HANOI, Vietnam - Hanoi Friday rejected a European Parliament resolution calling for religious freedom in Vietnam, saying it did not reflect the true situation in the country.
The resolution issued Thursday called on Hanoi to guarantee religious freedom and to implement recommendations of the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, Abdelfattah Amor.
The resolution said Vietnam should free all prisoners of conscience and respect the religious freedoms of Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants and unrecognized churches.
Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said it was "regrettable" the European Parliament had based its resolution on erroneous information, and added: "The resolution does not reflect the true situation in Vietnam."
Thanh reiterated Hanoi's position that freedom of belief was guaranteed under the law and that Vietnam held no prisoners of conscience.
"There are no so-called 'prisoners of conscience' in Vietnam, only people who who violate Vietnamese law are dealt with."
After U.N. rapporteur Amor visited the country in 1999 and issued a critical report Vietnam said it would not allow outsiders in to examine religious or human rights issues.
Last month Vietnam deported a European parliamentarian Olivier Dupuis of the Transnational Radical Party after he attempted to visit a detained Buddhist dissident, Nobel Prize nominee Thich Quang Do of the outlawed unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam.
08:50 07-06-01
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