Vietnam:
Religious Freedom Denied
Buddhists Remain Behind
Bars While Vietnam Hosts UN Buddhist Celebration
Human Rights Watch
May 8, 2008
New York
– As Vietnam prepares to host the United Nations Day of Visak next week, one of
the most sacred days for Buddhists, the government should cease the persecution,
harassment and imprisonment of Buddhists and other independent religious groups,
Human Rights Watch said today. More than 400 people remain behind bars in
Vietnam for their peaceful religious or political activities.
As a state party to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other human rights
covenants, Vietnam must respect freedom of religious belief and worship.
“It is a travesty that Vietnam has been allowed to host a major international
Buddhist celebration while its state policy is political control of every
religious organization –Vietnam continues to systematically imprison and
persecute independent Buddhists as well as followers of other religions,” said
Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “All members of the
United Nations must respect freedom of religious belief and worship. Vietnam,
now a member of the Security Council, should be exemplary – not among the worst
– in this regard.”
Human Rights Watch also
urged the United States to reinstate Vietnam on its global blacklist of
countries that violate the right to religious freedom.
Repression of Buddhists
Visak, celebrated by millions of Buddhists each year, commemorates the birth,
enlightenment and death of the Buddha. This year’s Visak celebration, which has
been recognized as an international holiday by the UN since 1999, is expected to
draw 3,500 delegates from 80 countries to Vietnam for a series of events
conducted throughout the country from May 13-17.
The theme of this year’s UN Visak Day is “Buddhist Contribution to Building a
Just, Democratic and Civil Society.” Yet Vietnam regularly imprisons religious
activists who advocate for the government to uphold civil rights and religious
freedom and implement democratic reforms.
The Visak celebrations fall one year after Vietnam courts sentenced nine
Buddhists to prison terms of two to six years in May 2007 for “causing public
disorder” under article 245 of Vietnam’s penal code. Four of the nine were
convicted after protesting the imprisonment of Hoa Hao Buddhists in 2006 in Dong
Thap province. While Hoa Hao Buddhism is an officially recognized religion in
Vietnam, many members strongly resist official pressure to affiliate with the
government-appointed committee that oversees Hoa Hao affairs. Two Hoa Hao
Buddhists self-immolated in 2005 to protest religious repression and detention
of their leaders.
The remaining five sentenced in May 2007 are Theravada Buddhist monks who are
members of an ethnic minority group known as Khmer Krom in Soc Trang province.
The five were convicted for their participation in a half-day peaceful protest
earlier in the year when more than 200 Khmer Krom monks demonstrated for greater
religious freedom.
Leaders of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) have been
imprisoned or detained under pagoda arrest for many years for appealing for the
government to respect human rights and cease its interference in religious
affairs. Once the largest organization of Buddhists in southern and central
Vietnam, the UBCV has faced increased harassment and repression in the weeks
leading up to the UN’s Day of Visak, with government officials reportedly trying
to evict UBCV monk Thich Tri Khai from his pagoda in Lam Dong province in late
April in order to control it during the Visak celebrations.
Repression of other religious groups
Authorities harshly suppress most mass public protests, with the most recent
crackdown taking place in April 2008 in the Central Highlands against a wave of
demonstrations by Montagnard Christians in Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces. The
Montagnards – many of whom belong to independent house churches – were calling
for release of Montagnard prisoners, land rights, and religious freedom. Police
and soldiers forcefully dispersed the protesters and sealed off many villages,
particularly in Ayun Pah, Ia Grai and Cu Se districts of Gia Lai, to prevent the
demonstrations from spreading further. Dozens of protesters were arrested.
Even members of churches officially recognized by the government are starting to
publicly air their grievances. In March 2008, the government-authorized Southern
Evangelical Church of Vietnam released a rare public appeal calling on the
government to cease its discrimination against Christians, stop interfering in
the church’s internal affairs, and return confiscated church properties. Earlier
this year, hundreds of Roman Catholics – one of the larger officially recognized
religions in Vietnam – conducted unprecedented prayer vigils in Hanoi to demand
the return of church property confiscated by the government.
US urged to reinstate Vietnam on religious freedom blacklist
Human Rights Watch joins the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF),
a governmental body created by Congress, in urging the United States to
reinstate Vietnam’s designation as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for
religious freedom violations. The United States, which designated Vietnam as a
CPC in 2004, lifted the designation from Vietnam just days before President
George W. Bush’s visit to Hanoi in November 2006.
In a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on May 1, the USCIRF
maintained that the State Department’s decision to remove Vietnam from the CPC
list in 2004 was premature:
“A commission delegation traveled to Vietnam in October 2007 and found that
progress in improving conditions for religious freedom has been very uneven:
improvements for some religious communities do not extend to others; progress in
one province is not similarly realized in another; national laws are not fully
implemented at the local and provincial levels; and there continue to be far too
many abuses and restrictions of religious freedom, including the imprisonment of
individuals for reasons related to their religious activity or religious freedom
advocacy.”
Human Rights Watch called on the Vietnamese government to release people
imprisoned for peaceful religious or political activities and end restrictions
on independent religious organizations who choose not to affiliate with the
officially authorized religious organizations under the control of the
government.
“Independent religious groups should be allowed to freely organize and manage
themselves, conduct religious activities, and even engage in peaceful public
protests,” said Pearson. “Vietnam’s respect for human rights and religious
freedom has sharply deteriorated since the US removed it from its blacklist of
religious freedom violators and Vietnam’s subsequent acceptance into the World
Trade Organization.”
For more of Human Rights Watch’s work on Vietnam, please visit:
http://hrw.org/doc/?t=asia&c=vietna
For more information, please contact:
In New York, Elaine Pearson (English): +1-646-291-7169 (mobile)
In Washington, DC, Sophie Richardson (English, Mandarin): +1-202-612-4341; or
+1-917-721-7473 (mobile)
In London, Brad Adams (English): +44-20-7713-2767; or +44-790-872-8333 (mobile)