Vietnam Urged to Improve Religious Freedom amid War Anniversary Amnesty

Two tortured church ministers in Vietnam will be released together with some other 7,500 prisoners of conscience on 30th April, the Vietnamese Police announced on Wednesday. The amnesty marks the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

Being identified by the US Department of State and many international human rights watchdogs as a severe perpetrator of human rights, Vietnam’s report has been an encouraging sign. Amnesty International, a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognised human rights, warmly welcomes the report.

The two church leaders to be freed are Reverend Pham Ngoc Lien, a 63-year-old member of the Catholic Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix, and Le Thi Hong Lien, a young woman bible teacher for the Mennonite Christian Church.

Reverend Pham Ngoc Lien was arrested in May 1987 among a group of 23 Roman Catholic priests near Ho Chi Minh City for holding training courses and distributing religious books without government permission. He was then sentenced to 20 years imprisonment plus five years house arrest on release under national security legislation for "conducting propaganda to oppose the socialist regime and undermine the policy of solidarity".

Reverend Pham Ngoc Lien and Brother Nguyen Thien Phung have been adopted as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International for many years.

Le Thi Hong Lien, 21, a teacher for the Vietnamese Mennonite Christian Church, was arrested in June 2004 along with a number of other members of the Mennonite community. On 12th November, she was sentenced to 12 months in prison on charges of "resisting a person performing official duty" for her role in a protest. She had taken part in a number of demonstrations against the government's policies on religion, and had been arrested many times.

Amnesty International reported that Le has suffered severe abuse while in detention, leading to a complete mental and physical breakdown. In fact, Le is just one of the many from the Mennonite Christian Church who has been persecuted by the government for the sake of Christian faith.

In 2004, six major church leaders of the Vietnamese Mennonite Church were detained. The case has drawn international concern from evangelical Christians and human rights campaigners. Most significantly, the appeal hearing on 12th April for two of its imprisoned church leaders Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang and Evangelist Pham Ngoc Thach were turned down by the People’s Supreme Court of Vietnam.

Critics have long said Vietnam must do a lot more than occasional prisoner releases to shore up religious and political freedoms.

"The anticipated release of these two people, both in poor health, is long overdue and a welcome, positive step," Amnesty International said in a statement. "However, we once again call for the Vietnamese authorities to release all prisoners of conscience and to stop incarcerating political and religious activists for exercising their fundamental human rights to freedom of expression, association and religion".

"Unless substantive changes are made to the law, all Vietnamese people remain at risk of arrest simply for peacefully expressing their political and religious beliefs."

"Despite releasing these prisoners of conscience, the Vietnamese authorities are continuing to flout domestic and international law by using security legislation to imprison people for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, association and religion, despite guarantees in the Vietnamese Constitution and international human rights law. It is time for the authorities to take responsibility for upholding and protecting the human rights of everyone."

Some human rights groups are conservatively optimistic to the release of the prisoners as the released prisoners are rarely allowed to live without fear of further intimidation, according to AFP.

The US Department of State has declared Vietnam as one of its "countries of particular concern" (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act in September 2004.