[House Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
VIETNAM: WHY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND HUMAN
RIGHTS ARE CRITICAL TO U.S. NATIONAL
INTERESTS
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,
GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MAY 25, 2017
__________
Serial No. 115-32
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TED POE, Texas KAREN BASS, California
DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina AMI BERA, California
MO BROOKS, Alabama LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
PAUL COOK, California TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
RON DeSANTIS, Florida ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
TED S. YOHO, Florida DINA TITUS, Nevada
ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois NORMA J. TORRES, California
LEE M. ZELDIN, New York BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois
DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York
Wisconsin TED LIEU, California
ANN WAGNER, Missouri
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida
FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida
BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania
THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
International Organizations
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina KAREN BASS, California
DANIEL M. DONOVAN, Jr., New York AMI BERA, California
F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, Jr., JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
Wisconsin THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York
THOMAS A. GARRETT, Jr., Virginia
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
WITNESSES
Quan Q. Nguyen, M.D., chairman, Rallying for Democracy........... 11
Nguyen Dinh Thang, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer,
Boat People SOS................................................ 22
Mr. T. Kumar, director of international advocacy, Amnesty
International.................................................. 29
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress
from the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on
Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International
Organizations: Prepared statement.............................. 4
Quan Q. Nguyen, M.D.: Prepared statement......................... 15
Nguyen Dinh Thang, Ph.D.: Prepared statement..................... 25
Mr. T. Kumar: Prepared statement................................. 32
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 48
Hearing minutes.................................................. 49
The Honorable Eliot L. Engel, a Representative in Congress from
the State of New York: Letter to Secretary Tillerson on human
rights in Vietnam.............................................. 50
The Honorable Gerald E. Connolly, a Representative in Congress
from the Commonwealth of Virginia: Prepared statement.......... 52
The Honorable Alan S. Lowenthal, a Representative in Congress
from the State of California:
Letter on Lien Tri Buddhist Temple............................. 54
Followup letter on Lien Tri Buddhist Temple.................... 56
VIETNAM: WHY RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND
HUMAN RIGHTS ARE CRITICAL TO U.S.
NATIONAL INTERESTS
----------
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2017
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,
Global Human Rights, and International Organizations,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 12:36 p.m., in
room 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H.
Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Smith. The hearing will come order and good afternoon
to everyone.
Before we start, I just want to recognize one of my
constituents who's here, Joseph Fischer, a Vietnam War veteran,
a combat veteran who is down visiting. He's from Freehold and I
want to thank him for his service.
He was and continues to be totally committed to human
rights and fairness for the people of Vietnam and I want to
thank him for joining us today. Thank you, Joe.
Ladies and gentlemen, over the past 42 years, much has
changed in Vietnam. Today's people are a little richer but they
still have very few rights.
The Vietnamese Communist Party has opened up a bit to the
outside world but remains closed to democratic reforms and the
rule of law.
U.S.-Vietnamese relations have warmed because Vietnam fears
China's increasing economic power and its incursions in the
South China Sea, but we see few human rights improvements
emerge from the better relations. As a matter of fact, there
has been a profound reversal in the area of human rights
protection.
Over the past 2 years, Human Rights Watch has used the
words dismal and abysmal to describe Vietnam's human rights
record. Vietnam scored a seven, the lowest score on Freedom
House's Freedom in the World index.
From sex and labor trafficking to the censorship of the
press and the Internet, from restrictions on independent labor
unions to severe repression of faith communities, the
Vietnamese Government and the Communist Party is one of the
world's worst abusers of human rights.
For too long Vietnam has gotten a free pass on human
rights. Diplomats are so focused on the fact that Vietnam is
not China that this oppressive police state is granted trade
and security benefits without conditionality.
There is a silent human rights crisis going on in Vietnam
that must be addressed. Human rights should be a top part of
the meeting with President Trump's next meeting next week with
Vietnam's Prime Minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Doing so will
advance U.S. economic and security interests and, above all,
it'll advance the cause of the people of Vietnam who deserve
better than the dictatorship that they are living under.
The President has a real opportunity to bring about
tangible reform to Vietnam and that is why we are meeting. The
proximity of this hearing is precisely designed to try to let
the President know how important it is that he raise these
issues robustly with the Prime Minister.
I have been to Vietnam several times on human rights trips.
