CHRISTIANS UNDER REPRESSION
According to the World Evangelical Fellowship, Protestants in Vietnam are living in an oppressive atmosphere, being frequently beaten and detained because they refuse to relinquish their faith.
A report released by the Singapore-based World Evangelical Fellowship says that Protestants in Vietnam particularly those of the ethnic group H'mong, are ones who bear the brunt of religious repression. Many observers confirm that stories of persecutions are highly credible. Information published by WEF has long been known as trustworthy.
The Hanoi Foreign Ministry spokeswoman immediately refuted the report. The Vietnam Communist Party's government always denies blames for persecution of religious followers and political dissidents despite accusations by international human rights groups and Western governments.
In fact, Hanoi tightly controls all churches although its Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. No Protestant church is allowed to operate in Vietnam, though Christianity is legal.
Hanoi is exasperated by the fact that the Protestants keep refusing to join the VCP-controlled Fatherland Front. After many efforts, the VCP government still fails to set up a state-controlled Protestant church.
The WEF report said there are about 800,000 Protestants all over Vietnam, 3/4 of them are members of ethnic minorities. Protestants who haven't relinquished their faith were beaten, humiliated, subjected to forced labor, and their property was confiscated. In Central Vietnam, flood victims who are Protestants haven't been given any kind of humanitarian aid.
The report said the VCP government forbids religious actvities because it is greatly concerned about the influence of churches and their role in the collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe.
Communist instructors in indoctrination classes often claim that Protestant ministers are CIA agents.
Meanwhile, Communist authorities continue to crack down on the Hoa Hao Buddhists in the Mekong Delta. Local Public Security concentrated their efforts to drive back pilgrims who were coming to the Hoa Hao Holy Land, the Ancestral Temple, to attend religious services in memory of the Prophet Huynh Phu So's disappearance anniversary on March 31, 2000.
State-run media announced a local government order forbidding people from gathering round An Hoa Pagoda, also known as the Ancestral Temple. Many homes were searched and many Hoa Hao believers were arrested. At least four of them are still detained in Long Xuyen City jail. Public Security agents are patrolling everywhere and stop people to check their identity and threaten them away.
The Hoa Hao Buddhist Church Council of Administrators has urgently forwarded the four families' petitions to the International Council for Religious Freedom, the Human Rights Committee of the US Congress and other Human Rights groups in the world for appropriate actions to help their relatives out of prison.
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TRUONG-SON HIGHWAY
On March 5, the VCP government officially started the Truong Son (Long Mountains) Highway construction at a ceremony presided over by Hanoi Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. Hanoi calls it "Ho Chi Minh Highway," but we don't.
Hanoi disclosed that the project would be implemented in three phases, the first would be completed in 2003. The other two haven't been scheduled.
Construction budget of the first phase was estimated at US$ 385,5 million (or 5,300 billion VN dong) for 1,314 kilometers highway from Hoa Lac (60 km west of Hanoi) to the end of the existing Highway 14 in the northernmost part of Kontum province.
In phase two, the highway would be upgraded to 4 or 6 lanes and in phase 3, it would be extended to the common boundary with China in the North and to Cape Ca Mau in the deep South.
If required budget is available in the future, official statement from Hanoi asserted, phase 2 and 3 could be proceeded. Hanoi, however, stopped short of saying how much availability it hopes for such budget.
Actually, 385 million dollars for 1,314 km or $US 290,000/km is not enough to assure quality of the road despite cheap labor and only 220 km of the total 1.314 must be entirely constructed. The remaining was roughly built many decades ago, now only needs intensive upgrading.
Most of the 1,314 km is crossing a region of high humidity from heavy monsoon. Torrential rains easily cause landslides and wash away bridges. Technical ability of Vietnamese engineers is not reliable, but Cuban specialists participating the highway project as technical advisors could be trusted.
Prolonged monsoon could also bring harmful health problems to road workers. While working at 13,000 VN dong a day (US$ 0.90), the lowest wage in Vietnam, in such remote and unhealthy areas, the workers would be facing malnutrition and sickness without proper health care and medicine. Hanoi plans to employ 46,000 workers a day in 5 work sites.
Young men and women in party's peripheral organizations such as the Communist Youth League, the Vanguard Youth Corps, and local unemployed labor force will be mobilized - or compelled, to be exact - to serve as unskilled workers.
Though Hanoi stated that the Truong Son Highway serves economic objectives - to develop the highland and mountainous areas along the highway - but it seems that its primary purpose is for military use. From northern Kontum to Quang Binh province, north of the 17th Parallel, the planned highway is crossing thinly populated areas without significant resources.
If Vietnam were a developed country, the highway would be a must to further economic growth. In current situation, national financial resources should be contributed to infra-structure upgrading in other areas first, if Hanoi really assigns top priority to economic objectives as it has declared.
On the other hand, it's apparent that the highway project, along with dozen large-scaled festivals and celebrations are held to calm down the dissatisfied public, to divert people attention from critical issues, and particularly to re-assert the past glory of the Vietnam Communist Party and regain its largely eroded prestige.
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