Alain Vivien

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Alain Vivien
Alain Vivien

Alain Vivien
Mayor
In office
1977 – 1983
Constituency Combs-la-Ville
In office
1991 – 1992
Constituency France
Chairman, MILS
In office
1998 – 2002
Born August 20, 1938 (1938-08-20) (age 69)
Melun, France
Political party French Socialist Party
Residence France

Alain Vivien (born August 20, 1938, in Melun) is a French Socialist Party (PS) politician, best known for chairing (from 1998 to 2002) the French Mission Interministérielle pour la Lutte contre les Sectes, MILS, a ministerial organism designed to observe the activities of various religious organizations defined as "Sectes" (cults).

Contents

[edit] Early career

He was mayor of Combs-la-Ville in 1977-1983 and 1989-1992. In 1983 he was elected to the French National Assembly for Seine-et-Marne as a PS cadidate. The author of a report on cults requested by Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy in 1982, he was Secretary of State under Edith Cresson in 1991-1992.

In 1998 Vivien was nominated chairman of the MILS, which had been formed to coordinate government monitoring of sectes (name given to cults in France). In February 1998, MILS released its annual report on the monitoring of sects.

[edit] Controversial interview

In one of his first interviews as president of MILS to the magazine Réforme (issue 2797, Nov. 19, 1998) entitled Liberty under control, Vivien outlines the concept of his work:

"It is obviously not a matter of the public powers to judge the doctrinal contents of a movement, but there are criteria - for example the respect of human rights, constitutional principles and the great fundamental liberties - which allow to us to know if a group is cultic or not."[citation needed]

He also mentions the United States, a country which had heavily criticized him, as a place that had created a problem by allowing "liberty without limits", and by not legislating against groups regarded as dangerous:

"The First Amendment to the United States Constitution of 1791 prohibits legislators from making laws on proselytization—while this should be the very field legislators should regulate. The fathers of the French Constitution adopted a different attitude in 1789 when they included in the Constitution, under Article 4 of the 1789 Declaration of Human Rights, that 'Freedom consists in doing what does not cause damage to another [...] and limits may only be determined by the law'".[citation needed]

He further asserted that he felt France should be strict with the United States, because the latter is the World's only superpower, and as such has an important influence:

"It is understandable that they have written the First Amendment is understandable because the first pioneers, who were persecuted in Europe for religious reasons, had the idea of securing religious peace. But today, vast and often nefarious interests are hiding themselves behind an allegedly religious cultism - we have good reasons to oppose our American friends in this point."

In 2001, Vivien's wife, Patricia Casano-Vivien, then president of the Centre Against Mind Control (CCMM), obtained from the Prime Minister's office 4.5 million French Francs (690,000 Euros), which was used to underwrite CCMM's new headquarters. This happened at a time when Vivien was president of the MILS which utilized the CCMM's services to provide information about sectes for its report.[citation needed]

Alain Vivien did mention, at the time of his resignation from the MILS in June 2002, the numerous lawsuits brought against him by the Church of Scientology, and the threats he received during his mandate[1]. In 1999, Vivien was put under police protection following threats and the burglary of his home[2].[citation needed]

The activities of the MILS and Vivien's background as the former head of an anti-cult organization raised critiques from several minority and partisan organisations in their defense and from the United States.[citation needed]

[edit] Corruption allegations

Vivien was criticized for allegedly using more than half the MILS budget for foreign travel, including to the People's Republic of China. Alain Ostmont, the general secretary of MILS, stated in response to these allegations in an interview that Vivien did not travel much for MILS, but that he undertook travels for humanitarian organizations which he chaired at the same time, and that this had been confused by some reports. He specifically added that Vivien was sent to the Beijing conference by the government as representative of the French state, not by MILS [3].[citation needed]

CESNUR writes that, during his tenure as president of MILS, Alain Vivien attended together with anti-cultist organizations such as the French CCMM and the European Federation of anti-cult movements FECRIS a colloquium organized by the Chinese government on the topic of cults [4], and interprets this as assisting the Chinese government in repressing religious minorities. Countering the allegation, FECRIS states that it had been invited but did not take part, and that the co-organiser United Nations Development Programme confirms that CCMM did not offer any support to the repression of Falun Gong.[citation needed]

During the FECRIS application for NGO-status, the matter was also investigated by the Council of Europe Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. The rapporteur, the Swiss Councillor Dick Marty, noted that the symposium had been co-organized by the United Nations, and had also been attended by representatives of numerous other states - including the United States - and concluded that:

"The CESNUR report misrepresents the contents of the Regards sur newsletter: taking everything into accounts, there is insufficient credible evidence for the allegations to be made out[5]."[citation needed]

Marty's report was adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on March 18, 2005 [6].

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

[edit] See also

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