US-Vietnam Pact on Religious Freedom Questioned
by P. Parameswaran
WASHINGTON, May 6, 2005 (AFP) - An agreement reached between the United
States and Vietnam on religious freedom has failed to tackle many
alleged abuses committed by the communist state, a Congress-mandated
commission charged Friday.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom called for a
monitoring system to ensure effective implementation of the agreement
between Washington and Hanoi reached ahead of a landmark visit to the
United States by Vietnam's Prime Minister Phan Van Khai next month.
The commission, whose 10 members are jointly appointed by President
George W. Bush and Congress, had last year blacklisted Vietnam as a "country of particular concern" for alleged abuses of religious freedom
and belief.
The US government said Thursday it had reached an agreement with
Vietnam that "addresses a number of important religious freedom
concerns" pending more talks with Hanoi.
Commission chairman Preeta Bansal said Friday that the agreement
addressed only some concerns but left "many of the issues for which
Vietnam was designated a country of particular concern unaddressed."
Among the unresolved issues, she said, were alleged harassment and
detention of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam leaders.
More than 100 people remain in prison or under some form of house
arrest for religious activity, she said.
Bansal said more than 1,000 churches, home worship centers and
meeting places remained closed in Vietnam, raising concern over "the
continued forced or coerced renunciation of faith" in some parts of the
country.
They were targeted particularly at ethnic minority protestants
Maronite Hoa Hao Buddhists and leaders of the Unified Buddhist Church of
Vietnam, she said.
In announcing the agreement on Thursday, John Hanford, the US
ambassador at large for international religious freedom, said Vietnam
had banned the practice of forced renunciations or coerced renunciations
of faith.
It had released a number of prominent prisoners of concern and begun
to register and to permit the reopening of churches, he said.
Most importantly, he added, Vietnam had also enacted significant
legislative reforms that hold the promise of major improvements in
religious freedom in the near future.
The announcement was made hours after Khai said he would visit
Washington, as the most senior Vietnamese official to make a trip to the
United States since the communist victory in the Vietnam war 30 years
ago.
Bansal said that the US-Vietnam pact was the "first diplomatic
agreement signed" between the government and a country blacklisted by
the commission since the International Religious Freedom Act was passed
in 1998.
"We welcome that Vietnam's (inclusion in the blacklist) has prompted
the two countries to talk seriously about these issues.
"However, we have not seen the agreement, which has not been made
public and we are cautious about it," she added.
Bansal said that in recent months, the commission had received "troubling reports" of new arrests and pressure on religious ethnic
minorities in Vietnam, alleging that the government continued to impose
limits on the number of candidates allowed to study for Roman Catholic
priesthood.
"We would ask that there be a monitoring system put in place to
ensure that the agreement is met and that the other issues are
addressed," she said.
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