An independent US group that monitors religious freedom around the world on Friday urged the US government to put Vietnam back on its list of the most serious violators, according to DPA. In its annual report to the State Department, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said Vietnam continued to impose "severe religious restrictions" on minority religions including Protestants, Buddhists, Mennonites and others. The US in 2006 took Vietnam off its list of "countries of particular concern" over discrimination on the basis of religion, after the government released a number of prisoners and reopened churches that had been forcibly closed down in the country. US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said the Vietnamese government was still making improvements on religious freedom, and that religious groups in the country reported a "significant decrease in the instances of harassment and abuse directed at religious believers."
