Religious freedom continued to decline in China this year, while Vietnam showed slight signs of improvement despite ongoing abuses, the U.S. State Department said in an annual report to American lawmakers.

Meanwhile, in Myanmar, also known as Burma, violations of religious freedoms continued unchanged in spite of progress made in political reforms, the report said.

In China, the State Department’s 2012 Religious Freedom Report said, “the government’s respect for religious freedom declined during the year, particularly in Tibetan areas and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Republic.”

In general, China’s government emphasized state control over religion, the report said, adding that the religious activities of religious adherents were restricted “when these were perceived, even potentially, to threaten state or Chinese Communist Party interests, including the Party’s concept of social stability.”

Protestants and Catholics practicing outside of state-controlled churches came in for particular scrutiny, said the report, as did members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and smaller groups called “evil cults” by China’s government.

“Government repression, including crackdowns at monasteries and nunneries, resulted in the loss of life, arbitrary detentions, and torture,” said the report.

The U.S. Secretary of State has designated China as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) since 1999, with the designation most recently renewed in August 2011.

Countries of Particular Concern

Countries of Particular Concern are countries “that are considered to commit ‘particularly severe violations of religious freedom,’ and whose records call for the U.S. government to take certain actions under the terms of the [International Religious Freedom] Act,” said the report.

Burma, or Myanmar, also designated a CPC since 1999 with that status renewed in 2011, saw “considerable” movement in political reform during 2012, “but the trend in the government’s respect for religious freedom did not change significantly during the year,” the State Department report said.

The report noted especially that local officials in the country’s Rakhine state took part in ethnic violence targeting Rakhine’s Muslim community last year.

Overall, Myanmar authorities “subjected religious activities and organizations to restrictions on freedom of expression, association, and assembly,” the report said, adding that the government  promoted Theravada Buddhism over other religions, “particularly among certain ethnic minority populations.”

In Vietnam, though abuses of religious freedom—involving arrests, detentions, and convictions—were  reported during the year, “the government also showed signs of progress,” said the report.

“It registered new congregations, permitted the expansion of charitable activities, and allowed large-scale worship services with more than 100,000 participants.”

Problems remain

“Other problems remained, [though], especially at the provincial and village levels, including slow or denied approval of registration for some groups. Some Christian groups also reported harassment or administrative obstacles when they tried to hold Christmas services,” the report said.

The State Department included Vietnam on its list of Countries of Particular Concern in 2004 but removed it from the blacklist two years later and has since ignored repeated calls by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) to reinstate the country’s designation.

“The Vietnamese government is still using vague national security laws to suppress independent Buddhists, Protestants, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai activities,” USCIRF chair Katrina Lantos Swett told RFA in April.

“And they are definitely working to stop the growth of ethnic minority Protestantism and Catholicism through discrimination, instances of violence, and repeated episodes of forced renunciations of faith.”

“It’s still a very concerning situation, and one that we believe does merit CPC designation,” Swett said.

Lax enforcement

In Laos, “the trend in the government’s respect for religious freedom did not change significantly during the year,” the State Department’s report said.

“Officials respected the constitutional rights of members of most religious groups to worship, albeit within constraints imposed by the government.”

But local officials were sometimes lax in their enforcement of laws protecting religious freedom, said the report.

“District and local authorities in some of the country’s 17 provinces continued to be suspicious of non-Buddhist religious groups and occasionally displayed intolerance for minority religious groups.”

This was especially true in the case of Protestant congregations, “whether or not officially recognized,” the report said.

Contrasting cases

Meanwhile, in Cambodia, “there were few reports of societal abuses or discrimination based on religious affiliation, belief, or practice,” though Buddhism is the country’s state religion, said the report.

“[Cambodia’s] constitution and other laws and policies protect religious freedom and, in practice, the government generally respected religious freedom.”

By contrast, the government of North Korea “severely restricted religious activity, except for some officially recognized groups it tightly supervised,” according to the State Department report.

“Reports by refugees, defectors, missionaries, and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) indicated that the authorities arrested and subjected to harsh penalties persons engaged in religious proselytizing and those in unauthorized contact with foreigners or missionaries.”

Reports of arrests and punishments  during 2012 were difficult to verify, though, “[D]ue to the country’s inaccessibility and the inability of foreigners to gain timely information,” the report said.

Two ethnic Khmer monks have escaped into hiding after an attempt by Vietnamese government and religious authorities to strip them of their religious status following accusations of anti-state activity, sources said on Friday.

Thach Thuol and Lieu Ny—both of the Ta Set pagoda in the Vinh Chau district of Soc Trang province—evaded arrest on Thursday when hundreds of local Buddhists blocked police efforts to detain them, the two men told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.

