VIETNAM HUMAN RIGHTS NETWORK 14550 Magnolia St., Suite 203, Westminster, CA 92683 Tel.: (858) 837-2152; Email: vnhrnet@vietnamhuma nrights.net Website: www.vietnamhumanrig hts.net For Immediate Release (California, August 17, 2009) Vietnam Human Rights Network has just sent to President Barack Obama a letter requesting him to instruct the State Department to put Vietnam back on the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC), and to urge both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senateto vote for the Vietnam Human Rights Act at their earliest convenience so that the President can sign it into law. In this letter, Nguyen Thanh Trang, head of the Vietnam Human Rights Network has reminded President Obama that since Vietnam's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Hanoi has increased state control over all print and electronic media, including blocking the Internet access and jamming the signals of Radio Free Asia. It has also imprisoned dozens of individuals who have posted or distributed pro-democracy materials. Violations of freedom of religion in recent months are quite alarming. They include the following actions, among others: - There is a persistent pattern of intimidation and persecution of Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, a prominemt Mennonite leader of the House Churches in the Central Highland region; - Local police have, since June of this year, used thugs to harass and attack the Bat Nha Zen Monastery in Lam Dong Province; - Since last month, Catholic Priests and their followers of the Tam Toa Church in Dong Hoi have been assaulted by the police during their peaceful vigils against the destruction of their newly-built church by local authorities. The head of this world-wide human rights network also reminded President Obama that, over the last few years, the U.S. Congress has passed numerous resolutions condemning human rights abuses in Vietnam, but Hanoi continues to disregard them all. That is why his organization would like to request President Obama to initiate these two important actions so that the Communist authorities in Hanoi would undertand that their human rights violations can not be tolerated. ____________ _______ For more information, please contact Nguyen Thanh Trang at Email: nttrangvnhr@ hotmail; or Tel.: (858) 837-2152.   more »