Vietnam: The culture of uncultured leaders by Hai V. Tran. After the initial shock and grief over the death of 50-plus laborers on Wednesday, Sept. 26 during the construction of a bridge on a branch of the Mekong River, Vietnam's blogosphere is up-in-arms about the indifferent and callous attitudes of the leaders in the Ministry of Transport and other government big shots. Most criticism is leveled at Minister Ho Nghia Dung, who refused to stop a regular meeting in Hanoi when informed of the catastrophe. His spokesman first casually claimed that because of the rain in previous days, landslide might have contributed to the collapse of the scaffoldings. Hence, the weather was the culprit. Thus, don't blame us! Some officials from the ministry of transport reveal, under request for anonymity, that the main Vietnamese contractor subcontracts the work twice, resulting in several small companies with questionable ability and workers' skills to assume such a complicated and high-profile project. The implication is that, as a matter of business practice in Vietnam, each subcontracting always includes the "greasing of the palms" of several officials, including those from the ministry of transport itself. Thus corners are cut, materials are downgraded, and the product is never up to what had been promised!... Hai Tran came to America as a refugee in 1979. He now lives in Virginia and works for the U.S. federal government.    more »

After the Geneva Agreements in 1954, Ho Chi Minh saw to it that several hundred young Cambodians were taken north, indoctrinated in communism and given military training. They were later armed and sent back, where they became the basis of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia’s Eastern Zone. Knowing of Ho’s close ties to Moscow and his intent to emulate his hero, the butcher Joseph Stalin, by creating a Soviet-style Union of South East Asia, China began training and arming the Pol Pot faction of the Khmer Rouge as a counterbalance to Soviet influence. North Vietnam enabled the Khmer Rouge to take over Phnom Penh in 1975 by providing logistics, ammunition, artillery and backup by Vietnamese troops making them complicate in the genocide of at least one and one half million Cambodians. The Vietnamese communists continue their policy of neo-colonization, nibbling away at Cambodia by annexing sizable portions of its borders, coastlines, and islands through illegitimate treaties with their puppet regime in Phnom Penh. Their latest method is a “Development Triangle” scheme that involves flooding three northeastern provinces of Cambodia and the three southeastern provinces of Laos with Vietnamese settlers. The Vietnamese army has already established coffee, cashew and rubber plantations in the Laotian provinces -- the latter covering more than 7,000 hectares. The similarity between the Vietnamese communists and the al Qaeda and the Muslim jihadists is that they are both fanatical true believers who see it as their divine right and destiny to establish hegemony over their respective regions, regardless of the cost in human life. American involvement in Vietnam was justified in trying to prevent the “dominos” -- the Southeast Asian nations -- from falling victim to communism. Likewise, the US must stay involved in Iraq to keep radical Islam from spreading throughout the region, and to prevent the eventual take over of Iraq by Iran – another “domino effect.” But if the defeatists in our own Congress succeed in raising the white flag over the US Capitol, America will once again have abandoning its allies -- and once again, terror and slaughter will follow. Michael Benge spent 11 years in Vietnam as a Foreign Service Officer, including five years as a Prisoner of war-- 1968-73 and is a student of South East Asian Politics. He is very active in advocating for human rights and religious freedom and has written extensively on these subjects.   more »

The gala held by the Free Vietnamese Association of Manitoba (FVAM) in Winnipeg September 7, 2007 in support of the Vietnamese Boat People Museum Project in Ottawa has been a smashing success.   more »

