Religious freedom in Vietnam improved since last summer, but more progress is needed according to a recent report released by the U.S. Department of State.

|TOP|As indicated by the 2005 International Religious Freedom Report, the Vietnamese government has made progress in respecting religious freedom, including releasing a number of religious prisoners, permitting a national convention by a Protestant organisation in the country and displaying greater tolerance for house churches.

The report – released on Nov. 8 by the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour – collected information about religious freedom in Vietnam from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005.

Among the improvements made, the report highlighted the loosening of restrictions on Protestant house churches, especially in the Central Highlands. Many of these hundreds of house churches, which were ordered to shut down in 2001, were allowed to silently reopen during the data collection period for the report.

In addition, the report showed that there is generally greater religious tolerance. According to reports, there is no or little punishment for some recognised religious groups who hold underground religious activities without informing the government, as well as for unrecognised Protestant groups conducting religious services with the government’s knowledge.

Yet despite the progress made, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice still lists Vietnam along with China, North Korea, Burma, Eritrea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for continual religious freedom violations and persecutions. Among the report’s list of complaints against Vietnam’s religious intolerance are regarding local officials who continue to hinder the functioning of house churches, such as in Dak Lak Province, and Protestant ethnic minorities who still face pressure to renounce their faith.

|AD|Moreover, “credible” reports inform of police random detainment and even beatings of religious believers, particularly in the mountainous ethnic minority areas. In the ethnic minority region of the Northwest Highlands, for example, there are no officially recognised Protestant churches despite more than 110,000 believers in the region, according to the report.

“Local officials have repressed unregistered Protestant believers in the Central and Northwest Highlands and other areas by forcing church gatherings to cease, closing house churches, and pressuring individuals to renounce their religious beliefs,” the Religious Freedom Report stated.

Furthermore, the government also places limitations on teaching materials, expanding training facilities, publishing religious materials, and expanding the number of clergy in religious training.

In response to the report, the foreign ministry spokesman of Vietnam, Le Dung, said, "We reject the U.S. decision to continue to include Vietnam in the list of 'countries of particular concern' on religious freedom.”

"This is a wrongful decision which does not reflect correctly the religious freedom situation in Vietnam," he said in a statement posted on the ministry website.

Vietnam was first designated as a “Country of Particular Concern” by the US Secretary of State in September 2004 because of severe violations or religious freedom. It has since then remained as a CPC.







Michelle Vu
Christian Today Correspondent