“On May 16, at about 4:45 p.m., about 100 plainclothes police officers entered the pagoda to arrest me and monk Lieu Ny,” Thach Thuol said. “We both escaped arrest, but they came again at 11:00 p.m.”

Hundreds of local followers prevented police from entering the pagoda, and police broke locks and glass windows while trying to gain access, Thuol said.

The state-controlled Patriotic United Buddhist Association of Soc Trang province had announced two days before that they would force the monks to defrock, declaring in a statement by Buddhist leader Duong Nhon that the two men had used phones and the Internet to give interviews and transmit “fabricated information” about state policy toward Vietnam’s ethnic Khmer Krom minority.

“That decision [to defrock us] was not correct,” monk Lieu Ny said, speaking to RFA.

“Monks can be defrocked only when they have violated [one or more] of the Buddhist vows not to kill, steal, rape, or lie in order to harm others,” Ny said.

“Because we are citizens we have to respect the law. But this decision by Venerable Duong Nhon did not specifically state what rule we had broken.”

“I think this was a decision taken by the government of Vietnam,” Ny said, adding, “They did everything. They only put Duong Nhon’s name under it and forced him to sign.”

Third monk

Meanwhile, a third Khmer monk, Ly Chanh Da of Vinh Chau’s Prey Chop temple, was defrocked by local police on May 16 and thrown unconscious into the street, the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation said in a statement Friday.

“He is staying at [a] villager’s house now,” the Federation said. “He is in a very bad health condition. Sometimes he cannot even remember his own name.”

“The Patriotic United Buddhist Association had ordered Ly Chanh Da to defrock, but Ly Chanh Da did not listen,” Hua Si Hung, acting vice chair of the Vinh Chau People’s Committee, told RFA.

“The Association then asked relevant authorities from the village to force Ly Chanh Da to defrock,” he said.

Reached for comment, Duong Sa Kha, head of the Ethnic People’s Office of Soc Trang province, described the case as “an internal affair of the Patriotic United Buddhist Association.”

“If you want to know more, you can come here to talk … The Association did not ask the police to do anything,” he said.

A U.S. bipartisan commission recommended in April that Vietnam be returned to a State Department list of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom.

Vietnam, under one-party communist rule, “continues to expand control over all religious activities [and] severely restricts independent religious practice, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) said in an annual report.

Though religious activity has grown in Vietnam in recent years, the government continues to “repress individuals and religious groups it views as challenging its authority,” USCIRF said.

Reported by Quoc Viet for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

A court in southern Vietnam on Thursday sentenced two young activists to several years in prison for distributing “anti-government” leaflets, in a trial relatives and rights groups condemned as unfair and aimed at silencing dissent in the one-party state.

University student Nguyen Phuong Uyen, 21, was sentenced to six years in prison, while computer repairman Dinh Nguyen Kha, 25, was given eight years in prison that will be added to a previous two-year sentence from a separate case.

The Long An provincial court found them guilty of spreading “propaganda against the state” over leaflets they had handed out in Ho Chi Minh City last year while protesting against China’s claims to islands in the South China Sea.

They were convicted under Article 88 of the penal code, a provision rights groups say the government has used to muzzle dissent, and both will serve three years of house arrest following their prison terms.

'Not a crime'

The defendants’ family members and lawyers said Uyen and Kha had not acted against the state and that the punishments against them were too harsh.

“My son did not do anything against the communist party, only against corruption,” Kha’s mother Nguyen Thi Kim Lien told RFA’s Vietnamese Service after the trial.

“I don’t see how he was opposed to the government, or the people. I see no article in our constitution or our laws saying that he committed a crime.”

Kha, who was sentenced by a Tan An city court in September to two years in prison for “intention to cause injury,” has also been investigated by police in connection with “terrorist” activities.

Uyen’s father, whose first name is Linh, said her punishment was a violation of human rights.

“She exercised her right to free expression, but was charged with propaganda against the state,” said Linh, who was barred from attending the trial.

Patriotic Youth League

According to their indictment, Uyen and Kha distributed leaflets signed by overseas opposition group the Patriotic Youth League which accused the communist party of allowing China to take over the country by occupying its islands and exploiting its natural resources.

The Patriotic Youth League—a group of students, artists, and young professionals who promote social justice and human rights in Vietnam and which is banned in the country—had in the leaflets urged people “to take to the streets” against the communists.

Plagued by errors

Uyen’s lawyer Ha Huy Son said that proceedings in the case had been plagued by “a lot of errors,” including the court’s omission of evidence and that its verdict failed to take into account the defense lawyers’ arguments.

