Quê Me Quê Me: Action for democracy in Vietnam & Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
European Parliament members have urged EU leaders to push discussion of human rights issues at an Asia-Europe summit meeting set to open in Hanoi on Friday.
In an open letter to European Commission President Romano Prodi released Thursday, 109 members of the European Parliament also urged EU leaders to press for the immediate release of Buddhist dissidents in Vietnam.
“We are deeply disturbed by the continued detention of Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and (deputy) Thich Quang Do, prominent dissidents and leaders of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam,” the letter said.
An intensified government crackdown last fall against the Buddhist group resulted in a 10-hour standoff between Vietnamese security police and more than 1,000 monks who had assembled to elect a new leadership.
Huyen and Do, who have both spent more than two decades in detention, were again placed under house arrest, while six other monks were given two-year administrative detentions.
The letter said “sustainable trade, investment and economic development cannot be achieved in the absence of the development of democracy, the rule of law, civil society and human rights.”
Vietnam has come under regular criticism for its violations of human rights and religious freedom.
The biennial forum, begun in 1996, brings together 38 Asian and European leaders to discuss a variety of political and economic cooperation issues. This year, tensions on the Korean peninsula, terrorism and the military-ruled regime of Myanmar are expected to be on the agenda.
Vietnam recognizes only six government-sanctioned religions, but several banned groups operate without its approval. The country has been under intense pressure from international human rights groups, the European Union and the United States to improve religious freedom.
On Wednesday, 54 U.S. lawmakers sent letters to President Tran Duc Luong calling for the release of another prominent political dissident, Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, who was recently sentenced to 30 months in prison in Vietnam for advocating for freedom of information.
Last month, the United States put Vietnam on its list of the world’s most intolerant countries _ a designation that could bring economic sanctions.
The U.S. State Department’s annual report on religious freedom said Vietnam was placed in the “countries of particular concern” category for “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”
The report accused Vietnam of forcing ethnic minority Protestants to recant their faith, and of continuing to detain Buddhist and Christian leaders of banned religious groups.
