Congressional Human Rights Caucus Holds Hearings On Vietnam

On Thursday, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a hearing on religious freedom in Vietnam. Voice of America reported that U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, John Hanford, defended the administration's 2006 decision to remove Vietnam from the list of "Countries of Particular Concern"-- the list of the most egregious violators of religious freedom. Leo Leonard, a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, also testified (full text), calling attention to continuing problems in Vietnam. Other witnesses included Amnesty International representative T. Kumar, Nguyen Dinh Thang of Boat People SOS, and Chris Seiple of the Institute for Global Engagement (summary of remarks).