Viet American Business Group (VABG) coordinates with VAC/NORCAL brings its FIRST annual free HOI TET TRUNG THU also known as Children Moon Festival to the Bay Area public. San Jose, CA, June 17, 2008 -- Viet-American Business group (VABG) and Vietnamese American Community of Northern California are pleased to announce the first annual HOI TET TRUNG THU also known as Children Moon Festival with the collaboration of VOVINAM, VIETNAMESE AMERASIAN, VIETNAMESE WOMEN OVERSEAS OF NORTHERN CA., BOY SCOUTS, ROTC .. This free event will take place on Saturday September 13, 2008, from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm, at Cesar Chavez Park in downtown San Jose. Over 10,000 people are expected to attend this year. The Festival aims to share the rich cultural facets of the Vietnamese tradition with the greater Bay Area community. It also serves as an enrichment opportunity for our youth and their families. We have a full program, featuring ethnic dances, talent and karaoke contests, lion dances, martial arts demonstrations, traditional arts & crafts, and bilingual story time, culminating in a night time lantern procession. On stage entertainment including magic show. For the younger set, we offer face painting, balloon animal, and many different contests. This event has made possible in the past by the generous support of the following: Wells Fargo Bank, First 5 Santa Clara, Telepacket, State Farm Insurance, Bank of America, Children Discovery Museum, Tech Museum. What: 2008 Children Moon Festival Where: Cesar Chavez Park, downtown San Jose, CA When: Saturday, September 13, 2008, 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm Raffle tickets: Prizes include 2 round trip tickets to Hawaìi and many more. FREE ADMISSION About VAC/NORCAL VAC/NORCAL is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in San Jose, CA. Its goals are to preserve and promote Vietnamese culture, and to cultivate the next generation of leaders. Contact: Van Le – Coordinator (408) 489-5249.   more »

Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger asking for veto of SB1322, which eliminates the provision permitting a school employee to be dismissed if he or she is a knowing member of the Communist Party. Letter from the Vietnamese Community of Southern California follows, asking the Governor for veto. Notice of meeting in Westminster on issue (Vietnamese). Letter asking for veto from the Association of Former Vietnamese Political Prisoners of Southern California.    more »

Response to “The Night that Changed McCain’s Life” by John King, CNN Chief National Correspondant http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/18/revealed.mccain.vietnam/index.html?iref=newssearch Comments on this article are about the false statements to the CNN correspondent by Vietnamese people that he interviewed in Hanoi. First, the witness Nguyen Dang Doanh describes the people pushing Lt. Cmdr. McCain in his life jacket to the edge of lake Ho Truc Bach as a life-saving event. In fact, his injuries were not from the ejection, but by the villagers who came into the lake and beat him. This is described in Senator McCain’s book and video about his imprisonment. The nurse Nguyen Thi Tranh describes her bandaging the injured pilot’s arms and leg when he was brought to the first aid station. According to Senator McCain, his arm was broken again after he was imprisoned in one of the outlying jungle prisons. He was beaten and tortured, and treatment was withheld when he refused to early released based on international illegality. McCain finally signed a false confession after four days of beatings, as John King explains very well. The then-prison director of the Central Hanoi / Hanoi Hilton prison Tran Trong Duyet says in recent interview that “our nation is civilized and humanitarian and you do not understand the Vietnamese nation. We never beat anybody.” John King refutes the Duyet statement with one from Ernie Brace, who was imprisoned in Hoa Lo at the same time as John McCain (1967 – 1972) and was also beaten and bones broken. This is the time period of Tran Trong Duyet’s directorship. My recommendation to John King and other national and international reporters is to look at prison conditions in Vietnam today to see the duplicity of his Vietnamese informants. Freelance journalist Truong Minh Duc is in prison in Vietnam today for his alleged violation of Clause 2 of Section 258 of the Vietnam Penal Code, by “taking advantages of the people’s liberty and democracy rights to harm the interests of the country”. Duc was arrested and imprisoned since May 5, 2007. On