By Dan Robinson
At
a U.S. congressional hearing Thursday, witnesses challenged the testimony of a
U.S. official who was defending a decision to remove Vietnam from a list of
countries failing to do enough to promote religious freedom. VOA congressional
correspondent Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill.
In
a move that angered some members of Congress and was criticized by human rights
groups, the State Department in late 2006 removed Vietnam from a list of
Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) believed to be severe violators of
religious freedom.
Whether
Vietnam should remain off that list is a decision U.S. officials will have to
make, and was also the focus of a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill.
U.S.
Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, John Hanford, points
to significant progress by the government of Vietnam in addressing key
religious freedom concerns.
Noting
that to be on the list a government must be found to be engaging or tolerating
systematic, ongoing egregious violations, Hanford says legal changes implemented
by Hanoi banned such things as forced renunciations of faith, and granted clear
legal rights for freedom of religious belief and practice. "I would say
that what we have seen occur in Vietnam is the biggest turnaround that I have
seen a sitting government make in a two year period on religious freedom,"
he said.
But
Hanford's remarks, which also attributed progress by Hanoi to what he called
strong diplomatic engagement by the U.S., were challenged by other witnesses.
Leonard
Leo of the U. S. Commission
on International Religious Freedom, says what he calls serious
and systematic problems continue to darken the religious freedom picture in
Vietnam.
These
include abuses by provincial authorities; long delays in processing religious
group applications for legal recognition; confiscations of land of ethnic
minority Protestants and in some areas training of provincial officials to deny
medical, educational and other services to religious families or families of
converts.
At
the core of problems, Leo says Buddhist groups such as the United Buddhist
Church of Vietnam and others are still viewed by the government as a threat to
its power. "There is no religious freedom if there is control. What
Vietnam essentially has done is, it has begrudgingly allowed religious worship
but it has built a very large fence around it, an effort to ensure that it does
not grow, and in an effort to make sure that the religions that are present in
Vietnam are doing things that the government wants them to do," he said.
Amnesty
International representative T. Kumar asserts Vietnam's government continues to
use criminal laws to harass believers, particularly those in ethnic minority
groups. "Even though they have these regulations, we have documented
reports that still forced renunciation is going on, in the Montagnard areas,
still people have been arrested, short-term detentions, harassment and other
issues, and people are still fleeing to neighboring Cambodia," he said.
Nguyen
Dinh Thang of the Vietnamese-American organization Boat People SOS, asserts
that little has changed in the Vietnam government's attitude toward religious
freedom. "Before the CPC designation Vietnam closed down over
four-thousand protestant churches, mainly in the central highlands and the northwest
highlands. After the ordinance was promulgated so far only about two dozen
religious organizations or churches have benefited from that ordinance. The
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, prior to the [CPC] designation they were
outlawed, now they continue to be outlawed. The entire leadership was under
temple arrest, now they remain under temple arrest. There is no change. And the
catholic church, prior [to CPC] designation Father Ly was in prison, now he is
still in prison," he said.
In
other testimony, Chris Seiple of the Institute for Global Engagement supported
Ambassador Hanford's view of progress, citing among other things the cessation
of forced renunciation, and increasing registration of churches. "There
are significant and ongoing challenges to be sure, but I think we are in the
beginning of a significant and strategic paradigm shift. We are in the initial
stages, but we have to take the long view," he said.
Democratic
congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, who chaired the hearing, used her remarks to
draw attention to Father Nguyen Van Ly, the noted dissident and Roman Catholic
priest imprisoned again last March, along with the recent arrests of two
Vietnamese-American democracy activists: "I want the government of Vietnam
to know that we will continue to fight for the release of our U.S. citizens, as
well as for other dissidents currently being imprisoned in Vietnam," she
said.
Sanchez
says she hopes the U.S. Senate acts on legislation called the Vietnam Human
Rights Act, approved by the House of Representatives last September.
Among
other things, it would prohibit any increase in non-humanitarian aid to Vietnam
beyond 2007 levels unless it shows substantial progress toward releasing
political and religious prisoners and solidifying religious freedom.
The
sponsor of the legislation, Republican copngressman Chris Smith, told VOA
Thursday he still hopes the Senate will act on the measure which also supports
democracy programs for Vietnam, and contains funds to help the U.S.-government
funded Radio Free Asia overcome Vietnamese government jamming of its
transmissions.
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