Country Profile - Vietnam
Population: 88.1 million
Capital: Hanoi
Government type: Communist state
Religion: Buddhist 49%; Non-religious 12.7%; Neoreligionist* 11%; Ethnoreligionist** 9.8%; Christian 8.7%; Atheist 6.9%; Other 1.9%
History
Vietnam was once a poor, divided country beset by independence wars. Today its sights are set on becoming a 'developed nation' by 2020.
Its people endured three decades of conflict in which the communists routed first French colonisers and then the US-backed regime in South Vietnam.
The division of north and south, implemented under the Geneva Accords of 1954, ended in 1975 when the north Vietnamese overran the south and reunified the nation under communist rule.
A fast-growing economy and social development have not, however, made Vietnam any more liberal.
Despite the fact that Vietnam joined the World Trade Organisation in January 2007, its society remains repressive.
Religious context
Vietnam's constitution guarantees freedom of worship - but the reality for Vietnam's religious minorities contradicts this claim.
The Hanoi regime does recognise a handful of religious groups and denominations: the Roman Catholic Church, one Buddhist organisation and two Protestant organisations.
Churches from these umbrella groups have to register their congregations and are then subject to close surveillance and tight control.
These groups need specific permission for most activities outside their ordinary meetings, including: building or making alterations to places of worship, holding training sessions, doing charitable works, running religious schools.
All unregistered groups are banned and their members may face imprisonment or torture - even death, according to reports relating specifically to ethnic minority hill tribes. Many house churches say they have been trying unsuccessfully for years to register and so remain outside the law. Outreach by foreign missionaries is strictly prohibited.
Christianity is seen as a Western religion and its adherents as potential subversives. Christian lawyer and pro-democracy campaigner Le Thi Cong Nhan served three years in jail for 'propagandising against the state'; then, in March 2010, she began a three-year sentence of house arrest. Her work colleague, Nguyen Van Dai, whose jail term is scheduled to end in 2011, has a further four years to serve under house arrest.
Persecution
The Vietnamese authorities reserve some of their worst venom for the country's ethnic groups, who make up 14 per cent of the population. Two-thirds of Vietnamese Protestants are members of an ethnic minority.
The Montagnard hill tribes in the Central Highlands are reportedly harassed and persecuted on a regular basis because of their faith.
Hundreds have tried to escape to Cambodia, risking their lives to cross malaria-ridden jungles. The Vietnamese authorities reportedly pay Cambodian bounty-hunters for any refugees they capture and repatriate.
Other reports suggest that Christian minority groups have been forced to sign documents renouncing their faith and conduct rituals linked to tribal belief systems.
The Government issued an Ordinance of Belief and Religion in 2004 which restated citizens' freedom of worship - but also gave warning of penalties for activities undermining 'the country's peace, independence and unity'.
The Government's definition of such activities has been controversial, as shown by the case of the Christian village of Con Dau in central Vietnam. This case was raised in Congress in the US as an example of why Vietnam should be redesignated a 'Country of Particular Concern'.
During a funeral in the village in May 2010, officials and riot police arrived, beating mourners with batons and electric rods. More than 100 were injured and dozens were arrested. Six were later charged with 'disturbing public order' and two reportedly died in police custody.
Con Dau villagers had previously protested about officials' plans to turn their parish and cemetery into a new tourist resort. The Christians had been told to move out without any offer of compensation.
Release projects
Release projects in Vietnam include:
- Practical support for the families of prisoners
- Support for families to visit prisoners
- Gift packages for prisoners
Sources: BBC; Britannica Online Encyclopaedia; Compass Direct; International Christian Concern; The Voice of the Martyrs Canada; The World Factbook 2010; World Christian Database.
* Neoreligionist: followers of Asian 20th-century neoreligions, neoreligious movements, radical new crisis religions and non-Christian syncretistic mass religions
** Ethnoreligionist: followers of local, tribal, animistic or shamanistic religions, with members restricted to one ethnic group
Updated January 2011
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