A/58/296 to violate the law or policies of the State. Consequently, all places of worship in Viet Nam are fully respected and well protected. 115. The Special Rapporteur stresses that the information contained in the letter making the allegations has undergone proper cross-checking and verification that appear to substantiate it. He wishes to invite the Vietnamese Government to conduct further investigations. These will help to ensure respect for freedom of religion and belief, as it is protected under article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, while emphasizing that the Vietnamese Constitution recognizes freedom of religion and belief. The Special Rapporteur remains convinced that sustained cooperation in this area should serve the cause of human rights and make the situation in Viet Nam with respect to freedom of religion and belief more comprehensible and transparent in an objective way, without distortion or bias. Yemen 116. By a communication dated 11 April 2003, the Special Rapporteur informed the Government of Yemen of allegations that, on 20 December 2002, three American missionaries, Martha Myers, William Koehn and Kathleen Gariety, had been shot and killed while working at a missionary hospital in Jibla. A fourth American was reportedly wounded seriously during the attack. B. Late replies to communications transmitted before the submission of the report to the Commission Pakistan 117. Concerning the attack in an Islamabad Protestant church on 17 March 2002 during which Barbara Green and her daughter Kristen Wormsley were shot and killed (see A/57/274, para. 46), the Pakistani Government replied in a letter dated 30 December 2002 that the authorities have apprehended the culprits, who were also involved in other similar incidents and that an intensive investigation was under way. The Government annexed to its letter information on the current state of the investigation and added that recent violence against the Christian community of Pakistan was the work of evil elements opposed to cooperating with the Government to combat international terrorism. Furthermore, these tragic isolated incidents are not likely to jeopardize traditional feelings of mutual respect and friendship between Muslims and the Christian community. The safety of the Christian community is among the main concerns of the Government, and new security measures have been adopted in that regard. 118. Concerning the case of the daily Mohasib, which had been closed following publication of an article entitled “The Beard and Islam” (see E/CN.4/2002/73, para. 97), the Government indicated in a communication dated 4 June 2003 that the newspaper offices had indeed been closed on the orders of the Abbottabad district administration on 3 June 2001, but that the newspaper had resumed publication on 19 July 2002. 19