However, it advises that "abuse" of freedom of belief or religion "to undermine the country's peace, independence, and unity" is illegal and warns that religious activities must be suspended if they negatively affect the cultural traditions of the nation.
In February 2005 the Prime Minister issued the "Instruction on Some Tasks Regarding Protestantism", which calls on authorities to facilitate the requests of recognized Protestant denominations to construct churches and to train and appoint pastors.
It directs authorities in the Central and Northwest Highlands to help groups of Protestant believers register their religious activities and practice in homes or "suitable locations", even if they do not meet the criteria to establish an official congregation.
The national-level Committee for Religious Affairs is charged with disseminating information about the new legal framework to authorities at the provincial, district, commune, and village levels and assuring uniform compliance.
During the reporting period, national and provincial authorities held a number of training courses for lower-level officials about the new laws to ensure their understanding and compliance with the legal framework.
Authorities in some areas actively engaged religious leaders in efforts to implement the changes, particularly the registration of Protestant groups and the reopening of closed churches in the Central Highlands region.
The Penal Code, as amended in 1997, established penalties for offenses that are defined only vaguely, including "attempting to undermine national unity" by promoting "division between religious believers and nonbelievers."
During the reporting period, the government welcomed the return of Buddhist Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh for a series of "reconciliation prayer events" in Ho Chi Minh City, Huế, and Hanoi.
Although the international media highlighted arrests and detentions of several political dissidents in early 2007, all individuals raised by the United States as prisoners of concern for reasons connected to their faith have been freed by the government.
Because of the lack of due process in the legal system and inconsistent high-level oversight, the actions of religious adherents can be subject to the discretion of local officials in their respective jurisdictions.
The Church believed that the number of students being ordained remained insufficient to support the growing Catholic population and indicated it would like to open additional seminaries and enroll new classes more frequently; however, it received no official response from the government.
In May 2007 a court in the Mekong Delta province of Đồng Tháp sentenced four Hòa Hảo followers to between 4 and 6 years in prison for "creating public disorder" under article 245 of the 1999 Penal Code.
There were isolated reports that local officials in rural communities continued to discourage conversion to Protestantism by threatening converts that they would lose education and social welfare allowances.
Adherence to a religious faith generally does not disadvantage persons in nongovernment civil, economic, and secular life, although it likely would prevent advancement to higher CPV, government, and military ranks.
However, the number of credible reports of incidents was significantly lower compared with previous years and appeared to reflect individual bias at the local level rather than official central government policy.
There were fewer credible reports that officials arbitrarily detained, physically intimidated, and harassed persons based, at least in part, on their religious beliefs and practice, particularly in mountainous ethnic minority areas.
Baptist pastor Than Van Truong was released in September 2005 after spending one year involuntarily committed to a mental asylum by authorities in Đồng Nai Province as punishment for his religious and political beliefs.
There were confirmed reports that he continued to be harassed and his religious activities curtailed in Đồng Nai and in his home village in Bắc Giang Province in northern Vietnam where he has helped organize a small church.
In August 2005 there were credible reports that local officials attempted to force an SECV lay preacher to renounce his faith and stop his ministry in the ethnic minority H're village in Quảng Ngãi Province.
In March 2006 in Vị Xuyên District of Hà Giang, local authorities fined a house church pastor $32 (VND 500,000), or more than half of his monthly salary, for traveling to Hanoi to pick up registration forms from the ECVN.
In January 2006 in Xín Mần District of Hà Giang Province, district-level authorities told an unregistered Protestant congregation, "If five or more of your members gather together, we will prosecute you."
Although stating that regular and systematic Government interference of their religious services had stopped since 2004, members of the United Gospel Outreach Church (UGOC) in southern Long An Province still claimed harassment from local level officials in a meeting with the Ambassador in August 2006.
In June 2007 a group of 150 pastors of the Inter-Evangelistic Movement Bible Church (IEM) were detained on buses for several hours by southern Bình Phước Province authorities after a prayer gathering of 2,000 followers.
Some observers estimate a high number of religious prisoners, generally as a result of including individuals arrested for participation in "Dega" groups or in the clashes between police and ethnic minority protestors in February 2001 and April 2004.
Similarly, in May 2006, authorities in Cha Cang Commune, Mường Lay District, northern Điện Biên Province, reportedly pressured believers from several Protestant house churches to construct traditional altars in their homes and to sign documents renouncing Protestantism.
Many pastors of Protestant denominations such as the Seventh-day Adventists, Mennonites, Baptists, United Gospel Outreach Church, and Assemblies of God preferred not to join the SECV or ECVN because of doctrinal differences.
He traveled widely through the country, met with large groups of Buddhist adherents, and spoke to intellectuals and political leaders, including President Nguyễn Minh Triết.
The CRA continued to train more provincial propaganda cadres from the Northwest Highlands to disseminate information on religion to reduce societal tensions arising between followers of traditional ethnic minority beliefs and Protestant converts.
In a widely publicized case during the reporting period, vandals, who turned out to be local Party officials and policemen, destroyed a Pietà statue in Dong Dinh Parish, Nho Quan District, in Ninh Bình Province.
Provincial authorities responded quickly to the vandalism, and 10 local Party officials were arrested, relieved of duty, and ordered to pay restitution to the Catholic Phat Diệm Diocese.