decision to remove Vietnam from Washington’s list of ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ regarding religious freedom.
In statements obtained by BosNewsLife, an official said the United States State Department believes the removal of Vietnam from its list was one of America’s "most significant announcements" of the year, just days ahead of President George W. Bush’s first visit to the country.
It came as advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) became the latest in a chorus of human rights investigators criticizing the move. "We are deeply disappointed that Vietnam has not been re-designated as a Country of Particular Concern," CSW Chief Executive, Mervyn Thomas told BosNewsLife.
"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," Thomas added.
NEW CONGREGATIONS
"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," he said. Thomas referred to a just released government document which suggests Vietnam plans to crackdown on Protestant Christianity among especially ethnic minorities.
However the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom John V. Hanford said the removal showed the overall "successes achieved" in Vietnam.
Yet Vietnamese dissidents and activists have suggested that the decision has been influenced by those who wish to avoid jeopardizing the burgeoning trade relations between the US and Vietnam at a time when it hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum this week.
The State Department denied that saying the only reason why the announcement was only made this week was because of a decision to add Uzbekistan to the list. CSW welcomed the decision, but stressed that Turkmenistan should have been added as well.
CHURCH SERVICE
President Bush, a self-declared ‘born again’ Christian, is to attend a church service in Hanoi during his stay to highlight what Washington describes as improved religious freedom, and Vietnamese analysts praised the move.
"We welcome the US decision to bring Vietnam out of the list. This is an essential issue," said Lieutenant General Nguyen Dinh Uoc, a historian at the Vietnam Institute of Military History, in remarks monitored by BosNewsLife.
US and Vietnamese authorities had hoped to see Bush sign the bilateral trade bill into law during his visit to Vietnam, East Asia’s fastest-growing economy after China, but procedural problems could leave the draft stuck in Congress.
Without it, US companies cannot fully benefit from the full-market access offered by Vietnam’s WTO accession, experts say.
GLOBAL OUTPUT
APEC members — which account for about 60 percent of global economic output and nearly half of world trade — are also expected to consider a US proposal for a Pacific-wide free trade zone to harmonize the "noodle bowl" of existing bilateral and regional deals, news reports said.
The grouping’s week-long gathering starts in earnest from Wednesday, November 15, when foreign ministers will descend on a huge new convention center on the outskirts of Hanoi to hammer out the agenda for heads of state and government.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s Hu Jintao will join Bush and are among the leaders due to attend the summit, the biggest ever diplomatic event staged in the Southeast Asian nation. (Stay with BosNewsLife for the other story behind the APEC world headlines).
