Sài Gòn.- Ðể thuyết phục nhà văn Nguyễn Xuân Nghĩa ở nhà thay vì đi dự đám tang cụ Hoàng Minh Chính, công an CSVN đã dọa ông là sẽ tông xe cho ông chết trên đường như đã xảy đến cho cả gia đình kịch tác gia Lưu Quang Vũ 20 năm trước. Ông kể như vậy cho nhà báo Hoàng Hải. Nhà văn Nguyễn Xuân Nghĩa hiện là một trong năm thành viên điều hành của Khối 8406, một tổ chức chính trị quần chúng mà cụ Chính là một trong những thành viên sáng lập. Trong số những người bị chế độ Hà nội cấm đi dự tang lễ cụ Hoàng Minh Chính mà áp lực tệ hại nhất, có các ông Nguyễn Xuân Nghĩa, Trần Khuê. Ông Trần Khuê đã tới phi trường Tân Sơn Nhất chuẩn bị lên máy bay thì bị công an CSVN bắt “làm việc” và buộc ông quay lại nhà. Ông cương quyết không về nên bị khiêng ném lên xe trở về một trại giam rồi sau đó mới được cho về nhà. Thật ra, còn trường hợp của nữ Bác Sĩ Nguyễn Thị An Nhàn, từ San Jose, California, về Hà Nội dự tang lễ cũng bị công an CSVN cưỡng bách lên phi trường trục xuất khỏi Việt Nam đêm 15 tháng 2, 2008 sau mấy tiếng đồng hồ thẩm vấn. Bà Nhàn, bác sĩ khoa giải phẫu tim của bệnh viện Ðại Học Stanford ở Palo Alto, California, là đảng viên của Ðảng Dân Chủ Việt Nam ngay từ khi cụ Chính mới bắt đầu loan báo tái lập hồi Tháng Sáu 2006. This is news of the removal of dissidents supportive of Freedom for Vietnam at the funeral of Professor Hoang Minh Chinh on February 16. Nguyen Xuan Nghia and Tran Khue of Vietnam, and Dr. Nguyen Thi An Nguyen of San Jose, California. Linked to article in Vietnamese on Nguoi Viet News http://www.nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=74018&z=2   more »

With admiration and respect for Professor Hoang Minh Chinh, the Secretary General of the Democratic Party of Vietnam (DPV), as well as the Vietnamese tradition, a U.S. doctor who went to Vietnam to attend Professor Chinh's funeral was interrogated and forced out of the country. On Feb. 15, 2008 at 3 PM, one day before the funeral, the Vietnam government ordered a team of police to enter the Sheraton Hotel in Hanoi and forced Dr. Nguyen Thi An Nhan to the nearby Police station and interrogated her for more than six hours. Finally, they escorted her to the airport and demanded she leave the country that night, Feb. 15, 2008. Dr. Nguyen Thi An Nhan joined the Democratic Party of Vietnam (DPV) on June 1, 2006, when Professor Hoang Minh Chinh officially declared the reestablishment of the DPV. She also is one of the doctors who took care of Professor Hoang Minh Chinh when he was in the United States in August 2005 for cancer treatment.    more »

Hanoi seeks to impose a political funeral for Hoang Minh Chinh and prevent UBCV monks and pro-democracy activists from attending the event   more »

While Dr. Ngai Nguyen is flying to Hanoi to be at the funeral of his famous patient Hoang Minh Chinh, here is a brief biography of the elder statesman and their relationship. It is based on interview with Dr. Nguyen Xuan Ngai in his San Jose medical office in November 2007. Additional research sources are Que Me (Penelope Faulkner, author and Vice-President of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights in Paris); from the BBC in London, February 8 2008 (Nga Pham, author); and press releases from the Democratic Party of Vietnam in Hanoi on the death of Hoang Minh Chinh February 7, 2008. Detailed chronology from these sources, beginning with Professor Hoang Minh Chinh's birth in 1922, his leadership in the Communist Party and government until 1967, when he is imprisoned for writing "Dogmatism in Vietnam" and stripped of his official duties. Professor Hoang Minh Chinh suffers three periods of imprisonment totaling thirteen years, the last being one year in 1995 when he was 73 years old. Author Jean Libby, editor of VietAm Review, is the English translation manuscript editor and author of the preface of the English language publication of the prose stories of Nguyen Chi Thien on prison conditions in Communist Vietnam, the Hoa Lo/Hanoi Hilton Stories (Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 2007. ISBN 978-0-938692-89-8) A retired teacher of United States History and Ethnic Studies at community colleges in northern California, she is a member of Amnesty International USA Group 19 in Palo Alto.   more »

