USCIRF Testimony by Commissioner Leonard Leo
Religious Freedom in Vietnam:
Observations and Concerns After Recent USCIRF Trip to Vietnam
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 6, 2007
Contact:
Judith Ingram, Communications Director,
(202) 523-3240, ext. 127
WASHINGTON-Congresswoman
Sanchez, members of the Human Rights Caucus, thank you for holding this
hearing and for inviting us to testify. The U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom sent a delegation to Vietnam Oct.
23-Nov. 2, 2007. We are pleased to have this opportunity to share with
you some of our observations.
Vietnam's overall
human rights record remains very poor and deteriorated in the last
year. The government of Vietnam has moved decisively to repress
challenges to its authority. Dozens of legal and political reform
advocates, free speech activists, labor unionists, and independent
religious leaders and religious freedom advocates have been arrested,
placed under home detention or surveillance, threatened, intimidated,
and harassed.
The UN Human Rights Committee in
2002 criticized Vietnam's implementation of its international human
rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights. The government has arbitrarily arrested and sentenced
to jail terms individuals who express views and write about human
rights and democracy-and the freedoms required to fulfill them.
In
addition, the government views peaceful expression or demonstrations
for greater religious freedom-including advocating for legal and
political reforms needed to ensure it-as challenges to its authority.
These
are serious problems that complicate U.S.-Vietnamese relations. We
believe it is in the long-term interests of both countries to pursue a
relationship built on both prosperity and the rule of law, religious
freedom, and related human rights-which President Bush called "the
non-negotiable demands of human liberty."
Our
concern to advance religious freedom and other human rights in Vietnam
is not an American ideal. It is a universal concern, desired by
millions of Vietnamese citizens, and is part of Vietnam's international
obligations.
Current Religious Freedom Conditions:
Here is an assessment of current conditions of freedom of thought,
conscience, and religion or belief in Vietnam.
First,
religious freedom conditions in Vietnam have improved since 2004.
Ambassador Hanford has devoted considerable effort to advance religious
freedom to become a high priority in U.S.-Vietnamese relations. The
government of Vietnam engaged itself to take measures to improve
religious freedom concerns and legal issues, and release selected
prisoners. There has been noticeable progress.
The
zone of toleration for religious worship has greatly expanded for most
of Vietnam's religious communities. Among ethnic minority Protestants,
closed churches have opened and forced renunciations of faith have been
greatly reduced. More Vietnamese are practicing religion than ever
before, and the Vietnamese government realizes that it can no longer
fully repress the demands of its people for the freedom to manifest and
express freedom of religion individually or in community with others.
But
the Commission remains skeptical of current conditions, particularly in
the context of Vietnam's recent repression of peaceful political and
religious dissent. While we believe that many religious freedom
conditions are moving in the right direction, they are not yet where
they need to be-particularly when compared to Vietnam's international
obligations to protect the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion
or belief.
There remain serious and systematic
problems that darken the religious freedom picture. Let me briefly
sketch out three areas of concern:
- Problems in Provincial Areas
First,
it is clear that in some areas of the country provincial authorities
are using their authority to restrict and abuse religious freedom.
Central government authorities either ignore these problems or have not
yet done enough to curtail them.
In Dak Lak
province, we met with one "house church" Protestant pastor who told us
how government authorities had threatened to remove his residency
permit, brought lawsuits against him to confiscate his property,
harassed and threatened his congregation until many of them left, and
then put a sign up at the end of the road prohibiting entrance to a
"secret military area." He said that 14 other congregations affiliated
with him had experienced similar problems.
Vietnam
requires all religious groups to apply for legal recognition. Many
hundreds of applications for legal recognition are either ignored or
denied-leaving the congregations vulnerable and technically illegal.
One Protestant pastor told us that after his application was denied
police harassment increased, he was interrogated and briefly detained.
These
problems are particularly acute in the Northwest provinces among the
Hmong Protestants, but there many similar cases in the Central
Highlands, Mekong Delta, and Central Coast regions. In the Northwest
provinces, police have used violence, fines, and harassment to stop
ethnic Protestants from legally registering their congregations.
Even
when churches are granted legal approval, there remain problems, as
their registration sometimes limits them to certain "specific
activities." This enables government officials to use the registration
process to monitor and control religious activities. "They allow us to
worship on Sundays," said one Protestant leader, "but they want to stop
us from growing."
There are other issues in the
provinces that are serious and require immediate attention from
officials in Hanoi. In the Central Highlands and Central Coast, local
officials have confiscated the land of ethnic minority Protestants. In
the Central Highlands, provincial officials have been trained to deny
medical, educational, financial and other government services to
"religious families" or to deny them to the families of recent
converts.
And, in the most serious recent case,
police in Phu Yen province severely beat a young Protestant man who
refused to renounce his faith. His name was Y Het. Provincial officials
reportedly forced this man, injured and illiterate, to put his
thumbprint on a document stating he was beaten in a drunken brawl. Y
Het died of internal injuries received in police custody on March 23,
2007.
