Whereas in May 2007, the People’s Committee of Da Nang,
Vietnam, announced a plan to lease the land in the Hoa Xuan district area,
including the entire village of Con Dau, to international developers to build a
resort and tourist area;
Whereas the People’s Committee of Da Nang announced that
all residents in the affected area would be required to move and that they
would be compensated for the land;
Whereas, on August 15, 2010, the Con Dau parish will be
celebrating 85 years since its establishment and 135 years since the first
religious refugees settled on the land;
Whereas the village of Con Dau is coterminous with a
Catholic parish of the same name and consists of approximately 400 Catholic
households;
Whereas the village of Con Dau vigorously resisted the
People’s Committee of Da Nang’s proposal as village land including a Catholic
cemetery with approximately 700 tombs, a chapel within the cemetery, a parish
church, and most of the farm land in the parish belongs to the Catholic
parish;
Whereas several generations of Catholics are buried in the
village cemetery which is over 100 years old and considered a national historic
heritage site, and the chapel in the cemetery serves as the place of worship
for hundreds of parishioners living near the cemetery;
Whereas the People’s Committee of Da Nang ordered the
relocation of the parish cemetery to a mountainous area, far from any
inhabitable place and ordered the people of Con Dau to be relocated to another
area, far removed from the newly designated relocation of the cemetery;
Whereas the people of Con Dau requested that the
government not relocate either the parishioners or the cemetery, but rather
grant permission for the parishioners to move closer to their church while
allowing the rice fields to be included in the new resort;
Whereas the Da Nang authorities refused the petition of
the parishioners and on January 25, 2010, Da Nang government officials led an
aggressive week long campaign in Con Dau, with armed police officers and
government officials going from house to house to exert pressure on the
parishioners to sign an agreement to sell their land and move;
Whereas, on January 26, 2010, 400 Con Dau heads of
household signed an appeal letter to the Vietnamese central government in
Hanoi, complaining about the Da Nang officials’ use of threats and intimidation
to force parishioners to sign the agreement, requesting to be relocated around
their church in order to continue to live in the vicinity of the Catholic
cemetery and practice their religion, and filing a complaint regarding the
unjust compensation the People’s Committee of Da Nang initially offered in
exchange for village land;
Whereas, on March 4, 2010, the People’s Committee of Da
Nang led a second campaign in Con Dau to force parishioners to sign the
agreement;
Whereas in April, the People’s Committee of Da Nang issued
an order and posted a sign in the Con Dau cemetery forbidding future burials
and posted police officers to block entrance to the cemetery;
Whereas the police attacked parishioner Le Van Sinh with
tear gas when he attempted to remove the sign which had been placed on his
father’s grave;
Whereas, on May 1, 2010, Mrs. Maria Dang Thi Tan, an
elderly parishioner, died in Con Dau after requesting that she be buried with
her husband and ancestors in the parish cemetery;
Whereas, on May 3, 2010, police placed barbed wire at the
entrance of the cemetery, and assaulted and dispersed parishioners, including
women, children, and the elderly, as they gathered at the chapel in the
cemetery to say prayers;
Whereas, on May 4, 2010, during the funeral procession of
Mrs. Dang which attracted approximately 1,000 parishioners, local police and a
mobile anti-riot
police force which had been posted in
anticipation of the funeral, attacked the funeral procession and attempted to
seize the casket when it approached the cemetery entrance;
Whereas the police ordered the mourners to leave, but
several hundred remained;
Whereas after several hours, the police shot tear gas and
rubber bullets at the mourners near the casket and began to beat everyone with
batons and electric rods, injuring more than 100 people;
Whereas the police then proceeded to search homes,
desecrating religious symbols in those homes, to look for suspected organizers
of the funeral procession;
Whereas the police arrested 62 persons who were brought to
the county police station in Cam Le;
Whereas reports indicate that the police beat each
detainee for his or her involvement in the funeral, beating some until they
were unconscious;
Whereas a pregnant woman, Le Thi Van, reportedly suffered
a miscarriage as a result of the beatings she received;
Whereas after being forced to sign the agreement to sell
their land and relocate, admit to false allegations that they had assaulted the
police, ordered not to seek medical care for their injuries or speak to the
foreign news media, and threatened with additional beatings if they did not
remain silent, most of the detainees were released after several days in
detention;
Whereas five of the detainees, Nguyen Huu Liem, Phan Thi
Nhan, Nguyen Thi The, Le Thanh Lam, and Tran Thanh Viet, remain incarcerated,
having been beaten severely, and are awaiting trial based on accusations of
opposing law enforcement
and disturbing public
order
;
Whereas Nguyen Thi Lieu, remains in detention in another
facility and is reported to have been severely tortured;
Whereas, on May 27, 2010, Nguyen Huu Minh, Vice Chairman
of the Con Dau Parish Committee, was also arrested for his lead role in
meetings between the parishioners and the People’s Committee of Da Nang;
Whereas none of the above detainees have been allowed
visits even by their closest family members;
Whereas Doan Cang was also among those beaten and detained
but was temporarily released to care for his family while awaiting trial;
Whereas, on July 1, 2010, the police apprehended Nguyen
Nam, a member of the funeral support group who had been among those beaten at
the time of the funeral procession, handcuffed him, and severely beat
him;
Whereas, on July 3, 2010, Nguyen Nam died due to injuries
to the head, face, chest, and hands sustained during the beatings;
Whereas many United States citizens have family members
who are residents of Con Dau, including victims of police beatings, torture,
and detention;
Whereas these violations of human rights of the residents
of Con Dau are sources of continuing, grave concern to Congress;
Whereas according to the United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom 2010 Annual Report, property disputes
between the government and the Catholic Church continue to lead to harassment,
property destruction, and violence, sometimes by contract thugs
hired by the government to break up peaceful prayer vigils
and other
religious ceremonies;
Whereas property issues involving local Catholics in Dong
Chiem, Thai Ha, Tam Toa, and Bau Sen have reportedly led to harassment,
discrimination, detention, property destruction, and beatings;
Whereas according to the United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom 2010 Annual Report, Vietnam’s overall
human rights record remains poor, and has deteriorated since Vietnam joined the
WTO in January 2007
, with dozens of arrests and continued harassment of
human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers, democracy activists, and
religious freedom advocates;
Whereas according to the United States Department of State
2009 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, the Government of Vietnam
increased its suppression of dissent
, and tightened
controls over the press and freedom of speech, assembly, movement, and
association.
