Sarah pushes for action on threats to religious freedoms of Bat Nhat monastery, Vietnam

2.37.00pm GMT Mon 16th Nov 2009

Sarah discussed the issue of religious freedom in Vietnam with a delegation of nuns and monks who follow master Thich Nhat Hanh.

Last Wednesday, 11 November, Sarah met with a delegation of monks and nuns representing the Bat Nhat monastery in Vietnam. The monastery, which follows the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, practises a non-traditional form of Buddhism. There is alarm that the Vietnamese government is tightening its grip and denying religious freedoms. Last month the monks and nuns were violently evicted from their monastery, and left for days without food or electricity.

The chair of the European Parliament's sub-committee on human rights, Heidi Hautala MEP, is understood to be writing a letter to the European Commission on the issue, which she will copy to chair of the European Parliament delegation to South East Asia, the head of the Commission delegation in Vietnam and the Vietnamese ambassador in Belgium. The European Parliament human rights subcommittee is taking the issue very seriously, and Sarah is, in addition to this letter, proposing a European Parliament plenary resolution calling for the European Commission to take action on the issue.