c. 1996 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Freedom House, a New York-based human rights group, has asked President Clinton to personally intervene in the case of an American woman who has been detained in Vietnam and accused of”illegal religious propaganda”for distributing pens with Christian crosses on them.

Man Thi Jones, a 54-year-old nurse from Sacramento, Calif., has been under house arrest in a hotel since Oct. 6. An evangelical Protestant and a member of the Cham ethnic minority group, Jones was born in Vietnam, but became a naturalized U.S. citizen 21 years ago. She entered her home village in the southern coastal lowlands on a tourist visa in early October.

According to Freedom House, local authorities have confiscated Jones’ passport and visa and continue to interrogate her almost daily about her activities. She is allowed to contact her husband in California by telephone, and she has told him that authorities are pressuring her to sign a confession admitting to participation in”illegal religious propaganda,”Freedom House said.

In a letter sent to Clinton on Nov. 14, Nina Shea, director of Freedom House’s Puebla Program on Religious Freedom, urged the president to personally act to secure Jones’ release.”Intervening to end the unlawful detention of the American Christian woman Man Thi Jones is a good place to start giving human rights visibility in America’s relationship with Vietnam,”Shea wrote.

Shea is a member of the State Department’s new Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad, which was announced last week.”This case would be a perfect opportunity for the administration to demonstrate its concern about Christian persecution and religious liberty,”Shea told RNS Monday (Nov. 18).

Shea said she is particularly concerned that the administration address this case as a”foreign policy issue”and not merely an isolated case of an American citizen in trouble overseas.

In February, three Americans traveling with the evangelical group Youth With a Mission were also placed under house arrest in Vietnam after police discovered them singing hymns in a private home with 20 Vietnamese Christians in Ho Chi Minh City. They were released and deported after several days.

According to Freedom House, there has been a crackdown by communist officials over the past year against Vietnamese Christians and Buddhists. Although Vietnam nominally tolerates religion, all religious activities are regulated by the government, including the appointments of Catholic bishops and Buddhist abbots. Freedom House reports that the entire independent Buddhist leadership is now in prison.

Authorities have also particularly restricted unsanctioned evangelical”house churches”in ethnic minority areas.

Shea said she wants the Clinton administration to use its influence with Vietnam to send a”strong and swift message that we have zero tolerance”for persecution of religious believers. “It has been nearly three years that the United States has re-opened trade with Vietnam, and religious persecution has intensified during this time,”Shea wrote to Clinton, adding that the re-establishment of diplomatic ties one year ago also has not led to improvement in Vietnam’s human rights policies.”Freedom House urges that you elevate concern for the respect of human rights for both American and Vietnamese citizens in Vietnam to the same high priority”as economic and trade issues in U.S. foreign policy, the letter stated.

A State Department official told RNS that the United States is”very active”in Jones’ case but added that the administration could not elaborate on specific efforts unless Jones signs a privacy waiver.

MJP END LAWTON