Activists defiant as Vietnam court upholds conviction

Tue Nov 27, 2007

HANOI (Reuters) - Two jailed political activists defiantly called for multi-party democracy and more freedom of speech in one-party ruled Vietnam on Tuesday as an appeals court upheld their conviction, with slightly reduced prison terms.

Lawyers for Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, whose release has been called for by the European Union and the United States, argued before Superior Court judges in the communist-run country that their clients were peaceful and should be set free.

But the panel of judges ruled that Dai should serve four years imprisonment and four years under "administrative surveillance", or house arrest -- one year less for both parts of the sentence handed down by the Hanoi People's Court in May.

"I demand democracy, freedom and a multiparty system so that the Vietnamese people can exercise their right to freely choose the party to lead the whole country," Dai, 38, said in his statement to the court before the verdict.

There are about three million party members in the underdeveloped Southeast Asian country's population of 85 million.

The government says the two activists, both lawyers, broke the law and were not convicted for their political views.

Nhan's jail sentence was also reduced by one year to three years from four years. Her term under surveillance was reduced to three years from four years.

Bespectacled Nhan, who was wearing a red sweater over a light blue shirt, told the judges: "I believe in freedom of speech. Even now I raise my voice for freedom of speech as it is a basic freedom."

Foreign journalists and diplomats observed the five hours of proceedings in a separate room with their interpreters.

The court affirmed the lower court opinion that the two defendants had been in possession of documents or distributed documents that defamed the Communist Party and its leaders.

They were charged and convicted in May of "spreading propaganda against the state" and defaming the ruling party.

Many of Vietnam's Western trade partners and allies decried the sentences as too harsh.

In Tuesday's hearing one defence lawyer, Dang Trung Dung said, "Vietnam is a member of the World Trade Organisation and it is time it should abide by international conventions".

He said his clients "have the right to argue, to write articles".

Vietnam joined the WTO in January, part of Hanoi's policy to open the economy. However, the government is intolerant of advocates of a multiparty system and has rounded up about 30 activists this year.

Dai and Nhan are both Protestants. They advocated a multiparty system and gave legal advice to people who said authorities prevented them from practicing religion.

Viet Tan Members Arrested in Vietnam

With members inside Vietnam and around the world, Viet Tan aims to establish democracy and reform the country through peaceful means.

Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party)
www.viettan. org


November 19, 2007

Contact:
Duy Hoang +1 (202) 470-1678
Chi Dang +1 (408) 228-4892

On November 17, 2007, Vietnamese security police detained members and supporters of Viet Tan in Saigon. Those arrested and taken away included:


Viet Tan members

- Dr. Nguyen, Quoc Quan, American citizen

- Ms. Nguyen, Thi Thanh Van, French citizen

- Mr. Truong, Leon (Van Ba), American citizen


Other individuals

- Mr. Nguyen, The Vu, Vietnamese citizen

- Mr. Nguyen, The Khiem, Vietnamese citizen

- Mr. Khunmi, Somsak, Thai citizen

With the exception of Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan whose place of detention is currently unknown, all the individuals were arrested at a residence on Ton That Hiep street, ward 13, district 11, Saigon. They were taken initially to the public security office in district 10 and then reportedly to the main detention center in Saigon.

Before their arrest, they participated in discussions with other democracy activists on promoting peaceful democratic change. Specifically, they aspired to publicize information on successful nonviolent struggles from around the world and to use these lessons to help empower the Vietnamese people.

While it has been over 48 hours since the arrests, the families of the local residents and the embassies of the non-Vietnamese citizens have yet to be notified. Viet Tan expresses our deep concern for the safety of these six individuals. Clearly, communist Vietnam lacks the most basic judicial system and opportunity for a fair and open trial.

Information on the arrested

- Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan , born 1953, was a high-school teacher in Kien Giang province, Vietnam. He emigrated to the United States in 1981 and graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1987 with a Ph.D. in Mathematics. He specialized in research on Machine Translation from English to Vietnamese. A co-founder of the Vietnamese Professionals Society, he is married with two children and a resident of Sacramento, California.

- Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van , born 1956, was a university student in France and settled there after the communist takeover of Vietnam in 1975. She is active in the overseas Vietnamese-language media, having served on the editorial staff of the monthly Viet Nam Dan Chu (Vietnam Democracy). Under the pen name Thanh Thao, she is a key correspondent for Radio Chan Troi Moi, Viet Tan's nightly broadcast inside Vietnam. She is married and a resident of Paris, France.

- Mr. Truong Van Ba, born 1953, emigrated to the United States in 1979. He operated a food catering truck while devoting most of his time as a community activist. He has two children living in the United States and two grown children in Vietnam. He is a resident of Honolulu, Hawaii.

- Mr. Nguyen The Vu, born 1977, is a citizen of Vietnam and employed as a sales executive. The arrest on November 17, 2007 occurred at his home in district 11, Saigon. He is married.

- Mr. Nguyen The Khiem, born 1989, is a citizen of Vietnam and college student. He is the younger brother of Nguyen The Vu and was arrested for sharing the same residence in Saigon.

- Mr. Somsak Khunmi, born 1949, is a Thai citizen residing in Ubon, Thailand.

While these individuals may have different backgrounds and reside in different countries, they are Vietnamese patriots who share a common dream to establish democracy and reform the country. Their activities and those of all Viet Tan members center on principles of nonviolent struggle to mobilize the power of the people against a dictatorship that uses violence as a means of suppression.

In the face of these arrests, Viet Tan calls on:

- Vietnamese inside and outside the country, in the spirit of unity and shared goal, to pressure the communist government to cease the acts of repression, terror, and imprisonment against peaceful democracy activists from inside and outside the country.

- The Vietnamese communist government to honor international covenants and immediately provide to the embassies and families of the arrested their exact whereabouts and condition.

- The Vietnamese communist government to respect the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially freedom of speech, and immediately release all the above individuals as their only activity was to peacefully express their support for freedom and democracy.

- The American, French and Thai embassies to request the Vietnamese authorities to provide information on the whereabouts and personal safety of the respective nationals of these countries, and to visit these nationals while they are in jail to ensure their safety and well-being.

For the last two decades, Viet Tan has faced countless challenges. Committed to establishing democracy and reforming the country, our members are resolute before this most recent challenge. Viet Tan will continue to be an active participant in Vietnam's democracy movement and to work for the freedom of all political prisoners in Vietnam.

Vietnam's Human Rights Record Subject of Congressional Hearing

By Dan Robinson
AP
07 November 2007

Human rights in Vietnam was the subject of a congressional hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill. U.S.-based Vietnamese democracy groups and human rights organizations urged Congress and the Bush administration to take stronger steps to pressure Hanoi to release political prisoners and end suppression of religious freedoms. A report from VOA congressional correspondent Dan Robinson.

The hearing in the House foreign affairs human rights subcommittee was the latest effort by lawmakers to focus attention on the human rights situation in Vietnam.

William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat and the panel chairman, noted that despite having won Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the United States, which is now Vietnam's largest export market, and Vietnam's admission to the World Trade Organization, repression there continues.

Two Democrats representing substantial numbers of Vietnamese-Americans, and a Republican who has become the sharpest critic of Hanoi's human rights policies, appeared as witnesses.

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California is sponsoring proposed legislation to withdraw Vietnam's favorable trade status with the U.S. unless Hanoi releases all political and religious prisoners and takes significant steps to reform its human rights policies:

"We have seen the consequences of these disastrous actions," said Zoe Lofgren. "We lost our leverage on human rights reform in Vietnam."

Chris Smith, a Republican and author of the Vietnam Human Rights Act approved by the House earlier this year by a vote of 414 to 3, says hopes for progress in Vietnam were dashed by the Hanoi government's crackdown.

"Much of that hope and expectation however came crashing down earlier this year as Hanoi instituted a new sweeping barbaric wave of arrests, beating, bogus trials and incarcerations," said Chris Smith.

Representing the State Department, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scott Marciel said human rights remains a high priority for the United States in contacts with Vietnam, as Washington continues to raise specific cases of political or religious prisoners with the Hanoi government.

While describing the Vietnamese government crackdown on dissidents this year as appalling, Marciel defends the State Department's decision to remove Vietnam last year from a list of countries not making progress on religious freedom:

"There was no way of defending that, it is unacceptable," said Scott Marciel. "It was not a crackdown on religious freedom. Still horrible, still a human rights problem absolutely. But on religious freedom itself we are not seeing steps backward we are seeing further steps forward, that is the argument."

