Senator in Rare Jail Visit with Vietnamese Priest

By Christina Toh-Pantin
Reuters
January 8, 2004

SOC TRANG TOWN, Vietnam (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Sam Brownback Thursday held a rare meeting with a jailed Vietnamese dissident priest, and said he was encouraged the communist nation was heeding international criticism about its human rights record.

"I think the Vietnamese government is starting to tune into concerns about religious freedom," Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, told Reuters in an interview.

But the outspoken critic of Vietnam and other governments viewed as repressing personal freedoms said in a statement at the conclusion of a weeklong fact-finding trip: "I continue to have concerns about religious liberty in Vietnam."

Brownback is believed to be one of the few, and possibly the only, foreign government representative to visit Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly since he was jailed in Ha Nam province, 60 km (37 miles) south of Hanoi.

The 58-year-old priest has long been a thorn in the side of Hanoi, accusing the government of interfering in church activities. He has been charged with undermining national unity and disobeying probation rules.

Ly, whose three relatives were last year also sentenced to jail, appeared in good spirits, Brownback said in a telephone interview. One lens of his glasses was cracked, but "he appeared healthy and quite energetic," the senator said.

Brownback said he asked the cleric during the half-hour meeting attended by Vietnamese government officials why he was in jail.

"He said he was rather opaque about that and it wasn't really clear. Mostly we talked about Father Ly's views of the level of religious persecution," Brownback said.

Vietnam recognizes six religions, including Catholicism, but insists on controlling all major aspects of their operations, including whether they can open schools and approval of major leadership appointments.

Ly was originally sentenced to 20 years, which last year was commuted to 15 years. Brownback said Ly did not raise any requests for further clemency nor ask about his relatives.

Human rights groups say two of his nephews were sentenced to 32 months in jail for supporting their uncle. A niece was released for time already served while awaiting trial.

Brownback chairs the Senate's powerful Foreign Relations Committee's Asia and Pacific Affairs sub-committee. The visit may heal some of the rift between Vietnam and Congress, which has repeatedly tried to link aid to the donor-dependent nation and progress in personal freedoms.