An URGENT petition against police violence in the Buddhist Monastery Bat Nha in Vietnam. For more information, please go to: http://helpbatnha.org/. The petition is ongoing. Please circulate as widely as possible.
An URGENT petition against police violence in the Buddhist Monastery Bat Nha in Vietnam. For more information, please go to: http://helpbatnha.org/. The petition is ongoing. Please circulate as widely as possible.
September 27, 2009
We the undersigned would like to bring your attention to the violence that is taking place right now in the Buddhist monastery Bat Nha, in Vietnam.
At this very time the monks and nuns of Bat Nha are being dragged out of their monastery with force by a mob of vandalists, policemen, hired troops that uses much violence and aggression. The monks and nuns have been beaten up and pushed in trucks. They are being threatened to be killed if they do not obey.
The streets to the monastery are closed by the police, so that people who want to help the monastic community as well as the general public cannot get there.
The calls for help to the provincial government and the provincial police authorities are being ignored. According to Thich Duc Nghi, the elder of Bat Nha monastery, the entire action is being ordered by General Tran Tu of the Ministery of Police.
We are asking you urgently to speak up against the continuing violence and for the protection of the lives of 400 monks and nuns, most of them less then 30 years old.
We are convinced that you have the power to reduce the terror and violence happening right now, in order to avoid that more violence will happen which we could only regret when it is too late.
We signed the "Petition against Violence in Bat Nha Monastery Vietnam" petition!
# 3,202:
8:38 pm PDT, Oct 30,Gila Appleby, Massachusetts
# 3,201:
4:06 pm PDT, Oct 30,Stephen Schroeter, California
Please allow the peaceful mindful practice of our brothers and sisters.
# 3,200:
2:39 am PDT, Oct 30,Kara Middleton, Mississippi
Let people live their lives as they see fit. The longer this goes on, the more you pollute yourselves...your minds, your hearts, your souls. Thich Nhat Hahn has lived his live promotoing peace. Leave him and his monks/nuns alone and start worrying about finding peace in your own hearts.
# 3,199:
2:31 am PDT, Oct 30,Ruud Pos, Netherlands
# 3,198:
2:13 am PDT, Oct 30,Sommai Nguyen, Australia
I am srongly support Bat Nha Sangha and pray for them with all my heart.
# 3,197:
2:01 am PDT, Oct 30,Name not displayed, California
# 3,196:
1:54 am PDT, Oct 30,Name not displayed, California
# 3,195:
1:21 am PDT, Oct 30,Wim De Bie, Netherlands
# 3,194:
11:56 pm PDT, Oct 29,Margot Gibney, California
# 3,193:
8:20 pm PDT, Oct 29,Jeannet Katuin, Netherlands
please, love is to let fear go..........
# 3,192:
8:13 pm PDT, Oct 29,Angela Johnson, Texas
Please help!
# 3,191:
6:21 pm PDT, Oct 29,Maryjane Jones, California
# 3,190:
5:57 pm PDT, Oct 29,Seth Josephson, Ohio
Please care for these people of peace. To do harm to them is to do harm to yourself.
# 3,189:
5:53 pm PDT, Oct 29,Meredith Garmon, Florida
Please protect human rights and freedom of religion. These monks and nuns are an important force for peace in our world.
# 3,188:
5:20 pm PDT, Oct 29,Anna Satenstein, Washington
As a citizen of the world, I ask you to use your influence and power to publicly promote religious freedom with humane action. On behalf of the Vietnamese monks who were violently ripped away from their monastery, we must add our voices, hearts and hands to repair this abomination in Vietnam and hate crimes in our world. Delay and silence yield more violence. The brutality towards the monks and destruction of their monastery is a travesty of human rights. On behalf of the thousands of Vietnamese citizens inspired by the monks and nuns practicing peace in their daily lives, I beseech you to support in words and actions human rights. Silence is the path of complicity. Today in the USA, two Jewish men were shot in the parking lot of their Los Angeles synagogue. Turning our backs on abuses of power and hate filled acts yields more hate and violence. The USA is not immune from hate crimes and neither is the world. Please stand up for those that cannot speak for themselves. Speak the global language of peace in actions and compassion.
# 3,187:
5:06 pm PDT, Oct 29,Thu-An Le, Maryland
# 3,186:
4:41 pm PDT, Oct 29,Eileen Frazier, Illinois
# 3,185:
2:42 pm PDT, Oct 29,ALPHA WI, Germany
# 3,184:
2:16 pm PDT, Oct 29,G. Pompstra, Netherlands
Stop violence against people who does'nt harm nobody!
# 3,183:
1:39 pm PDT, Oct 29,Anton Boels, Netherlands
No violence against religieus people, shame on you!
# 3,182:
11:44 am PDT, Oct 29,Name not displayed, Netherlands
# 3,181:
9:55 am PDT, Oct 29,Alex Bos, Netherlands
# 3,180:
9:09 am PDT, Oct 29,Doortje Van der Hiel, Netherlands
It is unbelievable that this police don't think about what they are doing! Because the only solution to live in this world together is with love and respect and not this kind of action.