I have met with advocates and young activists for decades, like
imprisoned rights activist Nguyen Van Dai. I know there is a
younger generation in Vietnam, 66 percent of who are under the
age of 40, that looks to the U.S. as a land of opportunity and
freedom.
They want the same liberties enjoyed by their relatives in
California, Texas, Virginia, Louisiana, and so many other
places where former Vietnamese refugees have flourished. The
Vietnamese people want the United States to be a voice for
freedom because their voice in-country is silenced.
No government that represses its own people or restricts
fundamental freedoms can be a trusted ally of the United
States.
No government that censors the Internet, tortures and jails
dissidents, and crushes civil liberty and civil society should
be given generous trade or security benefits, again, without
strong conditionality.
The President will face pressure from his advisors, I am
sure, and especially the business community, to look at Vietnam
through the lens of trade deals and the containment of China.
Hopefully, he will be able to see the situation more
clearly than past administrations both Republican and
Democratic.
Failing to press for real and concrete human rights
improvements underestimates U.S. leverage and will disappoint
the young generation of Vietnam who are the country's dynamic
future.
It should be clear by now that Vietnam needs the U.S.
markets and security commitments much more than the United
States needs Vietnam's markets and security cooperation.
If history is any guide, the President's championing of
individual rights will meet with some success. If his interest
in human rights is sustained, those successes could be tangible
and even far reaching.
The Vietnamese Government has responded to concerns
expressed by the last two administrations when they linked
human rights improvements to better U.S. relations whether to
gain entry into the World Trade Organization, the TPP--Trans-
Pacific Partnership, or to address U.S. concerns over religious
freedom abuses.
The Vietnamese Government, at least for a time, took steps
toward reform when pressed by past American Presidents. It is
when the U.S. loses interest in human rights that conditions
regress.
The Communist leaders in Hanoi take our trade benefits and
security commitments and continue repressing those seeking
political reform and universally recognized freedoms.
The business of the Communist Party is to stay in power and
repressing those they believe will challenge their power. They
will not embrace human rights improvements or the rule of law
unless it is a firm condition of better relations with the
United States.
I am circulating a letter for signatures to other Members
of Congress detailing the strategic opportunities available for
the United States and the Vietnamese people if the President
pursues a robust human rights agenda.
The letter urges the President to pursue Internet freedom,
religious freedom, independent labor unions, and release of
prisoners of conscience as a condition of U.S. assistance.
I wrote today to Secretary Rex Tillerson to urge more
robust human rights diplomacy as well in Vietnam, particularly
on the issue of religious freedom.
We, I believe, and the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom, or USCIRF, recommended that Vietnam be
designated as a country of particular concern for severe and
egregious religious freedom restrictions.
That report provides compelling evidence of egregious and
ongoing religious freedom violations in Vietnam.
The President should follow USCIRF's recommendation and
immediately, without any delay, designate Vietnam as a CPC for
its religious freedom violations. The designation carries with
it potential sanctions and visa denials for Vietnamese
Government officials complicit in religious freedom abuses.
No Vietnamese Government official who tortures political
dissidents or restricts their activities should profit from
access to the United States and let me say that violence and
intimidation faced by the Hmong and Montagnard by Khmer Krom
Buddhists, by independent Cao Dai groups is outrageous.
The torture faced by Ms. Tran Thi Hong is absolutely
shocking. She was on her way to meet U.S. Ambassador-at-Large
for International Religious Freedom David Saperstein, who did a
magnificent job in the last administration for religious
freedom.
She was on her way to meet with him to push for the release
of her husband, Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, and she was horribly
mistreated.
If there are religious prisoners, if forced renunciations
into faith are happening, if pagodas and churches and places of
worship are forcibly closed, how does Vietnam not meet the
criteria for CPC, as our good chairman, Ed Royce, has asked
repeatedly as well?
Over and over again, he has asked the administration
redesignate them as a CPC country.
I will be working closely with the State Department on this
and without objection my full statement will be made a part of
the record. I'd like to yield to my friend and colleague, Ms.
Bass.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Smith follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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Ms. Bass. Well, once again, thank you, Mr. Chair, for your
leadership in general on human rights but especially on human
rights in regard to Vietnam.
