WASHINGTON (ABP) — The State Department's latest list of nations that are the most severe violators of religious freedom no longer includes Vietnam — a first since the department began issuing the list.
But an independent government watchdog group isn't happy about it.
Department officials recently announced the 2006 list of “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs, under the terms of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. The law requires the department to investigate religious freedom conditions around the world and report on them, imposing sanctions against nations with particularly egregious violations of religious freedom.
This year's list was identical to last year's, with two exceptions: Vietnam was dropped and Uzbekistan was added.
In addition to Uzbekistan, the department re-designated Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Sudan as countries of particular concern.
Vietnam had been on the list since 2004. In announcing the removal, John Hanford, the United States' ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, told reporters Vietnam “has made significant improvements towards advancing religious freedom.”
“Though important work remains to be done, Vietnam can no longer be identified as a severe violator of religious freedom,” he said. “This marks the first time that a country has made sufficient progress as a result of diplomatic engagement to be removed from the country list, and we view this as a very important milestone.”
But Vietnam hasn't come far enough, according to an independent, non-partisan government agency that also tracks religious freedom around the globe. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom condemned the State Department's decision to, in effect, elevate Vietnam's rating.
“Abuses and restrictions [of religious freedom in Vietnam] occur less frequently than in the past, however, there remain severe concerns for all of Vietnam's diverse religious communities,” a statement from the agency said.
According to the commission's sources inside the communist nation, the statement noted, “religious prisoners remain confined, only a fraction of the churches closed since 2001 have been re-opened, forced renunciations of faith continue in many different provinces, and Vietnam's new laws on religion are being used to detain or intimidate religious leaders who refuse affiliation with the government-approved religious organizations.”
The commission has long criticized Vietnam for systematic repression of some Christian and Buddhist sects and leaders, as well as using inadequate measures to rein in provincial authorities who have further persecuted religious groups.
But Hanford said negotiations between U.S. and Vietnamese officials since the initial “concern” designation in 2004 have had a positive effect, leading to new legislation protecting religious groups.
“Four years ago, when I was appointed ambassador-at-large, tens of thousands of people, entire villages in some cases, were being rounded up and pressured to renounce their faith. Today there are laws against forced renunciations and reports of this disturbing practice are now very isolated,” he said.
Hanford said the removal of CPC designation does not mean all religious freedom issues in Vietnam have been resolved or that U.S. officials will cease negotiating with their Vietnamese counterparts for further protections for freedom of conscience.
Two other nations have been removed from the list in the past but not as a result of diplomatic engagement. Afghanistan and Iraq were removed after U.S. military actions forced out regimes that repressed religious freedom.
While criticizing the removal of Vietnam from the list, the religious-freedom commission praised the addition of Uzbekistan. The government of the former Soviet republic “continues to exercise a high degree of control over the practice of the Islamic religion and to crack down harshly on Muslim individuals, groups, and mosques that do not conform to state-prescribed practices or that the government claims are associated with extremist political programs,” according to the USCIRF statement.
Hanford echoed those concerns. State Department officials designated Uzbekistan a country of particular concern this year “because it has chosen the path of increasing restrictions on religious expression and has refused to engage in meaningful discussions with us on this issue. The situation has continued to deteriorate this year.”
He noted that the nation's “already extremely restrictive religion law” requiring government registration of all religious groups “has been further tightened, congregations have been harassed and deregistered, and fines have been dramatically raised.”
The U.S. government is particularly defending the religious freedom of Muslims in rebuking the Uzbek government, according to Hanford.
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