“All three of us lawyers said our clients did not commit crimes according to Article 88 of the penal code, but [the court] did not listen,” he told RFA.

The case has drawn online support from Vietnamese activists, with university students writing petitions for Uyen’s release since her official arrest in October after she had been missing for two weeks.

Barred from attending

Supporters gathered outside the court on Thursday were barred from attending the trial, as were some of the defendants’ relatives.

“According to law, people are allowed to attend the trial and everybody has that freedom,” Uyen’s father said.

“But in this trial, even the defendants’ closest family members were not allowed to attend the trial, let alone Uyen’s supporters.”

The Rev. Dinh Huu Thoai, who had gathered with other activists outside the court, said supporters had been met by a large number of security personnel.

“They said this is a public trial, but the security forces and police intimidated people who tried to attend,” he said.

'Ridiculous' trial

Ahead of the trial, New York-based Human Rights Watch had appealed for the immediate release of the two defendants, saying Vietnam should stop using “politically controlled” courts to convict government critics.

“Putting people on trial for distributing leaflets critical of the government is ridiculous and shows the insecurity of the Vietnamese government,” the group’s Asia director Brad Adams said in a statement Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch also noted that it was unclear why Kha, given his previous conviction in late September, would have been free —according to the indictment—to distribute leaflets in October.

Reported by An Nhien and An Nguyen for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

A lawyer representing two Vietnamese activists set to face trial for crimes against the state urged authorities Wednesday to re-examine the charges against them, as a human rights group called for their release and an investigation into reports they had been abused in prison.

Nguyen Phuong Uyen, 21, and Dinh Nguyen Kha, 25, were arrested in October last year for handing out anti-government leaflets during a protest against China’s claims to islands in the South China Sea and are scheduled to be tried in the People’s Court of Long An province on Thursday.

Both Uyen and Kha have been charged with “conducting propaganda against the state” under Article 88 of the penal code, while Kha faces an additional charge of “terrorism” under Article 84 in a separate case.

On Wednesday, lawyer Nguyen Thanh Luong, who represents Uyen, sent a petition to the Long An provincial prosecutor’s office and people’s court requesting that the authorities reconsider the indictment against the defendants.

“According to Article 4 of the constitution, the Vietnamese Communist Party is the ruling party, but the party itself is not the state… Article 88 of the penal code has nothing to do with the communist party,” Luong told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.

“The party is only a political party and each member is a citizen of the socialist republic of Vietnam. Therefore, blaspheming the party does not mean blaspheming the state.”

He said that using Article 88 to charge those for speaking out against the communist party was not only unfair to the defendants, but also “sends the wrong message to the public.”

The lawyer also asked the authorities to consider that Uyen had taken part in a protest against China as a means to “express her love for her country.”

“The relevant offices of justice should consider this instead of prosecuting her on criminal charges.”

According to state media, Uyen and Kha distributed leaflets signed by overseas opposition group the Patriotic Youth League which accused Vietnam’s communist party of allowing China to take over the country by occupying its islands and exploiting its natural resources.

The Patriotic Youth League—a group of students, artists, and young professionals who promote social justice and human rights in Vietnam and which is banned in the country—had in the leaflets urged people “to take to the streets” against the communist party, which it said was controlled by the Chinese.

Authorities have accused Uyen and Kha of contacting Nguyen Thien Thanh—a Patriotic Youth League member based in Thailand—via Facebook in April or May last year.

They say Thanh convinced the two to join the “anti-state reactionary group” and sent files containing the wording used in the leaflets, instructing them to paste the leaflets in public areas.

Two defendants

Uyen, a student at the Ho Chi Minh University of Food Industry from Ham Thuan Bac district in Binh Thuan province, was taken into custody by authorities on Oct. 14, 2012 in Ho Chi Minh City, and held at a local police station after distributing the leaflets.

Uyen’s relatives were notified of her arrest eight days later—after police had already transferred her to authorities in Long An.

On Oct. 23, Long An police acknowledged that Uyen had been charged with “conducting propaganda against the state.” They said she had been officially arrested on Oct. 19, leaving five days unaccounted for.

Uyen’s mother Nguyen Thi Nhung told RFA’s Vietnamese Service last month that during a 20-minute prison visit on April 26 she learned that her daughter had suffered a seizure and other health problems, and had also been subjected to a brutal beating by a fellow inmate.

“I could see many bruises on my daughter’s body—on her neck, chest, and arms,” Nhung said at the time.

“She said she was beaten, attacked, and kicked until she fainted,” adding that an older female inmate with a criminal record who Uyen did not know had assaulted her and that authorities had only intervened and taken her to the emergency room after she passed out from the beating.

