Vietnam has intensified its crackdown on an outlawed
Buddhist church, placing senior monks under house arrest to isolate them from
their followers.
The Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau says 11 monks from
the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam have been formally or unofficially
ordered to remain in their pagodas.
In a statement, the Bureau says all the monks targeted have recently been given
new roles within the executive committee of the church, which was banned in
1981 because it refused to come under the control of the Communist Party.
The Bureau claims the mobile phones of the monks, used for overseas
communications, have been cut off.
Western diplomats have condemned the government's latest actions towards the
dissident church.