Vietnam Is Pissed at US Over Report Claiming Its Record on Religious Freedom Sucks

Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decried the United States government's evaluation of the Southeast Asian nation's record on religious freedom, saying a recent report released by the Department of State made false claims against its government and was biased.

The State Department's International Religious Freedom Report for 2014, released Wednesday, accused the Vietnamese government of continuing to control and limit independent religious practice through restrictive laws and administrative oversights. It also alleges the ruling Communist Party of regularly invoking national security and solidarity provisions in the constitution to override laws and regulations allowing for religious freedom.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, which led research for the State Department report, previously issued an advisory in April recommending that the State Department designate Vietnam as a "country of particular concern" in this area, along with seven other countries, including the Central African Republic, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, and Tajikistan.

On Thursday, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry insisted its record was fine and that the US report was skewed. A spokesman said that while the report did acknowledge that some religious groups reported their ability to meet and worship openly had actually improved in the last year, it largely brushed over these details and zeroed in instead on a couple of dozen cases where unregistered religious groups claimed they had faced government persecution.

While the report "acknowledged the country's achievements" in attempting to improve its record in the area of religious freedom, the report overall made "unobjective assessments and cited erroneous information on Vietnam," Foreign Ministry spokesman, Le Hai Binh, told reporters Thursday.

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Although Vietnam's constitution states that all people have the right to freedom of belief and religion, all religious activity must receive prior government approval, the report claimed.

Individuals and groups who practice religion, but are not part of registered religious groups, often face harassment, assault, and even imprisonment at the hands of government authorities, particularly at the local level, according to the report. In Vietnam, the "constitutional right to religious belief and practice continued to be subject to uneven interpretation and protection," the State Department wrote.

The report provided examples of two dozen cases where religious groups had been attacked, harassed, or monitored by local government officials.

One case detailed a Mennonite Christian center in Binh Duong Province, which had reportedly been subjected to a "campaign of harassment," the report said. Pastors claimed that authorities had raided Bible classes, beaten students, and harassed congregation members on their way to church. In Ho Chi Minh City in the country's south, one Mennonite pastor said that authorities tried to prevent a Christmas service by cutting power to his church.

In another case in the report, Protestant church officials said that local authorities had forced Protestants in Vietnam's northwestern Dien Bien Dong Province to renounce their faith. Authorities allegedly shredded Bibles, seized and destroyed property, and physically assaulted followers, the report said.

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Even Buddhist groups in Vietnam — where more than 16 percent of the country's more than 89 million people identify as Buddhist — did not escape monitoring and abuse, according to the report. Local officials throughout Vietnam have reportedly issued notices to close or evict temples belonging to the United Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBC), Vietnam's largest independent Buddhist organization, it said.

A US Department of State spokesman said that its officers collaborated with government groups, the media, NGOs, and faith-based organizations to compile the report.

"Promoting greater respect for human rights, including religious freedom, is a critical component of US foreign policy with Vietnam," the spokesman wrote in an email statement. "We remain committed to continuing a frank and productive discussion to ensure freedom of religion is protected at all levels of society."

At a press conference to announce the release of the report Wednesday, the US's ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, David Saperstein, called on Vietnam to loosen restrictions on religious freedom when its National Assembly meets this month to debate a new law that streamlines the complicated process of registering a religious organization.

"In my travels to Vietnam, I saw firsthand how religious groups are forced to undergo [an] onerous and arbitrary registration process to legally operate," he said. "As Vietnam considers amending its religion laws, we stand with the country's religious communities in calling for the easing of such restrictions."