Congratulations to Vanessa Hua

The Making of a Cyber Dissident

Cong Do had accomplished a lot as an immigrant and father of three. But it was his secret life fighting to bring democracy to Vietnam that made him an international cause celebre.

Vanessa Hua

Sunday, December 10, 2006

On a steamy summer morning in late July, Cong Thanh Do left his hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. Plainclothes policemen began tailing him on foot and on motorcycle, weaving through the crowds on Dong Du Street.

What did they know?

For half an hour, the San Jose man tried to evade authorities before he lost them. But when he returned to his hotel a couple of hours later, police were watching there, too, including one with a zoom lens.

Perhaps they followed him because he was a Viet-Kieu -- a Vietnamese returned from living abroad? Or did they know that days earlier, he met with leaders from the People's Democratic Party of Vietnam, which he had founded in 2005? Though scores of exile groups exist, Do's group worked from the inside for democratic reform. Such work was dangerous and illegal in a country whose constitution allows only one political party: the Communists who took control in 1975.

To protect themselves, group members used pseudonyms with each other and revealed no personal information. Do also kept his pro-democracy work a secret from his wife and three children. To his family, he was a taciturn electrical engineer, a loving father and husband, a connoisseur of fine wine, antique Vietnamese pottery and Ernest Hemingway. To the dissidents, he was known as Tran Nam, an online activist who connected them to the outside.

On that July day, he was faced with a choice: Should he leave Vietnam at once, or join his wife and 9-year-old son, whom he sent ahead to relatives? Do chose to stay -- a fateful decision that led to his arrest and imprisonment for more than a month and brought international scrutiny to a regime he had long tried to expose.

"Living in the U.S., democracy affects us a lot. The freedoms that we enjoy, the right to vote, to choose our own leaders," said Do, a compact man with a goatee and an intense gaze. He was resting with family in his modest home a few days after his return. "Vietnam has to go that way."

IMPRISONMENT IN VIETNAM:  MORE EXCERPTS BY VANESSA HUA

In April of this year, academics, writers, religious leaders and former military staff launched a pro-democracy movement known as "Bloc 8406," signing a petition calling for regime change. Vietnamese officials have called the movement illegal and unacceptable, saying such activists use the "mask of democracy" to violate state interests.

Against this backdrop, Do met with two People's Democratic Party leaders in July, to discuss how to go public in 2007 and challenge the Communist Party.

He met one activist in a cafe, the other at a restaurant, where they discussed strategy for about an hour each time. He was supposed to meet more, but after authorities followed him on Aug. 4, he halted e-mail contact.

At 6 a.m. on Aug. 14, Do was standing in front of his house where was staying with his wife in Phan Thiet. They had been relaxing with her relatives before planning to return home in a few days. Up pulled a police car with four men and plainclothes officers surrounded the two-bedroom house.

"That's it. My life is ending," he thought.

They entered the house, where everyone panicked. The officers accused him of being a terrorist and of planning to bomb the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City.

"Leave the country," he told his wife, unable to reveal his double life to her.

"Go back to sleep," he told his 9-year-old son, who started crying at the sight of the strange men.

The neighbors watched but dared not come close. At the local police station, authorities questioned Tien Jane about her husband and family. Meanwhile, police sped off with Do to Ho Chi Minh City, four hours away by car.

Do had survived the open seas, the L.A. riots and the struggles of assimilation in America. But his toughest trial had just begun.

Behind Bars

"Tell us about your party. Where do your members live? Give us their e-mail address." At first, officers accused him of being a traitor, a terrorist, a reactionary. By the third day, they questioned Do about his political party and his pen name, and he knew their goal was to ferret out his group.

Officers interrogated Do two or three times a day in a small room for four hours at a stretch before taking a break and starting over again. Or they kept him trapped in his tiny cell for days on end, until he wanted to be questioned.

They tried to confuse him by telling him the party leaders he met were captured two days after him. Do glanced down at their papers and realized they were lying. The men were arrested the same day as him, one taken from his medical office, the other arrested at home. Do blamed himself for the carelessness that led to the arrests.

He told officers only what he thought they already knew. He suspected authorities had followed him after his meeting with activists or followed them to Internet cafes, capturing their e-mails.

Officers threatened him with a hard sentence and told him, "dead or alive depends on our hands."

HOW HE WAS RESCUED

Last month, House Republican leaders withdrew a bill to normalize trade with Vietnam, delaying the vote until December after the measure failed to pass by the two-thirds margin required for expedited passage -- on the eve of President Bush's visit to Hanoi for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.

Do said he did not have backing from the U.S. government, but once he was imprisoned, they lobbied for his release. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, championed his cause, as did San Jose's City Council, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and human rights groups. U.S. Treasurer Secretary Henry Paulson talked to Vietnam's finance minister about Do's case, when both were in Singapore for an Asian economic conference, according to Lofgren, who coordinated efforts to secure his release. Maury Harty, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Consular Affairs, met with officials with the Ministry of Justice while visiting Vietnam. Applied Materials, Do's employer, had its lobbyists make calls to congressmen, who in turn called the State Department and the Vietnamese Embassy.

