It said religious, press and other freedoms were enshrined in the national constitution and denied that people were being imprisoned for their religious or political beliefs. The FIDH statement, issued on Friday, was contained in a long appeal sent to state leaders invited to a Francophone Summit scheduled for November in Hanoi. It catalogued a range of alleged abuses and said Hanoi's communist leaders had succeeded in turning Vietnam into a society no less corrupt than that under U.S.-backed regimes in South Vietnam during the war. It said Vietnam's attempts to modernise its economy had resulted in sweatshop conditions for workers, while problems of drug abuse, prostitution, and child prostitution had become rife and were being controlled by officials.
Human rights is a thorny issue in Vietnam.
Although the government maintains a dialogue with several, mostly Western, countries over rights concerns, Hanoi rejects outside criticism as interference in its internal affairs. According to Amnesty International at least 54 prisoners were being held in prison last year in Vietnam for their religious or political beliefs. A U.S. State Department report issued in January put the figure at between 70 and 1,000, and described Hanoi's rights record as poor. The FIDH appeal followed rare news during the past week of widespread unrest, in northern Thai Binh province. A foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday the authorities were taking steps to restore order there following several months of protests and violence over alleged official corruption and local tax demands.