Nhân dịp Ngục Sĩ Nguyễn Chí Thiện sang Úc công tác, hôm nay lúc 3giờ chiều thứ Bảy 22/9/2007 tại Trung Tâm Văn Hóa & Sinh Hoạt Cộng đồng tiểu bang NSW, Hậu Duệ VNCH tiểu bang NSW/Úc Châu, đã tổ chức buổi tâm tình với ngục sĩ Nguyễn Chí Thiện về các vấn đề liên quan tới Nghị- Quyết 36 của nhà cầm quyền CSVN qua hiện tượng tờ báo “Việt Weekly” tại Hoa kỳ. Bác Sĩ Nguyễn Mạnh Tiến và Luật Sư Võ trí Dũng đã lần lượt phát biểu cám ơn thi sĩ Nguyễn Chí Thiện và đồng bào tham dự. Thi sĩ Nguyễn Chí Thiện cũng cho biết, số tiền bán sách của tập thơ "Hoa Địa Ngục" kỳ này sẽ được gởi giúp dân oan và các nhà dân chủ trong nước. Buổi tâm tình kết thúc lúc 5giờ, và đồng bào đã ở lại đến phút chót. Đặc biệt cảnh mọi người chen lấn mua tập thơ "Hoa Địa Ngục" và xin chữ ký của thi sĩ Nguyễn Chí Thiện.   more »

We call upon the President and Congress to urge Vietnam to immediately free the Venerable Tim Sakhorn and other imprisoned Monks, and to stop the repression of and grant religious freedom to the Khmer Krom people in Vietnam. The Venerable Tim Sakhorn and his whole family are Cambodian citizens. They fled the communist oppression in Vietnam in January 1979 – nearly three decades ago – and received legal citizenship from the Cambodian Government authorities soon after. Tim Sakhorn was ordained as a Buddhist monk at the Phnom Den North Pagoda temple in Takeo province on July 9, 1991, and selected as Abbot (chief of monks) there in 2000. Soon after the demonstrations, the Venerable Tim Sakhorn was kidnapped by Vietnamese and Cambodian agents and illegally taken to Vietnam. On August 1, 2007, the Hanoi regime, admitted through its official websites that the Venerable Tim Sakhorn has been imprisoned (location unknown) – ironically charged with crossing into Vietnam without having any proper legal travel document.   more »

WASHINGTON, Sep 18, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Immediately following the passage of H.R. 3096, a bill to promote freedom and democracy in Vietnam, Dr. Ngai Nguyen, a physician in San Jose, California and the Vice Secretary of the Democratic Party of Vietnam, met in Washington D.C. with key members of the United States Congress and sponsors of the legislation to thank them for their continued support of improved human rights in Vietnam. H.R. 3096 condemns the ongoing human rights abuses in Vietnam, and prohibits increased U.S. non-humanitarian assistance to the Government of Vietnam unless there is verifiable evidence that the Vietnamese Government has made substantial progress towards the release of its political and religious prisoners. In addition, this legislation requires that the Vietnam government respect the rights to freedom of religion, freedom of press and returns all confiscated properties. SOURCE: Democratic Party of Vietnam Thank you, Dr. Nguyen Xuan Ngai for this posting. Jean Libby, VietAm Review   more »

Bill Would Authorize $2 million for Human Rights Defenders in Vietnam Washington, D.C. – Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) today voted in favor of Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2007, which focuses on Vietnam ’s suppression of religious liberty and the pro-democracy movement. The bill, which Rep. Lofgren co-sponsored, includes provisions to fund human rights work in Vietnam and to fund jamming override technology for Radio Free Asia. It also includes provisions to extend U.S. refugee programs to Vietnamese who would have previously been eligible but missed deadlines because of circumstances beyond their control or are suffering persecution in Vietnam . The bill includes the following provisions: o Authorizes $2 million for FY 2008 and FY 2009 for NGOs, the Human Rights Defenders Fund and individuals and organizations that promote universally recognized human rights in Vietnam o Authorizes $9.1 million for FY 2008 in and $1.1 million in FY 2009 for radio jamming override technology o Prohibits an increase in nonhumanitarian U.S. assistance to Vietnam in FY 2008 o Calls upon the Secretary of State to issue an annual report that includes an explanation of the President’s determination on nonhumanitarian foreign assistance, the status of protection of human rights, progress towards rule of law, a comprehensive victims list, progress towards securing transmission of Radio Free Asia o Establishes as U.S. policy the extension of the U.S. refugee programs to Vietnamese who would have previously been eligible but missed deadlines because of circumstances beyond their control or are suffering persecution in Vietnam The article includes a message in Vietnamese from Dr. Thang D. Nguyen, director of Boat People SOS, who included the posting from the office of Rep. Chris Smith (R - N.J.) Congressman Smith authored the bill, and took the opportunity to ask his colleagues in the U.S. Senate to do their part now and pass a similar bill "without regard to their own economic interests."   more »

