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<\/a> Agence France Presse<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (AFP) – A US Congress-mandated commission has asked the State Department to retain Vietnam in a blacklist of religious rights violators. <\/p>\n
\u201cVietnam should be maintained as a \u201ccountry of particular concern\u201d in the department\u2019s annual religious freedom report,\u201d the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The report is due to be released soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been encouraged by the Vietnam government\u2019s promises over the past year to improve conditions for its ethnic and religious minorities, but we remain disappointed that promises have not yet been translated into positive change,\u201d said Michael Cromartie, the commission\u2019s chairman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough there have been some releases of prominent religious prisoners, recent events suggest that repression of the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief continues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Cromartie said although the State Department entered into an \u201cagreement\u201d with Vietnam in May this year for the communist state to implement religious reforms and consider releasing prisoners to avoid more stringent actions, there had been little concerted action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe actions taken thus far to carry out the aforementioned agreement only signal promises of improvement and not actual measurable progress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRestrictions on all religious groups continue, but pressure recently has been the most acute on the Mennonites, Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, ethnic minority and \u201chouse church\u201d Protestants, and the Hoa-Hao Buddhists,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Vo Van Ai, the Paris-based spokesman for the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, told the hearing that the group remained a \u201cmajor target of repression in Vietnam.\u201d<\/p>\n
After almost three decades in detention, the group\u2019s patriarch Thich Huyen Quang, 87, and his deputy Thich Quang Do, 76, \u201care still prisoners in their monasteries simply for their peaceful advocacy of religious freedom and human rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
About half of the 80 million Vietnamese are Buddhists.<\/p>\n
Huoang Henry Lee of the National Hoa Hao Buddhist Association said Vietnam detained in August 12 Hoa Hao Buddhists for demanding greater religious freedom. One of them died after self-immolation to protest the action while many others were jailed.<\/p>\n
Christopher Smith, the Republican Representative for New Jersey, said one of those jailed was Vo Vanh Thanh Liem, who had \u201ccourageously\u201d testified in a US Congressional hearing on human rights last June.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever the purported charges, these actions can only be interpreted as a deliberate retaliation for his cooperation with the House of Representatives,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
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