July 18, 2008 his five-year sentence was confirmed. Last December Truong Minh Duc broke his hand in a fall inside the prison. He was not x-rayed or even splinted until Reporters Without Borders and Vietnamese overseas (who left the country as refugees and now living useful lives) made complaints to the Vietnamese government and the American Embassy. The Embassy officials called Mr. Truong’s wife to inquire. My source is the Vietnamese Populist Party, based in Houston, interview of General Secretary of Nguyen CongBang on August 19, 2008: “The only political prisoners who receive somewhat proper treatment are those who are well-known or now citizens of other countries. This is because the government is afraid of international condemnation. For the unknown prisoners who are Vietnamese citizens the treatment is still very bad.” Journalist Truong Minh Duc received surgery on his arm in June, shortly before his hearing on July 18 which confirmed his five-year sentence: “As the court session started, the judge told Duc that the court would reduce his sentence to four years or less if he would openly admit his “crime against the state”. Duc immediately refused the judge’s offer and insisted that his works did not violate any laws of Vietnam; instead, they were to expose government officials of their illegal actions such as power abuses and corruption. “ The major charge is “Joining the Dang Vi Dan” (Vietnam Populist Party) an underground political party that advocates for a free and fair general election in Vietnam). Journalist Truong Minh Duc is a member of both the Vietnam Populist Party and Bloc 8406. Since 1994, he has assisted several victims of government’s corruption and power abuses in southern provinces, and authored a number of articles published in Vietnam and overseas. Prior to the appeal court, Duc's wife affirmed his persistent stand (via RFA) in pursuing his ideals: “I strongly believe that campaigning for democracy, freedom, social justice, and welfare for the poor people, is not a crime. I will continue to defend and fight for the people’s rights and values, even when I am still in prison.” See the DVD (Vietnam Populist Party) English language web page: http://www.vietnampopulist.org/ Jean Libby, editor VietAm Review http://vietamreview.blogharbor.com Jean Libby is editor of the blog VietAm Review and Allies for Freedom publishers. The first book of the Nhan Quyen Tai Viet Nam Series is forthcoming on October 20, 2008. It is two stories of prison conditions in Vietnam including the Hoa Lo prison by the renowned dissident poet and author Nguyen Chi Thien. see www.vietamreview.net/Hai_Truyen_Tu.html   more »

HOUSTON, 17th August 2008 (IBIB) – At a ceremony marking the 49th day of the death of Supreme Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam held in Houston, Texas today, leaders of the Overseas UBCV made public the late Patriarch’s last will and testament in which he appoints the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, currently UBCV Deputy leader, as the new Head of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. The ceremony should have been held at Nguyen Thieu Monastery in Binh Dinh where the late Patriarch is buried, but pressures and travel restrictions on the UBCV leadership made this impossible. The UBCV then planned to hold it in Saigon. However, over the past few days, Security Police have surrounded all key UBCV Pagodas including the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery where Thich Quang Do resides, the UBCV Secretariat at Giac Hoa Pagoda etc. Unable to hold the ceremony in Vietnam, UBCV leaders finally decided to smuggle a copy of the testament to Houston, Texas, where a parallel memorial ceremony is being held by the Overseas UBCV at the Phap Luan Pagoda. The testament was made public today before a gathering of Buddhist monks, nuns and lay-Buddhists from all over the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia. In his will, written on 17.1.2005 after a long period of illness and hospitalisation, Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang wrote: “During my long decades in detention and house arrest, I have experienced loneliness and isolation. But l have faced them with serenity, and never felt discouraged... Long years without medical care have left my body weak, and I now suffer from so many illnesses. But this is the law of impermanence, and as a monk, it does not worry me. What pains me most is that I will not live to see my life-long wish fulfilled – the re-establishment of the right to existence of the UBCV”.” Feeling his health failing, “like