Vietnam Proposed for Religious Blacklist
RFA
03/20/2012
A religious freedom
watchdog again calls for U.S. action against the Southeast Asian nation.
Vietnam should be returned
to a U.S. State Department list of the world’s worst religious freedom
offenders, according to a new
report by a bipartisan commission which wants improved bilateral relations
to be based on “concrete improvements” in Hanoi’s rights record.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a congressional
watchdog, said the one-party communist Vietnamese government controls all
religious communities, restricts and penalizes independent religious practice
severely, and represses individuals and groups viewed as challenging its
authority.
The commission also recommended maintaining Burma, North Korea, and China as
“countries of particular concern” (CPC) on religious freedom, a designation that
can carry economic sanctions unless governments address the U.S concerns.
Aside from the three East Asian nations, those already in the so-called CPC
blacklist updated annually by the State Department are Eritrea, Iran, Saudi
Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan.
The commission said in its annual report Tuesday that it is recommending to
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that Vietnam, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Tajikistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan be included in the CPC list this year.
Call to reinstate
The U.S. State Department had included Vietnam in the CPC list from 2004 to 2006
but has since ignored repeated calls by the commission to reinstate the country
on the blacklist.
“Vietnam deserves to be a listed among the world’s worst violators of religious
freedom and it’s difficult to understand why they are not. The facts clearly
speak for themselves,” said Scott Flipse, Deputy Director of the USCIRF.
In 2011, Vietnam continued to imprison and detain individuals for religious
activity and advocacy for religious freedom, the commission said, adding that
independent religious activity remains illegal while legal protections for
government-approved religious organizations are vague.
New converts to ethnic-minority Protestantism and members of at least one
Buddhist community faced discrimination, intimidation, and pressure to renounce
their faith, it said.
“Vietnam is one of our new best friends in Asia and there are opportunities to
cooperate on trade and security issues, but Hanoi should not be rewarded without
concrete progress on human rights and religious freedom,” Flipse said.
“The U.S. must condition progress in the relationship until there are concrete
improvements in religious freedom and related rights.”
Lingering abuses
USCIRF said that even as a nominally civilian government took power in Burma and
implemented several political reforms in recent months, religious abuses have
lingered.
“Despite changes in other areas, religious freedom conditions have not improved
in Burma this year,” Flipse said.
Religious groups, particularly ethnic minority Christians and Muslims and
Buddhist monks suspected of engaging in anti-government activity, faced
surveillance, arrest, severe restrictions on worship, and targeted violence in
Burma, the report said.
Many monks who participated in peaceful democracy demonstrations in 2007 remain
in prison, the group said, and a ban on independent Protestant house church
activities remains.
“Burma should not be rewarded for actions it has yet to take and targeted
sanctions should remain until the Rohingya Muslims are free from discrimination,
all Buddhist monks are freed unconditionally, and Christians are no longer
targets in the Burmese militaries ongoing war with ethnic minorities,” Flipse
said.
Widespread violations
The Chinese government routinely violated freedom of thought, conscience, and
religion or belief this year, ignoring its international obligations to protect
these rights, USCIRF reported.
“Religious freedom continues to be a thorny bilateral issue” between the U.S.
and China, Flipse said.
“The [ruling Chinese] Communist Party is getting the message that religion will
not disappear, but they still have to decide how to deal with groups that resist
government control and oversight—do they accommodate or repress. Too often they
repress brutally with predicable results,” he said.
Religious groups and individuals considered to threaten national security or
social harmony, or whose practices are deemed cult-like, faced severe
restrictions, harassment, detention, imprisonment, and other abuses, the report
said, pointing specifically to conditions for Tibetan Buddhists and Uyghur
Muslims.
China also detained hundreds of unregistered Protestants and Catholics in 2011,
while adherents of the spiritual Falun Gong sect were tortured and mistreated in
detention. Attorneys representing religious groups were also targeted by
authorities.
“The U.S. must attempt a ‘whole of government’ approach to human rights with
China,” Flipse said.
“Human rights discussions should not be cordoned off to an annual human rights
dialogue, but connected to every part of the bilateral relationship.”
Scathing reports
Following the December death of leader Kim Jong Il and the succession of his son
Kim Jong Un, USCIRF said North Korea remains one of the world’s most repressive
regimes last year, with a “deplorable human rights and religious freedom
record.”
The group cited continued reports of discrimination and harassment of both
authorized and unauthorized religious activity in 2011, as well as the arrest,
torture, and possible execution of those conducting clandestine religious
activity.
It said asylum-seekers repatriated from China routinely faced mistreatment and
imprisonment, particularly those suspected of engaging in religious activities,
having religious affiliations, or possessing religious literature.
Watch listed
Laos remained on the USCIRF watch list for 2012 based on “serious religious
freedom abuses” which, the commission said, continued during the past year.
It said that while religious freedom conditions have improved for the majority
Buddhist groups and for Christians, Muslims, and Baha’is living in urban areas,
the government restricted religious practices through its legal codes and
religious rights abuses continued in some rural areas.
“Provincial authorities continue to see the growth of Protestantism among ethnic
communities as a security threat, despite some improvements elsewhere in Laos,”
Flipse said.
USCIRF documented violations by rural officials against Protestants including
detentions, surveillance, harassment, property confiscations, forced
relocations, and forced renunciations of faith.
“Training Lao officials to protect human rights and urging them to stop violence
and intimidation against ethnic minority Protestants should be job one at the
U.S. Embassy in Laos,” he said.
Reported by Joshua Lipes.