Professor Hoang Minh Chinh, Secretary-General of the Democratic Party of Vietnam. (DPV), after a long illness, passed away in Hanoi at 11:08 PM on 7 February 2008, the First Day of the New Year "Tet Mau Ty". Professor Hoang Minh Chinh has parted serenely, after achieving the task of senior activist for democracy. He has guided the democratic movement in Vietnam in the right direction, and in June 2006, he reactivated The Democratic Party of Vietnam (established in 1944 but later banned by the controlled government). Prior to his death, he prepared and carefully transferred all operations of the Party to the next generation that will assume his responsibilities. The Standing Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Vietnam calls upon the members of the DPV to transform the suffering loss into strength, to unite within the party and reach out to others to move forward for the ultimate goal of the democratization of Vietnam as he wished. As we grieve this great loss, the Standing Central Committee of the DPV would like to announce this sad news to the people of Vietnam and to all the world who believe in peace and democracy. Representing the Standing Central Committee, Nguyen Tam. CONTACT: Democratic Party of Vietnam Overseas Office Dr. Ngai Nguyen, 1-408-603-5030 ngainguyen@aol.com   more »

The INTERNATIONAL BUDDHIST INFORMATION BUREAU (BUREAU INTERNATIONAL D'INFORMATION BOUDDHISTE) Official information service of Vien Hoa Dao, Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam announced today that Vietnamese elder dissident Hoang Minh Ching, who died on Tet 2008, asked to be converted to Buddhism by the Venerable Thich Quang Do. This information came to IBIB in Paris from his daughter in Hanoi. Professor Hoang Minh Chinh and Venerable Thich Quang Do exchanged contacts in 2005, after Thich Quang Do sent a “New Year’s Letter” calling on Vietnamese intelligentsia in the North and South to rally together for pluralism and democratic change. This appeal, sent through the intermediary of IBIB and Quê Me to avoid government censorship, succeeded in forging unprecedented links of solidarity and understanding between Communist dissidents in the North and democrats in the South. Hoang Minh Chinh then wrote: “Thich Quang Do’s proposals for democracy and pluralism are fundamentally important and absolutely urgent. He proposes the very things that all our people have been aspiring to with all their hearts for the past half century and more. I have seen the letter circulating widely in Hanoi. Everyone who has read it has found it totally convincing, extremely moving, and worthy of their wholehearted support... “Indeed, I want to say how much I admire the actions of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. Thich Quang Do, along with all the UBCV clergy and followers, have waged a courageous combat for decades, since the fall of Saigon until today. We Vietnamese have suffered misery and humiliation for too long. It is time to unite. I call on all Vietnamese to join together in support of Thich Quang Do’s proposals and struggle fearlessly to achieve them. We do not fear repression, imprisonment, intimidation. We must keep up the struggle for democracy, pluralism and human rights. This is the only way we can escape from our condition of slavery today...”. In April 2006, Hoang Minh Chinh and Thich Quang Do were jointly awarded the “Democracy Courage Tribute” by 600 democracy activists gathered at the Fourth Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy (WMD) in Istanbul. The WMD praised these “two particularly heroic figures… Even from prison, these men and many others like them from both the secular and religious communities have dared to disseminate messages defending human rights, increased pluralism and the rule of law in Vietnam”. Accepting the award on their behalf, Mr. Vo Van Ai, IBIB Director and President of Quê Me: Action for Democracy in Vietnam, stressed the significance of honouring these two men with the award: “For 2,000 years, Vietnam was one country, with one language and one culture. But conflicts of ideology split our country into two, north and south, separating our people and forcing them to live apart under different political regimes.   more »

Ông Hoàng Minh Chính, tổng thư ký đảng Dân Chủ Việt Nam qua đời http://www.nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=73573&z=1 From QueMe (in English) - HOANG MINH CHINH (Tran Ngoc Nghiem), former Dean of the Hanoi Institute of Marxist-Leninist Philosophy, spent almost 20 years in prison and under house arrest without charge for alleged “anti-Party revisionism”. In 1995, Hoang Minh Chinh was arrested again and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment on charges of “abusing democratic rights and freedoms” and “anti-socialist propaganda”. On his release, he continued to call for Party reforms. As a result, his movements are restricted and his communications closely monitored. He is continuously summoned for “working sessions” (interrogations) by the Police, and the authorities have organized public “denunciation sessions” to criticize him. http://www.queme.net/eng/docs_detail.php?numb=148    more »