Congressional Human Rights Caucus

Members' Briefing:

Human Rights in Vietnam:

An Update

Thursday, May 10, 2007

3:00 p.m. -- 5:30 p.m.

Room 2255 Rayburn HOB

Please join the Congressional Human Rights Caucus for a Members' briefing on the human rights situation in Vietnam. The briefing will examine the current human rights situation in the aftermath of Vietnam's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 11^th, 2007.

The briefing will be chaired by Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.

Despite the fact that the United States reached an agreement in May 2005 with the Vietnamese government which was aimed at improving conditions of religious and ethnic minorities in Vietnam, credible reports of human rights and religious freedom continue to occur.  In particular, Vietnamese lawyers, trade unionists, religious leaders and internet dissidents have been detained or imprisoned in increasing numbers in recent months for doing nothing but peacefully expressing their opinions.

After Vietnam was removed from the State Department's list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) regarding religious freedom abuses, Vietnamese police reportedly surrounded the Ta Sek Temple in the Soc Trang Province in an effort to prevent the resident Khmer Krom Buddhist Monks from staging a peaceful protest marking their right of religious freedom. As a consequence, 60 monks were stranded inside the temple, with no access to food or water.

Credible reports of continued crackdowns on political activists and ethnic and religious minority leaders under provisions of "national security" and "national solidarity" include arbitrary arrests and imprisonment, forced renunciation of faith, constant police surveillance, and diagnosing religious practitioners as delusional followed by indefinite commitment to psychiatric hospitals.  

 On March 6, 2007, Nguyen Van Dai, one of Vietnam's few human rights lawyers and prominent cyber-dissident, was arrested. He has defended individuals arrested for their religious activities and is co-founder of the Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam. He is now charged with disseminating propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. On March 8th, 2007, another attorney, Le Quoc Quan, was arrested after returning from a year-long fellowship at the National Endowment for Democracy, where he had done research on the role of civil society in emerging democracies. He has been charged under national security legislation with attempting to overthrow the government (article 79), which carries the death penalty as the maximum sentence.



To discuss these important issues, we will welcome as our expert witnesses:


I. Panel:         

               Dr. Richard Land, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom


II.         Panel:

               T. Kumar, Amnesty International 

                Dr. Quan Nguyen, Political Activist

               Mrs. Jane Dobui, Vietnam Women for Human Rights

                 Mr. Diem Do, Viet Tan party

We look forward to your attendance at this important event. Please contact Jeppe Fogtmann (Rep. Lantos) at x5-3531 or Molly Miller (Rep. Frank Wolf) at x5-5136. For media inquiries, please contact Lynne Weil at x5-5021.

Sincerely,

Tom Lantos, M.C.                                                                Frank R. Wolf, M.C.                             Loretta Sanchez, M.C.
Co-Chair, CHRC                                                                  Co-Chair, CHRC                  Briefing Chair, Exec. Comte. Member, CHRC