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November 2005 letter from the Vietnam-USA Society
Dear friends,
The Vietnam-USA Society, an organization of the Vietnamese people
working to promote mutual-understanding, friendly relations and
cooperation between Vietnam and the United States, is very disappointed
at the recent decision by the US State Department to designate the
status of Country of Particular Concern (CPC) to Vietnam. This
designation disregards recent significant improvements in democracy,
human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam, runs counter to the new
developments in US-Vietnam relations, as well as the aspirations and
interests of the governments and the people, including religious
followers, of the two countries.
It is a common knowledge that never before has religious life in Vietnam
been active and vibrant. Over the last 10 years, the number of religious
followers has increased from less than 15 million to around 20 million.
In the same period of time, about 20,000 religious leaders have been
appointed and more than 1,000 churches have been built, thus bringing
the total number of leaders and churches to more than 62,000 and 22,000,
respectively. In addition, more and more religious schools, institutes
and publications have been made available for religious teaching. More
and more religious leaders are responsibly taking part in People's
Councils, the National Assembly and people's organizations at different
levels to make active contributions to promoting a better life for the
Vietnamese people, including religious followers.
In addition, there are great efforts being made by the Vietnamese State
in building a set of legal documents regulating religion, of which the
adoption of the Ordinance on Belief and Religion in June 2004 is the
latest affirmation. Those documents have been actively translated into
reality at local levels, especially in the Central Highland. Since
December 2003, the Vietnamese State has promoted the normalization of
religious activities of Protestant churches in the Central Highland,
which has resulted in the opening of 50 chapters and 282 registered
grassroots units with 69 pastors, 105 missionaries. Such progresses in
religious freedom have been acknowledged by the Vietnamese people, the
international NGO community working in Vietnam and a number of
international and US delegations that have visited the Central Highland
recently.
Therefore, it is completely irrelevant to designate Vietnam as a Country
of Particular Concern. Such designation and its potential consequences
of sanctions would hurt the dignity, feelings and self-respect of the
Vietnamese people, particularly genuine religious followers, provoke
indignation in the public opinion in Vietnam, as well as threaten to
damage the new momentum of development in the multi-faceted Vietnam-US
relations, initiated by the leaders and the people of the two countries.
The Vietnam-USA Society calls upon our American friends to help write to
convince the US State Department to consider removing Vietnam from this
CPC list on the basis of obvious evidence of religious freedom in
Vietnam. Your act of goodwill will be highly appreciated.
Best regards,
The Vietnam-USA Society |
