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On June 16,2013 Vietnamese police defrocked/tortured Khmer-Krom monk Ven. Ly Chanda of Prey Chop Temple in Lai Hoa, Vinh Chau, Soc Trang province. June 20,2013 Venerable Thach Thuol and Abbot Temple Lieu Ny of Ta Set temple (Soc Trang-Khleang province) defrocked and imprisoned in Prey Nokor (Saigon) city by the Viet authorities. In Phnor Dach (Cau Ngang) district, Preah Trapang/Tra Vinh) Khmer Krom prohibited from watching Cambodian TV signals.

Freedom Online Coalition Joint Statement on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's Decree 72

Press Statement
Marie Harf
Deputy Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
August 26, 2013


The Freedom Online Coalition is deeply concerned by the announcement of Vietnam’s new Decree 72, which will impose further restrictions on the way the Internet is accessed and used in Vietnam when it comes into effect September 1. For example, Decree 72 restricts online information flow and limits the sharing of certain types of news and other speech. Decree 72 appears to be inconsistent with Vietnam’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as its commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Decree 72 risks harming Vietnam’s economy by constraining the development of businesses in Vietnam, limiting innovation, and deterring foreign investment. An open and free Internet is a necessity for a fully functioning modern economy; regulations such as Decree 72 that limit openness and freedom deprive innovators and businesses of the full set of tools required to compete in today’s global economy.

The Freedom Online Coalition notes that resolution 20/8, adopted by consensus by the UN Human Rights Council in July 2012, confirms that human rights apply online as well as offline. The Freedom Online Coalition calls on the Vietnamese government to revise Decree 72 so that it promotes the ability of individuals to exercise their human rights, including the right to freedom of expression.

The Freedom Online Coalition is a cross-regional group of 21 governments that collaborate to advance Internet freedom worldwide. The Coalition provides a forum for like-minded governments to coordinate efforts and work with civil society and the private sector to support the ability of individuals to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms online.

The Freedom Online Coalition was formed at a conference hosted by the government of the Netherlands in 2011, and held further meetings hosted by Kenya in 2012, and Tunisia in 2013. The government of Estonia, chair of the Coalition, will host the next conference in spring 2014.
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Anthropologist Offers Insight Into Plight of Khmer Krom

By Michelle Vachon - Cambodia Daily August 26,2013

Cambodia Police beating Khmer Krom Monks in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2007
During their ongoing war against Vietnam in the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge attacked the Vietnamese province of An Giang along the border and brought back to Cambodia about 20,000 people from Vietnam’s Khmer minority known as Khmer Krom.

This mass migration, which mainly took place in 1977 and 1978, remains one of the untold stories of the Pol Pot regime, said Australian anthropologist Philip Taylor on Sunday.

Was this operation meant as territorial expansion, another assault against Vietnam or a rescue mission of Khmer brothers?

Actually, it was none of the above, according to Mr. Taylor.

“This was a case of mass abduction [by a regime] striving to control,” he said.

At the time, there were around 100,000 Khmer Krom in that province, and the Khmer Rouge did not want to let such a large Khmer population—and one living along the Cambodian border—be autonomous, Mr. Tay­lor said.

In addition, the Khmer Rouge needed workers in their forced-labor camps where tens of thousands of Cambodians had already died of starvation and ill treatment, he added.

So the Khmer Rouge brought Khmer Krom to Cambodia and put them to work, treating them as “non-pure Khmer” always suspected of Vietnamese sympathy because of their origins, he said.

Mr. Taylor, who has been researching the Khmer Krom for nearly 15 years, will give a lecture at Meta House on Tuesday on the Khmer Rouge’s forceful importation of the Khmer Krom.

A research fellow with the Australian National University in Canberra, he is working on a book about the effects of Cambodia’s conflicts of the 1970s and 1980s on Vietnam’s Khmer minority, effects that continue to this day. The conference is organized by the social-science network Human Sciences Encounters in Phnom Penh.

Mr. Taylor has interviewed thousands of Khmer Krom during his numerous visits to Vietnam and the five years he lived in the Mekong Delta. In addition, he spoke to 100 Khmer Krom from An Giang province who had direct experiences of the Khmer Rouge “mass importation,” and discussed the era with both Khmer Krom and Vietnamese officials.

What emerges from his research, Mr. Taylor said, is that the Khmer Krom had been under suspicion on both sides of the border.

While some Khmer Krom may have supported the Khmer Rouge, many who were brought to Cambodia did so against their will, he said.

