Dissident Vietnam monks reunited in hospital visit

HANOI, Sep 30 (Reuters) Vietnam's two most prominent dissident Buddhist monks were reunited for the first time after three years under separate house arrest, a Buddhist group said.

The International Buddhist Information Bureau said that Thich (Venerable) Quang Do, deputy leader of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), visited the group's patriarch Thich Huyen Quang in a Ho Chi Minh City hospital yesterday.

''This is the first time (they) have met since they were arrested in a government crackdown on 9th October 2003 and placed under house arrest,'' the group said in a statement issue from Paris late yesterday.

The monks are considered among the longest campaigners for human rights and alternatives to one-party Communist rule in the Southeast Asian country.

European governments and the United States have praised Vietnam for improving its religious rights record in the past two years as the country moves toward joining the World Trade Organisation this year. In November, it will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit.

But it has not lifted the ban on the UBCV, which rejects the conditions of state supervision placed on all faiths.

Quang, 86, has been living at the Nguyen Thieu Monastery in the central province of Binh Dinh and Do, 77, at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in the south's Ho Chi Minh City.

Quang was treated in hospital in Binh Dinh on Monday and transferred to the Cho Ray hospital in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday night. He has heart problems and difficulty breathing, a spokeswoman said.

On September. 21, Do was awarded the Thorolf Rafto Foundation prize for Human Rights, which has four times in the past anticipated the choice of the Nobel Peace prize winner with its own award.

The Rafto award ceremony is on November 4 in Bergen, Norway, but it is unclear whether Do would be allowed to travel to receive the award.

REUTERS MQA PM1020