Attn : Count Jacques Rogge President Subject: Request to De-politicise the Beijing2008 Olympics Dear Mr. President, First of all, I am proud and delighted to inform you that I will be one of sixty Vietnamese nationals carrying the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch through Ho Chi Minh City on the coming 29th April 2008. It is my great honour to have been chosen as a bearer of the Olympic torch – the symbol of olympism, of peace and of solidarity of all people in the world – which will be relayed in Vietnam for the first time. However, after studying closely the Planned Route Map for the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Torch Relay published on the official website of the BOCOG, I find that the torch that I will bear is not the torch of pure olympism, but it is a torch of an olympism politicized by the the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (“BOCOG”). Even in hosting the 2008 Olympic and Paralymic games, China has not missed the opportunity to politicize the Olympic and Paralymic Games. Via the official website of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China deceives the world that they have sovereignty over the Paracel islands, an area which China illegitimately took from Vietnam in 1974. I will prove this to you through the following: ... Le Minh Phieu A Beijing 2008 Olympic torch-bearer Ph.D Candidate at Center for European and International Documentation and Research Post-graduate School of Law – Bordeaux IV – Montesquieu University Avenue Léon Duguit, 33600 Pessac, France Published by Andrew Lam at New America Media on April 14, 2008; http://blogs.newamericamedia.org/andrew-lam/1144/letter-to-mr-president-of-olympic-international-committe UPDATE: Mr. Le Minh Phieu was interviewed by RFA yesterday and has decided to appear in the torch relay. Vigils are being planned to coincide with the Olympic torch presence in Saigon on April 29.    more »

Excerpts and links to articles, video, and interview by these authors gathered by Jean Libby, editor, VietAm Review from published sources. All authors support the protest of human rights violations in China except for Voice of America, who support Beijing position and the anti-American and antiEuropean rantings of President Musharraf of Pakistan. Senator John McCain recommends that President Bush not attend opening ceremonies in Beijing in August.   more »