Grave concerns have been expressed at the removal of Vietnam from the US State Department's list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) for severe violations of religious freedom, published yesterday.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) stated its disappointment at Vietnam's exclusion from the list this year, but welcomed the addition of Uzbekistan to the list.

The disappointment follows the release by CSW yesterday of a leaked Vietnamese government document which formally mandates and instructs local officials to force members of less well-established Protestant congregations in the northern highlands to surrender their faith and return to their 'traditional beliefs'.

One of the central objectives of the document is to "resolutely subdue the abnormally rapid and spontaneous development of the Protestant religion".

US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom John V. Hanford announced the 2006 list yesterday. The US State Department re-designated Burma, China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan as CPCs and added Uzbekistan.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) had recommended that Turkmenistan and Pakistan were designated as CPCs, but these were not included on the final list.

In his speech, Ambassador Hanford applauded the "successes achieved" in Vietnam. However, some commentators have suggested that the decision has been influenced by those who wish to avoid jeopardising the burgeoning trade relations between the US and Vietnam, and therefore does not accurately reflect the state of religious freedom in the country, reports CSW.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide's Chief Executive, Mervyn Thomas, said, "We are deeply disappointed that Vietnam has not been re-designated as a Country of Particular Concern. The improvements cited are insufficiently great to justify the removal of Vietnam from the list.

"The State Department applauded the development of a legislative framework on religion, but this framework is fraught with inconsistencies and contradictions, and contains wide loopholes which have often been exploited by local officials. It also commended the work being done to register new congregations, but although this is true for some areas, many ethnic minority Protestants congregations have faced a new wave of persecution when attempting to register.

"If the Vietnamese government document released by CSW yesterday does not demonstrate government complicity in particularly severe violations of religious freedom, thereby warranting particular concern, it is difficult to see what might.

"We welcome the addition of Uzbekistan to the list and the recognition by the US government that Uzbekistan's human rights and religious freedom record continues to deteriorate. However, we were disappointed to see that Turkmenistan has yet again been excluded from the CPC list despite repeated recommendations by the USCIRF and human rights organisations.

"Although the government does not have a record of mass arrests on the scale of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan is a repressive regime where even official religious groups face constant harassment and systematic repression.

"Likewise, we are concerned that USCIRF's calls for Pakistan to be included on the list have not been heeded, despite the grave religious freedom violations taking place in the country, and we hope this will not result in these violations being overlooked."