But when they returned to An Giang province after the 1979 Khmer Rouge defeat at the hands of Cambodian and Vietnamese forces, the Viet­nam­ese authorities mainly viewed them as Khmer Rouge fleeing Cambodia, and therefore enemies of Vietnam, Mr. Taylor said.

The biggest reprisals came from the Vietnamese population that recalled the Khmer Rouge massacres of Vietnamese villages: They made it difficult for returning Khmer Krom to claim their rights to residency and the land they had previously owned, he said.

In the meantime in Cambodia, the Khmer Krom have often had their Khmer identity questioned, and have faced discrimination, Mr. Taylor said.

“In my extensive travel around the Mekong Delta, I found that the Khmer Krom had suffered not only at the hands of the Vietnamese state but also at the hands of the Cambodian state.”

Mr. Taylor’s conference will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
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Cambodia’s Top Court Says Key Election Records Open for Review

RFA - August 22,2013

Cambodia’s election authorities may be ordered to check key voting data to investigate opposition claims of widespread election irregularities in recent national polls, the country’s highest court ruled Thursday.

The Constitutional Council also said that it could hold public hearings on the hotly-contested July 28 election that has resulted in a political deadlock and tensions in the capital.

The court made the statement as it reviewed complaints against preliminary results released by the National Election Committee (NEC) giving Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) a victory.

The results have been challenged by the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) which claims massive election irregularities, including one million voters delisted from the electoral rolls.

Security packages

The Constitutional Council said in a statement that it could call for sealed packages containing original tally sheets collected from polling stations on election day to be opened, in order to allow results returned later in the vote-counting process to be checked against the primary data.

The NEC has rejected complaints by the CNRP and said it would not open the security packages without solid evidence of serious irregularities.

The Constitutional Council, which is the final arbiter of the contested election results, said that based on the Election Law, it “can order the NEC to open security packages in order to verify votes,” according to the statement.

The CNRP has called for U.N.-backed investigation into irregularities and a full investigation into voting data, saying the CPP and NEC colluded to deny votes for the CNRP.

Ensuring safety

CNRP President Sam Rainsy called on the NEC ensure that Security Package A, which contains original documents from election day including voided ballots, is kept safe in case it needs to be checked.

“Please take measures to keep the package in a safe place in order to avoid any changes to the original documents,” he said in a letter to NEC President Im Sousdey.

“The package is evidence that can be used to verify the election results and could affect the election results and the sharing of National Assembly Seats,” he said.

NEC Secretary General Tep Nytha said the packages are well guarded.

“This is the NEC’s job and we have taken good care of those packages,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service.

Review of complaints

Preliminary results by the NEC support the CPP claim that it had won 68 of the 123 seats in the National Assembly, against 55 for the CNRP. The CNRP maintains it won at least 63 seats.

The Constitutional Council, which began reviewing complaints on Monday, said Thursday that it has already addressed 24 out of 39 complaints it received in total, including complaints about voter rolls and violations of campaign rules.

The 15 remaining complaints it is examining now are related to the preliminary results, the court’s statement said.

Public hearings

“The Constitutional Council may have public hearings in the future,” the statement said following criticism this week that hearings so far have been closed to reporters.

The CNRP and election watchdog groups have called for greater transparency on the review proceedings at the court.

Tensions remain high amid the election dispute with Sam Rainsy warning of mass protests against the NEC’s handling of the poll results and the government responding with an increased military presence in the capital.

Sam Rainsy has called for his supporters to rally in Phnom Penh on Monday.

Authorities have deployed troops, tanks, and armored vehicles in the capital, prompting concerns about a possibly violent showdown

Demonstrators have held peace marches in the city calling for both parties to resolve the election impasse without violence.

Mu Sochua in clash with police

Northwest of Phnom Penh in Battambang city, provincial police clashed with CNRP supporters and local residents on Thursday outside an election forum organized by a rights group.

Senior CNRP member Mu Sochua was ruffled in the melee as police lines surrounded the compound to the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) meeting, blocking local residents from entering.

Mu Sochua was forcibly pushed against a concrete wall while she was trying to help a local resident push through police lines.

“I am very disappointed with the Battambang authorities,” she told RFA, saying that her body hurt and that police were under pressure from the CPP to intimidate local residents into staying away from the forum.

“Those [participating in the forum] love peace but police surrounded their houses and prevented residents from participating,” she said.

Some local residents succeeded in pushing through the police line and participated in the forum under heavy police presence.

