E/CN.4/1999/58/Add.2 page 13 Catholicism (introduced by Portuguese Dominican missionaries in 1615) has nearly 6 million followers; Cao Daism (founded in Tay Ninh in 1926) has 3 million followers and the Hoa Hao community (founded in 1939) 2 million; Protestants have been in the country since 1911, when the first American missionaries arrived, and number 700,000 and Islam is represented by 50,000 followers. 43. Official (for 1996) and unofficial (for 1998) estimates are therefore widely divergent, but Buddhism is clearly the majority religion, followed by the Catholic, Cao Dai, Hoa Hao, Protestant and Muslim minorities. A. Buddhist community 44. The Special Rapporteur has studied the situation of Buddhists, in particular the United Buddhist Church of Viet Nam (EBUV) and the Khmers Krom community (descendants of the Khmers of the Angkor civilization, of Indian origin). He assembled information collected from the authorities, the Buddhist Association of Viet Nam, the prisoners of a re-education camp and other non-governmental sources. 45. As indicated in the introduction to his report, the Special Rapporteur was not able to meet the patriarch of the EBUV, Thich Huyen Quang, who has been detained without trial since 1982. He was also prevented from meeting, in Ho Chi Minh City, three members of the EBUV clergy recently released in the context of an amnesty, Thich Quang Do, Thich Tue Sy and Thich Tri Sieu. Despite the explanations given of the official status of the United Nations Special Rapporteur and the purpose of his visit, several individuals in plain clothes, claiming to represent the local authorities and stating that they had been informed of the United Nations representative’s mission, refused access to the three clergymen. During his visit, the Special Rapporteur was informed by several non-governmental sources that the individuals who physically barred his access to the EBUV clergy were members of the security services; the latter had initially attempted to force the keeper of the pagoda where the private meeting was to take place to bar the Special Rapporteur’s access to the pagoda, but he had refused and threatened to immolate himself. 46. Unofficial information provided after the mission stated that EBUV bonze Thich Nhat Ban, whom the Special Rapporteur had requested to meet in Z30A re-education camp and who had been released in the context of an amnesty on the eve of the Special Rapporteur’s visit, had been placed under house arrest; Thich Nhat Ban stated that he had left “a small prison only to enter a large one”. 47. The Special Rapporteur went to the place where a private meeting was to take place with representatives of the Khmers Krom, but the people he interviewed were unable to communicate any information whatsoever. After the visit, non-governmental sources indicated that the Khmers Krom representatives’ failure to make statements had apparently been due to pressure from the security services.