Asia top transgressor for religious repression: U.S.
Asia top transgressor for religious repression: U.S.
Agencies, Washington
Asia is the epicenter of the world's most grievous religious repression, according to an annual U.S. report, which links one- party states with crackdowns and harassment of people of faith.
Five of the six states singled out as worst offenders in the State Department's annual report in international religious freedom are located in the region -- and many other governments are listed as second-tier offenders.
China, Myanmar, Vietnam, North Korea and Laos, all of which are frequently the target of U.S. criticism earn the dubious distinction of a place on the list of nations accused of repressing religion to safeguard a dominant state ideology.
The conclusions are likely to further fray U.S. ties with the five, all of which have uneasy relations with Washington.
Beijing's "respect for freedom of religion and freedom of conscience remained poor, especially for many unregistered religious groups and spiritual movements such as the Falungong," the report said.
"The Government continued its crackdown on unregistered churches, temples, and mosques," it said, adding that unregistered religious groups of all creeds experience varying degrees of official interference.
President George W. Bush regularly brings up religious freedom in his talks with President Jiang Zemin -- and the topic will be on the U.S. agenda at the next summit, in Texas at the end of the month.
North Korea, under communist patriarch Kim Jong-il has "an extremely poor" level of respect for religious freedom" the report says, while Myanmar's military regime is accused of forcibly converting minorities to state-sanctioned Buddhism.
Vietnam is likely to take exception to the findings, less than a week after it hit out at the congressionally mandated U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which advises the administration on policy.
The commission asked officials to add Vietnam to a list of states regarded as causing "particular concern" on religious freedom which currently includes China, Myanmar, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Sudan.
The decision on this year's list will be made in the coming weeks, officials said, but the report was clear on allegations of religious repression allegedly mandated by Hanoi.
"There were credible reports that in 1999, 2000, and 2001 Hmong Protestant Christians in several northwestern villages were forced to recant their faith," the report said.
"Montagnards also were forced to recant their faith during the period covered by this report."
Meanwhile, Vietnam said on Tuesday that portions of a U.S. State Department report accusing it of continuing to repress religious beliefs "lacks objectivity".
A statement on Tuesday from Vietnam's Foreign Ministry said the report "recognized positive developments" in Vietnam's religious situation, but asserted Washington made some wrong statements "based on information that lacks objectivity".
The report cited "some improvements in the status of respect for religious freedom" during the period covered by the study.
Myanmar's military government often finds itself in the cross- hairs of the U.S. government over its human rights record -- and this report was no different.
Bangladesh, India and Indonesia were censured in a category of nations which the report found had neglected to take the problem of persecution against certain religious groups seriously enough.