State agents harass, jail, beat up worshippers in Vietnam

While the “space for practice [of religions] has been cautiously widened” in the communist country of Vietnam, the state continues to commit  “serious violations” of religious freedom, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Heiner Bielefeldt. Religious practices were tightly-controlled for decades by the communist regime, but restrictions were gradually lifted after the “doi moi” economic reforms opened up the country in the 1990s. Vietnam officially has 13 religions, including Buddhism, Islam, and Catholicism. The national committee for religious affairs says nearly a third of the population – 24 million out of a population of some 90 million – considers themselves as religious. The UN expert said police and security agents “closely monitored” his movements during his investigation in Vietnam, preventing him from speaking freely with people. Witnesses had told him of “concrete violations…including repeated summons by police, harassment, house arrest, imprisonment, destruction of houses of worship, vandalism, beatings.”

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