Dinh Nguyen Kha, a student at the Long An University of Economics and Industry from Tan An city, was accused by police of dropping 2,000 anti-government leaflets at the An Suong overpass in Ho Chi Minh City on Oct. 10, 2012 with the help of Uyen.

Police told state media that he had also previously conducted experiments with making explosives, without providing further details.

Kha was arrested on Oct. 11 but, according to a copy of his indictment, he had already been convicted and sentenced on Sept. 29 by the People’s Court of Tan An city to two years in prison for “intentionally causing injuries [to others].”

Kha’s mother, Nguyen Thi Kim Lien, in April called on authorities to re-examine her son’s case, saying that an initial indictment sent from the prosecutor’s office to the court had said there was not enough evidence to charge him with terrorism.

Kha’s brother, Dinh Nhat Uy, said that when police had come to the family home to search for evidence, they couldn’t find anything, so they took his computer, camera, and printer instead.

Uy said he was subjected to 10 days in a row of interrogation before police decided not to charge him, but said he is still harassed on a weekly basis.

Call for release

The case of Uyen and Kha drew international condemnation ahead of Thursday’s trial, with New York-based Human Rights Watch calling on Vietnamese authorities to drop charges against the two for their nonviolent protest.

“Putting people on trial for distributing leaflets critical of the government is ridiculous and shows the insecurity of the Vietnamese government,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“Writing things that do not please the government is only a crime in a dictatorship.”

Human Rights Watch also noted that given Kha’s conviction in late September, it was unclear why he would have still been free to drop leaflets on Oct. 10.

The group said it had no information about the explosives or terrorism charges against Kha, but said it opposes criminal charges for dropping leaflets, which it termed “an act of peaceful expression.”

Adams called on Vietnamese authorities to allow lawyers and doctors “unrestricted and confidential access” to Uyen and Kha to discuss charges against them and to investigate claims of mistreatment.

He also condemned Vietnam for “using politically controlled courts to convict critics of the government.”

Reported by An Nguyen for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Backed by powerful banks, Vietnamese rubber companies are rapidly expanding their operations in Cambodia and Laos by grabbing land from villagers and disregarding the environment, according to an extensive probe report.

The UK-based development watchdog Global Witness said in the report that Cambodian and Lao officials often look the other way as companies in Vietnam’s rubber industry seize land from local communities without adequate compensation and carry out illegal logging operations both inside and beyond their concession boundaries.

Vietnam’s two largest companies—privately-owned Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) and state-owned Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG)—have leased huge tracts of land for plantations in the two countries “with disastrous consequences for local communities and the environment,” the report said.

“The huge pressure for land to plant rubber is driven by high prices and soaring international demand, especially from China,” it said.

The Vietnamese companies are backed by top German lender Deutsche Bank and World Bank subsidiary the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Global Witness called on them to divest their stakes in the companies if they do not adhere to the banks’ legal, environmental, and social requirements.

“As the third-largest producer of rubber globally, Vietnam is a key global player … [but] with limits on the land available at home, both companies have turned to neighboring Cambodia and Laos [for production],” it said.

Megan MacInnes, head of the Land Team at Global Witness and the report’s author, told RFA’s Lao Service that the impact of large-scale rubber plantations has been “devastating” to local communities and to the environment in Cambodia and southern Laos.

“There are major problems in terms of deforestation and illegal logging and forest clearance and destruction of forest resources,” she said.

“But the local communities we spoke to also told us about the fact that these plantations are destroying their access to local water sources—to streams and to rivers—and they also talked about pollution from the chemicals that the companies are using on the plantations.”

The Cambodian authorities criticized the Global Witness report, saying the group has a “political” agenda” against the government. Lao officials did not immediately react to the report.

MacInnes said the villagers her team interviewed for the report are in a “desperate situation” and that many have lost access to their farmlands—leaving them unable to grow rice and vegetables—as well as to forest resources such as medicines and fruits that are important to their household incomes.

“Almost all of the people that we spoke to told us that the impact on their livelihoods by these rubber plantations had been negative—had really impacted their livelihoods very badly,” she said.

By the end of 2012, the report said, 2.6 million hectares (6.4 million acres) of land in Cambodia had been leased, with 1.2 million hectares (3 million acres) allocated for rubber plantations, while in Laos, at least 1.1 million hectares (2.7 million acres) of land had been leased to concessionaires.

It termed the granting of concessions to HAGL and VRG in both countries “a process marked by lack of consultation and forced evictions.”

“Often, the first people know about either company being given their land is when the bulldozers arrive,” the report said.

“When they resist, communities face violence, arrest and detention.”

