Rep. Pitts still deeply concerned about Vietnam's human rights record

vietnam

During a recent trip to Vietnam, I visited the Hanoi Hilton, the notorious prison where members of our armed services were held during the Vietnam War and where Vietnamese citizens previously were imprisoned by the French military.

The glass shards on the walls, the placards of personal stories, the stocks where prisoners were unable to move, the isolation cells and the torture devices were sobering reminders of the suffering of many people in Vietnam.  In addition we met with government officials and representatives of religious groups. Prior to our visit, the Central Party had its Seventh Annual Plenum meeting, of which a major discussion point was religion.  

Unfortunately, a key directive from that meeting, referred to in a news report from the South China Morning Post, calls for religious people to be patriotic by “’volunteering’ in the struggle to ‘foil all attempts of hostile forces who abuse religious and ethnic minority issues to sabotage national unity and act against [the] political regime.’”  

This most likely means further attempts at control of religious groups in Vietnam.  Recent reports by a number of reliable organizations reveal increasing harassment, persecution and imprisonment of religious believers. 

Human Rights Reports
State Department: 2003 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

Religious Prisoners
Vu Gian Thao

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