Ambassador claims 'Vietnam has made significant progress on advancing religious freedom'

Michael W. Marine, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, did an online question-and-answer session today on the State Department Web site. Among his responses to submitted questions:

"During the past year, Vietnam has made significant progress on advancing religious freedom. The Government instituted a new law on religion, including a ban on forced renunciations, registered hundreds of places of worship, allowed the majority of closed places of worship to reopen, began educating central, provincial and local officials on how to implement the new law and, in some cases, disciplined officials responsible for violations of religious freedom. So, while we are encouraged by the progress that has been made, there remains work ahead to ensure full religious freedom and human rights for all Vietnamese."

What kind of religious freedom is it to make places of worship register with the government? The only purpose there is for them to be able to exercise greater control over individual churches and faiths.

"Vietnamese citizens are freer than ever to pursue their own family, economic and career choices; however, basic human rights deficiencies remain. These include: the inability of citizens to choose their own government; detentions of persons for the peaceful expressions of their political views; denial of the right of fair and expeditious trials; restrictions on freedom of the press, speech, and assembly; restrictions on the use of the internet; and the prohibition on the establishment of human rights NGOs.

There remains much to do to promoting human rights in Vietnam, but the United States is committed to making the case for these rights at every opportunity. And we remain hopeful that the Vietnamese people themselves will recognize the importance of these basic rights as well. While Vietnam’s political evolution is likely to lag well behind the legal and economic changes currently underway, change is in the offing. As they are increasingly exposed to global trends and ideas, accountability for government actions and policies will become an increasing priority for this country’s next generation of leaders."

Vietnamese know the importance of these rights, they just get tossed in prison when they speak up for those rights. I'd call these more than "human rights deficiencies." As long as we have ambassadors who whitewash the problems by using gentle language and stressing the "good" before the bad reality, the U.S. will never play a good, moral role in aiding all Vietnamese who yearn to be free, from the peasants protesting governmental land grabs to the prisoners of conscience who languish in sordid jails.

For the record, I submitted a question asking Ambassador Marine what the U.S. was doing to help Father Ly and other political prisoners. He didn't respond.