Re: Letter to President Bush from Center For Vietnam Studies on Socialist Republic of Vietnam's freedom of religion

On Apr 11, 2:11 pm, hailua <hai-...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
CENTER FOR VIETNAM STUDIES
259 Meridian Ave # 7 San Jose, California
Dr. Nguye^n van Canh, Director
E-mail: vietresea...@xxxxxxxxx

April 4, 2007
President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Fax: 202 456-2461
E-mail: comme...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:comme...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>.

RE: Socialist Republic of Vietnam's freedom of religion
Dear President Bush
On March 30th, 2007, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV)
prosecuted Father Nguyen van Ly for spreading propaganda against its
totalitarian regime. He was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment by a
Hue tribunal court. During the trial, a plainclothes security agent
standing behind him, used his right hand to seal off father Ly's
mouth, forbidding him to speak out .
After the communists took South Vietnam by military means, the
Catholic Church as well as others were not allowed to teach bibles in
schools. Father Ly resisted it. In January, 1983, the local
authorities expulsed him from the church where he served, and forced
him to return to laity and live with his parents in Dong Nai province
in the South. Father Ly denounced the scheme of religious
persecutions. In May, 1983 a large security force came and took him
away. His whereabouts were not known until Dec. 83 he was brought in
for a trial for a number of offenses and he was sentenced to 10 years
of imprisonment and 4 years under probation. He then was detained in
Thanh Cam concentration camp, Central Vietnam, and Ba Sao in the
North. In July 1992, he was released from concentration camps and sent
to the Hue diocese where he was forbidden to conduct masses, to teach
Bible.
In 1994, he released a 10 point statement regarding the status of
freedom of religion in Vietnam. In 1995, he was again detained in the
Nguyet Bieu parish. In 2000, he raised his voice asking the communist
government to return to the Nguyet Bieu church a parcel of land that
the local authorities took and planned to build a market place and
local party offices on the lot. On Feb. 13, 2001 he was asked by
Elliot Abram, President of the US Commission on International Freedom
of Religion to testify before the Commission on Freedom of Religion.
Not being allowed to go to the US, he merely sent in a written
testimony to the Commission. Because of that, the authorities put
pressure on the Bishop of Hue Diocese to move him out of the Nguyet
Bieu.. By order No 4102/QDUB dated Feb.26, 2001, the Deputy Head of
the Thua Thien province Committee placed him under house arrest at An
Truyen parish for two years. Congresswoman Joe Lofgren, chairperson of
the House Committee on Human Rights asked him to testify on Human
Rights violations. He sent in a report and Paster Kieu Tuan Nam in San
Jose read it on his behalf in a hearing on 16 May 2001. Because of
this again, the communist authorities surrounded the An Truyen parish,
took him away. Father Ly was then prosecuted and sentenced for 15
years of imprisonment. He was sent once more time to the Ba Sao
concentration camp in the North. Finally he was released in 2005 and
kept in the Hue Diocese. On the New Year eve ( Feb.17, 07), some 60
police surrounded the Diocese, searched his room, and seized 8
computers, 9 cell phones, some 147 SIM cards and 200 kg of documents.
And the same time, he was carried to the Ben Cui church some 23
kilometers from Hue and he was isolated there. On March 30, he was
tried for the offenses at the Hue tribunal court. Regarding the
proceeding, not a minimum safeguard for the accused was available. Not
a single lawyer was present. He was forcibly escorted by two policemen
into the hearing room. He was really dragged in. During the trial, two
policemen stood by his sides. And a third in plainclothes stood
behind. When the acused was about to open his mouth to speak,
apparently for his defense. The plainclothes policeman sealed off his
mouth forcibly. Then the court rendered the sentence. It is outraged.
This is an evidence of what is really going on under the SRV.
Moreover, practically, the top religious leaders of different
religions have been long under house arrest for decades: They are the
Most Reverends Huyen Quang and Quang Do of the Unified Buddhist
Church, President Le Quang Liem of the Hoa Hao, and Pastors Nguyen
cong Chinh and Nguyen Hong Quang of the Protestant Church. Mennonites
in Central Vietnam in particular have been severely repressed.
Many other prisoners of conscience are not included in this letter.
In the middle of 2006, an assistant to Secretary Condi Rice, after a
visit to Vietnam to conduct an investigation of religious persecutions
declared that a( human rights in Vietnam have been improved.a(. Then,
a few months later, SRV's name was removed from the CPC list..
Probably, some token concessions or promises were made by the
communist leaders in May 2005 regarding freedom of religion. This was
done before you as a president of the USA came to the Nov. 06 APEC
meeting. Besides, your administration was lobbying aggressively the US
congress to pass the PNTR for them, and also allowing them to get
admission to the WTO without any conditions to be met. All these
constitute a wrong message to the communists that you have agreed to
what they have been doing and as a consequence serious violations of
human rights continue to exist.
We can say that this is done at the expenses of the Vietnamese
oppressed people who unfortunately still believe in you and look to
you for freedom and democracy as you promised when you first moved in
the White House over 6 years ago.
We call upon you to reconsider your position on the Vietnam matter. We
would urge you to place SRV back on the CPC list, and also at the same
time to formulate a positive and aggressive policy to improve the
human rights situation there.
We also urge you to have the assistant to the Secretary of State to
submit a report as to why he told lies to the public, and finally,
demand that Father Ly and all other prisoners of conscience be
released immediately and unconditionally from prisons. Now SRV has
joined WTO with your help, it has a duty to behave as a civilized
member of the world organization.
We highly appreciate your devotion to your program of democratization
all over the world.
Sincerely yours
Nguye^~n va(n Canh
Attachment: Father Ly's photos at trial

Dr. Canh, we need a similar letter to the new Speaker of the House, c/
o (in care of) Rep. Sanchez...

Tha` du`ng su+. giu'p ddo+~ cu?a nguo+`i sa(~n co' thie^.n ca?m vo+'i
Viet overseas va` especially tha^.t su+. in power...
(I think the Speaker of the House has real power in the world of
politics.)

n.t.

.

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