Among other witnesses were democracy activists in the United States and representatives of two human rights organizations.

Sophie Richardson, Deputy Director of the Asia Program of Human Rights Watch says that despite the government's repeal of one former law, another was put in its place supporting detention without trial:

"While administrative detention decree 31CP was indeed repealed as we heard earlier in 2007, a more repressive law, Ordinance 44, authorizes placing people suspected of threatening national security under house arrest or in detention without trial in social protection centers, rehabilitation camps or mental hospitals," said Sophie Richardson.

Other witnesses included Cong Thanh Do, who was detained for 38 days by Vietnamese authorities who cited his pro-democracy articles on the Internet written from his home in California.

Duy (Dan) Hoang, of the Viet Tan Party, launched by overseas Vietnamese to promote peaceful democratic political reform, says Vietnamese government controls over the media pose a major obstacle to reforms:

"The Vietnamese government exercises a monopoly over the media to control information, to restrict the free exchange of ideas, and to cover up its own corruption and misdeeds," said Hoang. "And to censor the Internet the government employs firewalls, spies in Internet cafes, and threatens bloggers. So it is really critical that Congress support independent sources of information such as Radio Free Asia."

In Tuesday's hearing, Congressman Chris Smith said he hopes his Vietnam Human Rights Act, which has been blocked in the U.S. Senate, can move forward to eventual approval by Congress.

Increases in Vietnam Aid Tied to Human Rights Improvements

(CNSNews.com) - Vietnamese pro-democracy activists have welcomed the passage of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that ties future increases in U.S. non-humanitarian aid to Hanoi to verifiable improvements in its human rights record.

The Vietnam Human Rights Act, passed by a 414-3 vote Tuesday, also authorizes $4 million over two years for groups promoting human rights and nonviolent democratic change in Vietnam, and another $10-plus million towards efforts to overcome the government's jamming of Radio Free Asia.

It requires the State Department to issue an annual report on the progress of human rights reform in Vietnam and the president will also have to confirm that Vietnamese officials are not involved in human trafficking. Humanitarian aid is not affected.

"This important vote by the Congress tells the Vietnamese Communist Party that there is a price to pay for the ongoing human rights crackdown," Duy Hoang, a U.S.-based representative of an underground opposition party, Viet Tan, told Cybercast News Service.

"The Hanoi communist regime can try to deny imprisoning people for their peaceful beliefs, but these lies only underscore the repressive nature of the regime," he said.

Hoang said Vietnamese-Americans would focus their lobbying efforts on the Senate, to have the legislation become law.

Founded in 1982 Viet Tan -- the Vietnamese Reform Party -- says it has members inside Vietnam and among Vietnamese communities around the world.

Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, who sponsored the legislation, said on the House floor Tuesday that the human rights situation in Vietnam has deteriorated in recent months, and that "a new, ugly wave of brutal repression has been launched by Hanoi."

In a statement, Smith cited the case of Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest and former prisoner of conscience. Ly was arrested earlier this year and on March 30 was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for distributing anti-government material and communicating with pro-democracy activists abroad. Ly served as an advisor to a nascent democracy movement called Block 8406 - a reference to its launch date of April 8, 2006.

Tuesday's vote comes after a series of developments viewed as setbacks by opponents of the communist government, including the normalizing of U.S. trade ties with Vietnam ahead of its World Trade Organization accession, and an administration decision to remove it from a list of "countries of particular concern" (CPC) for severe religious freedom abuses.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent panel set up to advise the executive and legislative branches, has urged the administration to keep Vietnam on the CPC list, a designation that provides for a variety of steps against rights-violating governments, including sanctions.

Smith in his floor speech noted the USCIRF's assessment that Vietnam's removal from the blacklist had been premature.

He said the move to delist it "was part of an effort, I think, of suggesting that if they just got into the World Trade Organization, somehow they would matriculate from dictatorship to democracy. Regrettably, that has not happened."

The Montagnard Foundation, a U.S.-based organization representing the predominantly Christian Montagnard minority in Vietnam's Central Highlands, appealed to the American government this month to return Vietnam to the CPC list, citing new cases of arrests and harassment.

Last Friday, the State Department's ambassador-at-large for religious freedom, John Hanford, cited Vietnam as an example of a successful U.S. effort to engage foreign countries on religious freedom -- although he did acknowledge that progress "has slowed."

Hanford said the department believed that in most cases where groups are still banned or leaders under house arrest, it was the result not of religious activity, but of political views expressed publicly by religious leaders.

"We, of course, believe in their freedom to do that, but we believe that the restrictions that they're placed under are not the result of their religious practices."

Smith has twice before piloted similar legislation through the House, but on both previous occasions the measures were not taken up by the Senate. He urged senators "not to allow economic or other interests to obstruct" the latest effort.

Last June, Bush hosted Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Minh Triet at the White House, and said, "In order for relations to grow deeper, it's important for our friends to have a strong commitment to human rights and freedom and democracy."

The three lawmakers who voted against Smith's bill Tuesday were Reps. Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Ron Paul of Texas -- both long-shot candidates for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination -- and Rep. Jeff Flake or Arizona, also a Republican.

Make media inquiries or request an interview about this article.

House ties Vietnam aid to human rights

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer

Future increases in U.S. nonhumanitarian aid to Vietnam would be tied to improvements in the Hanoi government's human rights record under legislation approved by the House Tuesday.

Supporters of the legislation, passed 414-3, said it was in response to Vietnam's recent crackdown on citizens speaking out for political, religious and human rights.

"Sadly, in recent months, the human rights situation in Vietnam has deteriorated and become substantially worse and a new ugly wave of brutal oppression has been launched by Hanoi," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., sponsor of the legislation.

He said the Vietnam government has tracked down and jailed many of the people who last year signed a declaration outlining humanitarian and human rights aspirations for the country.

The legislation, which must still be considered by the Senate, prohibits any increase in nonhumanitarian assistance to Vietnam over fiscal year 2007 levels unless the president certifies that Vietnam has made significant progress in its human rights record. The president must also confirm that Vietnamese officials are not involved in human trafficking.

The Congressional Research Service has estimated that the United States this year is providing Vietnam with about $8 to 12 million in nonhumanitarian aid.

The measure also approves the spending of $4 million over two years to help individuals and organizations that are promoting human rights and nonviolent democratic change in Vietnam. Another $10.2 million is set aside for measures to stop Vietnam's jamming of Radio Free Asia.

It states that it is U.S. policy to offer resettlement to Vietnam nationals, including members of the Montagnard group, who are eligible for refugee programs but were previously denied entry because of administrative error or other circumstances beyond their control.

Voting against the bill were Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona, Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Ron Paul of Texas.

___

The bill is H.R. 3096

___

On the Net:

Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/

Court Cuts Jail Terms of 3 Vietnamese Activists

A Vietnamese appeals court reduced the sentences to three men convicted and jailed in May for spreading "propaganda against the state". (Reuters)

A Vietnamese appeals court on Friday reduced the sentences handed to three men who were convicted and jailed in May for spreading "propaganda against the state" and forming a political party.

A lawyer for one of the defendants said the court in Ho Chi Minh City ruled that Le Nguyen Sang, 48, a doctor, should serve four years instead of five years.

The trial in May was one of four this year in one-party ruled Vietnam of political activists who called for a multi-party system and greater freedom of speech, mostly over the Internet.

The sentence of businessman Nguyen Bac Truyen, 39, was reduced to three years from four years and another businessman, Huynh Nguyen Dao, 39, to two years from three years, said Truyen's lawyer Trinh Vinh Phuc.

The court concluded that the actions of the three men did not lead to any tangible consequences, the lawyer said.

At their Ho Chi Minh City People's Court trial in May, the three men were accused of using the Internet "to sow discontent among the public" and creating the People's Democratic Party to organise protests, including during last November's visit of U.S. President George W. Bush.

The outlawed People's Democratic Party is one of a few that emerged last year and carried information, mostly on the Internet, calling for alternatives to one-party rule in Vietnam.

Prosecutors linked the defendants to a Vietnamese-born U.S. citizen, Cong Thanh Do of San Jose, California, who was expelled from communist-run Vietnam last September. Do was accused of advocating the government's overthrow.