"The Vietnamese got the message they were jeopardizing permanent normal trade relations," Lofgren said. "Their position was untenable."

On the 38th day of Do's incarceration, the guards called him in for morning questioning. They wanted him to admit he was a terrorist, a charge which he again denied. They sent him back to his cell around noon and an hour later, they took him for a medical checkup, his first since he arrived.

They filmed and photographed his examination, said Do, who guessed authorities would use the footage for propaganda, or to prove that he was still alive.

He went back to his cell for a couple hours, when guards told him to collect his belongings because he was being moved. But when they ordered him to change into his street clothes -- jeans and a yellow Eddie Bauer T-shirt -- he knew he would be freed.

Authorities whisked him to the airport, where he met a U.S. consular official who had already called his family and stayed with him to make sure he was OK until he boarded the late afternoon flight on Aug. 21.

Minutes before the plane took off, he called Tien Jane on his cell phone. He was crying. He wanted to see his family, he said.

Twenty-three hours later -- and in a miracle of the International Date line -- he got his wish the same day.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/10/CMGBVMCSC11.DTL&hw=vanessa+hua+dissident&sn=001&sc=1000

now for the award:

Asian American Journalists Association Recognizes Excellence in News Coverage

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:

Janice Lee
AAJA Deputy Executive Director
JaniceL@aaja.org
(415) 346-2051 x110

SAN FRANCISCO (August 3, 2007) - The Asian American Journalists Association today announced its awards for excellence in news coverage of Asian American issues. AAJA presented the awards today during its 19th annual national convention held August 1-4 at the Hyatt Regency Miami in Miami, FL.

National Journalism Award Winners
AAJA received more than 100 entries nominating print, broadcast, photo, graphics and new media journalists for its 2007 National Awards. The category of Unlimited Subject Matter recognizes professional journalists and AAJA members. The category of Asian American/Pacific Islander Issues recognizes professional journalists covering the AAPI community. These awards demonstrate the ability of journalists - AAPI and otherwise - to cover the news with authority, sensitivity, insight and an eye towards diversity. AAJA honored the following journalists for their work published or broadcast last year:

GRAPHICS - UNLIMITED SUBJECT MATTER
Belinda Long, Graphics Reporter, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"High Heel Hazards"

ONLINE - ASIAN AMERICAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER ISSUES
Mona Khanna, Contributing Medical Editor and Philip Stauskas, Video Web Producer, KTVT CBS 11
"A Study Tour in Asia"

ONLINE - UNLIMITED SUBJECT MATTER
Michelle T. Shinseki, Website Diretor; Suelain Moy, Writer; Lexi Walters, Editor; and Sheri Hofhuis, Designer, Americanbaby.com/Meredith Corporation
"Ages & Stages Pregnancy"

PHOTOGRAPHY - UNLIMITED SUBJECT MATTER
Kuni Takahashi, Staff Photographer. Chicago Tribune
"Gift's Journey"

PHOTOGRAPHY - UNLIMITED SUBJECT MATTER
Therese Tran, Staff Photographer, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
"Tale of a Women's Football Team"

PRINT - ASIAN AMERICAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER ISSUES
Vanessa Hua, Reporter, San Francisco Chronicle
"The Making of a Cyber Dissident"

PRINT - UNLIMITED SUBJECT MATTER
Geeta Anand, Staff Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
"Mother's Tale"

RADIO - ASIAN AMERICAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER ISSUES
Robynn Takayama, Segment Producer, Crossing East
"Cambodian Deportation"

RADIO - UNLIMITED SUBJECT MATTER
Mina Kim, Freelance Reporter; George Lewinski, Editor; Nina Thorsen, Producer; Ceil Muller, Technical Director; and Nguyen Qui Duc, Host, "Pacific Time," KQED Public Radio
"Tibetan Girl's Surgery"

TELEVISION - ASIAN AMERICAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER ISSUES
Michael King, Reporter, KING-TV
"The Angel of Saigon"

TELEVISION - UNLIMITED SUBJECT MATTER
Linda Yee, Reporter; Craig Franklin, Producer; Greg Marasso, Video Editor; and Sandy Lee, Associate Producer, KPIX-TV
"The Man in White"

CONGRATULATIONS TO VANESSA HUA AND TO THE FAMILY OF CONG DO (TRAN NAM) WHO ORGANIZED THEMSELVES TO RESCUE HUSBAND AND FATHER BY ENLISTING THE AID OF US CONGRESSWOMAN ZOE LOFGREN AND CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER.

Jean Libby, editor

VietAm Review

member of the Asian American Journalists Association, San Francisco Chapter