WASHINGTON, May 6 (AFP) – An agreement reached between the United States and Vietnam on religious freedom has failed to tackle many alleged abuses committed by the communist state, a Congress-mandated commission charged Friday.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom called for a monitoring system to ensure effective implementation of the agreement between Washington and Hanoi reached ahead of a landmark visit to the United States by Vietnam’s Prime Minister Phan Van Khai next month.
The commission, whose 10 members are jointly appointed by President George W. Bush and Congress, had last year blacklisted Vietnam as a “country of particular concern” for alleged abuses of religious freedom and belief.
The US government said Thursday it had reached an agreement with Vietnam that “addresses a number of important religious freedom concerns” pending more talks with Hanoi.
Commission chairman Preeta Bansal said Friday that the agreement addressed only some concerns but left “many of the issues for which Vietnam was designated a country of particular concern unaddressed.”
Among the unresolved issues, she said, were alleged harassment and detention of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam leaders.
More than 100 people remain in prison or under some form of house arrest for religious activity, she said.
Bansal said more than 1,000 churches, home worship centers and meeting places remained closed in Vietnam, raising concern over “the continued forced or coerced renunciation of faith” in some parts of the country.
They were targeted particularly at ethnic minority protestants Maronite Hoa Hao Buddhists and leaders of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, she said.
In announcing the agreement on Thursday, John Hanford, the US ambassador at large for international religious freedom, said Vietnam had banned the practice of forced renunciations or coerced renunciations of faith.
It had released a number of prominent prisoners of concern and begun to register and to permit the reopening of churches, he said.
Most importantly, he added, Vietnam had also enacted significant legislative reforms that hold the promise of major improvements in religious freedom in the near future.
The announcement was made hours after Khai said he would visit Washington, as the most senior Vietnamese official to make a trip to the United States since the communist victory in the Vietnam war 30 years ago.
Bansal said that the US-Vietnam pact was the “first diplomatic agreement signed” between the government and a country blacklisted by the commission since the International Religious Freedom Act was passed in 1998.
“We welcome that Vietnam’s (inclusion in the blacklist) has prompted the two countries to talk seriously about these issues.
“However, we have not seen the agreement, which has not been made public and we are cautious about it,” she added.
Bansal said that in recent months, the commission had received “troubling reports” of new arrests and pressure on religious ethnic minorities in Vietnam, alleging that the government continued to impose limits on the number of candidates allowed to study for Roman Catholic priesthood.
“We would ask that there be a monitoring system put in place to ensure that the agreement is met and that the other issues are addressed,” she said.