a candle in the wind”, Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang left his last wishes to members of the Supreme Bicameral Council (the Institute of the Sangha and the Institute for the Dissemination of the Dharma (Vien Hoa Dao), the UBCV’s Executive Institute), exhorting them to complete the following tasks after his death : (a) “By all possible ways and means, you must re-establish the legitimate status of the independent, traditional Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, and achieve the unification of Buddhist schools and sects from all over Vietnam, just as our forefathers did under the Dinh dynasty. Buddhist unification must be undertaken by Buddhist clergy and lay-followers alone – no one can do it in their place: (b) I confer upon Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, currently Head of the Institute for the Dissemination of the Dharma, the title of Supreme Patriarch, with full powers to manage and direct the UBCV’s affairs ; (c) The Overseas Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam [based in California, with sections all over the world] “should develop the role of Vietnamese Buddhism in the collective effort to build a peaceful world in face of global terrorism”. Also, “the International Buddhist Information Bureau [the UBCV’s information arm] should maintain and expand its efforts to inform the international community and mobilise support” for the repressed UBCV. Mr. Vo Van Ai, the UBCV International spokesman declared: “The appointment of Most Venerable Thich Quang Do as UBCV leader marks the beginning of a new phase in relations between the government and the UBCV. The death of Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and the conflict over his funeral underscore the strong international support enjoyed by the UBCV, as well as its capacity, leadership and determination to engage non-violent resistance against government repression”, he said. “The UBCV is Vietnam’s largest civil society movement, and it could play a positive role in the country’s spiritual, social, cultural and economic development. Hanoi should cease treating the UBCV as its enemy, and seize this occasion to recognize the leadership of Thich Quang Do and re-establish the legitimate status of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. At a time when Vietnam’s sovereignty is threatened from the outside, and its economy is in crisis within, this is an opportunity for Vietnam to rally the energies and talents of all its citizens to build a prosperous and democratic Vietnam”. A complete life history and bibliographic citations of the new UBCV leader the Venerable Thich Quang Do is included which describes his struggle to maintain the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam while under continuous surveillance and restricted movements from his Pagoda since 1975, when the Communist country North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and established control by force. Thich Quang Do has been nominated 9 times for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2008, he was proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize by 60 Members of the European Parliament, 67 Italian MPs, members of the US Congress and academics. In 2003, Thich Quang Do was honoured by the Czech “People in Need Foundation” under the auspices of former President Vaclav Havel with the Homo Homini Award in recognition of his “outstanding merits in promoting human rights, democracy, and the non-violent resolution of political conflicts”. In 2001 and 2008, he received the Hellman-Hammet Award for persecuted writers. Thich Quang Do is adopted by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and is an honorary member of PEN Clubs in Germany, France and Sweden. He was declared a victim of arbitrary detention by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Opinion 21, 2.12.1997 and Opinion 18/2005). The Vietnamese announcement is attached in pdf.   more »