Flouting local laws

Global Witness said that rubber plantations, particularly in Cambodia, had been supported by corrupt political and business leaders, while dealings in both countries were “cloaked in secrecy.”

“Both HAGL and VRG have very close connections with high-level government and business elites in Cambodia, so they are clearly very well-connected to the government,” MacInnes said.

Global Witness said that government officials in both Cambodia and Laos have licensed concessions “in contravention of their own laws” and have failed to take action when HAGL and VRG ignored those laws.

MacInnes told RFA that her team often found that rubber companies had offered little or no compensation to families affected by concessions, which is required under both Cambodian and Lao laws.

“In some villages there had been compensation offered, but often it was very low—much, much lower than the market value or much lower than the households thought the land or the forest areas were worth,” she said.

“In other places, villagers told us that the companies promised compensation, but nothing was ever paid.”

The report said that the companies were responsible for the illegal clearance of intact forest—including protected species—both within and beyond their concession boundaries.

MacInnes said that the companies denied being involved in illegal activities when contacted by Global Witness, claiming their operations were sanctioned by the government through the granting of concessions.

“We think it’s very, very important that these companies bring their operations in line with the law, and we think that it’s incredibly important also that the Lao and Cambodian governments investigate and prosecute these companies for illegal actions and illegal operations around their concessions,” she said.

Global Witness called on the governments of Cambodia and Laos to suspend all HAGL- and VRG-related operations, fully investigate them, and initiate prosecution where illegal activities are found. It also recommended that a number of concessions made to other rubber companies should be canceled.

Report reaction

“This report doesn't aim to help Cambodia,” said Cambodian cabinet Spokesman Phay Siphan. “This is not a partner who is helping to prevent forest crimes.”

“The report has a political agenda in attacking the government,” he said, adding that the Cambodian authorities provided concessions not only to Vietnamese companies but also to local small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Phay Siphan called on Global Witness to “file a lawsuit if they have evidence” to support their claims.

He said the government’s policy of granting land concessions aimed to encourage practitioners of traditional agriculture to form small- and medium-sized enterprises to improve their yield and profits.

“This is part of an effort to modernize our agriculture sector,” he said.

“We are not only giving concessions to Vietnamese companies. We are giving concessions to any companies that can demonstrate financial and technical expertise.”

But Yim Sovann, a spokesman for the opposition National Rescue Party (NRP), accused the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of “serving the interests of foreign countries,” saying that the granting of excessive land concessions to Vietnamese companies was causing the country to lose money.

“We would benefit more from preserving the forest and allowing our farmers to cultivate their land,” he said.

“Under the current model we enjoy a small amount of benefits at the cost of massive forest destruction.”

Reported by Tep Soravy for RFA’s Khmer Service and RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Burma expects to nearly double its rice exports to 3 million tons by early next year, selling to new markets as it moves toward taking back its former spot as the world’s top exporter of the grain, an industry spokesperson said.

Myanmar Rice Industry Association central executive member Soe Tun told RFA’s Burmese Service that Burma plans to export to several new markets beyond Africa by the end of the current fiscal year in March 2014.

Burma’s rice market was mostly confined to Africa during decades of international sanctions against the Southeast Asian nation’s notorious military regime, which yielded to a reformist government in 2011.

According to Commerce Minister Win Myint, “Burma expects its rice exports to reach 3 million tons in the next fiscal year,” said Soe Tun, who is also a spokesman for the Myanmar Agribusiness Public Corporation.

“We are now exporting to European countries, including Russia, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium. We have exported about 5,000 tons to these countries.”

Burma signed an agreement in March that led to a shipment of 5,000 tons of rice to Japanese trading house Mitsui earlier this month—its first export of rice to Japan in 45 years. The deal will also see Japan invest in Burmese processing plants that will have an annual intake of 400,000 tons of rice.

Last month, during Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s visit to Burma, a memorandum of understanding was clinched for Burma to export up to 500,000 tons of rice per fiscal year to Indonesia depending on the supply and demand factors in the two countries.

Record exports

Soe Tun said Burma had recently set new records in rice exports, referring to a state media report which said the country had exceeded its target of 1.5 million tons in the last fiscal year by about 600,000 tons, marking “the highest amount of rice exported from Burma in the last 46 years.”

“Burma is now fifth in terms of rice exports around the world,” he said, and is poised to grow.

The Southeast Asian nation was the world’s biggest rice exporter for much of the first half of the 20th century until it was overtaken by Thailand after an army coup in 1962 set up nearly five decades of junta rule.

Since taking power in 2011, Thein Sein’s reformist government has quickly revamped Burma’s rice production and reputation as an exporter.

Regional competition

Soe Tun acknowledged that Burma faces steep competition from its neighbors.