Battambang Police Chief Sor Thet said that he had sent police to ensure security and public order for the villagers at the forum, rejecting claims that police had assaulted Mu Sochua.

“Residents posted comments on Facebook saying that police in Battambang abused them, but we didn’t do that,” he told RFA.
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New Vietnamese Party Vows to Challenge Dominant Communist Rule

RFA August 19,2013


A veteran member of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam is spearheading efforts to form a new party to challenge the government by attracting support from members disgruntled by a slowing economy and concerned over Chinese territorial encroachment.

The Social Democratic Party founded last week by Le Hieu Dang, a leading dissident and 45-year Communist Party member, aims to establish multiparty rule and “build a true democracy,” its leaders said, vowing to confront the government despite the risk of arrest.

Hundreds of Communist Party members have already decided to leave the Communist Party to join the new party, according to a statement by the Social Democratic Party, whose founding follows rare public debate this year on the need for constitutional amendments allowing multiparty rule.

The Communist Party’s monopoly on power is enshrined in the constitution, and the formation of other parties is banned. Questioning Communist Party rule is considered a serious crime in Vietnam and dozens of activists and netizens have been arrested this year for anti-state activities.

Dang, a civil rights lawyer, said he had founded the Social Democratic Party because Vietnam is facing a “critical time,” adding that reforms are needed if the country is to continue its social and economic progress.

“The reason behind having a new party coexisting with the Communist Party is that for any development of society we always need different opinions,” he told RFA’s Vietnamese Service Monday.

“Society can’t develop if there is only one opinion, one ruling party.”

A rival to the Communist Party is needed to challenge its policies on economic reforms and ties with China, he said, referring to Hanoi’s territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea and what he termed excessive Chinese investments on land in Vietnam’s resource-rich Central Highlands.

“Our social and economic situation is getting worse. There are concerns about our economy and education,” he said.

The Communist Party, which has based its grassroots support on rapid economic growth over the past decades, has been battered in recent years by a series of high-level corruption scandals in state-owned enterprises.

'Ready for any attack'

Despite possible dangers of repercussions, the Social Democratic Party intends to operate “legally, not in secret,” Dang said.

Cofounder Ho Ngoc Nhuan, the former vice-chair of the party-backed Vietnam Fatherland Front’s Ho Chi Minh City unit, said in a statement announcing the organization’s establishment that members are prepared to face the consequences of challenging the ruling party.

“We are ready for any attack,” he said in the Aug. 15 statement which was circulated online, urging young people to join.

“Don’t have any reservations; don’t be scared of being arrested or mistreated,” he said.

'Betrayed' by the Communist Party

The party is counting on garnering the support of longtime Communist Party members who feel disappointed in its authoritarian rule, he told RFA.

“They are angry. They have fought for the country and for the people all their lives and now they feel betrayed.”

The Social Democratic Party is committed to nonviolence and does not intend to “ruin” the Communist Party, but rather “talk to them as equals,” he said.

Its establishment follows a proposal for multiparty rule made in January in a draft constitution signed by 72 Vietnamese intellectuals and activists including Dang, Nhuan, and other longtime Communist Party members as well as government officials.

The proposed draft, an alternative to a government version that upheld protections for Communist Party’s rule enshrined in the constitution, garnered thousands of signatures of support after it was circulated online.

Journalist Nguyen Dac Kien was fired by his state-run newspaper after he blogged about an attack by the Communist Party chief on those calling for greater constitutional reforms.

Many members of Bloc 8406, a coalition of activist groups that in 2006 wrote an online manifesto calling for multiparty rule, have faced arrest.

Reported by Mac Lam and An Nguyen for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
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Pakistan: Musharraf Charged In Bhutto Death

By SkyNews August 20,2013

Dictator Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan
Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been charged over the 2007 murder of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

"He was charged with murder, criminal conspiracy for murder and facilitation for murder," said public prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar.

Musharraf appeared briefly at the anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, where he denied the charges.

He has been under house arrest near Islamabad since April 19, but appeared before the court in person.

"The charges were read out to him in the court. He denied the charges," said Mr Azhar.

Musharraf's legal team has dismissed the indictment.

"These charges are baseless. We are not afraid of the proceedings. We will follow legal procedures in the court," his lawyer Syeda Afshan Adil said.

Scores of security forces guarded the area around the court in Rawalpindi, the city where Bhutto was killed on December 27, 2007, and roads were sealed off for Musharraf's appearance.

