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Vietnam arrested monks during Bush talks-activists
24 Jun 2005 Source: Reuters
GENEVA, June 24 (Reuters) - Vietnamese authorities arrested a group of monks as Prime Minister Phan Van Khai discussed steps towards religious freedoms with U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington, a human rights group said on Friday.
About 10 monks were detained last Tuesday by plain-clothed security agents who prevented them from visiting Thich Huyen Quang, patriarch of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, according to the World Organisation against Torture.
"The agents then instructed the driver of the van to take the monks to the Go Gang police station where the monks remain in detention," the Geneva-based coalition of 300 human rights groups said in a statement.
It said it was "gravely concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of the monks as well as by the general climate of arbitrariness against UBCV monks".
Vietnamese officials were not immediately available for comment.
The movement's patriarch, accused of possessing state secrets, is barred from moving far from his monastery in Binh Dinh, 650 km (404 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City.
But Hanoi denies that he is under house arrest or that it represses religion.
Bush, at talks in Washington on Tuesday, told Khai that more reforms on human rights and religious freedoms were needed in the country but that he supported its bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The first visit by a Vietnamese prime minister since the Vietnam war ended 30 years ago, it was marked by protestors denouncing alleged repression of freedom of religion.
Bush noted that a "landmark agreement" was signed with Vietnam to make it easier for people to worship freely there.
The May 5 agreement commits Vietnam to implement new legislation on religious practice, allow churches to open, and end the detention of religious leaders.
The government permits six religious groups to operate, including a Buddhist one intended as a replacement for the Unified Buddhist Church which was officially disbanded in 1981.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |