Human rights group hits Hanoi policy
A Washington human rights group, days before President
Clinton is to visit Vietnam, yesterday released a series of
Vietnamese government documents that depict an official
policy of persecution against Christians, especially evangelical
Protestants.
Some 50 pages of documents
disclosed by the rights-group
Freedom House bear government
seals and signatures, and were
passed to human rights workers in
Vietnam earlier this year.
"These documents . . . show
that church closures, arrests and
Bible burnings are not isolated acts
of overzealous cadres but are the
policy directives of the Vietnamese
Communist Party and state
religious officials," said Nina Shea,
director of Freedom House's
Washington-based Center for
Religious Freedom.
Dating between Feb. 7, 1998, and June 6 of this year, the
series of eight documents, some marked "Top Secret" or
"Secret," were translated into English and authenticated by
Vietnam experts in the United States, Canada and Thailand,
according to Freedom House.
The first document includes a harsh condemnation of the
Catholic Church, which it blames for orchestrating the fall of
communism in Eastern Europe.
Issued by the Bureau of Religious and Minority Affairs in
the northern province of Lao Cai that borders China, the
document includes 10 policy recommendations for the
repression of churches, especially those practicing evangelical
Protestant Christianity.
"We must carefully control the thinking and activities of the
religions," according to the translation. "We must turn
propaganda into an art form" so that "they will not know they
are being propagandized."
The policy directive is in response to the "unexpectedly
rapid growth" of Protestant Christianity in the northwestern
provinces among the Hmong ethnic minority.
According to Freedom House, the man Vietnam has put
in charge of dealing with religion has a history of brutal
repression of religion in other provinces.
The persecution of Buddhists, Protestants and Catholics
outside those organizations sanctioned by the government is
common in Vietnam.
All eight documents released by Freedom House are
primarily directed toward evangelical Protestants.
"The documents show that Vietnam is still very much of
the Communist mind-set in that they do not want any religious
organization they cannot control," said Ms. Shea.
Mr. Clinton arrives in Vietnam on Thursday as the first
U.S. president to visit since the Vietnam War.
Clinton administration officials said yesterday that the
president will raise human rights issues in private talks with
Vietnamese officials.
The State Department's 1999 report on human rights says
that while Vietnam's human rights record remains poor, there
has been measurable improvement in some areas.
"The government restricts freedom of religion and
significantly restricts the operation of religious organizations
other than those entities approved by the State. However, in
some respects, conditions for religious freedom improved
during the year," the report says.
But human rights advocates are angry that the State
Department's top official on human rights, Harold Koh, has
been left off the delegation.
"Harold Koh is a decent honorable friend of human rights
and he should be on that delegation," said Rep. Christopher
H. Smith, New Jersey Republican and chairman of the House
subcommittee on human rights. "This administration
consistently puts trade above the rights of the oppressed."
Mr. Smith, who visited Vietnam last year on a fact-finding
tour, said that human rights in Vietnam have deteriorated.
"They allow one clergyman to preach while another one is
incarcerated. It has not improved," he said.
The Freedom House documents also call into question
reports of improving religious rights in Vietnam.
Document Four prohibits the gathering of "people to study
religion" and directs that government officials be informed if "a
stranger arrives to preach religion."
An estimated 10 percent of Vietnam's 79 million people
are Christians.
A major group of evangelical Protestants said it was
pleased that religious rights in Vietnam may get some
attention because of the Freedom House documents and the
president's visit.
"There are outrageous violations of religious liberty in
Vietnam," said Richard Cizik, director of the Washington
office of the National Association of Evangelicals.
The group that represents some 50,000 American
churches held its annual "Day of Prayer For the Persecuted
Church" on Sunday.
Clinton administration officials said that the president will
raise the issue during his meetings in Vietnam.
"The president most certainly will bring it up in his private
meetings with Vietnamese officials," said one government
official on condition of anonymity.
The official did not say why Mr. Koh, the State
Department's senior diplomat for human rights was not part
of the delegation, an omission that angered Freedom House's
Ms. Shea.
"We are stunned at how trade has trumped human rights.
Vietnam is not China, offering a huge market. This is a small
country," said Ms. Shea. "If we cannot raise the issue of
human rights with Vietnam, it is a complete sellout."
Human Rights Watch, another U.S.-based rights group,
said in a report last week that religious freedom in Vietnam
remains restricted, and more than 20 members of religious
groups were in detention.
By Tom Carter - The Washington Times - November 14, 2000
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