;
Whereas according to the United States Department of State
2009 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, Vietnamese police
commonly mistreated suspects during arrest or detention
and
corruption remained a significant problem, and members of the police
sometimes acted with impunity.
;
Whereas according to the United States Department of State
2009 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, in August 2009, Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung issued a decree that offers compensation, housing, and
job training for individuals displaced by development projects. Nevertheless,
there were widespread reports of official corruption and a general lack of
transparency in the government's process of confiscating land and moving
citizens to make way for infrastructure projects.
; and
Whereas according to the Human Rights Watch 2010 Annual
Report, the Government of Vietnam tightened its controls on internet
use, blogging, and independent research, and banned dissemination and
publication of content critical of the government. Religious freedom continued
to deteriorate, with the government targeting religious leaders—and their
followers—who advocated for civil rights, religious freedom, and equitable
resolution of land disputes
: Now, therefore, be it
That—
(1)the House of
Representatives—
(A)condemns and deplores the violence,
threats, fines, and harassment faced by the villagers of Con Dau, Da Nang, for
seeking to protect their land, the historic cemetery, and other parish
properties, and to receive an equitable resolution of their property dispute;
(B)condemns and
deplores the arrests of parishioners and calls for the immediate and
unconditional release of Nguyen Huu Liem, Phan Thi Nhan, Nguyen Thi The, Doan
Cang, Le Thanh Lam, Tran Thanh Viet, Nguyen Thi Lieu, and Nguyen Huu Minh;
(C)strongly urges the Government of Vietnam to
hold accountable police and security agents who reportedly beat and mistreated
Con Dau residents at the funeral procession and later while the residents were
in detention, including a public investigation of those whose actions led to
the death of Nguyen Nam; and
(D)strongly urges the
Government of Vietnam to consider the implications of its actions in Con Dau,
as well as of other serious human rights violations, issues of police impunity,
and corruption for the broader relationship between the United States and
Vietnam; and
(2)it is the sense of the House of
Representatives that—
(A)the President should call on the United
Nations Human Rights Council to appoint a Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in
Vietnam to investigate ongoing and serious human rights violations in that
country, including those violations targeting the villagers of Con Dau;
(B)the Secretary of State should call on the
Government of Vietnam to uphold commitments made during the United Nations
Periodic Review of May 2009 to engage with various United Nations special
procedures, including inviting the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the United
Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom or Belief to inquire,
investigate, and report on the situation throughout Vietnam and specifically in
Con Dau, including the discrimination, police impunity, mistreatment in
detention, desecration of religious and historical properties, and the beating
death of Nguyen Nam;
(C)the United States Embassy in Vietnam should
visit those detained, including, Nguyen Huu Liem, Phan Thi Nhan, Nguyen Thi
The, Doan Cang, Le Thanh Lam, Tran Thanh Viet, Nguyen Thi Lieu, and Nguyen Huu
Minh, as well as the family of Nguyen Nam, and other parishioners, and report
its findings to Congress;
(D)the United States Embassy should continue
to raise with the Government of Vietnam the issues faced by the village of Con
Dau including police impunity, beatings, fines, and the deaths of individuals
engaged in a peaceful religious ceremony;
(E)the United States Department of State
should examine instances of property disputes in Vietnam which involve
religious communities, including the case of Con Dau, report its findings to
Congress, and continue to raise disputed religious properties at United
States-Vietnam meetings and forums, including the bilateral United
States-Vietnam human rights dialogue; and
(F)the United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom should visit the Con Dau parishioners and
report to Congress on the violence and harassment faced by the Catholic
villagers.