Blacklist Vietnam for abuse of religious freedom: US panel

AFP, May 2, 2007

A US commission called Wednesday for Vietnam to be reinstated on Washington's blacklist of countries violating religious freedoms, as other Asian countries including China and Indonesia also were sharply criticized for serious abuses.

"We recommend that Vietnam be re-designated as a CPC (country of particular concern) in 2007," the US Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote in its annual report.

It said that since Hanoi was taken off the blacklist in November 2006 and joined the WTO, "positive religious freedom trends have, for the most part, stalled" amid a crackdown on human rights activists.

The authoritarian Southeast Asian nation was taken off the US State Department's list of countries of particular concern on the eve of a visit to Hanoi by President George W. Bush.

The commission recommended that 10 other countries remain on the list: China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The panel noted that "there are no personal freedoms in North Korea," one of the most egregious rights violators.

"The government severely represses public and private religious activities and maintains a policy of pervasive control over government-sanctioned religious practice," the commission wrote.

Meanwhile, Beijing, the commission wrote, engages in serious restrictions, even repression, of religious freedoms, particularly toward Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, Christians and adherents to spiritual practices like Falun Gong.

Abuses of religious freedoms in China "involve imprisonment, torture, and other forms of ill treatment," the panel wrote.

"Religious freedom conditions deteriorated for communities not affiliated with any of the seven government-approved religious organizations, those considered by the government to be 'cults,' and those closely associated with ethnic minority groups in China."

Myanmar's military regime has allowed and at times even instigated violence against religions minorities, particularly Christians and Muslims, the commission concluded.

Violations of religious freedoms in Indonesia, meanwhile, were deemed worrisome enough to warrant its inclusion on the watchlist.

Although the situation there has improved somewhat, the commission expressed concern over "ongoing sectarian violence and the Indonesian government's inability or unwillingness to hold those responsible to account."

The panel also decried "the forcible closures of places of worship belonging to religious minorities, and the growing political power and influence of religious extremists, who harass and sometimes instigate violence against moderate Muslim leaders and members of religious minorities."

Iraq, Afghanistan, Belarus, Egypt, Bangladesh, Cuba and Nigeria also were included on the watchlist this year.

Writing about Vietnam, the commission voiced disappointment at "continued arrests and detentions ... and continued severe religious freedom restrictions" targeting Protestants and Buddhists.

The panel recognized some positive religious freedom developments by the ruling Communist Party, including the release of prominent religious prisoners and the end to enforced renunciations of faith.

But the panel said it was "too soon to determine if the legal protections would be permanent and whether such progress would last beyond Vietnam's accession to the World Trade Organization."

Among the non-Asian countries added to the watchlist was Iraq, "due to the alarming and deteriorating situation for freedom of religion and belief."

"Despite ongoing efforts to stabilize the country, successive Iraqi governments have not adequately curbed the growing scope and severity of human rights abuses," the panel wrote.

"The Iraqi government has engaged in human rights violations through its state security forces, including arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention without due process, extrajudicial executions, and torture."