U.S. envoy concerned at priest arrest | WWRN

HANOI - A high-level U.S. envoy voiced concern on Friday to Vietnam's foreign minister at the arrest of a dissident Catholic priest.

The U.S. embassy has lodged a protest against the arrest of Father Nguyen Van Ly, and visiting U.S. official James Kelly said on Friday it could affect the pending trade agreement between the two countries.

"It won't help," James Kelly said curtly when asked on Friday about the arrest of Ly, who in February called on the U.S. Congress to link human rights to ratification of the bilateral trade agreement.

Kelly, the U.S. assistant secretary for Asian and Pacific affairs, met Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien on Friday.

A U.S. embassy official confirmed on Friday that Kelly discussed the stalled trade pact and also brought up Ly's arrest during the meeting.

"The ambassador and other U.S. officials have raised our strong concerns with the Vietnamese government and urged that Father Ly be returned to his church residence," the embassy spokesman said.

Ly, 54, was taken into custody early Thursday outside his parish home, a day after leading a religious service during which police said he distributed "propaganda against the government."

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry said later Thursday that Ly had violated the probation he was granted after he was detained in March for his written testimony to the U.S. Congress on religious freedom.

Last week, American businessmen in Hanoi said they were worried that human rights and especially religious freedom issues could derail the long-awaited bilateral trade agreement, which was signed last July but still must be ratified.

The stalled trade agreement is just one cause of increasingly sour relations between Washington and Hanoi, just six months after former U.S. President Bill Clinton's groundbreaking visit.

Vietnam has accused the United States of "gross interference" in its internal affairs over human rights and of sheltering anti-government "terrorists" seeking to overthrow the Communist government.

07:01 05-18-01