![\"AFP](\"..\/images\/AFP.gif\")
<\/a> Agence France Presse<\/span><\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n
HANOI Sept 16, 2004 (AFP) – Vietnam on Thursday slammed the US State Department\u2019s decision to name it a \u201ccountry of particular concern\u201d in its annual report on religious freedom, saying it was based on erroneous information.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a wrongful decision based on erroneous information and inaccurate reflection of Vietnam\u2019s situation,\u201d said foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung in a statement.<\/p>\n
It \u201cby no means benefits the common efforts of the governments and peoples of Vietnam and the US to build a relationship of stability and lasting cooperation,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n
In the report, Vietnam was charged with pressuring minority protestants to recant their faith and with beating believers.<\/p>\n
\u201cA significant number of religious believers experience harassment or repression because they operate without legal sanction,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocal officials have repressed unregistered protestant believers in the central and northwest highlands and other areas by forcing church gatherings to cease, demolishing or closing house churches, and pressuring them to renounce their religious beliefs, often unsuccessfully.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report also alluded to the difficult situation of several unauthorized churches, among which the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), whose main leaders are under house arrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were an estimated 44 religious prisoners and detainees, although the actual number may be much higher,\u201d the report said adding at least 11 other individuals were held in conditions resembling house arrest.<\/p>\n
Vietnam countered by saying its policy was to respect religious beliefs and denied it held any prisoners on the basis of their religion.<\/p>\n
\u201cVietnam\u2019s consistent policy is to respect and protect the rights to freedom of beliefs and religions and rights to freedom of non-beliefs and non-religions,\u201d Le Dung said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no such thing as \u2018religious prisoners\u2019 or \u2018forced renunciations to faith\u2019\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n
Vietnam unveiled last July a new law on religion.<\/p>\n
The decree, expected to come into force in November, served \u201cas a legal basis to ensure the people\u2019s basic right to beliefs and religious freedom and reinforce the state\u2019s management in the area,\u201d according to state media.<\/p>\n
It also bans the \u201cabuse of the right to religious freedom to undermine peace, independence and national unity, incite violence to wage war and disseminate information against the state\u2019s laws\u201d.<\/p>\n
Thursday, the Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau acting as a spokesman of the UBCV said the US move was an \u201cimportant step forward for religious freedom in Vietnam.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Agence France Presse HANOI Sept 16, 2004 (AFP) – Vietnam on Thursday slammed the US State Department\u2019s decision to name it a \u201ccountry of particular concern\u201d in its annual report on religious freedom, saying it was based on erroneous information. \u201cIt is a wrongful decision based on erroneous information and inaccurate reflection of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-press-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}