3 H.L.C. that during the previous year the Government of Vietnam had made "no progress" toward releasing political and religious activists, ending official re strictions on religious activity, or respecting the rights of indigenous minorities in the Central and Northern Highlands of Vietnam. (4)(A) The Government of Vietnam limits freedom of religion and restricts the operation of religious organizations other than those approved by the State. While officially sanctioned religious organizations are able to operate with varying degrees of autonomy, some of those organizations continue to face restrictions on selecting, training, and ordaining sufficient numbers of clergy and in conducting educational and charitable activities. The Government has previously confiscated numerous churches, temples, and other properties belonging to religious organizations, most of which have never been returned. (B) Unregistered ethnic minority Protestant congregations in the Northwest and Central Highlands of Vietnam suffer severe abuses, which have included forced renunciations of faith, the closure and destruction of churches, the arrest and harass ment of pastors, and, in a few cases, there have been 4 H.L.C. 1 2 credible reports that minority religious leaders have been beaten and killed. (C) The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), one of the largest religious denominations in Vietnam, was declared illegal in 1981. The Government of Vietnam confiscated its temples and persecuted its clergy for refusing to join the state-sponsored Buddhist organizations. For more than 2 decades, the Government has detained and confined senior UBCV clergy, including the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, the Venerable Thich Tue Sy, and others. (D) The Catholic Church continues to face significant restrictions on the training and ordination of priests and bishops, resulting in numbers insufficient to support the growing Catholic population in Vietnam. Although recent years have brought a modest easing of government control in some dio ceses, officials in other areas strictly limit the con duct of religious education classes and charitable activities. Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly, who was convicted in a closed trial in 2001 after publicly criticizing religious repression by the Government of Vietnam, remains in prison. 5 H.L.C. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (E) The Government of Vietnam continues to suppress the activities of other religious believers, in cluding Cao Dai, Baha'i, and Hoa Hao who lack of ficial recognition or have chosen not to affiliate with the State-sanctioned groups, including through the use of detention and imprisonment. (5) The Government of Vietnam significantly restricts the freedoms of speech and the press, par9 ticularly with respect to political and religious 10 speech. Government and Party-related organizations 11 == control all print and electronic media, including access to the Internet. The Government blocks web sites that it deems politically or culturally inappropriate, and it jams some foreign radio stations, including Radio Free Asia. The Government has detained, convicted, and imprisoned individuals who have posted or sent democracy related materials via the Internet. (6)(A) Indigenous Montagnards in the Central Highlands of Vietnam continue to face significant repression. The Government of Vietnam restricts the practice of Christianity by those populations, and more than 100 Montagnards have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 13 years for claiming land 6 H.L.C. 1 rights, organizing Christian gatherings, or attempt ing to seek asylum in Cambodia. (B) The Government of Vietnam uses the separatist agenda of a relatively small number of ethnic minority leaders as a rationale for violating civil and political rights in ethnic minority regions. (C) The Government of Vietnam arrested or detained nearly 300 Montagnards during 2003 and since then many hundreds of Montagnards have gone into hiding, fearing arrest, interrogation, or physical abuse by government authorities. (D) During Easter weekend in April 2004, thousands of Montagnards gathered to protest their treatment by the Government of Vietnam, including the confiscation of tribal lands and ongoing restrictions on religious activities. Credible reports indicate that the protests were met with a violent response and that many demonstrators were arrested, injured, or are in hiding, and that others were killed. (E) Government officials continue to restrict access to the Central and Northwest Highlands of Vietnam by diplomats, nongovernmental organizations, journalists, and other foreigners, making it difficult to verify conditions in those areas. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 7 H.L.C. (7)(A) United States refugee resettlement programs for Vietnamese nationals, including the Orderly Departure Program (ODP), the Resettlement Opportunities for Returning Vietnamese (ROVR) program, the Priority One (P1) program and the resettlement of boat people from refugee camps throughout Southeast Asia, were authorized by law in order to rescue Vietnamese nationals who have suffered persecution on account of their wartime associations with the United States, as well as those who currently have a well-founded fear of persecu tion on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. (B) While those programs have served their purposes well, a significant number of eligible refugees were unfairly denied or excluded, in some cases by vindictive or corrupt Vietnamese officials who controlled access to the programs, and in others by United States personnel who imposed unduly restrictive interpretations of program criteria. (C) The Department of State has agreed to extend the September 30, 1994, registration deadline for former United States employees, "re-education" survivors, and surviving spouses of those who did 25 not survive "re-education" camps to sign up for 2 2 2 2 24 |