Vietnam on Thursday rejected an Amnesty International report that accused the government of repressing hill tribespeople in the Central Highlands, a region of widespread unrest last year.
"This is a report which brazenly distorts the situation in the Central Highlands. We resolutely reject it," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh.
In 2001, thousands of ethnic minority people, called Montagnards, protested in the provinces of Daklak and Gia Lai over land confiscation and restrictions on their Protestant faith.
After Vietnam's crackdown of the demonstrations, more than 1,000 Montagnards fled across the border into Cambodia. The United States later agreed to resettle about 900 people.
The 22-page report issued Wednesday by the London-based human rights group accused Vietnam of blocking outside access to the Central Highlands, jailing at least 35 protest organizers and targeting non-sanctioned Protestant churches that supported the movement.
There were also reports of pastors' arrests and followers being forced to renounce their religion, the group said.
On Thursday, Thanh denied the allegations of religious repression, adding the government-sanctioned Protestant church in the south has spread into 30 provinces.
"Could there be such growth if the people there were repressed?" she said.
Vietnam denies restricting religious freedom, but the government only recognizes groups that accept its control. There are six main religions in Vietnam — Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Caodaism, Hoa Hao and Islam.
Thanh also rejected charges that international observers were not allowed to travel to the Central Highlands, saying foreign journalists and embassies have been given access to the area.
"Faced with these undeniable realities, elements opposing Vietnam cannot do anything more than to continue to put out distorted allegations against Vietnam," she said.
Vietnam has arranged for tightly guarded government tours of the area but observers are not allowed to freely roam the provinces and speak with residents.