I think this is going to be an important hearing today. I
want to thank the witnesses for taking the time to come and
provide testimony and I know on all of our parts pushing for
human rights and democracy around the world is really critical
and one of the reasons why we are concerned about the level of
cuts and reductions to the State Department. So appreciate you
for taking your time out today.
Mr. Smith. I want to thank Ranking Member Bass. Thank you
so very much.
I would like to yield to the distinguished chairman of the
full committee, Congressman Ed Royce.
Mr. Royce. Well, thank you, Chairman Smith, and thanks for
calling this important hearing today.
As we all recall, we had a similar hearing--I think it was
1 year ago--and I wish there were no need to revisit these
critical issues.
But, unfortunately, Vietnam's one-party Communist state
continues to oppress its citizens and deny them fundamental
human rights and this is why we are here today. We do have a
growing relationship with Vietnam, particularly in the security
and trade areas.
But for us, as Americans, human rights are a core value and
we cannot segregate them from our ongoing engagement with that
government. And I am grateful to our witnesses for
participating in this hearing.
It's good to see many of them again here--some old friends
here. They will detail for us the many cases of violence and
intimidation directed by the state toward religious people of
many faiths in Vietnam.
In addition to those crimes, and there is no other word for
it than crimes, the state's effort to control every aspect of
religious practice is a continuous violation of human rights,
one with no end in sight, and for those who don't understand
exactly what I am saying, when the state tears up the historic
Buddhist texts and replaces it, that's what we are talking
about.
The Vietnamese Prime Minister arrives next week to meet
here with President Trump, and alongside everything else that's
discussed, the United States must call for the Government of
Vietnam to respect its people's fundamental freedoms and among
those none could be more important or more personal than the
right to freedom of religion.
Yet, in Vietnam the state continues to intimidate and
harass citizens for nothing more than attempting to practice
their faith, their religion freely and openly.
Almost two decades ago I met with the Venerable Thich Quang
Do, now the supreme patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of
Vietnam. Well, frankly, he was in the same position then and he
was under house arrest then, 2 decades ago. And, sadly, for all
those years, he's been under arrest, still persecuted by that
Communist government. And Thich Quang Do is not alone, the
chairman mentioned Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh.
I've seen the photographs of the results of the beatings
that he has taken at the hands of the police and the security
apparatus. We have heard the pleas from his wife and we saw the
treatment meted out to her.
So for 5 years now he has remained behind bars on the
questionable charges of undermining national security. What we
call for today and what I urge the administration to call for
in its meeting with the Prime Minister is respect for religious
freedom.
The Vietnamese Constitution provides for it. One must ask,
then, why officials can obstruct and interfere with this
constitutionally guaranteed right to worship freely. We must
ask further that if this constitutional right can be ignored,
what weight can we give any other constitutional or legal
rights in Vietnam?
I am pleased that the U.S.-Vietnam relations are warming
and I hope for a stronger and more productive relationship
between our countries.
However, continued cooperation and improvements in our
relationship must be predicated on a mutual respect for human
rights and for the rule of law. It is who we are. It is what I
hope they are. But it is up to them in that government to show
it, to show respect for their constitution with respect to
these rights.
So, Mr. Chairman, thank you again for bringing attention to
this important issue and I, again, thank the witnesses.
I yield back.
Mr. Smith. I want to thank the distinguished chairman for
his tenacious promotion of human rights in Vietnam. You have
made sure the full committee keeps a very sharp focus on this
and I want to thank you for your great leadership.
I would like to now yield to Mr. Lowenthal.
Mr. Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
allowing me to join with you today. I am very much
appreciative. I am very pleased to be here and also to share
with you, as one of the co-chairs on the Congressional Caucus
on Vietnam.
As you pointed out, first of all, we are holding this--and
I applaud your leadership, because this is a very timely
hearing--in advance of Prime Minister Nguyen's visit to the
White House next week to meet with President Trump.
As we all know, the situation of human rights in Vietnam is
dire. During my time in Congress, although there have been
small selective attempts to improve the human rights condition
at times, we have also seen tremendous backsliding and, I would
say right now as was pointed out by my colleagues, I have not
really seen any true improvement on the way the Vietnamese
Government deals with its and treats its own citizens.
On religious freedom, as was pointed out, the government's
record is especially troubling. I adopted the case, and I think
both my colleagues have pointed out the case--I have adopted
the case of Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, a Lutheran pastor
imprisoned since 2012.