The indictment follows lingering speculation about the possibility of a behind-the-scenes deal that could allow Musharraf to leave Pakistan without facing the courts and embarrassing the military.

Bhutto, twice elected prime minister of Pakistan, was assassinated in a gun and bomb attack after campaigning for elections that were won by her Pakistan People's Party in February 2008.

There was no public claim of responsibility for her murder.

Musharraf's government blamed the assassination on Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement.

He was killed in a US drone attack in 2009.

The Bhutto case is one in a series of court battles that Musharraf has faced over allegations dating back to his 1999-2008 rule, since he returned in March from four years of self-imposed exile.

The new government headed by Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf deposed in 1999, has said he should stand trial for treason for subverting the constitution and has appointed a committee to investigate him.

The offence carries the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The case has been adjourned until August 27.
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CPP Threatens Legal Action Against CNRP

Cambodia Daily - By Matt Blomberg and Neou Vannarin - August 21, 2013

Left: Mr. Sam Rainsy--Leader of CNRP
Right: Dictator Hun Sen--Loser of CPP and Hanoi-puppet
The CPP on Tuesday threatened legal action against the CNRP if it did not cease its “defamatory rhetoric” regarding the ruling party’s relationship with the National Election Committee (NEC), which the opposition accuses of rigging July’s election in order to keep the CPP in power.

The CPP on Monday released a statement rejecting accusations of collusion with the NEC, and Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, said Tuesday that there were legal avenues the ruling party could take in order to silence the CNRP.

“Everyone has their limits and we need the CNRP to know what our limits are—we can’t accept these defamatory, discrediting accusations anymore,” Mr. Siphan said.

“We respect freedom of expression but this is not freedom of ex­pression. There are laws in place to protect organizations against such defamatory rhetoric. Legal action may be taken.”

Monday’s CPP statement came a week after negotiations between the rival parties to form a subcommittee to investigate polling day complaints faltered, with the CPP and CNRP unable to agree on the NEC’s role in such a committee.

“Accusations which claim the Cambodian People’s Party colluded with the National Election Committee to cheat for votes are groundless accusations intended to create public confusion in relation to the election process in Cambodia,” the statement reads. “[The] CPP would like to strongly deny those accusations.”

The CNRP has repeatedly called for an independent investigation into reports of widespread electoral irregularities, saying that the NEC is a tool of the ruling party—concerns that have also been voiced by the U.N. human rights special rapporteur to Cambodia, Surya Subedi, and the Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia.

CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann on Tuesday reiterated the opposition’s doubts over the NEC’s impartiality and questioned Mr. Siphan’s threat of legal action.

“It’s for the whole world to see—the NEC is systematically appointed by the CPP,” he said. “The voters know it, the U.N. knows it and the international community knows it.”
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Vietnam caught between a rock and a hard place

YaleGlobal August 9, 2013 by David Brown

Is disappointment with China the reason behind Vietnam president's recent hurried visit to Washington?

Early in June, US State Department officials told a Congressional sub-committee that closer ties with Vietnam, in particular weapons sales, are on hold until there is "continued, demonstrable, sustained improvement in the human rights situation". The officials put on the public record a message that US diplomats have been delivering privately for a couple of years. Their testimony largely went unnoticed except by the online media that stoke the fires of dissidence in Vietnam.

Coincidentally, Vietnamese police arrested yet another blogger on June 13, charging Pham Viet Dao with "abusing his right of free speech to undermine the interests of the State". Over 40 dissidents have been jailed this year, twice the pace of 2012. Moreover, there's evidence that the cyber-security arm of Vietnam's police has deployed FinFisher surveillance technology - made by UK-based Gamma International - to plant spy software in computers and smartphones of people who access dissident blogs.

Hanoi has not welcomed American comments on human rights issues. Party stalwarts gag on demands that Vietnam allow greater democratic freedoms, fearing that Washington's true objective is to bring down the regime.

The crackdown on bloggers seemed to manifest a regime tilt toward China, the bEte noire of Vietnam's dissidents. For years, dissident bloggers have flayed the regime for, they say, its failure to defend Vietnam's interests against its giant neighbour. Exhibit A: China's step-by-step solidification of a claim to "indisputable sovereignty" over most of the South China Sea, including waters off Vietnam's coast.

