Vietnam demands US remove it from religious rights blacklist
HANOI - Vietnam has demanded the United States remove it from a State Department blacklist of religious rights violators. It was responding after a US Congress-mandated commission asked that Vietnam be maintained as a "country of particular concern" in the State Department's annual religious freedom report, which is due to be released soon.
Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung said the commission's accusations of a lack of religious freedom were groundless and asked Washington to remove Hanoi from the blacklist.
"Vietnam demands the US to take a right decision in accordance with the principles in bilateral relationship as well as not to affect to the recent positive progress in the Vietnam-US relations," Dung said in a statement received Saturday.
"The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has made a totally wrongful recommendation based on fabricated information about Vietnam," he said.
"All religions in Vietnam are granted favorable condition to develop by the State. There is not a so-called 'religious repression' to any religion in Vietnam," Dung said.
At a Congressional hearing Wednesday, the commission said it had been "encouraged by the Vietnam government's promises over the past year to improve conditions for its ethnic and religious minorities.
"But we remain disappointed that promises have not yet been translated into positive change," said Michael Cromartie, the commission's chairman.
Agence France Presse - October 29, 2005.
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