In February 2001, just before the 9th Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Thích Quảng Độ started a pro-democracy campaign as part of an eight-point program, including free elections as part of a multi-party democracy, trade union membership and 'the abolition of all degrading forms of imported culture and ideologies that pervert Vietnamese spiritual and moral values'. The communist government responded by detaining him, before releasing him in June 2003. In February he published an open letter advocating multi-party democracy and civil rights. He further stated that they were “more important than economic development” and without them “we cannot make any progress in the real sense.” In a 2003 interview, he stated "People are very afraid of the government ... Only I dare to say what I want to say. That is why they are afraid of me". However, he was again detained in October 2003 after an unauthorised UBCV meeting. He was officially released in 2005, but a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention reported that he was still effectively under detention.