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Human rights groups condemn Vietnamese instruction to resolutely subdue religion
By Michael Ireland Feb.19, 2008 © Assist News Service
Two Christian human rights groups have condemned the Vietnamese government’s 2007 training manual on religion for officials, which contains instructions to « resolutely subdue the abnormally rapid and spontaneous development » of Protestant Christianity in the northern provinces. In a new report, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) and the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) provide an analysis of the manual, which is a revised version of the widely-criticized internal 2006 training manual, entitled, « Training Document : Concerning the Task of the Protestant Religion in the Northern Mountainous Region. » The report points out that although some of the most concerning provisions in the 2006 original have been amended, the new manual retains the original, repressive objective. It argues that « however freshly it is couched in the 2007 manual, the deliberate response of the government continues to be to ’resolutely subdue’ what it perceives to be “the abnormally rapid and spontaneous development” of Protestantism in the northern highlands. » The report calls on the Vietnamese government to « unequivocally prohibit forcing renunciations of faith » and highlights the continued political suspicion about religion in Vietnam, the restrictive control over churches and church leaders and the deficiency in registering house churches in the region in accordance with the law. Vu Quoc Dung, Head of Asia Desk at ISHR, said, "The revised edition reduces the use of inflammatory agitprop language, which was previously used to stoke distrust of Protestantism and justify a repressive policy. However, we remain concerned about the tenor of this revised manual and its approach to ethnic minority Christians. After citing national security concerns in the post-war period, the government now cites the protection of traditional cultures as its pretext for forcing renunciations of Christian faith, in flagrant violation of international legal protections for freedom of religion. We maintain that any policy which leaves room for forcing renunciations of faith must be withdrawn.” Alexa Papadouris, Advocacy Director at CSW, said, “The revised manual represents a change of language, not a change of heart. The government of Vietnam must disavow its intention to ‘resolutely subdue’ the development of Protestantism, and must fully respect the freedom of its ethnic minority citizens to adopt and practice a religion according to choice. We urge the international community to recognize the deficiency of Vietnam’s policy on religion, and to call upon the Vietnamese government to fully respect and protect freedom of religion and belief.” The analysis can be downloaded from the CSW website at http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.a... . CSW published an analysis of the 2006 training manual, which is also available on the CSW website. CSW is a human rights organization which specializes in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all. For more information or a copy of the analysis, please contact Penny Hollings, Campaigns and Media Manager at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0) 20 8329 0045, email pennyhollings csw.org.uk or visit interro_liens_callback . Click here to read the full report
Vietnam Human Rights Network |