HANOI (AP)--Vietnamese authorities have placed a Catholic priest under detention for urging the U.S. not to ratify a bilateral trade pact because of Hanoi's human rights record.
Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly was placed under administrative detention over the weekend and is banned from leaving his commune in central Thua Thien Hue province, the People's Army newspaper reported.
Ly had joined exiled religious leaders who testified at a hearing in Washington last month in calling for the U.S. Congress to delay ratification of the trade agreement because of renewed concerns over human rights.
"In the name of defending religious freedom, Ly publicly slandered the Communist Party of Vietnam, distorting our party and government's policy on religion," the army newspaper said. "Priest Nguyen Van Ly exposed himself as a traitor of the country."
The newspaper also said that two of Ly's associates had been arrested for carrying computer disks containing his appeals for religious freedom and other anti-government documents.
Ly's detention is sure to increase the growing criticism of Vietnamese restrictions on religion and expression.
A senior U.S. official acknowledged last week that concerns over Vietnam's human rights record will make ratification of the trade pact "more difficult than we had originally anticipated."
The pact, under which Vietnam would open its state-controlled markets in exchange for improved access to American markets, is considered the last major step in the normalization of ties between the two former foes.
Ly has spent more than 10 years in jail or detention for criticizing government religious policies.
Last month, he said in written testimony presented to a hearing on Vietnam held by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an advisory group to the U.S. president and Congress, that the U.S. should apply "hard pressures to create favorable condition to end the Communist regime as soon as possible."
Questions about human rights in Vietnam have also been highlighted by recent unrest in the coffee-growing Central Highlands region.
In early February, thousands of ethnic minority people protested outside government buildings in Pleiku and Buon Ma Thuot, the capitals of Gia Lai and Daklak provinces, over land grievances and what they said was religious repression. Many are Protestants.