Release International

The Vietnamese government may be normalising its relations with the international community -- but there are few signs it is building bridges with the church.

Vietnam has finally been invited to join the World Trade Organisation after almost 12 years of negotiations. Last week its name was dropped from the US State Department's list of Countries of Particular Concern -- a blacklist of states restricting religious freedom.

But moves to welcome Vietnam into political respectability have jarred with religious rights campaigners. Christian Solidarity Worldwide has just released a leaked government document which instructs local officials to force Christians in the north-west highlands to renounce their faith. The training manual details a plan to 'resolutely subdue the abnormally rapid and spontaneous development of the Protestant religion'.

Meanwhile, Compass Direct reports that the Vietnamese authorities informed the US Embassy in Hanoi that 18 Hmong churches had been registered -- without telling the churches themselves. Pastors heard the news through US officials who contacted them. They had submitted applications but never had any acknowledgement of their paperwork.

The decision to 'legalise' congregations among the hard-pressed Hmong minority is not a cause for celebration among these churches. Many churches which have been registered report increased interference in their activities: in some, officials have sat in on meetings and banned anyone under 14 from attending. 'Church leaders in Vietnam are under no illusion that the registration of their churches equals religious freedom,' an observer told Compass.

• Pray that Vietnamese authorities would recognise the need to improve their religious rights record.
• Thank God for the 'rapid and spontaneous' growth of the church in the north-west highlands - and pray that it will continue.

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