USCIRF Annual Report 2004 - Vietnam

Already poor religious freedom conditions have deteriorated in several key areas in Vietnam during the last 18 months. Religious dissidents leaders have been harassed, detained, and imprisoned and the Vietnamese government has continued its crackdown against religious minorities in the northwestern provinces and the Central Highlands, including beatings and the forced renunciation of faith. For the past two years, the Commission has recommended that Vietnam be designated a "country of particular concern," or CPC. The State Department has yet to name Vietnam a CPC.

The government of Vietnam continues to restrict the activities of organized religious groups, particularly those deemed "to disrupt national unity," such as the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), the Protestant house church movement, and ethnic minority Christian groups. In the past year, religious dissidents have been imprisoned or placed under house arrest and the government continued its crackdown on religious minorities in the northwestern provinces and Central Highlands. Abuses included harassment and surveillance, beatings, church closings, and reportedly a concerted campaign to force believers to renounce their faith. These abuses are authorized at the highest levels of the Vietnamese government, according to documents obtained by human rights and non-governmental organizations. According to these documents, the government of Vietnam seeks to "stamp out" those sponsoring "peaceful revolution," including religious leaders and free speech and Internet advocates.

In the last year, the UBCV faced severe repression. Despite promises by Prime Minister Pham Van Khai in March 2003 that arrests and harassment would decrease, 26 of the UBCV's leaders were detained after an October 2003 meeting held to elect new officers. UBCV founders, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang and the Very Venerable Thich Quang Do, were detained and are currently under house arrest at their pagodas in Qui Nhon and Ho Chi Minh City, respectively. They both face charges related to espionage, a charge increasingly used against religious leaders, which carries with it a possible death sentence. There is urgent concern for Thich Huyen Quang's failing health and access to medical care while under detention.

The Vietnamese government also broadened its campaign against the ethnic minority population. According to documents smuggled out of Vietnam, Hmong Christians in the northwestern provinces of Vietnam reportedly continue to face pressure to renounce their faith. The documents allege that government officials with the Ministry of Public Security have entered places of worship, denounced believers, and forced them to sign confessions and take part in traditional animist rituals. If they refuse, they reportedly face harassment, beatings, imprisonment, or loss of access to government services. For example, in December 2002, officials in Lai Chau province reportedly used noxious gas to attack Hmong Christians during a house church worship service. In August 2002, Hmong Protestant Mua Bua Senh of Lai Chau province died after being beaten several times by Vietnamese officials who attempted to force him to renounce his faith. In the last year, the State Department reported that between one and seven ethnic minority Protestants died in police custody or died as a result of beatings, including Hmong Protestant Vang Seo Giao of Ha Giang province, who died in July 2003. The government of Vietnam has failed to explain adequately the circumstances of these deaths.

Information from Dak Lak and Gai Lai provinces indicates that the reported campaign of forced renunciation of faith continues in some areas of the Central Highlands. After public demonstrations in 2001 regarding land reform and religious freedom, the government of Vietnam forcefully suppressed religious activity in that region. The Vietnamese government has justified this repression, which has included arbitrary arrests and detention, church closings, beatings of pastors and other religious leaders, and even some deaths, by the presence of a separatist movement in the region. The government views the rapidly growing Protestant house church movement as a potential threat, and as a source of sympathy and organization for the separatist movement. Vietnamese authorities have failed to make distinctions between separatists, who may be responsible for violence, and house church Protestants. Reports in April 2004 from Dak Lak and Gai Lai provinces indicated that over the Easter weekend, violence had flared up again between the Vietnamese government and the indigenous Montagnard populations and that there were several deaths, and possibly hundreds injured and arrested.

Given the lack of judicial transparency, accurate figures on the number of religious prisoners in Vietnam is difficult to obtain, though there are reportedly over one hundred religious adherents in prison or under some form of detention. Hoa Hao Buddhists claim that at least eighteen Hoa Hao followers are in some form of detention. Twenty Hmong Protestants are reportedly in prison, along with dozens of Montagnard Christians in the Central Highlands, both groups having been detained in connection with the government's crackdown on religious minorities in 2001. There are at least ten Catholic priests and lay adherents still imprisoned, including Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly, who was detained after he submitted testimony to the Commission. Fr. Ly's original 15-year prison sentence was reduced to 10 years in June 2003. His niece and nephews were sentenced in September 2003 to between three and five years in prison for passing information to human rights organizations about their uncle's arrest. Because of international pressure, Fr. Ly's relatives were subsequently released.

