~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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[Year 2001]

Exiles slam Vietnam over religion, call for trade deal hold-up

WASHINGTON - Exiled religious leaders accused Vietnam of hounding believers and choking freedom of worship Tuesday and urged the US Congress to shelve a historic trade pact with Hanoi until its record improves. Christian and Buddhist leaders told the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) that Vietnam's communist rulers were bent on tightening their iron grip on religion and dissent. The hearing came as the US Congress steeled for a debate on whether to ratify a US-Vietnam trade pact signed last year, and has enraged Hanoi, which branded it a "gross interference" in its affairs.

It also followed a wave of unrest in Vietnam's mainly Christian central highlands fuelled by the seizure of church buildings by the authorities. "There is no freedom of religion, because the freedom of religion is controlled by the governmental authorities at all levels," said Reverend John Tran Cong Nghi, of the VietCatholic network. Witness testimony was packed with evidence of the government's bid to control religions, which the exiles said was motivated by a desire to stifle challenges to its ideology. The United States harshly criticises Vietnam for keeping strict tabs on a handful of officially recognised groups and practising severe repression against rival unofficial and unsanctioned groups.

Citing an "alarming scale" of repression against Buddhism in Vietnam, Vo Van Ai, exiled spokesman of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, called on the United States to delay implementation of the trade pact. "The benefits of bilateral trade should not be given free, and Vietnam must be made to earn them by respecting its citizens rights," he said. The trade bill grants normal trading relations to Vietnam subject to an annual review and supporters say it will promote basic freedoms by prising open a closed economy and society.

But Vo Van Ai argued that US legislators should not dispense with any leverage with Hanoi and called on the administration to impose sanctions under 1998 legislation designed to promote religious freedom. The hearing provoked a furious reaction from Vietnam which Tuesday launched a preemptive rebuttal of the charges. Communist mouthpiece Nhan Dan branded the hearing a "gross interference" in Vietnam's internal affairs and accused "hostile forces" of trying to blacken the country's name. The USCIRF was set up in 1998 by the US government to provide policy recommendations to Congress and the White House.

Agence France Presse - February 13, 2001.