The People's Democratic Party, in an email received on Friday, called for the release of the three men and others under detention.
The Vietnam government says it does not charge people for their political views, only those who break the law. It is a criminal offence in Vietnam to disseminate views the government considers anti-state or opposed to the ruling Communist Party.

Hanoi rejects accusations by Western human rights groups of cracking down on dissidents after it successfully hosted an Asia-Pacific summit, won World Trade Organisation membership and was removed from a U.S. religious rights blacklist in 2006.

Vietnam newsletter says 'under attack'

HANOI, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - The Australian publisher of an email newsletter in communist Vietnam said Friday the media company was "under official attack" after carrying news articles with political content.

Police in Hanoi have investigated www.intellasia.com for allegedly operating without a proper license while a state-controlled newspaper Friday accused it of spreading "illegal" and "reactionary" content.

"Intellasia has been a very active promoter of investing in Vietnam for many years now," Australian proprietor Jonathan Leech said in an online statement. "But unfortunately today, August 17, Intellasia is under official attack."

The publication -- which has a Hanoi office and emails digests of mainly financial but also general news -- said they had been subject to "six weeks of harassment and interrogation."

State media reports said Intellasia "illegally operates a website without a license," and they showed images of the site carrying news agency reports, some about court trials of Vietnamese political dissidents.

The police-run newspaper An Ninh Thu Do said: "For years, the website has operated illegally and posted many distorted and reactionary articles about Vietnam's politics, human rights and democracy."

It said the business license granted by the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment only allowed it to operate "in the fields of advertising, commerce, market news provision, consultancy for information and informatics sector."

Leech, the proprietor and editor, said the website is run from a US-based server, its content is managed by a US company, and it is "owned and operated by two Australians, one in Vietnam and the other in Australia."

"Intellasia has always endeavoured to present a fair picture of what is happening in Vietnam during the good and lean times over the years," Leech wrote. "But now that the country has joined the WTO (World Trade Organisation), things have suddenly reverted ominously."

"This is a very dark day for what should be a civilised country to operate in," wrote Leech. "And it should be noted that any foreigner or foreign organisation here in Vietnam that also operates a website abroad could at any time suddenly find themselves in a similar position of persecution."

US envoy leaving Vietnam calls rights issue disappointing

The outgoing US ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Marine, on Thursday said a lack of progress on human rights in the communist country was the biggest disappointment of his three-year tenure.

"I wish I could say it's improving, but I can't," he told his final media briefing in Hanoi. "Perhaps my biggest disappointment here is that we've not been able to expand the space for political dialogue in Vietnam."

Vietnam, a one-party-state, this year jailed a number of political activists who had called for non-violent political change toward a multi-party democracy, drawing protests from the United States and other countries.

Rallies dogged a June US visit by President Nguyen Minh Triet, the first to the United States by a Vietnamese state leader since the war ended in 1975.

Marine said religious freedoms had recently been expanded in Vietnam but he added: "If we are talking about the ability of people to engage in political activism, I can't be as positive, and in fact I'm a bit discouraged."

He pledged that the United States would keep up the human rights dialogue with Vietnam under his successor Michael Michalak, due to arrive this month.

"We have a long-term commitment to this, it is in Vietnam's interest for this to happen, and I believe it will happen," he said. "The question is when."

Vietnam's government says it does not punish dissidents, only people who break its laws, including the charge of spreading propaganda against the state, under which several dissidents were imprisoned this year.

Marine said: "To the extent that we are able to understand the Vietnamese legal system, there are laws on the books that allow the authorities to move against people for expressing their opinions, for organising in any way and for calling for political change.

"Those are fundamental human rights that I strongly believe are universal and should be enjoyed by the people of Vietnam."

The ambassador praised growing bilateral trade relations that were fully normalised last year, weeks before Vietnam -- an economy now growing at over 8 percent a year -- joined the World Trade Organisation in January.

"Economically, Vietnam is making major strides forward," said Marine. "The value of US-Vietnam two-way trade will exceed 10 billion dollars this year.

"The United States is Vietnam's top export market and its fourth largest foreign investor, and Vietnam expects to attract at least 15 billion dollars in foreign direct investment commitments this year."

Vietnamese police break up land protest after 27 days

Author : DPA

Hanoi - Vietnamese police in riot gear broke up a demonstration of hundreds of people in Ho Chi Minh City who were demanding compensation for their seized land, witnesses said Thursday. After tolerating the long-running protest for 27 days, armed police moved in late Wednesday night to the tented camp outside the National Assembly offices, forcing the protesters onto buses bound for their home provinces. One of the protesters said the dispersing was peaceful.

"Police yanked down all the tents, banners and signs. They ushered groups of protesters onto one bus until it was full and then they started filling the second bus," a protester named Sinh told New Horizon radio.

"They did not have to beat anyone because no one had the strength to resist," Sinh added.

The crackdown came on eve of the National Assembly's scheduled session and a day after prominent dissident monk Thich Quang Do visited the protest and called for an end to the Communist Party's sole rule.

The demonstration of more than 500 people was the longest-running protest in Vietnam for years and had been publicized by overseas opposition groups as a sign of discontent with communist rule.

The protesters - from several Mekong Delta provinces - were demanding compensation for land that had been confiscated by local officials for development projects.

Signs and banners at the demonstrations accused local officials of "betraying the [Communist] Party and cheating the people." Other banners appealed directly to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to "save the people."

Land protests have become more common in Vietnam , with state media saying property disputes account for 85 per cent of complaints against the government.

On Tuesday, dissident Buddhist monk Thich Quang Do made a rare public appearance to support the demonstration and urged the protesters to also demand multi-party democracy.

Thich Quang Do, the deputy leader of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), delivered 300 million Vietnamese dong (about 20,000 dollars) to the demonstrators on Tuesday for food.

Vietnam hit by mass land protests

A mass protest over the Vietnamese government's land policies is gathering force, ahead of the opening session of the newly-elected National Assembly.

Witnesses say hundreds of peasants from the Mekong River Delta are surrounding the offices of the National Assembly in Ho Chi Minh City.

A smaller protest is also reportedly being held in the capital, Hanoi.

The protesters are demanding the return of their land, and for any wrongdoing by local officials to be punished.

Both protests have been going on relatively peacefully for several weeks, and received little coverage in the local media.

However, as the protest in Ho Chi Minh - Vietnam's second city and the main economic hub - has hotted up in the last few days, residents have started complaining about traffic disruption.

Land protests are not unseen in Vietnam, but correspondents say a demonstration of this scale and intensity is rare.

Frequent complaints

Security forces have begun to get involved to make sure the protest does not get out of control.

Local officials in the Mekong Delta provinces have been urged to come to Ho Chi Minh City to "persuade their people to go home", with promises that their complaints will be dealt with appropriately.

Meanwhile, a deputy minister of security was quoted by state media as saying that there had been a certain involvement of "reactionary forces overseas".

Last Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong called an urgent meeting with provincial leaders.

He asked for a prompt investigation into the case and warned that the Communist Party would not tolerate inappropriate measures.

Land seizures in the name of economic development have been a much-debated topic in Vietnam, where the state maintains the sole ownership of land.

Peasants frequently complain about unfair compensation and criticise the laws on land use, which in their opinion have too many loopholes and are easily abused by corrupt local government officials.

The new 500-strong Vietnam National Assembly, elected last May, is to begin its first session on Thursday in Hanoi.

With the mass protest intensifying outside, the deputies will no doubt have many things to debate.

Vietnamese peasants protest over land policy,graft

HO CHI MINH CITY, July 11 (Reuters) Scores of peasant farmers have protested for three weeks outside a Vietnamese government building over land appropriation for development, one of the longest-running demonstrations of its kind in Vietnam.

Some protesters accuse provincial officials of corruptly taking money from developers riding a boom in an economy that is one of the world's fastest-growing after China, but which is also showing signs of widening the gap between rich and poor.

For the past decade, small landowners from the provinces have gone to the main urban centres of Ho Chi Minh City and the capital, Hanoi, complaining that the communist-run government had failed to pay them adequate compensation for their land.

A report by the Mekong Economics consultancy said a ''concern is that a significant elite class in urban and some rural areas has emerged.