Vietnam's naval and air forces, though not insignificant, are no match for China's. Rather than risk clashes over disputed rocks and reefs - and possible oil and gas deposits - Vietnam's rulers have sought to brake Chinese aggression by rallying the support of ASEAN partners and by forging "strategic relationships" with the US and other extra-regional powers. The results of these diplomatic efforts have been modest. Asean's 10 members have jawed on about "centrality" in regional matters, but failed to establish a common front with respect to China's sweeping territorial claims.

Meanwhile, wary of being manoeuvred into defending Vietnamese or Filipino islets, the US has insisted that it "does not take sides" on territorial disputes. Worried also that the rising superpower will retaliate in other areas, Washington and most ASEAN capitals have shied away from direct challenge to Beijing's quest for hegemony over waters lying between Hong Kong and Singapore.

Beijing's claims are based on records of visits by fishermen centuries ago. In contrast, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam rely on the UN Charter on the Law of the Sea and other international law. Policy shepherds in Washington agree that the thicket of claims must be untangled by reference to those legal precepts. But this stance is undermined by repeated US failures to ratify UNCLOS and the failure of the four ASEAN frontline states to sort out conflicting claims among themselves. The stance offers no clue to Washington's course if Beijing continues to nibble its way toward a fait accompli.

As tensions have risen, non-Communist Vietnamese and a significant faction within the Communist Party have urged a de facto economic and military alliance with the US. There's been progress toward Vietnam's membership in the projected US-led Trans-Pacific economic partnership. Although many party leaders remain sceptical of US intentions, in the last four years there's been remarkable expansion of consultations with the US armed forces. In June, for example, senior members of Vietnam's general staff toured US bases.

Until recently, that sort of military-to-military dalliance, designed to signal to Beijing that Hanoi has options, seemed to have hit its natural limits - friendly visits and a bit of training in non-combat activities like search-and-rescue. A year ago Vietnam rejected former US secretary of defence Leon Panetta's proposal that it host rotations of US troops and warships.

Again this spring, Beijing flexed its maritime muscles. Uncharacteristically, Hanoi hardly reacted. In May, it registered complaints about rough treatment dealt to Vietnamese fishermen and denied a PetroVietnam report that Chinese vessels had harassed one of the state oil company's survey ships. Why became clear on June 14, when Hanoi announced that Vietnam's President Truong Tan Sang would pay a state visit to China.

Sang's trip, the first by a top Vietnamese leader since Xi Jinping was installed as China's president in March, was loaded with ritual and meaning accrued over a millennium of such missions. The Vietnamese are justly proud of a tradition of successful resistance to invading Chinese armies. Also throughout their history, they've often induced China to respect Vietnam's autonomy by projecting deference. Hanoi was kowtowing vigorously.

The orchestration of Sang's visit suggests that, notwithstanding frictions, Vietnam's leaders remain hopeful that China's leaders will not betray a ruling party so like their own. There was the usual heavy stress on the two countries' "comprehensive strategic relationship". Signatures were affixed to a sheaf of routine agreements.

Other than an earful of admonition, Sang appears to have taken little home from Beijing. Xi promised that China would "actively take effective and drastic measures" to narrow a $16 billion imbalance in bilateral trade flows. Such promises have been made before to no great effect. On the South China Sea, Sang had nothing to show but agreement on a hotline to discuss incidents involving fishermen. By rejecting mention of UNCLOS, to which both nations are signatories, and other prescriptions of international law as the foundation of a territorial settlement, Beijing stepped back from assurances it gave Vietnam 20 months ago when Hanoi agreed to bilateral negotiation of claims to the Paracels, islets that China wrested from South Vietnam in 1974. Those talks haven't made progress. Conceding as much, Xi and Sang agreed that they'd be intensified.

The Politburo's subsequent decision to send Sang to Washington on July 25 suggests that Vietnam's leaders have been shaken by what Xi and his colleagues told Sang in private, and are ready to deal with the US on a more intimate defence relationship. A leading dissident was to go to trial on the day before Sang's pending trip was announced; that trial has been indefinitely postponed. Vietnam's leaders may hope President Barack Obama will settle for such cosmetic gestures. If so, they are likely mistaken.

As the administration acknowledged to Congress last month, "the American people will not support a dramatic upgrading of bilateral ties without demonstrable progress on human rights". In fact, the US does not need a more robust military tie with Vietnam to defend its interests in the South China Sea. It can afford to take the long view and surprise cynics by standing firm on human rights. With Vietnam War veterans John Kerry and Chuck Hagel now supervising US foreign and defence policy, that may be exactly what the US will do.

