Source: Yahoo! News
Wire Service: AFP
On February 18, 2005 Agence France-Presse reported, "An impending US decision on whether or not to punish Vietnam for its poor record on religious freedom has put the communist country under mounting pressure that could already have yielded significant changes.
The US State Department last year classified Vietnam as a 'country of particular concern' for violating religious freedoms and Washington must decide by March 15 if Hanoi is to face sanctions.
In recent weeks, Hanoi has made a number of goodwill gestures that some analysts see as an attempt to please the United States.
Just before the first day of the Lunar New Year, Hanoi released several dissidents including Catholic priest Tadeus Nguyen Van Ly, who had been detained since 2001.
At the same time, the government made a gesture in favour of Protestants in the country's troubled central highlands.
An instruction signed by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in early February called on officials to 'ensure that each citizen's freedom of religious and belief practise is observed (and) outlaw attempts to force people to follow a religion or to deny their religion.'"