Dr. Ngai Nguyen, the Vice General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Vietnam, (DPV) today expressed his thanks and gratitude to the United States Department of State, and the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, for working tirelessly to secure the release of Mr. Charlie Ly. According to Dr. Nguyen, “without the intervention of the U.S. Government and our Department of State, and particularly our Ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Michalak and Consul General Ken Fairfax, I am afraid to think what might have happened to Charlie Ly while being held in Vietnam.” After the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. was advised by the Democratic Party of Vietnam of Mr. Ly’s confinement, the State Department contacted the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, which talked with the government of Vietnam. After several days of discussions, two U.S. officers escorted Mr. Ly to the airport yesterday in HCMC for his flight back to the United States. Charlie Ly arrived in New York City Thursday night and was greeted by his family and hundreds of friends from the Vietnamese-American community. Mr. Ly thanked everyone for their prayers, thoughts and support during this difficult period. For background, on July 24, as Mr. Ly was preparing to depart HCMC for his home in Philadelphia, the government of Vietnam confiscated his American passport, placed him under house arrest in his hotel, and interrogated him for many hours daily during these last three weeks. The Vietnamese government said he would only be allowed to leave the country if he agreed to two provisions: 1. he must admit that he went to Vietnam for the specific purpose of visiting a member of the Democratic Party of Vietnam, who was just released from a Vietnamese jail and 2. upon arrival back in the United States, that he would not engage in political activities against the government of Vietnam. Mr. Ly advised the Vietnam government that he would not sign their “confession,” so, since July 24, he had not been allowed to leave his hotel, nor depart the country. The Mission of the Democratic Party of Vietnam is, through peaceful means, to secure democracy, human rights and free and fair elections in Vietnam. Ngai Nguyen, Vice General Secretary Member of the Standing Central Committee Democratic Party of Vietnam # # # # # CONTACT: Dr. Ngai Nguyen 1-408-603-5030 ngainguyen@aol.com   more »

Kính thưa liệt quý Vị, Thời gian qua, Phòng Thông tin Phật giáo Quốc tế có chuyển về Viện chúng tôi những Thư Phân ưu mà quý vị Nhân sĩ, Lãnh đạo Tôn giáo, Đại diện các Đoàn thể và Đồng bào các giới ngỏ lời chia buồn Giáo hội chúng tôi sau khi Đức cố Đệ tứ Tăng thống Thích Huyền Quang viên tịch. Chúng tôi chân thành tri ân liệt quý Vị quan tâm nhớ tưởng. Chúng tôi hiểu rằng ngoài sự chia buồn trước mất mát lớn của Giáo hội chúng tôi, liệt quý Vị còn muốn chia sẻ mối quan tâm đối với ước vọng của Đức cố Tăng thống Thích Huyền Quang trước hiện tình đất nước, con người Việt và đời sống tâm linh của dân tộc đang bị uy hiếp. Một ước vọng đã biến thành hành động qua suốt cuộc đời Ngài, rõ nhất là 33 năm qua, mà giờ đây Giáo hội chúng tôi có bổn phận kế thừa thực hiện để báo đền công đức của Ngài. Nhân danh Ban Chỉ đạo Viện Hóa Đạo và Hội đồng Lưỡng Viện Giáo hội Phật giáo Việt Nam Thống nhất, tôi xin gửi lời cảm tạ đến quý liệt vị đã có lời phân ưu. Lẽ ra thư cảm tạ phải gửi sớm hơn. Nhưng vì tôi vừa về lại Saigon sau mấy tuần lễ lo tang lễ cùng Phật sự của Giáo hội. Kính mong quý vị thông cảm. Thanh Minh Thiền viện, Saigon ngày 6.8.2008 TM. Hội đồng Lưỡing Viện GHPGVNTN Viện trưởng Viện Hóa Đạo, (ấn ký) Sa môn Thích Quảng Độ   more »

Religious Freedom Lost on Vietnam By Michael Benge FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, August 05, 2008 In direct contravention of President Bush's policy of promoting religious freedom abroad, the State Department has established a foreign policy toward Vietnam promoting that communist government's control of churches. This is the same government that murdered over a million of their own people after the communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975. In the 1980s, the phrase "Coke Bottle Diplomacy" was coined to describe US policy put forth by our best and brightest of that time, whereby trade and American investment would bring communist China into the civilized world and change that country's long history of human rights abuses and repression of religion and democracy. The policy never worked and has only resulted in a huge trade deficit, US dollars funding a huge military buildup, poisoned products, and untold number – tens of thousands – of Tibetans and Chinese killed and imprisoned in slave labor camps. The Bush administration has resuscitated this failed policy of Coke Bottle Diplomacy and is applying it to Vietnam, and in 2007, the US accumulated trade deficit was $10.6 billion. Recently, dozens of democracy activists, journalists, cyber-dissidents and Christian and other religious leaders have been arrested and imprisoned by the Vietnamese communists. Congressional leaders and human-rights groups have charged Hanoi with "unbridled human-rights abuses," the "worst wave of oppression