Vietnam Agrees on Religious Freedom - Eritrea, Saudi Arabia Remain in Talks

The United States announced yesterday that it has reached an agreement with Vietnam on religious freedom. The details of the agreement will be addressed as the Deputy Secretary of the US Department of State, Robert B. Zoellick visits Hanoi 6th May, according to AFP.

However, despite the latest news, the future of religious freedom in Vietnam is still not clear, and people at most can now only be conservatively optimistic amid the continuous reports of Christian persecution.

John Hanford, the U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom told a press briefing, "In recent weeks, Vietnam has banned the practice of forced renunciations or coerced renunciations of faith."

"They've released a number of prominent prisoners of concern, and they've begun to register and to permit the reopening of churches that had previously been closed."

"Most importantly, Vietnam has also enacted significant legislative reforms that hold the promise of major improvements in religious freedom in the near future," he continued.

On 30th April, Vietnam released over 7,000 political prisoners to mark the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, including a number of prominent religious leaders from the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant Church and Mennonite Church.

Handord attributed the commitments made by the government of Vietnam to the work of the US over the past several years to advance religious freedom in the country.

While the US believes that the new commitments made by Vietnam now offer a strong foundation from which to build; other important steps remain to be taken. Therefore, the US has reported that it will continue to monitor developments in Vietnam closely. It also states that Vietnam will stay as a "country of particular concern" for violating religious freedoms until the implementation of the commitments made are satisfactory.

Handord added that talks regarding religious freedom were still going on with Saudi Arabia and Eritrea, which are also identified as serve perpetrators of international human rights law.

Despite the apparent improvements in Vietnam in recent months, religious freedom campaigners have continued to report on continuing abuses in the country.

Le Thi Hong Lien, a 21-year old bible teacher from the Mennonite Christian Church, was part of the amnesty freed on 30th April. She was originally sentenced to 12 months last November for taking part in a religious freedom protest.

However, according to Compass Direct, just two days after her release, Le Thi Hong Lien was arrested by the police again while attending a Bible study in a home with other Christians. She was reported to have been "exhausted and terrified" even though she was released soon after interrogation.

In addition, the Centre for Religious Freedom at Freedom House, a US-based human rights organisation, reported last week that Hanoi was stepping up its persecution of minority Christians. Many Hmong Christians have received death threats and over 100 have fled the country in recent months.

"The evidence consists of tape recorded interviews, handwritten testimony of Hmong leaders, and documentation identifying the names and positions of many of the Vietnamese officials implicated in the persecution," the report said.

Meanwhile, Vietnam's Prime Minister Phan Van Khai announced that he would visit the United States at the end of June in an effort to elevate the relationship between the two countries and to also discuss trade. He will become the most senior Vietnamese official to visit Washington since the communist victory in the Vietnam war 30 years ago.