“Our competitors are India and Vietnam,” he said. “Their rice prices for export market are not very different from us.”

But experts suggest that Burma holds an advantage over other major rice producers in the region like Thailand and Vietnam because of an abundance of internal rivers and idle land which could be used to grow the crop.

Burma’s overall production stood at 13 to 14 million tons of milled rice in the last fiscal year, according to the Irrawaddy online journal.

Vietnam’s total rice output last year reached 44 million tons, while Thailand’s stood at 37 million tons.

Potential setbacks

Despite improvements in recent years, productivity in Burma’s agriculture sector, which accounts for more than a third of the economy, has been hampered by factors such as antiquated practices and poor seed quality.

In order to continue to improve yields, Burma will need to work to educate farmers and use better equipment, officials have said.

Soe Tun said that Burma must grow a significantly larger rice crop to feed its own people if the country is to reach expectations for exports.

“If we export 3 million tons next year, we’ll need to grow more rice in the country,” he said.

“We have kept about 10,000 tons of rice for domestic use this year.”

Reported by Kyaw Thu for RFA’s Burmese Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

A group of mostly former jailed dissidents in Vietnam have set up a new online group to coordinate efforts to bring democracy to the country, now under one party communist rule.

The movement, known as the "Brotherhood for Democracy," was established about 10 days ago and the membership has grown to 70 so far.

The group wants to move away from what it calls individual- and petition-based approaches that have been taken so far to highlight the need to bring freedom to the country, organizers said.

"It is time for domestic democracy activists to gather to discuss and find the shortest path for democracy in Vietnam," lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, a former dissident prisoner and co-founder of the group, told RFA's Vietnamese Service.

"Before this, [pro-democracy] movements in Vietnam were just individual-based," he said. "There was no coordination. That was why they were weak."

"Now with the Brotherhood for Democracy, we can maximize the strong points of each individual, creating collective strength to fight more vigorously and, at the same time, help one another to overcome weak points. This helps to create a solidarity between us."

Bloc 8406

The biggest online Vietnamese group pushing for democratic reforms is Bloc 8406. It was organized across the country in 2006, but many of its leaders, including co-founder Roman Catholic priest and dissident Nguyen Van Ly are languishing in prison.

Ly was involved in various pro-democracy movements, for which he was imprisoned for a total of almost 15 years. His support for Bloc 8406 led to his latest sentence on March 30, 2007, for an additional eight years in prison, where he was released and then jailed again in 2011.

Unlike the Bloc 8406, the Brotherhood for Democracy is largely based in northern Vietnam, observers say.

"The democracy movement in Vietnam has reached a very high level [of momentum]," said Pham Van Troi who was among the first to sign up for membership in the new group after emerging from prison recently following a four-year sentence in October 2009 for pro-democracy activism.

"Many people want to join the brotherhood or want to establish their own groups. They are activists who fight for human rights in Vietnam everyday … We only care for our universal goal and work together toward that goal," he told RFA.

Internet-based

Both Dai and Troi said there was no need to seek permission from the Vietnamese authorities to register the group and hoped the government will not harass the members over the move.

"We set up this association on the Internet," Troi said. "We use information technology to seek democracy for the Vietnamese. Vietnam law does not have any regulations related to this kind of online activity."

"And because we don’t have to ask permission from the government, we hope not to face any interrogations by the government."

Dai said Vietnamese law, under Article 69, allowed for freedom to form an association of expression.

Online interaction

He said Brotherhood for Democracy would evolve based on online interaction through social utility groups like Facebook.

"We created a connection between us without being controlled by the law of Vietnam and we don' t need to ask for permission. We only have to adhere to the rules set by Facebook, service providers, U.S. law and international law," he said.

"Our law does not prohibit that activity. Everybody can meet on the Internet and when we see one another in real life, we also do not need to have any permission."

Dai also made clear that the Brotherhood for Democracy was not intended to stifle the growth of pro-democracy groups.

"If there are only a few associations or political groups, there is no way to force a big change in Vietnam. At the moment, we need many associations and groups to develop in different areas, including people from all walks of life, so in the future they can be big and strong enough to create a coalition, a bigger organization," he explained.

"By that time we can pressure the government to make changes to the pave the way for democracy, bringing benefits to all Vietnamese people in Vietnam."

Reported by An Nguyen for RFA's Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai and Joshua Lipes.

Security forces in southern Vietnam surrounded the pagoda of a banned Buddhist group over the weekend and barred monks from leaving the monastery, in the latest crackdown on the group in the one-party communist state.

