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Rights group says Vietnam repressing religious freedoms

prayers
An estimated 10 percent of Vietnam's 79 million people are Christian  

In this story:

Clinton to press leaders

Monk plans more aid deliveries

Communism seems to lose appeal

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



HANOI, Vietnam -- Days ahead of U.S. President Bill Clinton's historic visit to Vietnam, a rights watchdog has released documents it says prove Vietnam's leadership is repressing religious groups.

Freedom House, a rights group based in Washington, said the eight documents, dated between 1998 and the middle of this year, reveal the government's effort to stem growing Christian movements in Vietnam.

"Although Vietnam is a signatory to international conventions on human rights that guarantee religious freedom, the documents provide irrefutable evidence that repression continues to drive day to day policy and practice," the group said.

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CNN's Mike Chinoy examines the trend of greater religious freedom in Vietnam

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The documents primarily address Protestant Christianity and its spread among the Hmong ethnic minority living in remote highland areas. An estimated 10 percent of Vietnam's 79 million people are Christian.

One document, issued by the Bureau of Religious and Minority Affairs in the northern province of Lao Cai, which borders China, included 10 recommendations to control the spread of Christianity, including "working hard to control religious leaders" and improved propaganda efforts.

"We must carefully control the thinking and the activities of the religions, of society and religious organizations and not let down our vigilance in administering the religious and social entities of all religions," it said.

Clinton to press leaders

Clinton is scheduled to arrive in Vietnam on Thursday. He is the first U.S. president to visit the country since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. Clinton is expected to press the communist leadership on human rights, including religious freedoms.

Human Rights Watch, based in the United States, said last week that religious freedoms in Vietnam are still being sharply curtailed, and that more than 20 members of religious groups are being detained.

Government curbs on religion in Vietnam have been a source of tension at home, and criticism around the world, since the communists took power after the war.

At that time, the communist leaders either closed or imposed strict controls on places of worship, and sent many of Vietnam's religious leaders to reeducation camps.

Although some religious leaders in Vietnam say the government's repression has eased in recent years, it has not been eliminated. Severe restrictions remain in place in some areas. For example:

¥ In northwestern Vietnam, the government has imposed restrictions on evangelical Protestants who have been proselytizing among impoverished ethnic minorities,

¥ The government continues to impose controls over the training and appointment of priests, which has frustrated the Catholic community of approximately 8 million,

¥ The government has prevented dissident Buddhist monks from organizing relief efforts in recent weeks in flood-ravaged areas along the Mekong River. In some instances, monks have been detained.

aid worker
The government has slowed dissident Buddhist monks from organizing relief efforts in flood-ravaged areas along the Mekong River  

Monk plans more aid deliveries

On Monday, Thich Quang Do, a monk who had been held for providing relief to flood victims, said he had not been prevented the previous day from delivering aid.

"It is all right, I was not intercepted," Do, deputy head of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, said. He said he planned distribute cash to flood victims on Wednesday.

However, Do's supporters said they believed the government had eased a state ban on private relief efforts ahead of Clinton's visit. Vietnam's communist government requires all relief aid be channeled through one of three state-affiliated organizations.

The government had detained Do and some of his colleagues last month after they tried to distribute relief supplies to the flood victims in a village bordering Cambodia. Do had been jailed in 1994 for more than three years after a similar aid mission.

Do has spent more than 20 years in detention or prison for his campaigns for religious freedom and democracy, and he says he has been living under restrictions at his monastery in Ho Chi Minh City, in southern Vietnam, since being released from jail in 1998.

However, some Vietnamese religious leaders say the government has eased its restrictions in recent years.

At the Temple of the Compassionate Cloud in Hue, a city in central Vietnam, the faithful gather to pray much as they have done since the pagoda was built in the 17th century.

Communism seems to lose appeal

Buddhists comprise two-thirds of Vietnam's population. The religion has survived despite decades of war, revolution and communist rule. Abbot Thich Duc Thanh has witnessed much of that turmoil, and said religious freedoms have improved.

"We can conduct religious activity freely now," he said. "We are recruiting young monks. We can even send them abroad for training."

At a time of rapid economic growth, the communist ideology appears to have lost its appeal as large numbers of Vietnamese young people appear to be turning to the Catholic church to fill a spiritual void.

"More and more young people are coming," said Father Stanislas Nguyen Duc Ve of the Church of St. Francis Xavier. "With our society opening up, they have more opportunities to attend church."

However, Freedom House said the documents it released show Vietnam's public pronouncements and diplomatic statements on religious liberty bear "little resemblance to its internal practices."

"Vietnam's policies...are driven by the assumption that Roman Catholicism and Protestant Christianity are seamlessly connected with Vietnam's imperialist enemies past, present, real and imagined," it said.

CNN Correspondent Mike Chinoy and Reuters contributed to this report.

ASIANOW


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November 10, 2000
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November 4, 2000

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