August 26, 2008
A religious freedom monitoring body in its new report urged the U.S. government to put Vietnam back on its blacklist of the world’s worst religious freedom violators.
The report, “Vietnam Policy Focus,” based on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s trip to Vietnam in 2007, found that despite some improvements, the Vietnamese government still sponsored harassment, detention, and imprisonment of individuals and leaders of various religious communities.
“The Commission found that religious freedom conditions in Vietnam continue to be mixed, with improvements for some religious communities but not for others; progress in some provinces but not in others; reforms of laws at the national level that are not fully implemented or are ignored at the local and provincial levels; and still too many abuses of and restrictions on religious freedom affecting most of Vietnam’s diverse religious communities,” the report stated.
Ethnic minority religious groups, such as the Montagnard and Hmong Protestant, are severely restricted by the government. Moreover, the government is said to maintain control over most religious organizations, restrict the growth of religious groups through the process of requiring official recognition, and imprisoning individuals advocating for religious freedom reforms.
The report includes the cases of religious freedom activists Nguyen Van Dai and Li Thi Cong Nhan who the delegation met at Cau Dien Prison in Hanoi in March 2007.
“The U.S. government still needs to press Vietnam’s leaders to make immediate improvements to end religious freedom abuses, ease restrictions, and release prisoners,” said USCIRF chair Felice D. Gaer, in a statement Monday.
USCIRF has recommended the State Department designate Vietnam a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) every year since 2001. The State Department followed the Commission’s recommendation in 2004 and 2005, but in 2006 it removed the CPC designation from Vietnam ahead of President George W. Bush’s visit to the country.
At the time, the State Department cited progress on religious freedom and the release of “prisoners of concern” for its action.
But when the Commission delegation visited Vietnam from October 23 to November 2, 2007, they witnessed both progress and persistent abuses.
“Improved conditions for some only emphasize the inexcusability of ongoing abuses endured by others,” noted Gaer. “The State Department should not diminish its categorization of Vietnam as a severe violator until the Vietnamese government demonstrates a countrywide, non-discriminatory commitment to religious freedom and human rights for all.”