in 20 years." Some in Congress have accused the Administration of worshiping at the "Alter of Trade" while turning a blind eye toward religious persecution and human rights abuses in Vietnam. Despite Vietnam's increased human rights abuses, on June 24th, President Bush, for the third time, met with communist Vietnamese officials in the Oval Office, this time with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. The meeting focused on improving trade, developing even closer economic ties and increasing US investment in Vietnam in order to bail out Vietnam's failing economy. In passing, President Bush told the prime minister that he "thought the strides the government is making towards religious freedom is noteworthy." Noteworthy indeed. President Bush's Pollyanna view of religious freedom in Vietnam is based in part on erroneous reporting fed to him by the Department of State. In 2006, Vietnam was removed from the State Department's designation as a Country of Particular Concern for severe violations of religious freedom. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom, joined by Human Rights Organizations, has urged the Department of State to put Vietnam back on its CPC religious freedom blacklist. One of the justifications that the Department of State gave for removing Vietnam from its blacklist is that regime's purported liberalization of restrictions on house churches. However, evidence disputes this claim. The fact is the Vietnamese communist regime has imposed even tighter restrictions. Although Christian families are now allowed to pray in their home, they are not allowed to pray in groups – including extended families, in public or in churches unless they are government sanctioned and controlled. In the Central Highlands and other contentious areas, US officials are taken to Potempkin villages and model government churches and fed disinformation by government agents posing as religious leaders. US officials often take their word as the gospel. One such agent and informant for the State Department's Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom John Hanford is Siu Kim, a Montagnard with a church in Plieku, who works for Vietnam's communist government. According to that government's statistics, the Montagnards are among Vietnam's poorest inhabitants; yet, Siu Kim has been on four tours to the US, paid for by the communist government to propagandize the Montagnards here. Upon his appointment, US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak stated that he was going to continue the policy of Ambassador Hanford of promoting the accelerated registration of churches in Vietnam. However, Ambassador Michalak neglected to explain the cost to religious freedom that this registration entails. To register, churches must submit to the Central Bureau of Religious Affairs (CBA) a list of names and addresses of members, and only those approved by the CBA can attend services. All church meetings and sermons must be approved by the CBA, and sermons must be given in Vietnamese – even in ethnic minority churches. Pastors and priests can neither deviate from the approved sermon nor proselytize, and CBA police monitor all services. Nor can churches and pastors provide aid and comfort to local villagers. This is de facto communist control of churches in Vietnam. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill reconfirmed this misguided policy in his March 12th testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as further justification stated, "Since the CPC designation was removed, there has been further progress. The government held over 3,000 training courses and 10,000 workshops for officials throughout the country on how to implement the new law on religion." What Hill forgot to mention is Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's certification of "the Vietnamese communist party's 2007-8 'Religion Campaign Plan' to train 21,811 communist religious workers in the political management of religion, with a special focus on ethnic minorities." (Vietnam News Agency, 6/13/07) These religious "workers" are to ensure that churches and church members comply with CBA's registration requirements and the communist control of religion. The Vietnamese communist government repeatedly promises to ease up on religious repression while it simultaneously steps up its crack down those advocating religious freedom. The communist government does not discriminate in its repression of religious faiths, nor who it persecutes – both men and women. Most noted is Roman Catholic Priest Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly who was depicted on television gagged and restrained during sentencing to several years in prison in a Vietnamese kangaroo court. The recently deceased Thich Huyen Quang, 87, patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), one of Vietnam's most beloved and esteemed spiritual leaders, who along with the UBCV deputy leader Thich Quang Do, was sent into internal exile in 1982 and detained in remote provinces for the past 26 years for refusing to submit Vietnamese Buddhism to Communist Party control. Although over 80% of the Buddhists in Vietnam adhere to the UBCV, the government refuses to recognize the UBCV and continues to try to force the members to join the communist state-controlled Vietnam Buddhist Sangha church. Monks, nuns and members of the UBCV, the Hoa Hao Buddhist Church, and the Khmer Krom Buddhist Church (Cambodian ethnic minorities) are continually harassed, beaten and imprisoned. On February 8, two hundred Khmer Krom Buddhist monks peacefully demonstrated in Soc Treang, Vietnam, asking for religious freedom. The Vietnamese government responded by brutally beating, arresting, imprisoned nineteen Monks -- five were given prison sentences of 2 to 4 years. Vietnam went so far as to arrange the kidnapping of the Venerable Tim Sakhorn, a Cambodian citizen who was the Abbot of the Phnom Den North Pagoda temple in Takeo province, Cambodia, who was aiding the Khmer Krom refugees who fled the religious repression in Vietnam and sought refuge in Cambodia. The Venerable Tim Sakhorn was imprisoned in Vietnam and ironically charged with crossing the border without proper documentation. Most recently, Vietnamese authorities claim that he has been released from prison, but to no one's surprise, he has since "disappeared." While Vietnamese communist officials can travel freely throughout the United States, US officials cannot travel freely in Vietnam without advance notice to national and local officials and accompaniment by Vietnamese government minders and security personnel. UN and independent human rights organizations are not allowed an established presence in Vietnam; therefore, incidences such as the "disappearance" of the Cambodian Monk, nor the plethora of other human rights abuses, cannot be investigated Routinely, house church Christians are rounded up and beaten, given electric shocks, and jailed when they refuse to join communist controlled churches. Reports continue to emanate from Vietnam that Montagnard and Hmong men and women are still being subjected to forced renunciation of their Christian faith, often resulting in torture and sometimes death. As communist Vietnam's "President" Nguyen Minh Triet's 2007 met with President Bush in the White House, Y-Het Vin, a young Hroi ethnic minority man from Phu Yen province was being tortured by Vietnam's religious police (CBA). He died from injuries after several days of sustained beatings in an attempt to force him to recant his Christian faith. This is not an isolated case. Over 350 Montagnard political prisoners, many of whom are Protestant pastors, languish in jail, and the number that died or was tortured while imprisoned is unknown. Because of continual religious persecution and other human rights abuses, large numbers of Montagnards continue to flee to Cambodia seeking asylum with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Unfortunately, UNHCR's policy toward the Montagnards is heavily influenced by communist Vietnam, and the Montagnards are continually forced back to communist Vietnam in violation of UNHCR's charter. Equally as sad for the persecuted Montagnards is that the US' refugee policy is also heavily influenced by the communist Vietnamese. During a trip Cambodia in February 2007, Ellen Sauerbrey, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, told a press conference that Montagnards should stay in Vietnam and not seek asylum in Cambodia for Vietnamese officials assured her that Montagnards were not being abused. Tell that to H'Suin Rmah, a Montagnard, who recently fled to Cambodia seeking refuge with UNHCR after being raped by Vietnamese officials. She lives in fear, not knowing if UNHCR will send her back to Vietnam, even though by nature of the crime, she is qualified for resettlement in the US. Several cases of Montagnard women being repeatedly raped by provincial police/authorities as the price to obtain their papers and passports have been reported. Evidence shows that Sauerbrey's advice is very bad policy. In April of this year, police arrested Y Ben Hdok in Dak Lak after he and other Montagnards in his district tried to flee