The blockade of the Giac Hoa Pagoda belonging to the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) in Ho Chi Minh City came as activists gathered in parks in cities across the country to stage “picnic” demonstrations calling for protection of human rights.

Some 50 security personnel including police and plainclothes agents surrounded the pagoda on Sunday, the Paris-based UBCV-affiliated International Buddhist Information Bureau rights group said in a statement Tuesday.

That morning, the head of the pagoda Thich Vien Hy and UBCV deputy leader Thich Vien Dinh were pushed back inside by a “gang” of plainclothes agents who surrounded their car when they tried to leave the monastery, IBIB said.

The two were going to another monastery to visit UBCV patriarch Thich Quang Do, who has called on followers to support public protests in Vietnam’s cities in recent years.

Security agents refused to provide a police warrant or explanation for why the monks were not allowed to leave, except to say they had “orders from above.”

Other monks were also barred from leaving the monastery to conduct prayers or funeral services for local Buddhists.  

The IBIB did not say whether the siege of the pagoda has ended.

According to the IBIB, police have regularly “systematically blockaded” various UBCV pagodas around on weekends since July last year, when Thich Quang Do called on followers to support a series of weekend anti-China rallies led by activists across the country.

Public protests are rarely allowed in Vietnam, and the recurring rallies calling for Hanoi to take a stronger stance against Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea were at first allowed to go ahead but eventually faced stricter controls.

Unsanctioned religious groups face strict controls in Vietnam, religious activity is monitored and groups must be supervised by government-controlled management boards.

‘Picnic for human rights’

This past weekend, in an ingenious move, activists organized protest “picnics” in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Nha Trang in the hope that the gatherings will not be shut down like the anti-China rallies.

But police dispersed the gatherings.

In Ho Chi Minh City, three activists were briefly arrested after they handed out copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  

Blogger Nguyen Hoang Vi, who had helped organize the Ho Chi Minh City gathering in the April 30th park, said she was held until late Monday and suffered beatings by police.

“When I went to the picnic spot, police arrested me and sent me to Phu Thanh police station,” she told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.

When she went back to the police station with her mother after her release to get her belongings, police beat her and puller her mother’s hair violently, she said.

“When my mom told them off, they started to beat me. They grabbed my mom’s head and dragged her out,” she said.

Fellow blogger Vu Quoc Anh was beaten after he confronted people in the park who were using hoses to douse picnickers with water to disperse the gathering and was taken to the police station until Sunday night.

“When I did not cooperate with them, they slapped me, on my head and neck,” he told RFA.

Activist Hanh Nhan was also briefly detained.

An announcement about the May 5 picnic protests circulated online on April 30, the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, calling for people to gather in the parks to discuss human rights with the aim of “contributing to a beautiful society.”

“What needs to be done to improve the human rights situation in Vietnam so that Vietnam will become a strong country with a prosperous people and a just, democratic, and civilized society?” it said.

Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

Cambodia’s long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen vowed Monday to stay in power for more than a decade until he’s 74, while his ruling party prepares to extend its grip on power by putting 14 of its progeny up for contest in this year’s national polls.

According to the official candidate list released by the National Election Committee over the weekend, a total of 14 children of senior Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) members are registered to run in the July 28 election.

The release of the list puts an end to speculation about who among the offspring of high-ranking party members will stand in the election.

Hun Sen’s youngest son Hun Many, 31, and his son-in-law Dy Vichea, 32, are among the 14 and are running to become members of parliament in Kampong Speu and Svay Rieng provinces, respectively.

Hun Sen himself, who has headed the country since 1985, is Southeast Asia’s longest-serving leader by far and has retained power amid accusations that his regime suppresses political freedoms and mistreats rights campaigners.

In a speech broadcast on national television on Monday, the 60-year-old said he plans to continue being in politics until he is 74.

Refuting criticism that he has been in power too long already, Hun Sen said he would follow in the footsteps of Chinese and Vietnamese leaders who led their countries through their 70’s.

"Other developed countries change their leaders [more often], but as for me, I will follow the lead of China and Vietnam,” he said in the speech at a road groundbreaking ceremony in Kompong Speu province.

“I will wait until age 74 to leave politics just like they do in China,” he said.

Hun Sen said in 2007 that he will continue to stand as a candidate in elections until he is 90, and in 2009 indicated he would be out of politics by 2023.

In Monday’s speech, he added that he has been involved in politics his whole life, holding high-ranking positions in his twenties and thirties, and urged voters to give him another term.

“I have been in power since a young age and even now I am not old,” he said.

“If you want me to stay, you should vote for me; if you don't vote for me I won't stay.”

Upcoming poll

Hun Sen predicted last month that his party would win at least a two-thirds majority in the upcoming poll, in which the CPP faces the opposition coalition National Rescue Party.

