Human Rights: U.S. - Vietnam Dialogue in Hanoi on May 29, 2008
Human Rights: Senior State
Department Reps in Vietnam
On May 29th, David Kramer, U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, will lead a
delegation to Hanoi to participate in a dialogue
on U.S.
- Vietnam Human Rights. In advance of those meeting, Dr. Ngai Nguyen, the Vice
Secretary of the Democratic Party of Vietnam, just returned from three days of
meetings in Washington, D.C.
with key officials at the U.S. Department of State who will participate in the Hanoi meetings, and several
Congressional leaders.
In meetings at the State
Department with Dr. Michael Orona, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor, and Brett Blackshaw, Vietnam Desk Officer for the
Office of Mainland Southeast Asia, Dr. Nguyen said that, “an ongoing U.S. -
Vietnam dialogue can expand understanding between our two countries and peoples
while consolidating human rights gains that have been won. However, actions
speak louder than words.” Therefore, Dr. Nguyen asked that U.S. officials discuss the following issues with
the Vietnam government at
the meetings in Hanoi:
1. All political and religious
prisoners who are still being jailed in Vietnam must be set free,
unconditionally.
2. Unless major changes and
improvements are made immediately, the U.S. State Department will recommend
that Vietnam
be redesignated a “country of particular concern” for its lack of democracy,
human rights and religious freedom.
3. There must be substantial
improvements in freedom of assembly, press, Internet and civil society.
Dr. Orona and Mr. Blackshaw, who
will participate in the Hanoi
meetings, assured Dr. Nguyen that these issues will be addressed, and that they
expect some tangible results and actions from the Vietnamese government as a
result of this dialogue on May 29th.
While in Washington,
D.C., Dr. Nguyen also met with Congressman
Dana Rohrabacher, who agreed to place an additional ten names in the U.S.
Congressional Record of political and religious prisoners recently detained by
the Vietnam
government. Mr. Rohrabacher, at the request of Dr. Nguyen in 2007, placed the
names of 85 prisoners in the Congressional Record.
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren,
following a meeting with Dr. Nguyen, agreed to send a letter signed by her
Congressional colleagues to President Bush and Secretary Rice condemning the
ongoing human rights abuses in Vietnam, and demanding that there be substantial
progress in the Human Rights Dialogue in Hanoi May 29 towards the release of
its political and religious prisoners or they would recommend Vietnam be
returned to the CPC list.
Dr. Nguyen, on this trip to Washington, D.C., thanked
the various U.S. officials
for their continued efforts to bring about real change in Vietnam, but said, “talk is cheap, and it is
time to see significant actions and results from the government of Vietnam.”
http://johnibiii.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/human-rights-senior-state-department-reps-in-vietnam/
Contact:
Democratic Party of Vietnam, Overseas Office
Dr. Ngai Nguyen, 1-408-603-5030
ngainguyen@aol.com
For the original list of political prisoners in Vietnam published in September 2007 by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher from the list given to him by Dr. Ngai Nguyen, see http://vietamreview.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/10/10/3282959.html