# 3,179:
9:09 am PDT, Oct 29,Diane Oldfield, California
Why does the government of Vietnam allow the open practice at the Buddhist Monastery Bat Nha, then cruelly treat the monks and nuns as criminals??? Stop the government controlled violence of innocents NOW!!!
# 3,178:
9:08 am PDT, Oct 29,W.J. Muller, Netherlands
dear sir, being certain that these nuns and monks have been living in total peace and will not harm anybody, I would ask you to let them return to their monestry to continue their peaceful life, which means a contribution to the peace in the world, thank you very much for your attention, sincerely yours Yoka Muller
# 3,177:
7:33 am PDT, Oct 29,Name not displayed, Netherlands
# 3,176:
7:18 am PDT, Oct 29,Van Lieshout, Netherlands
# 3,175:
6:21 am PDT, Oct 29,Dietrich Werner, Germany
# 3,174:
5:58 am PDT, Oct 29,Claudia Mann, Germany
Love is more strengthen than violence
# 3,173:
5:22 am PDT, Oct 29,Pia Kasperkovitz, Massachusetts
In August Thay talked about Bat Nha and reminded us all that hatred never ceases by hatred - let us not forget this.
# 3,172:
4:45 am PDT, Oct 29,Ingrid Meijerink, Netherlands
Let we all live in peace and harmony with eachother.
I.W. Meijerink
# 3,171:
3:55 am PDT, Oct 29,Siddharth Singh, India
I am exceedingly pained by coming across the news of the torture of the several peacefully meditating brothers and sisters. I along with other Buddhist scholars of the India condemn it and demand from the Vietnamese government to remember the most democratic teachings of the Buddha and stop immediately the suppression of peace loving monks and nuns of Bat Nha Monastery.
Dr. Siddharth Singh,
Associate Professor,
Department of Pali & Buddhist Studies
Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U.), Varanasi - 221005, India
# 3,170:
1:18 am PDT, Oct 29,Name not displayed, Netherlands
# 3,169:
5:59 pm PDT, Oct 28,Laumonier Pierre, France
I've got no religion. But a Viet Namese friend took me to Bat Nha in july 2007. I've met so good and welcoming people.
They made me quiet in a difficult time and taught me how to lead my life in a good way.
I've a so good remembrence about those monks and Nuns.
So, it's make me so down when i see that when people give the best, others make theim down.
Problem in Viet Nam is not only the communism, that's the corruption. You don't give money to police : Police put you out...
Cam on cho doc nguyen nay.
# 3,168:
5:20 pm PDT, Oct 28,Kim Bourner, Michigan
# 3,167:
2:15 pm PDT, Oct 28,Nguyen Thi Minh, Florida
I pray that the UN will provide fair hearing and effective actions to protect the nuns and monks
# 3,166:
2:09 pm PDT, Oct 28,Secundra Beasley, Ohio
# 3,165:
10:26 am PDT, Oct 28,Dharmachari Punyaketu, United Kingdom
I am deeply concerned about basic human rights violations in Vietnam, as in any other country as well, of course. Please do your utmost to help those people in need, in this case my Brothers and Sisters in the Dharma, to get back their freedom to practise in accordance with our ancient wisdom tradition.
# 3,164:
10:07 am PDT, Oct 28,John Malcomson, Washington
These monks and nuns have given their lives to helping others. Please support them in doing so.
Thank you!
# 3,163:
9:50 am PDT, Oct 28,Lisa Biow, California
I am deeply distressed by the recent attacks on the Bat Nha monastery in Vietnam. I urge the United Nations to pressure the Vietnamese government to halt the police violence against the monastery and to return to its recent policy of religious tolerance. Thank you.
# 3,162:
8:48 am PDT, Oct 28,Lillie Falco-Adkins, California
# 3,161:
8:44 am PDT, Oct 28,Michelle Cobbin, United Kingdom
# 3,160:
8:29 am PDT, Oct 28,David Glendining, United Kingdom
# 3,159:
6:20 am PDT, Oct 28,Dave Bart, Louisiana
# 3,158:
6:13 am PDT, Oct 28,John Letton, New York
# 3,157:
6:02 am PDT, Oct 28,Jack Sisk, Missouri
# 3,156:
4:44 am PDT, Oct 28,Rodney Turner, Maryland
# 3,155:
4:10 am PDT, Oct 28,Name not displayed, Belgium
# 3,154:
4:07 am PDT, Oct 28,Mike Edelman, New York
# 3,153:
4:01 am PDT, Oct 28,Richard Gilpin, United Kingdom
# 3,152:
3:54 am PDT, Oct 28,JR Clark, Michigan
# 3,151:
3:50 am PDT, Oct 28,Joyce Edmond-Smith, United Kingdom
I am writing as Chair of the UK Network of Engaged Buddhists to protest at the dreadful treatment of the monks and nuns at the Buddhist Monastery Bat Nha . These are young peaceful people whose only wish is to bring peace to the country of Vietnam and to the world and it is saddening to see a Government brutally refusing their right to practice as they wish.