The ongoing protest against Viet Weekly is a natural response from those who have felt insulted by the publication over the years. The author mentions the article that is often cited as the basis of the protest, but that is merely the straw that broke the camel's back. Viet Weekly always boasts of having found a new form of journalism by a young generation of reporters in Little Saigon. In reality, these self-styled journalists have managed to insult some person or the community in almost every issue of the publication. When the call for protest came, it brought together all elements in the community to build up a perfect storm against the newspaper… The persecution continues even today and did not end some 30 years ago, as many like to believe. Non-Vietnamese may not understand why a display of a communist symbol can invoke such intense reaction. But to many Vietnamese, these symbols bring back the nightmares that they lived through or risked their lives to escape from. They want to forget the past and get on with their lives, but they cannot tolerate the kind of provocation that Viet Weekly and Mr. Tran Truong exhibited to their faces… The protest against Viet Weekly is only a natural response to the journalism menace practiced by the newspaper. To judge the protest against Viet Weekly, one must understand what the publication truly did to many of those protesters. This editorial opinion is by Lan Quoc Nguyen, President of the Garden Grove (California) Board of Education. The full article was published in the L.A. Times on September 14, 2007. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-nguyen14sep14,0,2124873.story?coll=la-opinion-center   more »

Congresswomen Zoe Lofgren and Loretta Sanchez (Democrats in California) and Congressman Chris Smith (Republican in New Jersey) have written a letter to the U.S. State Dept. seeking action from the upcoming visit to Vietnam (September 23 - October 2) of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The letter is dated September 7, 2007 They remind Christopher Hill of the State Dept. of the incident in Hanoi on April 5 when the wives of political dissidents imprisoned in Vietnam were prevented from entering the residence of the American Ambassador. The police prevented the woman from entering although they were invited guests of the former Ambassador Michael Marine, and they were accompanied by Congresswoman Sanchez. They also remind the State Dept. that people visiting religious leaders in Vietnam have been interfered and the leaders repressed. The letter is attached.   more »

Letter from priests and lay Catholics to the president of Conference of American Catholic Bishops in Seattle, The Holy William S. Slystad, stating: "When Vietnamese Bishops and priests were allowed to visit other countries in the free world, especially the US, we happily welcomed them and made big cash donations so they could use it to complete their Church’s projects and help other Catholic fellows in Vietnam. However, our initial goodwill has created much more complicated situations with more disadvantages than advantages. Since then, Vietnamese Cardinals, Bishops, priests and church seminarian students have frequently traveled to the US and other free countries under their “formal missions” such as “Church missions serving overseas Vietnamese”. In reality, they have mainly focused on soliciting cash donations. In fact, we, the Vietnamese Catholics in the US have been already cared religiously by American Catholic Church equally to other Catholic immigrants. Native Vietnam Catholic Church in Vietnam has no more obligations to render any services or assistance to us, religiously or spiritually. Vietnamese Cardinals, Bishops, priests and church students have spent several months to visit the U.S. Some have stayed here for half a year or longer, just for visiting. Each visiting Church official is able to raise hundreds of thousands dollars. Some collect million dollars because they travel across 50 states and many other countries with their made-up requests that they build and/ or rebuild churches and other institutions such as institutions for retired priests, orphanages, educational or cultural funds, etc. Our cash assistance that had been originally aimed to meet our native Church’s critical demands has created damaging complications to the Church in Vietnam and also has corrupted Church officials. • American Bishops have forbidden cash collections inside the churches. Many Vietnamese priests serving in dioceses on the US soil who work as illegitimate and unofficial liaisons between Vietnam and the U.S. Church have bent the rules by authorizing cash collections just outside the church buildings. There have been awful incidents of Bishops and priests who wore vestments standing in front of the churches’ main entrances to “beg” parishioners for cash donations immediately after Masses. It has created distasteful images that resemble with “de-luxe beggars” and has poked thorny pains in out hearts and generated disrespect among non-Catholics towards our Church and Church leaders. In addition, many state-controlled Church officials have been granted exit visas easily while other non state-controlled Church officials have been strictly prohibited to travel outside Vietnam. These discriminated treatments have created injustice, negative impacts and deep divisions between different Churches and also inside our Catholic Church itself. • Advise Vietnamese Bishop/ priests NOT to abuse their authority to offer assistance to visiting priests from Vietnam by hosting and/ or organizing “Raising Fund Feasts” for them. There have been more than enough protests, assaults and lawsuits pertaining to cash solicitations on churches’ premises. The letter is signed first by seven priests, beginning with Rev. Peter Phan Van Loi, who is under house arrest in Hue, Rev. Peter Nguyen Huu Giai of the Archdiocese of Hue, Rev. Stephen Chan Tin of Saigon, Vietnam, Rev. John Baptist Dinh Xuan Minh in Germany, two priests now in California and New Zealand who were confined to reeducation camps following the fall of South Vietnam, and a pastor in North Carolina. The Lay Catholics and parishoners signatures are by 56 people around the world. A large number are affiliated with Vietnam Catholic Conscience in the Diocese of San Jose, California, which is a center of resistance to Communist Vietnam by Vietnamese people.   more »