Vietnamese government officials harass, arrest, and detain individuals who practice their faith outside the government approved religious organizations. Unofficial house church Protestants, UBCV monks, and ethnic minority Protestants are three groups reportedly most subject to this type of harassment. For example, Montagnard Protestants in the Central Highlands have been detained or imprisoned for engaging in religious and other independent activities that are not permitted by government authorities.

Communist party and government officials interfere in the internal affairs of all organized religious communities, registered or otherwise. For example, the government places restrictions on Roman Catholics by imposing limits on the number of candidates allowed to study for the priesthood and by confiscating church property. In addition, the government controls the appointment and assignment of Catholic clergy and also plays an active role in the selection of the bishops, effectively vetoing those papal appointments of which it disapproves.

Commissioners and staff have traveled to Vietnam and met with Vietnamese government officials and religious leaders. In addition, the Commission has met repeatedly with officials in the Administration, Members of Congress, and congressional staff about current U.S. policy and the Commission's policy recommendations.

In February 2004, Commission Chair Michael K. Young testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's hearing Trade and Human Rights: The Future of U.S.-Vietnamese Relations. He discussed Vietnam's record on religious freedom, as well as the Commission's recommendations for U.S. policy. In October 2003, Commission Vice Chair Nina Shea testified at a joint Congressional Caucus on Vietnam and Congressional Human Rights Caucus hearing on Vietnam entitled, Vietnam: A People Silenced.

In November 2003, Commissioner Shea made a statement at a press conference by Representatives Zoe Lofgren, Loretta Sanchez, and Ed Royce, who unveiled new legislation, H.Res. 427. This Resolution cites the Commission's latest report on Vietnam and urges that Vietnam be designated a CPC, and also advocates that the "Congress and the executive branch implement the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom." The House passed H.Res. 427 on November 19, 2003.

Other pieces of legislation introduced in the 108th Congress are the Vietnam Human Rights Act, H.R. 1587, and the Vietnam Freedom of Information Act of 2003, H.R. 1019. Both of these include references to Commission recommendations. The Commission has urged passage of both bills by the Congress.

In addition to its recommendation that Vietnam be designated as a CPC, the Commission has also recommended that the U.S. government should:

• make clear to the government of Vietnam that ending violations of religious freedom is essential to the continued expansion of U.S.-Vietnam relations, urging the Vietnamese government to:
• halt the arrest, detention, imprisonment, and intimidating surveillance of persons on account of their manifestation of religion or belief, including members of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands and the northwestern provinces;
• allow religious groups to govern themselves, select their own leaders, worship publicly, express and advocate their religious beliefs, distribute religious literature, and conduct educational, charitable, and humanitarian activities outside the government and state-controlled religious organizations and eliminate controls on officially registered organizations;
• establish a legal framework for religious groups to engage in religious activities and charitable work outside the officially recognized organizations;
• pass a law in the National Assembly banning forced renunciation of faith and detailing penalties for those who carry out such practices;
• repeal or amend the 1999 Administrative Decree on Religion and ensure that any new law on religion meets international standards;
• return confiscated religious properties and cease undue interference with the construction of new religious buildings, the repair of existing ones, and the use of homes as places of worship;
• re-open the churches or meetings points closed in 2001 in the Central Highlands and northwestern provinces;
• investigate and publicly report on the beating deaths of Hmong Protestants leaders Mua Bua Senh and Vang Seo Giao and prosecute anyone responsible for their deaths; and,
• halt the practice of diplomatic pressure, offering of bounties, or cross-border police incursions for the purpose of forcibly repatriating ethnic minorities from Cambodia and cease arbitrary detention of those who have returned to Vietnam from Cambodia;
• withhold its support for loans to Vietnam from international financial institutions, except those providing for basic human needs, and withhold U.S. assistance from the Millennium Challenge Corporation, until the government of Vietnam agrees to make substantial improvements in the protection of religious freedom;
• urge the Vietnamese government to provide unhindered access to members of all religious communities in Vietnam, particularly those in the Central Highlands and the northwestern provinces;
• expand funding to overcome jamming of Radio Free Asia broadcasts and increase Vietnamese language programming;
• expand exchange programs, such as the Vietnam Education Foundation, to individuals in Vietnam who advocate religious freedom, the rule of law, and legal reform, including individuals from Vietnam's ethnic and religious minority communities in the northwestern provinces and the Central Highlands;
• create exchange programs between the Vietnamese National Assembly and its staff and the U.S. Congress; and,
• expand existing rule of law programs to include regular exchanges between international experts on religion and law and appropriate representatives from the Vietnamese government, academia, and its religious communities to discuss the impact on Vietnam's laws and decrees on religious freedom and other human rights, to train public security forces of these issues, and to discuss ways to incorporate international standards of human rights in Vietnamese law and legal practice.