Religious freedom in Vietnam still a 'concern'
A senior United States official has expressed concern about the level of religious freedom in Vietnam.
US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, John Hanford, has just ended a week-long fact-finding mission.
He visited Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, as well as Dak Lak and Gia Lai provinces in the Central Highlands.
In a statement issued at the end of his visit he says the United States continues to have concerns about issues of religious freedom.
But he says he had "open and wide-ranging discussions" with senior Vietnamese officials, religious leaders and third-country diplomats.
Last month the US Commission on International Religious Freedom called on Washington to nominate Vietnam as a "country of particular concern" on freedom of worship - a move that could lead to sanctions.
It followed the imprisonment of two nephews and a niece of a jailed Catholic priest for passing on information about their uncle and the religious situation in Vietnam to US-based activists.
ABC Radio Australia News - October 25, 2003.
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