US sees "enormous progress" on religious freedom in Vietnam
WASHINGTON - Respect for religious freedom in Vietnam has improved but the communist nation continues to impose curbs on religious groups, the US State Department said in a report.
"Vietnam has turned the corner and made enormous progress on religious freedom," John Hanford, US envoy for international religious freedom, said at the release of the annual International Religious Freedom Report 2006.
He hinted Vietnam could be removed from the department's blacklist of countries of "particular concern" for violating religious freedoms.
The list is renewed annually and the State Department is expected to publish an update in coming weeks.
"Overall, respect for religious freedom in Vietnam improved," the report said.
But the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a Congress-mandated panel, cautioned that the "advances have not been uniform and serious abuses continue against members of all of Vietnams religious communities.
"The CPC (country of particular concern) designation has been an important incentive for dialogue on addressing religious freedom concerns in Vietnam," commission chairman Felice Gaer said.
"Nevertheless, given the current level of engagement between the US and Vietnamese governments and the ongoing religious freedom abuses, the CPC designation for Vietnam should be maintained," he said.
Hanford said intense negotiations between Hanoi and Washington had worked.
"There are still problems there, but I think our approach of not imposing sanctions and of working out a mutual understanding, which we then have been able to work together -- I've been there five times -- to implement has born itself out and proven itself," he told a media briefing.
Both Vietnam's constitution and law provide for freedom of worship but the government restricts organized activities of religious groups that it declares to be at variance with State laws and policies, the report said.
It cited "several confirmed reports of police harassment and beatings of unregistered believers."
"Religious leaders encountered greatest restrictions when they engaged in activities that the government perceived as political activism or a challenge to its rule," the report said.
The Vietnamese government bans participation in one unrecognized faction of the Hoa Hao Buddhists and restricts the leadership of the unrecognized United Buddhist Church of Vietnam.
The Catholic Church reported that the government continues to ease restrictions on church assignment of new clergy but indicates that it would like to open additional seminaries in the North, the report said.
US-Vietnam ties have vastly improved in recent years.
Vietnam is currently lobbying Congress hard for permanent normal trading relations (PNTR) status, which would ease its accession to the
World Trade Organization.
Some US politicans have said they want to link PNTR to the human rights and religious situation in Vietnam.
Agence France Presse - September 15, 2006.
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