hanh wrote, using the pen name Nguyen Lang. "These actions are contrary to the traditional ethics of our Motherland."

Nhat Hanh has sold millions of books worldwide and now lives at the Plum Village monastery in southern France, where thousands visit each year to practice his progressive brand of "engaged Buddhism," which stresses meditation and good works.