''Most Vietnamese want to be wealthy, and this is certainly not a crime,'' it said. ''But if wealth often comes or is perceived to often come from networks of patronage and corruption, that can lead to social instability.'' Demonstrations take place under police scrutiny and have been mostly peaceful, although there was one reported case of self-immolation by an elderly woman in Hanoi in 2005.

For the past week, groups of demonstrators have camped out in a park in Hanoi as the Communist Party Central Committee held a plenary session on administrative reforms. Next week, the newly elected National Assembly opens an inaugural session.

One woman demonstrator, Huynh Thi Trong from the far southern province of Ben Tre, said her dispute was with local council officials she accused of taking her 15,000 square metres of land.

NO SETTLEMENT ''I have sent petitions but there have been no invitations to settle this matter, so I came to Hanoi,'' Trong wrote in documents to officials, copies of which she handed out in the park.

In Ho Chi Minh City, farmers sat or lay in 32 degree Celsius (90 F) heat and humidity under red, white and blue tarpaulin sheets strung up at the door of a National Assembly office.

The protesters, from seven provinces, have tied a row of red and gold-starred Vietnamese flags, red and white banners and a portrait of independence leader Ho Chi Minh along a fence in front of the building. They began their protest three weeks ago on June 22, a spokeswoman for Viet Tan, an overseas Vietnamese organisation backing them said.

Usually such protests last only a few days days.

The demonstration northwest of central Saigon was closely monitored by uniformed and plainclothes police on a busy street that has a church and shops repairing motorbikes and selling floor tiles and other goods.

Police politely asked a Reuters reporter to leave the scene.

''The government says what these people are doing is not good and you should leave,'' a uniformed policeman said in English.

The issue of re-appropriation of land and the demonstrations is sensitive enough that it is not routinely reported in Vietnamese media, which are all state-run.

But a front-page article yesterday in the Ho Chi Minh City Police newspaper said the Government Inspectorate had sent notices to officials in the north-eastern city of Haiphong and 10 provinces ''on settling with the situation of people gathered in large groups in Hanoi'' and to prevent such gatherings.

It said the provincial officials ''needed to be proactive in sending authorised officials to coordinate with central-level organs to receive and ask people to come back to their locality for settlement.'' The spokeswoman for Viet Tan, the US-based party that is outlawed in Vietnam, wrote in an e-mail that the group had given support to peasant demonstrators in the past.

''We help them on the logistics, they are basically homeless when they go to Hanoi and Saigon because they have no money,'' she said. ''Many of these farmers are illiterate so we help them with procedures as well.'' She said between 800 and 1,000 people had taken part in the Ho Chi Minh City demonstration and some had been arrested.

Vietnam orders provinces to prevent protests by hearing complaints

Hanoi - Vietnam 's government has ordered officials in 11 northern provinces to stop a growing trend of public protests by deploying inspectors and meeting with citizens about their grievances. A directive sent by telegraph was aimed at preventing demonstrations from disrupting the ongoing Communist Party Central Committee meeting and next week's opening of the National Assembly session in Hanoi .

"Quite a few large groups of people, well organized, have converged to and gathered at the state and government offices, and private residences of party and state leaders, causing social disorder in Hanoi," reads the directive, signed by General Chief Inspector Tran Van Truyen.

The order sent out Saturday directs provincial leaders to monitor dissatisfaction among the populace to prevent disgruntled farmers and others with grievances from taking their complaints to the central government.

"Do not let people to gather in huge crowds in Hanoi ," Truyen said in the message, published on the official government website, which specifically mentions the Central Committee and National Assembly meetings as potential targets for demonstrations.

"Be active in finding the real situation of what's happening, checking all of the unsolved cases so as to deal with it in compliance with the law and regulation," the message read.

Once rare in the one-party state, small public protests over land rights and allegations of corruption have become more common in Vietnam in recent years.

In Ho Chi Minh City , hundreds of people protesting the seizure of their lands for development projects have been camping out in front of the local National Assembly office since June 22.

The demonstrations have been heavily covered by New Horizon radio, a broadcaster linked to overseas Vietnamese groups that call for the Communist Party to give up its monopoly on power. New Horizon also reported at least 100 people protesting land seizures in the southern Mekong Delta province of Can Tho .

Unauthorized public demonstrations are officially banned in Vietnam and police in the past have broken up demonstrations in Hanoi and elsewhere.

The recent government directive made no mention of a coming crackdown, instead urging provincial officials to "persuade" demonstrators to go home.

"Any provinces that have people gathering to file complaints and petition to the central level, the provincial People's Committee must send authorized officials with full responsibility ... to meet and persuade their people to go back to the province for resolution," the directive read.

Today's Dissidents are Tomorrow's Democratic Leaders

Here's a very moving slideshow by Viet Tan:

http://www.viettan.org/article.php3?id_article=3662

Vietnam: Hundreds Protest Over Land Disputes, Corruption In Southern Vietnam

HANOI, VIETNAM: Hundreds of people are camping out near a government building in southern Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City to protest alleged corruption and unfair compensation for their land, taken for infrastructure projects, police said Saturday (July 7th).

Protesters from nine southern provinces have converged since June 22th in front of the representative office of the lawmaking National Assembly, said a police officer in Phu Nhuan District. He declined to give his name, citing policy.

"They have set up tents on the pavements, hung up banners and placards demanding fair compensation for their land and denouncing local corruption," the officer said.

He said police were deployed to help keep order and control traffic.

The officer said that leaders of some provinces where the protesters came from had tried to persuade them to go home, but that most of them did not back down.

Saturday's Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper quoted deputy government inspector Le Tien Hao as saying senior government inspectors have been sent to the provinces to urge the provincial leaders to resolve the disputes.

Scenes of people gathering at government buildings to demand better compensation for confiscated land have become common in Vietnam.

Hundreds of hectares (acres) of land are being taken each year for industrial parks and other infrastructure projects.

Several people have been brought to court for attacking authorities in land disputes in recent years. (AP)

Land protest in Vietnam set to enter second week

Hanoi - Hundreds of Vietnamese demonstrators are entering their second week of land protests in Ho Chi Minh City, supporters and a government official said Friday. The farmers from seven southern provinces are protesting a decision by their local officials to appropriate land they were living and working on for development.

Supporters in the overseas Vietnamese community said the protests have grown to 1,000 people.

However, Pham Thi Phuong Lien, chief administrator of the National Assembly office where the demonstrations have been held, estimated the number at just more than 200.

"The protestors want to use their demonstration as pressure on the provincial and local authorities to solve their land rights issues that were not properly handled by the authorities," Lien said.

Lien said the government has sent inspectors headed by Mai Quoc Binh, deputy chief of the Government Inspectorate, to hear the people's petitions.

Radio New Horizon, a station run by the overseas Vietnamese group Viet Tan, has reported demonstrators being followed and harassed by plainclothes police. Lien, however, insisted police were only there to ensure security for the demonstrators.

Small protests complaining of unjust land seizures have become commonplace in Vietnam with many demonstrators alleging corrupt officials are pocketing money from developers but underpaying farmers for the land they lost.

It is unusual for protests to last longer than a few days.

Protest in Sai Gon continues to its 13th day, state’s media ignore protesters

July 4, a day most know as the American Independence Day, but in Vietnam, the protest against corrupt officials continues to its 13th day. The protesters from the various provinces have gathered in Saigon again early in the morning with banners and signs as they chanted slogans against corrupt Government officials while aiming amplifiers at the National Assembly Office II determined to be heard.

At 7:00 AM, banners and signs ran along Hoang Van Thu Street, saying: “Aggrieved citizens demand justice, demand our homes back”, “Clearing houses to build highway 1A, but the government does not provide land for resettlement”, “the government lies and betrays the people”.

Currently, more than ten groups of protesters coming from Tien Giang, Kien Giang, Binh Duong, An Giang, Ben Tre, Dong Thap, Long An, Binh Thuan, Binh Phuoc, District 4 – Ho Chi Minh City. At one point, the numbers of protesters peaked to be over 800 people. Despite the pouring rain, over one hundred people stood holding up their signs and banners while the rest retreated to seek shelter.

The police confiscated and wiped out memory of the mobile phone and cameras used by the protesters while they were inside the National Assembly Office. No one was permitted to take pictures or record the protesters.

The protests have been occurring for almost two week and despite the international interest, the 600 Government owned and operated newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations in Viet Nam have completely ignore the protest.

