Viet Nam Human Rights
Freedom of religion and belief abused (Part 1)
1/7/17
The exploitation of
the right to freedom of belief and religion to undermine the Party and State
with a view to inciting sociopolitical instability represents a
frequently used plot in the hostile forces’ strategy of peaceful evolution. The
struggle against this malicious conspiracy, therefore, is an urgent task today.
In fact, this scheme
of the hostile forces is nothing new; it was used to deliberately sabotage
previous socialist countries. The question is, why do they utilize thoroughly
this plot against Vietnam? Maybe, it is not difficult to give an answer to this
question.
Vietnam is a
multiracial and multi-religious society which has a fairly high rate of
religious people in the Vietnamese community. If the hostile forces were able
to exploit the majority of religious people, their acts of sabotage would
have great effects, not to mention other related consequences. This is where
the maliciousness and danger of the plot lie. In other aspects, our State is a
socialist law-governed one whose rights of citizens and right to freedom of
belief and religion are stipulated and guaranteed by the Constitution and
legislation. Besides bold interference, they have thoroughly taken advantage of
the term “freedom”, but deliberately ignored the latter part “… within the law”
to coordinate acts of sabotage with the aim of fueling sociopolitical
instability, advancing towards abolishing the leading role of the Communist
Party of Vietnam and socialist regime in our country. In order to carry out
this scheme, the hostile forces have used every expedient to release the grip
of State on religion; given the opposing forces both material and spiritual
support; and empowered religion in Vietnam to become a political force
“counterbalanced” with the Party. They have chosen “religious freedom” as a
“fuse” to undermine Vietnam; and absolutized the universality and popularity of
rights in religious field by means of the theoretical point: “sovereignty
superseded by human rights.” At the same time, they argued that “Vietnam regards
religion as the Party and State’s means of propaganda to bolster the State’s
policies on the development of economy, culture, security, defence, and so on.”
They have capitalized on matters arising from religious people’s life and
religious practices and weaknesses of authorities at various levels in the
control and implementation of religious policy, especially matters related to
land clearance and compensation, places of worship, etc., to incite the masses
and followers of religious groups to destroy property, resist law enforcement
forces, destabilize security and social order, and obstruct traffic. They have
even filmed and taken photographs of the aforementioned actions to exaggerate
and distort realities, misrepresent the Party’s guidelines and policies, and
falsely accuse our State of violating democracy and human rights, suppressing
religion, and so on.
Exiled reactionaries
have colluded with the opposing and malcontent forces inside the country to
collect racial and religious information in Vietnam for the purpose of
distorting and misrepresenting truth. Then they disseminate those pieces of
information on the Internet with a view to damaging Vietnam’s prestige in the
international arena. They have also taken advantage of radical congressmen of
several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany,
Canada, etc., and international organizations such as the Human Right Watch
(HRW) and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF) to request these organizations to adopt reports, resolutions, and
communiqué containing distorted content, making the international community
misunderstand religious situation in Vietnam. Typical examples include: the
annual reports to Congress on international religious freedom submitted by the
U.S. Department of State; the United Kingdom annual reports on human rights;
Australian annual reports on human rights, the European Parliament resolutions,
and so on. Every year, the United States House of Representatives passes many
bills and resolutions regarding human rights situation (as well as religious
issues) in Vietnam such as H.R.1587 (Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2004),
H.R.3096 (Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2007), H.R.1410 (Vietnam Human Rights Act
of 2012, H.R.1897 (Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2013, H.Res.484, and so on.
Particularly, they have sought to call upon, through radical politicians
(Loretta Sanchez, Zoe Lofgren, Christopher H. Smith…), the United States
Congress to return Vietnam to the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC)
despite different religious situation in Vietnam.
In the process leading
the revolution, the Party and State have promulgated many resolutions,
directives and legal documents to ensure increasingly improved human rights in
various fields, including the right to freedom of belief and religion. Having
implemented those resolutions and directives, Vietnam has made great progress
in ensuring the right to freedom of belief and religion of its people.
Religious groups have never enjoyed such favourable conditions for their
development. According to preliminary statistics, 40 religious organizations
from 14 different religions with over 25 million followers, 53,000 dignitaries,
133,000 ministers, and 28,000 places of worship have been recognized and authorized
to practice their religions by the State as of early 2017. Religions have had
their own training system nationwide. Most of religious organizations have
published their own newspapers, magazines, and bulletins. The State has
allowed religious groups to publish prayer books in ethnic languages such as
bibles in Bahnar, Ede, and Jarai languages and Buddhist sutras in Khmer
language, and so on. In addition, the Government has paid much attention to
approving the registration of places to practice Protestantism. Followers of
Protestantism can practice their religion individually at home, or collectively
in registered places.
International
cooperation activities in religious realm are attached great importance to. The
Government has created good conditions for religions to broaden international
relations. Many international religious delegations have paid working visits to
Vietnam, and many Vietnamese delegations of religious dignitaries have visited
and studied abroad. Vietnam has successfully held many major religious events
appreciated by international community, including the United Nations Day of
Vesak in 2008 and 2014; the 11th Sakyadhita International Conference on
Buddhist Women (in 2009); the 100th Anniversary of the Arrival of Protestantism
in Vietnam (in 2011); the ASEAN Buddhist Summit in 2016, and so on.
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