The Commission met with religious affairs and
public security officials in Hanoi. They assured us that problems in
the provinces do not reflect central government policy. We pressed
officials in Hanoi to train and, as needed, punish local and provincial
officials who restricted or abused religious freedom. We fully expect
them to address problems in the provincial areas as they promised. We
are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
- Buddhist Groups Face Harassment & Abuses
The
second area of concern regards the Vietnamese government's harassment
and detentions of members of religious groups that seek independence or
autonomy from government control. This is particularly true of the
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), some Hoa Hao and Cao Dai
groups, as well as Khmer Buddhists.
During our trip
we met with the Venerable Thich Quang Do and other leaders of the UBCV.
UBCV leaders are detained under "pagoda arrest" orders. Monks and nuns
who seek advice from recognized UBCV leaders are harassed or publicly
"denounced." Youth, family, and charitable activities of the UBCV are
actively banned.
Just last week, UBCV monk Thich
Thien Mien, who formed an association of former political and religious
prisoners following his release in 2005 after 26 years in prison, was
detained by police during a meeting he was holding with several other
UBCV leaders.
The UBCV, along with some Hoa Hao and
Cao Dai Buddhists groups, want to organize independently of
government-approved Buddhist religious organizations. They want to
worship without harassment, choose and educate their own leaders, and
carry out humanitarian and charitable works.
The
Vietnamese government rightly recognizes differences among Protestant
denominations and allows them to organize and carry out legal
operations. But, among the Buddhists, peaceful demands for independence
are treated as a threat to government control. In addition, peaceful
expression of views or demonstrations for greater religious freedom-and
the legal and political reforms needed to ensure it-are treated as a
challenge to the government's authority.
This is
the reason why, in October, Vietnamese President Triet threatened
publicly that he would arrest the Venerable Thich Quang Do; the reason
why 12 other UBCV leaders remain under some form of "pagoda detention";
and why up to 12 Hoa Hao have been arrested in recent years, including
four last year for staging a peaceful hunger strike protesting past
previous arrests;. It is why five Cao Dai remain in prison for
distributing pamphlet's critical of the Vietnamese government's
restrictions on some Cao Dai activities, and why five Khmer Buddhist
monks are in prison for organizing peaceful demonstrations to protest
restrictions on ordination and language training in Soc Trang province.
These
actions are indefensible: the government of Vietnam cannot repress
religious freedom because it fears a loss of authority. The limits are
set out in Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, which Vietnam has ratified.
- Prisoners of Concern
Third,
and last, the State Department 2007 IRF report claims that there are no
longer any "prisoners of concern," that is, what the State Department
considers as religious prisoners, in Vietnam. Such a statement fails to
take into consideration the prisoners mentioned above. It also does not
take into account those who, motivated by their religion and
conscience, express views or organize in support of legal or political
reforms required to ensure religious freedom, or those who monitor
freedom of religion and have been punished for that, or those who
circulate their findings. Prisoners such as Fr. Nguyen Van Ly, Nguyen
Van Dai, and Le Thi Cong Nhan, for example, were charged under vague
national security laws for the peaceful expression of universally
guaranteed rights to freedom of association, speech, assembly, and the
freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
The
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom concludes that all
three should be "prisoners of concern" when the State Department makes
its CPC status determination. The State Department CPC decisions are
currently pending and an announcement on them will be made in the next
several months. The Commission urges the Department of State to seek
the immediate and unconditional release of these three prisoners.
We
were allowed to meet Dai and Cong Nhan in prison outside Hanoi. After
examining the cases of these two courageous individuals, we conclude
that they were imprisoned for exercising universally guaranteed rights
and freedoms. Lawyer Dai seems to have been targeted specifically for
his advocacy and reporting on religious freedom conditions. We were
gravely disappointed that the recent Appeals Court decision did not
reverse their sentences and release them from prison.
The
Commission will continue to seek the immediate and unconditional
release of both Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, and call for the
release of all Vietnamese human rights defenders who have been jailed
under similar circumstances. We believe their peaceful monitoring of
and advocacy for political reform, religious freedom, and other human
rights strengthens rather than threatens the Vietnamese state. This is
essential for religious freedom protections to fully take root.
CONCLUSION
The
U.S. Government and its officials must continue to speak with a single,
strong voice on human rights, including religious freedom. We must
continue to convey to senior Vietnamese leaders that religious freedom
is a top priority to us, that it is a critical issue in our bilateral
relationship, and that the central Government must take concerted
action to end abuses and harassment of religious believers.
We
must continue to make clear that it is incumbent on the leaders of
Vietnam to take their country on the path towards openness, prosperity,
and freedom. Better U.S.-Vietnamese relations depend on it.
The
U.S. Congress has an important role to play in setting the agenda for
future U.S.-Vietnam relations. The Commission looks forward to meeting
with all members of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus to share our
perspective and recommendations for improving religious freedom and
related human rights in Vietnam.
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