the persecution and seek refuge in Cambodia. Vietnamese police refused to allow his family or a lawyer to visit him during three days in detention. On May 1, police told Mr. Y Ben's wife to pick up his battered body. His rib and limbs were broken and his teeth had been knocked out. Police labeled the death a suicide." This is not an isolated incident, and happens all too often. President Bush has called religious freedom "the first freedom of the human soul." However, he wouldn't attend services at St. Johns across the street from the White House if it were controlled by the communist party, so why then would his foreign policy makers think the people of Vietnam want to worship in churches controlled by a repressive regime whose only religion is atheist communism? The State Department's mistaken policy on religion in Vietnam sends the message that if the US supports communist control of churches, we will also turn a blind eye to their continued crack down and imprisonment of advocates for human rights, democracy, free speech and internet access. This is Coke Bottle Diplomacy at its worst, and is playing right into the hands of the same brutal communist regime that murdered more than 1 million of its own people. ________________________________________ 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 »

Ngày 16 tháng 7 vừa qua, nhân tháng 7 là tháng Việt Nam làm Chủ Tịch luân phiên HĐBA LHQ, một số chính đảng ở hải ngoại đã khởi xướng chiến dịch gửi Thư Ngỏ đến HĐBA và ông TTK LHQ để đưa ra vấn đề Trung Cộng xâm chiếm quần đảo Hoàng Sa và Trường Sa của Việt Nam, kêu gọi HĐBA, với trọng trách bảo vệ an ninh và hòa bình của thế giới “hãy đưa ra những biện pháp thích ứng để ngăn chận ngay lập tức những hành động xâm lấn của Trung Quốc đối với Việt Nam, đồng thời giúp đưa ra giải pháp để giải quyết một cách công bằng tình trạng thiệt hại hiện nay của nước Việt Nam." Thư Ngỏ cũng đặt trách nhiệm của chính quyền CSVN trong việc để Trung Cộng xâm chiếm lãnh thổ và lãnh hải Việt Nam, buộc Hà Nội phải có thái độ đối với Trung Cộng. Chiến dịch Thư Ngỏ đã được sự ủng hộ nồng nhiệt của người Việt khắp nơi. Ngay vào lúc 2 giờ trưa (giờ New York, Hoa Kỳ) Thứ Tư, 16 tháng 7, 36 tiếng đồng hồ sau khi soạn thảo, đã có 30 đoàn thể chính trị, cộng đồng, và chuyên biệt tham gia ký tên vào Thư Ngỏ. Trong số này có 3 đoàn thể trong nước là Liên-minh Dân-chủ và Nhân-quyền Việt Nam, Khối 8406 và Đảng Dân Chủ Việt Nam Thế Kỷ XXI. Thư Ngỏ được fax trực tiếp và khẩn cấp đến văn phòng TTK LHQ, năm thành viên thường trực (Hoa Kỳ, Anh, Pháp, Nga và TC), và các thành viên không thường trực của HĐBA LHQ (Bỉ, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Lybia, Nam Dương, Nam Phi, Panama, Ý và Việt Nam). Thư Ngỏ được gửi đến LHQ 1 ngày trước khi Phạm Gia Khiêm, Ngoại trường Việt Nam, đến LHQ. Tính đến 12 giờ đêm 30 tháng 7, ngày tổng kết chiến dịch Thư Ngỏ tháng Bảy, tổng số đoàn thể ký tên vào Thư Ngỏ đã tăng lên thành 91 trong đó có 4 đoàn thể từ trong nước. Sáng 31 tháng 7, Thư Ngỏ cùng danh sách tổng kết các đoàn thể trong-ngoài nước tham gia ký tên đã được gửi đến HĐBA và ông TTK LHQ để chấm dứt chiến dịch. Dưới đây là bản văn tiếng Việt và tiếng Anh Thư Ngỏ và danh sách tổng kết (trong bản tiếng Việt) các đoàn thể đã tham gia ký tên. We represent a number of Vietnamese political parties and mass organizations, both inside and outside of Vietnam, joined by independent Vietnamese personalities who would like to specially call to the attention of the UN Security Council the provocations and aggressive actions that the People’s Republic of China has taken towards two archipelagoes in Vietnam’s Eastern Sea (aka South China Sea). Specifically, these actions are: 1. On 19 January 1974, the Chinese Navy blatantly took over the Paracel Islands belonging to the then Republic of Vietnam. Seventy-one Vietnamese naval personnel lost their lives and another 28 were wounded as a result of this aggression. The Chinese occupation of these islands has lasted to this day. 2. On 14 March 1988, China made another aggressive move by occupying some major islands in the Spratly Islands belonging to Vietnam. In this encounter, 64 Vietnamese personnel were killed and another 11 wounded. 3. In early December 2007, China created the district of Sansha in Hainan Province to administer three archipelagoes in Vietnam’s Eastern Sea/South China Sea, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands. With this action, China sought not only to perpetuate its illegal occupation of many islands belonging to Vietnam but also to unlawfully annex these islands to Chinese territory.   more »