David Brown is a freelance journalist and retired US diplomat who worked in Vietnam for many years.
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US criticizes Vietnam new Internet control decree

August 6,2013

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) The United States joined global Internet giants Google and Facebook on Tuesday in criticizing a new decree in Vietnam that further curbs online free speech and forces foreign companies to keep servers inside the country.

The Internet has emerged as a major avenue of dissent in Vietnam, alarming conservative elements in the Communist government. Authorities want to stifle dissent, but must balance this with the reality that a free Internet is important to maintaining economic growth and attracting investment.

It issued Decree 72 last month, prohibiting the posting of material that "opposes" the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and "harms national security" and other vague terms. The decree cements an ongoing crackdown: Many of the 46 people convicted this year under other laws banning dissent were bloggers.

U.S. officials in Hanoi, as well as large multinational Internet companies, lobbied the government during the drafting process. Some of the more draconian elements were dropped, but the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi made it clear that it was disappointed with the final version.

"Fundamental freedoms apply online just as they do offline," the embassy said in a statement. "We are deeply concerned by the decree's provisions that appear to limit the types of information individuals can share via personal social media accounts and on websites."

Google and other Internet companies have been seeking to expand their business in Vietnam, which has a rapidly growing Internet sector, but are wary about having to cooperate with censorship requests and give up users' personal information to authorities.

The decree stipulates that foreign companies have to keep at least server inside the country, a move that gives the government some control over their activities. But this increases costs for multinational seeking to expand in Asia, effectively functioning as barrier to enter the market.

"We believe that the decree will negatively affect Vietnam's Internet ecosystem," said the Asia Internet Coalition, an industry grouping representing Google, Facebook and other Internet companies. "In the long term, the decree will stifle innovation and discourage businesses from operating in Vietnam."

It remains to be seen how much of the decree, which comes into effect on September 1, will be enforced.

Google and Facebook are currently the dominant players in the search and social sectors of the Internet market in Vietnam. They don't have offices inside the country, but are able to market their products. The government wasn't immediately available for comment.
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Vietnam human rights bill approved by U.S. House of Representatives

Source: Baptist Press, August 5,2013

WASHINGTON (BP) -- The U.S. House of Representatives has approved nearly unanimously a bill designed to advance religious freedom and other human rights in Vietnam.

In a 405-3 roll call Aug. 1, the House approved the Vietnam Human Rights Act, H.R. 1897, which will prohibit any increase in non-humanitarian U.S. aid to the Southeast Asian country if its government does not make significant progress in promoting human rights. The Senate has yet to act on the proposal.

Among its goals, the bill seeks to end religious abuses and return confiscated property to churches and religious communities.

The legislation also expresses the sense of Congress that the State Department should re-designate Vietnam as a "country of particular concern," a classification reserved for the world's worst violators of religious freedom.

The bill's purpose is "to send a clear, strong, and compelling message to the increasingly repressive communist regime in power in Vietnam that says that the United States is serious about combating human rights abuse" in that country, said Rep. Chris Smith, R.-N.J., in a written statement. Smith is the bill's House sponsor.

Protestants, Catholics, Buddhists and adherents of other faiths face government abuse, Smith said. Government officials have jailed journalists and have been complicit in human trafficking, Smith said.

The House-approved bill says the Vietnamese government "continues to limit the freedom of religion, restrict the operations of independent religious organizations, and persecute believers whose religious activities the Government regards as a potential threat to its monopoly on power."

According to the legislation, "unregistered ethnic minority Protestant congregations, particularly Montagnards in the Central and Northwest Highlands, suffer severe abuses because of actions by the Government of Vietnam, which have included forced renunciations of faith, arrest and harassment, the withholding of social programs provided for the general population, confiscation and destruction of property, subjection to severe beatings, and reported deaths."

The only representatives to vote against the bill were Republicans Paul Broun of Georgia and Walter Jones of North Carolina, as well as Democrat Gregory Meeks of New York.

The House vote followed by a week a July 25 state visit to Washington by Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang. In a joint news conference, President Obama said they "had a very candid conversation about both the progress Vietnam has made and the challenges that remain."

In a statement released later, the White House noted "narrow differences" between the two countries on the issue of human rights, but a statement in Nhan Dan, the official newspaper of Vietnam's Communist Party, claimed the differences were "many and significant."
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Compiled by Baptist Press Washington bureau chief Tom Strode. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter (@BaptistPress), Facebook (Facebook.com/BaptistPress) and in your email (baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp).
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