The Government Inspectors were absent today, but instead, have invited the protesters to Central Public Reception Office II located at 210 Vo Thi Sau Street at 8:00 AM each day to resolve their grievances. The protesters have declined the invitation based on past experiences of the invitation being used by Officials as a ruse to disperse the protesters. The protestors claim that the officials have often used this ploy in the past but have never shown a real commitment to resolving the issues raised by the protesters

Warnings have been issued by the Police but more aggrieved citizens from Can Tho, Co Do, An Giang and Dong Thap are determined to converge to Saigon to join the protest and have their voices heard. They have promised that more participants will be joining the protest.

Vietnamese American Youth Response to Viet Nam President's Visit to U.S.

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY

STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AND DISTRIBUTION

June 22, 2007


Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations

United Vietnamese Student Associations of Northern California

Union of Vietnamese Student Associations of Southern California

Vietnamese American Youth Alliance of San Diego

Phan Boi Chau Youth for Democracy

Len Duong Vietnamese Youth Network


Vietnamese American Youth Response to Viet Nam President's Visit to U.S.


California, June 22, 2007 – Today, the Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations, the United Vietnamese Student Associations of Northern California, the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations of Southern California, the Vietnamese American Youth Alliance of San Diego, Phan Boi Chau Youth for Democracy, and Len Duong Vietnamese Youth Network issued a collective statement in response to the U.S. visit of Viet Nam President Nguyen Minh Triet and to voice concern for on-going religious persecution, human rights violations, and political oppression taking place in Viet Nam.


President Triet is the latest and highest ranking Vietnamese government official to visit the United States with the expressed purpose of improving economic ties and increasing foreign investment to Viet Nam. Since diplomatic normalization, Viet Nam has gained significant bi-lateral trade with the United States, become a member of the World Trade Organization, hosted the Asian Pacific Economic Summit, and received Permanent Normal Trade Relation status from the United States Congress. Despite these economic advancements, the government has not made a good faith effort to raise the treatment of its citizens to international human rights standards, as it continues to harass, detain, and imprison - without cause or due process - democracy activists, religious leaders, political dissidents, and various other individuals who voiced opposition to government policies.



Recently, the government has intensified its crackdown on democracy activists and opposition voices by arresting members of a pro-democracy coalition and imprisoning individuals accused of propaganda to overthrow the people's government. Examples include Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest sentenced to eight years of jail time for his leadership role in calling for democracy in Viet Nam. Of particular concern is Mr. Nguyen's denial of an attorney or his ability to self-represent during trial. In another case, lawyer Le Thi Cong Nhan, a member of an opposing political party in Viet Nam, was sentenced to jail for similar charges of propaganda against the people's government. Ms. Le was also tried in a closed-court session and was denied legal representation.



Today, despite economic developments, the current Vietnamese government has yet to recognize the fundamental rights of its citizens, including the right to have a free and independent press, the right to establish independent organizations and political parties, and the rights to due process with independent legal counsel and full legal representation.


In light of the current conditions inside Viet Nam, we, members of the Vietnamese American Youth Community, represented by the above-named organizations, hereby urge the current government of Viet Nam to:

Respect freedom and human rights for all Vietnamese citizens such as the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and others as enshrined in the Vietnamese Constitution;
Provide all citizens with due process, as established by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and reaffirmed by the United Nations Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons Under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment;
End religious persecution and allow for the operation of independent churches and temples; and
End all forms of oppression against ethnic minorities in Viet Nam.

We also urge the United States government to recognize these deficiencies as it negotiates trade and other policies with Viet Nam and to underscore their importance to establishing the growth of bilateral ties. We ask the federal government to continue its support for the Vietnamese people inside and outside the country in their struggle for human rights in Viet Nam.


We believe that if Viet Nam is to be an equal trade partner with other countries, the government must recognize the rights and freedom of its people as written in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Viet Nam is a signatory. Furthermore, the Vietnamese government is urged to allow open and fair elections with the participation of all political parties. Finally, we believe that if Vietnam is to continue bilateral trade with the rest of the world, it must uphold the values of the international community and respect human rights for all its citizens.


In Solidarity,


Hai Ton Huy Duong James Huy Vu

President, uNAVSA President, UVSA Nor Cal President, UVSA So Cal

www.uNAVSA.org www.NorCalUVSA. org www.THSV.org


Tri Nguyen My-Dung Tran Quoc Phan

President, VAYA President, PBC YFD Len Duong Vietnamese Youth Network

www.VAYASD.org www.DTNPBC.org www.LenDuong. net

U.S. lawmakers slam Vietnam president on human rights

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vietnam's president heard a barrage of criticism Thursday during his historic visit to Washington, with angry U.S. lawmakers saying ties between the former enemies will stagnate until Vietnam's dismal human-rights record improves.

Nguyen Minh Triet, the first president of the communist-led country to visit Washington since the Vietnam War, has tried to keep the focus on vibrant U.S.-Vietnam trade prospects. He is to meet Friday with President George W. Bush at the White House.

But during an hourlong private meeting, senior U.S. lawmakers repeatedly took Triet to task for claims by rights groups that Vietnam has recently ramped up repression of political activists and religious leaders, according to U.S. lawmakers at the meeting.

"Human rights was overwhelmingly the dominant issue. From start to finish, that was the theme," said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif. "We've got to see a stop to this conduct if this relationship is going to improve."

When asked about Triet's response, Royce answered: "Evasion."

Vietnam does not tolerate any challenge to the Communists' one-party rule; it insists, however, that only lawbreakers are jailed. In recent months, Vietnam has arrested or sentenced at least eight pro-democracy activists, including a dissident Roman Catholic priest who was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Triet told lawmakers that Vietnam "had lots of human rights, but the dissidents were somehow endangering the security of the country. We pressed hard for more information about exactly what that means."

Triet, in a speech to business leaders before the congressional meeting, avoided any mention of human rights. He urged more U.S. business investment in his fast-growing country and said his government was working hard to resolve difficulties some U.S. companies have experienced.

"We will do our best to help you," Triet told the audience. "We are striving to create a friendly business environment."

Triet said talk of the war was outdated. "Vietnam is peace. Vietnam is friendship. Vietnam is developing dynamically and creatively," he said through an interpreter.

He is leading a delegation of more than 100 Vietnamese businessmen. On Thursday, he signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with the United States, which sometimes acts as a road map to eventual free trade negotiations.

The countries began a bilateral trade agreement in 2001; trade reached almost $10 billion last year.

Sherman Katz, a senior associate in international trade at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Vietnam has "got to be aware that part of the price of doing business with the United States, if you expect the U.S. government to help you, is to clean up some of these" human-rights problems.

Bush: Vietnam Must Commit To Human Rights To Boost US Ties

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- President George W. Bush lauded economic ties between the U.S. and Vietnam, but said Hanoi needs to strengthen human rights for relations to continue to improve.

After a meeting Friday with Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet, Bush said, "We want to have good relations with Vietnam, and we've got good economic relations."

Triet is the first Vietnamese president to visit the U.S. since the Vietnam war ended in 1975.

"I also made it very clear that in order for relations to grow deeper that it's important for our friends to have a strong commitment to human rights and freedom and democracy," Bush added.

The U.S. and Vietnam signed a new trade and investment pact Thursday, a deal that lays out basic rules for trade and investment between the two countries and may be an early step toward a free trade agreement.

Two-way trade between the U.S. and Vietnam surged by 23% last year to $9.7 billion. Vietnam became the World Trade Organization's 150th member in January.

But the White House has expressed concern over a clampdown on democratic activity inside Vietnam, with a number of dissidents and political activists recently arrested.

"I explained my strong belief that societies are enriched when people are allowed to express themselves freely or worship freely," Bush said Friday.

Neither Bush nor Triet took questions after their meeting.

Triet said he and Bush are determined not to let differences over human rights and religion affect broader interests.

"Mr. President and I also had a direct and open exchange of views on a matter that we remain different, especially on matters related to religion and human rights," Triet said. "And our approach is that we would increase our dialogue in order to have a better understanding of each other."

The two men last met in November, when Bush traveled to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City for the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Second-Rate Welcome For Vietnam's Prez

Oxford Analytica 06.21.07

Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet's arrival yesterday in the United States marked the first visit by a Vietnamese head of state since 1975. Following the Vietnamese leader's tour through Los Angeles, New York and Washington, President George W. Bush will host Triet on June 22 for wide-ranging strategic and economic talks at the White House. However, administration officials recently downgraded aspects of the summit, due to renewed concerns over Hanoi's human rights record.

