Police question Norwegians after visit to dissident Buddhist monk

Mar 15, 2007, 10:27 GMT

Oslo - Vietnamese police on Thursday apprehended three Norwegian nationals shortly after they met with Thich Quang Do, a veteran pro-democracy activist, a Norwegian human rights group said.

Do, 77, was last September named winner of the 2006 Rafto Prize 'for his personal courage and perseverance through three decades of peaceful opposition against the communist regime in Vietnam.'

Arne Liljedahl Lynngard, head of the Rafto Foundation board, had earlier this year been told by the Vietnamese embassy in neighbouring Denmark that he would not be granted entry after he openly stated that he intended to meet with Do.

The human rights group therefore decided to send a representative, Therese Jebsen, who travelled on a tourist visa along with Norwegian- Vietnamese human rights activist Kieu Tran who served as a interpreter, and a reporter with TV2 news, Lynngard told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Lynngard said Jebsen managed to present the diploma to Do who is held in 'pagod arrest' in Ho Chi Minh City before police arrived and took the three Norwegians to a nearby police station for questioning.

'They were released but we are concerned that they have ordered Kieu Tran to return for further questioning,' Lynngard said, adding that Norwegian embassy officials had been alerted about the incident.

Lynngard said the Vietnamese authorities have recently stepped up their campaign against dissidents and said 'there was a climate of fear' in the South Asian country.

The decision to hand over the diploma to Do was a means of 'showing support for those who call for freedom of speech and a multiparty system,' Lynngard said, adding that Do, who has diabetes, appeared to be in reasonable good spirits.

Do had decided not to visit Norway last year to accept the award since he was afraid he would not be allowed to return if he left Vietnam.

Do is also deputy patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam that is not officially recognized by the Vietnamese authorities.

The prize, worth 50,000 kroner (7,600 dollars), was symbolically accepted on Do's behalf by Vo Van Ai, Paris-based president of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, Lynngard said.

The Rafto award was created in 1986 in memory of Professor Thorolf Rafto of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen, who was an outspoken human rights activist.

Four previous winners of the Rafto Prize - Aung San Suu Kyi, Jose Ramos-Horta, Kim Dae-jung and Shirin Ebadi - later went on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.