State Department official to assess state of religious freedom
A U.S. envoy is to travel to Vietnam Saturday, as a crackdown on adissenting Buddhist organization in the country intensifies, RFA'sVietnamese service reports.
The State Department's ambassador-at-large for religious freedom, JohnHanford, will aim to learn more about the "status of religious communitiesand activities", and to continue talks with the government, according to astatement issued by the U.S. embassy in Hanoi.
Hanford's visit comes as Hanoi begins a new crackdown on members of theUnified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), which was banned in 1981 after itrefused to submit to the control of the Communist Party.
In recent days, the Vietnamese authorities have released one UBCV leaderafter holding him for two days but sentenced another, higher-ranking leaderof the same group to two years� house arrest, RFA's Vietnamese servicereported.
The foreign ministry has accused the monks of being in possession of statesecrets and trying to reorganize the church with the help of outside forces.
Last month the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), acongressionally mandated rights watchdog, called on Secretary of State ColinPowell to nominate Vietnam as a "country of particular concern" on freedomof worship�a move which could lead to sanctions.
The commission's appeal followed the imprisonment of two nephews and a nieceof a jailed Catholic priest for passing on information about their uncle andthe religious situation in Vietnam to U.S.-based activists.
Hanford's itinerary will include Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and the CentralHighlands, the scene of demonstrations in February 2001 by ethnic minoritiesprotesting against a crackdown on their Protestant faith, and landconfiscation.