Bush visited Hanoi in November 2006. Washington did not formally invite Triet until early June. The delay was a calculated rebuke to Hanoi for the arrests and trials since March of seven dissident advocates of multi-party politics. Following Vietnam's successful entry into the WTO, the government has been less willing to defer to Western human rights concerns.

Washington and the European Union joined international human rights groups in sharply criticizing Hanoi this spring. This month, Bush hosted Vietnamese-American democracy activists at a highly unusual White House meeting to signal his displeasure. Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, the Democratic co-chair of the U.S.-Vietnam Caucus in the House of Representatives, resigned his caucus position and threw his support behind a resolution criticizing Vietnam's human rights practices.

To ease Western pressure and enable Triet's visit to go forward, Hanoi has released a handful of dissidents over the past two weeks. They include Le Quo Quan, arrested in March after returning from a brief academic fellowship in the United States, and Nguyen Vu Binh, a journalist. These gestures only partly mollified Washington. The Bush administration has refused to give Triet a state dinner and has shifted the signing ceremony for a key trade agreement from the White House to a lunch hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Bush has said publicly that he will discuss human rights issues with Triet during the June 22 White House meeting.

Triet and his delegation will likely encounter vocal, if polite, criticism when the congressional leadership greets them. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, R-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are both strong human rights advocates. Security for Triet's visit is also exceptionally tight because of anticipated protests by Vietnamese-American groups in both Washington and Los Angeles.

Trade relations are rapidly expanding between Washington and Hanoi. U.S.-Vietnam trade has more than quadrupled (to $9.7 billion per year in goods and services) since a bilateral trade agreement went into effect in 2001. To facilitate this trend, the two countries will sign a Trade and Investment Agreement (TIFA) on June 21, at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The agreement represents a critical step toward negotiation of a U.S.-Vietnam free trade agreement.

The Triet delegation is also expected to confirm a number of lucrative business deals with U.S. firms. These include joint ventures between Chevron and Vietnam Petrochemical and between Microsoft and the Vietnamese Bank of Agriculture. The U.S. and Vietnamese Chambers of Commerce will also announce the establishment of formal ties. Lastly, Boeing hopes to conclude negotiations on another substantial aircraft order by Vietnam Airlines, even if a formal announcement does not occur during Triet's stay.

Triet's visit will further strengthen U.S.-Vietnamese ties, which have been driven forward by expanding bilateral trade and similar strategic concerns in Southeast Asia. While Congress and the Bush administration will continue to criticize Vietnam's human rights record, this is highly unlikely to result in curbs on trade.

Vietnamese President to Visit Amid Human Rights Criticism

(CNSNews.com) - With Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet scheduled to meet with President Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) later this week, pro-democracy groups are urging that improved trade relations not overshadow human rights concerns.

More than three decades after the drawn-out and costly Vietnam War, relations between the U.S. and the communist-ruled Southeast Asian country have improved significantly in recent years. The 109th Congress late last year passed legislation granting permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Hanoi ahead of its January 2007 accession to the World Trade Organization.

Also last year, the State Department removed Vietnam from a list of "countries of particular concern," blacklisted for egregious religious freedom violations. The department at the time reported "significant improvement towards advancing religious freedom."



Diem Do, chairman of Viet Tan, an opposition party that advocates democracy in Vietnam, said that since Hanoi achieved those goals, it "has stepped up its crackdown campaign with systematic arrests and imprisonment of pro-democracy activists who are peacefully expressing their views."

"We believe that trade by itself does not necessarily improve the lives of people under rogue regimes," Do told Cybercast News Service Tuesday. "Only when trade is consciously used to promote human rights could positive changes take place."

Viet Tan and other human rights groups are urging Bush and Pelosi to address the issue during Triet's visit.

"The president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Minh Triet will want his visit to the United States to be all about business," said Do.

"They would hope that the world will turn a blind eye towards the recent gross human rights violations, however we believe that the issues of democracy and human rights oppressions will be raised with the Vietnamese government by President Bush and Speaker Pelosi," Do added.

A recent statement from the White House noted that "the United States and Vietnam have seen enormous progress in their relationship over the past several years."

"President Bush and President Triet will discuss our robust trade and economic relationship, cooperation on health and development issues, cultural and educational ties, and shared commitment to resolving remaining issues stemming from the war," the White House said.

The statement said that "President Bush will also express his deep concern over the recent increase of arrests and detentions of peaceful democracy activists in Vietnam, and note that such actions will inevitably limit the growth of bilateral ties."

While the Vietnamese Embassy did not return phone calls requesting comment for this article, Vietnamese Ambassador to the U.S. Nguyen Tam Chien, said in a statement, "I strongly believe that the visit will be a success."

"The trip's outcomes will complete the full normalization of relations between Vietnam and the U.S. and usher in a new stage of cooperation between the two countries, where joint efforts will be made to set up long term cooperative ties," he added.

Do said he "would like to see the issue of CPC status be discussed and Vietnam to be put back on the list until religious prisoners are released and the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and other independent religious groups are free to practice their faiths."

Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) has also asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to place Vietnam back on the list of CPCs.

"Religious leaders and religiously motivated advocates have become prominent voices in Vietnam's dissident community," Royce said in a letter to Rice. "Many have founded free speech, democracy, and human rights organizations to argue for religious freedom, but improvements cannot be ensured without legal and political reforms."

Royce said returning Vietnam to the CPC list would send a clear message to Hanoi that human rights remain a serious concern.

"In addition, the CPC designation provides the State Department with a range of diplomatic options and incentives that may be used as the current crackdown on dissidents unfolds in Vietnam," he noted.

"Vietnam's continued suppression of political dissidents is intolerable if U.S.-Vietnam relations are to advance," Royce added.

Daniella Markheim, a senior trade policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation, told Cybercast News Service she does not believe there will be "immediate trade sanctions or restrictions" on Vietnam.

"Generally, the U.S. will exhaust all other channels - diplomatic, cultural, etc. - before resorting to trade sanctions as a response to the violations that recommend or place a country on the CPC list," she said.

Countries currently on the CPC list are Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Burma and Eritrea.

SANCHEZ, PELOSI MEET WITH PRO-DEMOCRACY ADVOCATES IN ADVANCE OF MEETING WITH PRESIDENT OF VIETNAM

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in meeting with pro-democracy advocates in anticipation of President Nguyen Minh Triet’s visit to Capitol Hill on June 21. Triet is scheduled to meet separately with Speaker Pelosi and President Bush. The congresswomen were joined by Diem Do of the Viet Tan Party, Bich Nguyen of the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans and the Venerable Thich Giac Duc who expressed their grave concerns with Vietnam’s oppressive human rights record.

Sanchez and Pelosi have led congressional efforts in bringing attention to the recent escalation of human rights violations in Vietnam which include: the sentencing of 8 years in prison for Father Nguyen Van Ly, the arrests of human rights attorneys Nguyen Van Dai, Le Thi Cong Nhan and Le Quoc Quan; and the unmet medical needs of incarcerated journalist Nguyen Vu Binh. Nearly 200 people are thought to have been held without trial, including the Venerable Thich Quang Do and Thich Huyen Quang, leaders of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam.

“We have worked very closely with these leaders in bringing national attention to the situation in Vietnam,” said Sanchez. “We wanted to give the Vietnamese community an opportunity to share their concerns before the Speaker’s meeting with President Triet tomorrow.”

“It is my hope that human rights will be a topic of discussion for President Bush’s meeting with Triet. Human rights must play an integral part in shaping our country’s bilateral relationship with Vietnam.”

Sanchez, co-founder of the Vietnam Caucus, recently celebrated the release of Nguyen Vu Binh, a Vietnamese democracy activist who was charged with a seven year prison term. In February, Sanchez wrote a letter to Secretary Condoleezza Rice who subsequently made a similar request to the Government of Vietnam. Le Quoc Quan, a fellow of the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, nominated by Sanchez, was released over the weekend and reunited with his family after the tireless work of the Vietnamese community and government officials.

Rumored visit has Little Saigon abuzz

June 19, 2007
Times Staff Writer, By Mike Anton / Times Staff Writer

...Triet would become the first president of Vietnam to visit the United States since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. He would meet President...1975 that never stopped," he added. Vietnam has improved relations with the United States... / Times Staff Writer

News travels fast in Orange County's Little Saigon. So do rumors. The hottest one began coursing through the community a couple of months ago.