But the main opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, is barred from standing in the election because of a string of convictions against him and has lived in self-imposed exile in France since 2009.

Opposition members have demanded electoral reforms, including permission for Sam Rainsy to return to Cambodia to participate in the polls, a revamp of the National Election Committee to make it more transparent, and a review of irregularities in voter registration lists.

National Rescue Party Deputy President Kem Sokha said it is undemocratic of Hun Sen to follow the example of communist China and Vietnam to tighten his grip on power.

Furthermore, both countries do not allow their leaders terms longer than 10 years, he said.

“In China and Vietnam, even though they have one-party rule, they do change the president or prime minister, which is better for their people," he told RFA's Khmer Service.

Limiting diversity in Cambodia’s leadership could stifle the country’s development, he said.

CPP offspring candidates

The CPP has dominated the country’s government for the past three decades, and its nomination of offspring of party members in this year’s polls has sparked concern about the perpetuation of the country’s political elite.

Alongside Hun Many and Dy Vichea, the children of CPP members contesting seats in the election include Deputy Prime Minister Sok An’s son Sok Sokan, Interior Minister Sar Kheng’s son Sar Sokha, Senate deputy president Say Chhum’s son Say Sam El and Supreme Court president Dith Monty’s son Dith Tina.

Puthea Hang, director of the election watchdog group the Neutral and Impartial Committee for Free and Fair Elections in Cambodia (NICFEC), said the selection of senior children of CPP took up spots from others qualified to run in the election and is part of a political culture that favors the elite.

"In Cambodian culture, families want to promote their children and loved ones. This has a negative effect on other youths who are qualified to be involved in politics," Puthea Hang said.

If Hun Sen does stay in power until 74, he could be at the helm until 2026 or 2028, depending on how his age is counted.

The idiosyncratic leader turns 61 in August, but is already 62 on his official paperwork, which he continues to use even though he says a typing error recorded his date of birth a year early and in April.

Reported by Tep Soravy and Vann Vicha for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.

The greater Mekong region in Southeast Asia could lose nearly a third of its forests within the next two decades if governments don’t boost protection, a leading conservation group warned Thursday, saying the region’s freshwater ecosystems are also threatened by planned dams.

Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam have lost nearly one third of their forest cover over the past 35 years, leaving the region with about half of its natural forests, the report by the World Wildlife Fund said of the region centered around the Mekong River.

The forests are being overtaken by farmland and replaced with agricultural plantations growing rice, rubber, sugar, and other commodities for export, the report said.

Other areas are damaged by logging—linked to a rise in demand for timber in China, Thailand, and Vietnam—while mangrove forests have been cleared to make way for rice paddies and shrimp farms.

Using satellite imagery, the WWF’s researchers calculated that between 1973 and 2009, Cambodia lost 22 percent of its forest cover, Burma and Laos each lost 24 percent, and Thailand and Vietnam each lost 43 percent.

The “hotspots” most at risk for further deforestation include the margins of large forest blocks that remain in Cambodia, Laos, and Burma, the report said, adding that national statistics from Vietnam and China have “masked” overall losses in regional tree cover because they include large monoculture plantations that are gradually replacing natural forests.

'At a crossroads'

The region has retained forests covering a total of some half of its land area, but if current deforestation rates persist, another third could be lost, with devastating consequences for wildlife, the report said.

“The Greater Mekong is at a crossroads,” said Peter Cutter, a WWF land conservation expert.

“One path leads to further declines in biodiversity and livelihoods, but if natural resources are managed responsibly, this region can pursue a course that will secure a healthy and prosperous future for its people,” he said.

Mekong dams

The greater Mekong region, which also includes southwestern China’s Yunnan and Guangxi, is a biodiversity hotspot and supports some 70 million people depending directly on its ecosystems for food, water, and livelihood.

The region is bound together by the Mekong River, which hosts 13 unique but interconnected freshwater ecosystems, which are threatened by planned dams.

The controversial Xayaburi dam under construction in northern Laos is a “key threat” to the health and productivity to the region, and will block migratory fish and sediment flow with devastating consequences for livelihoods and food security, the WWF warned.

If all 11 planned dams on the main stem of the Mekong River are built, fish supply could be cut by 40 percent, the report said.

But because the region is still rich in natural capital, building greener economies is still “well within reach,” if regional governments coordinate properly, the WWF concluded.

"Given that the majority of the region's biological heritage and supporting ecosystems occur in landscapes that cross borders, regional collaboration is critical," Cutter said.

"Increased and more sustainable investment in maintaining ecosystem integrity must also be a priority at landscape, national, and regional scales."