PARIS, 10 September 2007 (IBIB) - Widespread Police controls, surveillance and repression of Buddhists from the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) are intensifying as the government pursues its virulent media campaign launched 3 weeks ago against UBCV Deputy leader Venerable Thich Quang Do for supporting farmers and peasants demonstrating against government confiscation of lands. These base attacks against Thich Quang Do on the State-controlled television, radio and press have caused outrage, not only from the Buddhist community, but from Vietnamese of all different religious and political views. Interviewed by Radio Free Asia on 8-9 September, Hoa Hao dignitary Huynh Van Hiep, Roman Catholic Priest Nguyen Thanh, Cao Dai dignitary Nguyen Thanh Liem all expressed indignation at the government’s slanderous accusations, and affirmed their solidarity with Thich Quang Do. Leaders of UBCV local boards all over the country have sent strong letters of protest to the Vietnamese leadership (e.g. Tien Giang (1.9.2007), Ba Ria-Vung Tau (1.9.2007), Hue (1.9.2007), An Giang (8.9.2007), Binh Dinh (9.9.2007). The authorities are reacting by tightening Police surveillance and controls. The International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) has received scores of alerts from UBCV leaders who have been summoned for interrogations or subjected to harassments by Security Police. In the central city of Hue, crowds of Security Police are surrounding the Bao Quoc Pagoda, residence of one of the UBCV’s most senior officials, Venerable Thich Thien Hanh, Deputy Head of the Institute of the Sangha and Chairman of the UBCV provincial board in Thua Thien Hue. Thich Thien Hanh told IBIB Director Vo Van Ai by mobile phone today that Security Police have also surrounded all major UBCV Pagodas in Hue. “As I speak to you now”, he said, “crowds of Security Police in uniform and plain-clothes encircle Bao Quoc Pagoda. Police are also stationed inside the pagoda’s courtyard and grounds. Police dogs keep watch outside my door”. He is forbidden to leave his pagoda. The press release reveals a plan by the Communist government of Vietnam to arrest the Buddhist Venerable Thich Quang Do and install a patriarch of the Vietnam Buddhist Church at their Congress in November 2007. [\ The Vietnam Buddhist Church is the State-sponsored organization; the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) has been outlawed since 1975, when the Communists invaded South Vietnam and forced the Communist party control on all the people.] On Friday 7th September, Mr. Michael Orona, Deputy Director of the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, visited Venerable Thich Quang Do at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in Saigon. The visit lasted almost two hours. Mr. Orona expressed his concern for the current plight of the UBCV and the human rights situation in general. Thich Quang Do gave an overall view of the status of religious freedom in Vietnam, concluding that there had been no concrete improvements. On the contrary, Thich Quang Do said the authorities were increasing their stranglehold on all independent religions, and reinforcing restrictions and controls. Mr Orona said he would reflect Thich Quang Do’s analysis to the U.S. State Department.   more »