Word was Nguyen Minh Triet would become the first president of Vietnam to visit the United States since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. He would meet President Bush at the White House in late June and travel to California. He might even stop in Little Saigon.

This raised the collective blood pressure of a community where the war is still being fought. More rumors followed: Triet had canceled the trip. The trip was back on. He would stop in Los Angeles but not come to Little Saigon.

"Two hours ago, I got a call from a source in Hanoi," Thai Dinh, who hosts a talk show on Little Saigon Radio, said last week. "He will be in Orange County about 11 a.m. Saturday…. It will be a very quiet visit. He knows if he announced that, he'd be faced with thousands and thousands of people protesting."

Triet's trip and his scheduled meeting Friday with Bush — largely unnoticed by most Americans — has been the talk of Little Saigon for weeks. Every dollop of information is scrutinized by the competitive Vietnamese-language media — three daily newspapers, dozens of weekly publications, two TV channels, a half-dozen radio stations.

At least two committees have been formed to marshal a response should Triet come to Little Saigon.

The ubiquitous chatter underscores how information ricochets through Little Saigon like it does in any small town. Secrets are hard to keep here, even if they are state secrets.

"I'm in government, work on foreign affairs, and I didn't hear anything about [President Triet's trip] until I heard it from people in the community," said Khoi Ta, an aide to U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, whose district encompasses part of the nation's largest Vietnamese American enclave.

"It's part of one long discussion that started in 1975 that never stopped," he added.

Vietnam has improved relations with the United States in recent years, in part by releasing dissidents and loosening restrictions on religious freedoms leading up to Bush's visit last November to Hanoi.

Since then, there's been tension over the arrest of pro-democracy advocates. White House officials said Bush plans to urge Triet to continue to improve the country's human rights record and implement economic reforms.

"Vietnam has come a long way, but there is still more to be done to protect the rights of its people," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Michael Green, who served as Bush's senior advisor on Asian affairs at the NSC until 2005, said Vietnam is eager to improve relations with the United States for both economic and strategic reasons.

"Basically, the Vietnamese want to keep momentum going in the relationship, and that helps them become a modern country," Green said.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has touted Triet's meeting with Bush and congressional leaders as evidence of closer ties. However, details of his visit to Southern California haven't been released, and Vietnam's embassy in Washington did not return a phone call Monday.

Visiting Vietnamese government officials have long stirred passions in Little Saigon, where the flag of a country that no longer exists — South Vietnam — is revered.

In 2002, a Vietnamese trade delegation was stalked by angry protesters who forced them to cancel a meeting and abandon their hotel. Two years later, Communist Party leaders scrapped a motorcade through Little Saigon after police said they couldn't ensure their safety. They came to Orange County, but quietly.

Westminster and Garden Grove passed ordinances opposing visits of Vietnamese government officials and requesting the State Department to give advance notice if one should occur.

"It would be like Osama bin Laden visiting New York City," Westminster Councilman Andy Quach said of the prospect that Triet would come to Little Saigon. "Our sources say he's keeping his plans top secret…. Unless they make it an issue, we won't."

Yet the no-Communist zone ordinances are more symbolic than enforceable.

Vietnamese officials routinely come to Little Saigon, mostly for private meetings to discuss burgeoning trade between the two nations.

When they do, a cat-and-mouse game plays out behind the scenes.

"Anything that buzzes around here — let me tell you, it gets around," said Diem Do, chairman of Vietnam Reform Party, one of several anti-Communist groups active in Little Saigon.

When Vietnam's foreign minister visited Los Angeles in March, the location of an unpublicized meeting with businessmen was moved repeatedly and invitees told where to go just hours in advance, Do said.

A month later, word spread that a group of men — clearly outsiders — were scouting potential venues for Triet if he came to Little Saigon.

"The leadership of Vietnam largely comes from the country's north and they have a different accent, a different demeanor," Do said. "When they walk into some place like the Asian Garden Mall, people's radar goes up. Call it intuition. But people can easily spot these folks and these things always leak out."

On Monday, Do said the latest word was Triet will host a brunch Saturday morning in south Orange County, miles from Little Saigon. He will then meet with Vietnamese American businessmen in Irvine and Santa Ana. By afternoon, the location had changed to Newport Beach.

Apparently Triet won't come to Little Saigon after all.

"But that's not set in stone," Do said, noting it was early in the week. "That may change."

Indigenous peoples of Vietnam, the Degar Montagnards, ask President Bush to bring up their persecution with visiting Vietnamese leader Triet

Hundreds of Degar Montagnards gathered in Washington, DC on June 16 to ask President George W. Bush to remember them in his upcoming discussion with Vietnamese leader Nguyen Minh Triet who will visit the White House next week. (Lisa Fan / The Epoch Times)

Twelve bus loads of Degar Montagnards arrived outside Lafayette Square across from the White House at about 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 16. Some 700, dressed in white shirts with Montagnard Foundation logos, they walked in orderly fashion carrying Montagnard and U.S. flags and signs. The signs said, "President Bush Remember us" and "Vietnam stop killing Degar Christians."

Outside the White House they gathered in the street and lined up to make an impressive site. Kids as young as three or four stood with their parents. Soon some Cambodians of the Kymer Campuchia came and joined them and the crowd stretched down the street.

There was a band of Degar Montagnards (French for 'mountain dwellers') dressed in loin clothes and traditional clothes carrying gongs and large drum like instruments, in the same fashion they have done for thousands of years. A group of women in traditional dress also held hands and danced to the beat of the drums and ancient gongs.

Kok Ksor, President of the Montagnard Foundation, addressed the crowd and made a plea to President Bush followed by a mass prayer vigil.

"We, the proud indigenous Degar Montagnard people as members of the Montagnard Foundation stand here today in front of the White House to speak publicly on behalf of our brothers and sisters who suffer persecution inside Vietnam. We are here to ask President George W. Bush to remember us in his upcoming discussions with Vietnamese [leader] Nguyen Minh Triet who is visiting the White House next week and also for the Vietnamese [leader] to cease his government from persecuting our people."

During the long Vietnam War, an estimated 100,000 Montagnards served with the U.S. military and by the end of the war over a quarter of our population, over 200,000 people had died, including half of all adult males being killed, according to Ksor. He described what happened to his people when the communist took over Vietnam in 1975.

"…the communists enacted a brutal revenge against our race, killing or imprisoning our leaders and Christian pastors in brutal re-education camps. Ever since, the Vietnamese government has continued land exploitation, Christian persecution, torture, killings and imprisonment of our people. The communist regime in Hanoi continues today to torture and kill our house church Christians who resist joining the 'official' church. Hundreds of our people remain in prison for peacefully demonstrating for human rights, for spreading Christianity or for fleeing to Cambodia. Many of our prisoners have been specifically beaten to cause a slow death from internal injuries."

Ksor next described the extra security measures the communists Vietnamese use in the central highlands on the Montagnards: "surveillance, arrests, beatings, electric shock torture, imprisonment and murder."

As I filmed and watched the crowd, directly in front of me the entire group of 700 plus Montagnards prayed. A number of Montagnards started crying. I recall one young man who looked to me in his late 20s was wiping away his tears, crying while he was trying to pray and the scene really hit me. I thought: "These are the people the Vietnamese [regime] tortures and kills." I thought of the torture victims who were electric shocked that I had interviewed in the past and the ones describing how their relatives were beaten or imprisoned.

I could also see some ex-Green berets too in the crowd. One guy Joe Rimar wearing his green beret stood with the Montagnard group. He was carrying a loin clothe he was given by Montagnards during the Vietnam war.

Around noon the crowd moved out to 17th Street and made its way to Constitutional Ave. I was in the front and watched hundreds of Montagnards crossing streets, carrying flags and banners as people in cars all looked over and watched in amazement.

Near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Montagnards dispersed into the trees. They then made their way over towards the Wall and spread out. Crowds leaving the Vietnam Wall memorial all stood at the fence, reading the banners and many asked questions from those near the fence. A number of veterans and various people from all age groups appeared supportive.

At the Wall, Kok Ksor spoke again, this time about the sacrifice Americans made in Vietnam.

