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

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U.S., Vietnam reach agreement on religous freedoms

WASHINGTON - The U.S. State Department said it would not impose sanctions on Vietnam for repressing religion after Hanoi freed some religious prisoners, reopened churches and banned forced renunciations of faith. The United States last year placed Vietnam on a blacklist of ''countries of particular concern'' for abusing rights to worship, which can lead to 14 various political and economic sanctions should the U.S. government choose to apply them.

In last year's report on religious freedom, the department accused Vietnam of pressuring many ethnic minority Protestants to recant their faith, of arbitrarily detaining and beating believers and of placing Buddhist leaders under house arrest. U.S. officials yesterday said they had struck an agreement with Vietnam to hold off on the sanctions and to consider dropping the communist nation from the blacklist entirely because it had taken several actions to improve religious protections.

U.S. Ambassador John Hanford praised Vietnam for passing legislation as well as regulations that ''provide increased latitude and protection for religious belief and practice.'' Hanford said Vietnam promised to make it easier to open houses of worship, to instruct local authorities to respect the new laws and to give special consideration to amnestying prisoners whose cases are raised by the United States. ''While these commitments offer a strong foundation, other important steps remain to be taken, and the United States will continue to monitor developments in Vietnam closely,'' he told reporters, saying Vietnam will stay on the U.S. list for now.

Vietnam's progress on religious freedom, as well as the further steps Washington wants it to take, will be discussed when U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick visits Hanoi today. In a sign of improving ties, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said on Thursday he planned to visit the United States in late June -- the first such trip by the communist country's top leader since the end of the Vietnam War 30 years ago.

Reuters - May 06, 2005.