If Nick Schou ("A Vietnam War in O.C." in L.A. Times Sept. 6, 2007) investigated how many are voting American citizens among the people he calls “Vietnamese exiles” he might think again about his knee-jerk reactionary rhetoric. This is the regime that is supported by the publisher of Viet Weekly, Le Vu. He has been caught red-handed cutting and pasting articles from the Communist papers into his own. His Spring 2007 trip to Hanoi to cover the police manhandling of women outside the Ambassador’s residence in the presence of Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez is a good example. On the previous day the former Ambassador Michael Marine had written a powerful op-ed essay criticizing the Vietnam government and political imprisonment of Father Nguyen Van Ly... There was a demonstration of 2,000 people in Saigon only a month ago who demanded redress for their losses in the aftermath of communist victory. They were forcefully dispersed into the countryside in military trucks. One elderly woman demonstrator died. An African news agency says there were more. It’s not about yesterday that 1,000 Vietnamese Americans in Orange County are peacefully assembling and protesting within the law, it’s about today. Jean Libby's response is based on experience with the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi press office, which has done the same obfuscation technique with Nick Schou. As an investigative journalist with a recent book on the alliance of the CIA with the cocaine traffic that was exposed by Gary Webb in the San Jose Mercury in 1996, and then denied by that newspaper, the OC Weekly investigative editor has done little investigative reporting for this story. He prefers to vilify and ridicule the Orange County Vietnamese American population.   more »

Vietnamese language essay about Ho Chi Minh written by the People's Democratic Party (an outlawed group) in Hanoi on the occasion of National Day in Vietnam giving alternate history to the Communist view. Vũ Hải Đăng - Đảng DCND http://ddcnd.org/main/ Hồ Chí Minh từng viết báo và tham gia sáng lập nhiều tờ báo cách mạng ở Pháp. Thật nực cười, ở đây là cười ra nước mắt, khi một thực tế hiển nhiên rằng: “Hồ Chí Minh được hưởng những quyền Tự do – Dân chủ của văn minh phương Tây, để rồi chính ông và các thế hệ lãnh đạo sau ông lại tước đi của Nhân dân Việt Nam mọi quyền Tự do – Dân chủ đấy.” Hà Nội - Ngày 2 – 9 – 2007   more »

Last month, after being informed of the town’s decision to take down the Heritage flag, the Vietnamese Canadian Federation wrote to Mayor Cummings and Sundre councillors to provide them with background information on this flag, and worked together with the Vietnamese community in Calgary to launch a worldwide campaign to urge the town council to reverse its decision. The Vietnamese Canadian Federation is grateful for the support shown by thousands of people in Canada, the U.S., Australia, Europe, and other countries in this campaign. On behalf of its supporters, the Federation would like to express its deep appreciation to the Sundre’s Town Council for its heartfelt and commendable decision. Thanks to this decision, the Heritage and Freedom flag cherished by millions of Vietnamese all over the world will continue to fly in Canada as a beacon for democracy and freedom, which, we all hope, will eventually come back to Vietnam. The Vietnamese Canadian Federation is the non-profit umbrella organization of the Vietnamese community in Canada. Established in 1980, it currently has 12 chapters in all major cities from coast to coast. Its national office is located in Ottawa.   more »

First response is to article published in the L.A. Times September 2, 2007 by Mike Anton, Times Staff Writer, by Jean Libby, editor, VietAm Review. Comparison is made to American civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s when local whites opposed to the demonstrations were treated as experts on Constitutional issues of free speech and free press because that makes an easy story for the reporter. One line only is quoted from an organizer of the demonstrations, Long Kim Pham. Viet Weekly editor's Le Vu is discussed, and a brief history of Viet Am Review articles on the topic, which have centered on Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-Orange County), and former Ambassador Michael Marine at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. Comments on the OC Weekly article by Nick Schou center on this press conference and manipulation of the audio tape by Viet Weekly. The Embassy denies knowing anything about the controversy. The position of Viet Am Review in opposing Viet Weekly is complimented by California Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove).   more »