"As we stand here we can see the names of 58,000 Americans on the black marble of the Vietnam Wall memorial who died for freedom in Southeast Asia. We pay tribute to them and pray for their souls and pray that their sacrifice was not in vain. We the Degar Montagnard people still have hope that the ultimate sacrifice made by these Americans will one day bring true democracy and freedom to Vietnam..."

A prayer vigil again was done and hundreds of Montagnard prayed in their tribal languages. They also chanted "President Bush remember us" and the tribal band circled around the park banging their gongs. The group then disbanded and boarded their buses around 4 p.m.

Scott Johnson is an advisor to the Montagnard Foundation.

Vietnamese leader to get an earful of rights complaints in US by P. Parameswaran

Sun Jun 17,

Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet is expected to get an earful of human rights complaints when he makes his maiden visit to the United States this week despite a last-minute release of a couple of imprisoned activists.

The concerns are to be conveyed to him by President George W. Bush's administration as well as leaders from the Democratic party-controlled Congress during his June 18-23 trip, officials said.

Some groups have linked the Vietnamese leader's pardoning last week of Nguyen Vu Binh, 39, a journalist and pro-democracy activist, and the release at the weekend of pro-democracy lawyer Le Quoc Quan, 36, as a fence-mending gesture ahead of the landmark visit.

"We leave it to the government of Vietnam to explain the reasons for their decisions. We have raised cases, we will continue to raise cases and we often raise human rights issues with the highest levels of the Vietnamese government," a State Department official told AFP.

"Obviously, we welcome that (the release) and we continue to call on the government of Vietnam to release everyone else currently in detention and in prison because of peaceful expression of their political views," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

President Triet is scheduled to arrive in New York and on Friday meet Bush at the White House during a visit hailed by both sides at cementing diplomatic and economic ties between the ex-battlefield enemies.

Vietnamese-American pro-democracy groups are planning large protests outside the White House when the two leaders meet.

Bilateral relations soured this year when Vietnam reimposed a crackdown on pro-democracy activists and dissidents after winning entry into the World Trade Organization in January.

The membership in the global trade body preceded US Congressional approval to the Bush administration to normalize trade ties with the rapidly-growing Southeast Asian state with a condition that human rights come under continued scrutiny.

The Congress was given an undertaking that Vietnam was serious about polishing its human rights record "but now we know that it is a total lie and it is important to shake the administration on this issue," said Ed Royce (news, bio, voting record), a lawmaker from Bush's Republican party.

The US government has received a deluge of letters from various organizations complaining about Hanoi's human rights record ahead of Trient's visit, officials said.

Among them was global rights watchdog Amnesty International, which urged Bush to "deliver a strong and clear message to the government of Vietnam that their mistreatment of citizens is unacceptable to the United States," said its Asia-Pacific advocacy director, T. Kumar.

Bush would voice his concerns to Triet, a White House spokesperson has said.

In a bid to underscore concerns about repression in Vietnam, Bush met with four Vietnamese-American democracy advocates about two weeks ago.

"As Vietnam's economy and society reform and move forward, such repression of individuals for their views is anachronistic and out of keeping with Vietnam's desire to prosper, modernize, and take a more prominent role in world affairs," national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

But the Vietnamese President, in an interview with American newspapers ahead of his visit, defended his crackdown and dispelled any notion that Vietnam was against human rights.

"Vietnam has experienced war and understands well the loss of human rights and freedom," he told The New York Times. "Therefore, we really love the fundamental rights of man and respect human rights. But if anyone violates the law we have to punish them."

But Diem H. Do, chairman of Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group active in Vietnam, charged that Triet was trying to separate political freedom from business to the dismay of a growing grassroots democracy movement.

"As long as the Hanoi communist government stifles peaceful dissent at home, the leaders of the regime will be protested wherever they go abroad by Vietnamese who have the liberty to speak up," he said.

Hanoi releases a third detainee on U.S. list

Sat Jun 16

Authorities on Saturday released a lawyer who was on a U.S. list of activists detained this year by Vietnam, two days before President Nguyen Minh Triet goes to the United States on a state visit.

The Vietnam News Agency reported that Le Quoc Quan, 36, who was detained in March after returning to Vietnam from a five-month fellowship in the United States, was released to his family in Hanoi.

He "made sincere declaration of guilt during his temporary detention for investigation" the official news agency said.

It said Quan had been held in "temporary custody for violating Vietnamese law" but provided no further details.

Last weekend, Triet granted amnesty to Nguyen Vu Binh, a 39-year-old former Communist Party magazine journalist who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and three years probation in May 2004 on charges of spying.

In May, a former policeman in the pre-1975 U.S.-backed South Vietnam was released and left for the United States after serving 22 years of a life sentence. Phan Van Ban 70, had been found guilty of treason in 1985.

The United States has for months called for the release of several activists and people put on trial and jailed for "spreading propaganda against the state." They have included lawyers, a priest and small businessmen.

Communist Party-ruled Vietnam does not tolerate political opposition outside of its supervision. It said the seven people jailed since March for between three to eight years broke the law.

Western human rights groups have decried the arrests and trials as "a crackdown on dissent," a charge Hanoi rejects.

Triet will be the first post-war communist Vietnam head of state to visit the United States since the end of the war in 1975. He is scheduled to start his visit in New York on Monday and he will meet President George W. Bush in the White House on June 22. He will also go to Los Angeles.

Vietnam frees dissident ahead of president's US visit by Frank Zeller

Sun Jun 10, 3:54 AM ET

Vietnam has freed a key political dissident less than two weeks before the first US visit by a post-war Vietnamese head of state, a prison official and state media said Sunday.

Nguyen Vu Binh, a 39-year-old journalist and so-called "cyber dissident," was released Saturday afternoon and allowed to return to his Hanoi home, the state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) said.

It said President Nguyen Minh Triet had on Friday "granted amnesty to a man who was serving a jail term for spying."

It named him as Binh, who was arrested in September 2002, jailed for seven years and given three years' house arrest.

An official on duty at Nam Ha prison, about 50 kilometres (35 miles) south of the capital Hanoi, who declined to give his name, confirmed to AFP that Binh was released on Saturday.

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem had indicated during a visit to the US in March that the communist government could free Binh, whom supporters and human rights groups said had been in poor health.

Since then, several dissident trials in Vietnam leading to lengthy jail terms have raised tensions with Washington ahead of Triet's meeting with US President George W. Bush, scheduled for June 22.

During Triet's visit, the former enemy nations are expected to sign a framework agreement toward a free trade pact between the superpower and Vietnam, East Asia's fastest growing economy after China.

Binh, a former journalist with the official Tap Chi Cong San (Communist Journal), was accused of links with prominent Vietnamese dissidents such as Pham Hong Son, now under house arrest in Hanoi.

He had also planned to create an alternative political party, taken part in an anti-corruption group and criticised a 1999 Vietnam-China border treaty in an online essay, saying Vietnam had ceded land to the northern neighbour.

Relatives said recently Binh's health had deteriorated due to liver disease and other ailments to the extent where he could not lift his five-year-old daughter, according to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

The VNA report Sunday said that Binh had written a letter asking for clemency and expressed "his wish to be reunited with his family and (that he) pledged to fully exercise his rights and obligations as a citizen."

The state media report also said Binh had "thanked the Nam Ha prison management for their care while he was serving his sentence there."

Vietnam, which has drawn US and EU protests for jailing several key activists for "disseminating propaganda against the state" this year, says it does not punish people for their political views, only for breaking the law.

Human rights questions have soured otherwise blossoming relations between the United States and Vietnam, which re-established diplomatic ties in 1995, two decades after the fall of Saigon, and have since become major trading partners.

Triet, who arrives in New York on June 18 with a major business delegation, is expected to oversee with Bush the signing of a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, according to Vietnamese state media.

The landmark US visit had been in some doubt after Bush recently met with a group of four exiled Vietnamese pro-democracy activists.

Last week a White House statement said Bush and Triet would discuss trade and economic ties, cooperation on health, development, cultural and educational ties, and resolving remaining issues stemming from the war.

But it added that Bush would also "express his deep concern over the recent increase of arrests and detentions of peaceful democracy activists in Vietnam and note that such actions will inevitably limit the growth of bilateral ties."

One foreign diplomat in Vietnam, speaking on condition of anonymity on Sunday, called Binh's release "a concession to the United States before the visit of Triet, which had been in real jeopardy."