I adopted his case as a prisoner of conscience through the
Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.
But what have we seen? We have seen Pastor Chinh face
tremendous mistreatment in prison while his wife, Tran Thi
Hong, was detained, beaten by security forces last year after
she met with the visiting U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for
International Religious Freedom.
I was also offended when the Vietnamese Government, after
multiple letters from myself, from the chairman and also
Chairman Royce and other Members of Congress, when the
government proceeded to demolish the Lien Tri Temple in Saigon,
a place of worship, an important religious center, that we
raised this issue even after multiple entreaties from ourselves
to really respect the rights of the temple. That did not occur.
Mr. Chairman, I also ask for unanimous consent to insert
two letters to the Vietnamese Ambassador urging him to
intervene to stop the demolition of the Lien Tri Temple to
which we have received no response at all.
Thank you and I will reserve the rest of my time for
questions.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Lowenthal, thank you very much and without
objection your request will be in order.
Mr. Lowenthal. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. I would like to now introduce our very
distinguished witnesses for today, beginning with Dr. Nguyen
Dinh Thang, and many who came to the United States as a refugee
from Vietnam in 1979.
After earning his Ph.D., he began volunteering with Boat
People SOS in 1988 and became the head of Boat People SOS for
the past 25 years.
And I would just say, on a very personal note, in the mid-
1990s when I assumed the chairmanship when the Republicans took
control in 1994, one of the first people I met with was Dr.
Thang, and Joseph Rees, who was then my staff director for the
subcommittee, worked very closely with him and we held a long
series of hearings starting off with trying to ensure that the
refugees that were in High Island and I went and visited High
Island in Hong Kong where boat people were falsely screened out
as nonrefugees.
They didn't have any well-founded fear of persecution and
under a very coercive process about 40,000 were told as the
Comprehensive Plan of Action was ended that they are not going
to come to the United States. We held four hearings on that
alone and Dr. Thang was a true inspiration to this subcommittee
and to me personally on how there was a false narrative that
people could go back and there would be no retribution, even
though they had spent time in High Island and other camps
dotting that area of the world.
I will never forget we were told they were repatriation
monitors and it turned out there were seven of them so I held a
hearing on it, and they told me that when they met with people
who were coercively sent back against all of the norms of
refugee protection that they were retaliated against and they
were visited by the repatriation monitors.
The person in tow with them was from the secret police. So
open are you going to be when you have a thug sitting right
next to you?
Dr. Thang helped us put together an amendment to deny any
U.S. assistance for forcible repatriation. I offered that
amendment of the floor. It passed overwhelmingly in bipartisan
fashion and from that came the ROVR program and more than
20,000 people then got rescreened and were included and came as
refugees to the United States, one example of many of Dr.
Thang's leadership and I want to thank him or that.
We will then have the testimony of Dr. Quan Nguyen, who is
with Rallying for Democracy in Vietnam. Dr. Quan went to
medical school in Saigon, served in the South Vietnamese Army
with the rank of Captain in the medical corps.
When South Vietnam fell into the hands of the Communists in
1975, he escaped by boat and became a refugee in the United
States.
In addition to his medical practice in Virginia, Dr. Quan
has been actively involved in advocating freedom, democracy,
and human rights in Vietnam, and again, he too has done it for
over a quarter of a century.
He is the brother of Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, a man that I met
in Saigon on one of my many trips there--a courageous
campaigner of human rights. He is in Saigon and he has been
imprisoned numerous times and is still serving a type of house
arrest as we meet here today.
Dr. Quan has campaigned continuously with the United States
Congress. He's worked very closely with the AFL-CIO to pressure
the Vietnamese Government to improve human rights.
Then we will hear from an old friend of this subcommittee,
Mr. T. Kumar of Amnesty International. He's the advocacy
director for Asia, Europe, and the United Nations.
He has testified before the U.S. Congress on numerous
occasions to discuss human rights abuses. He has served as a
human rights monitor in many Asian countries as well as in
Bosnia, Afghanistan, Guatemala, Sudan, and South Africa. He
also served as direct of several refugee ships and camps. T.
Kumar has been a political prisoner himself, having served over
5 years in Sri Lanka for his peaceful human rights activities.
Amnesty International adopted him as a prisoner of
conscience. He started his legal studies in prison and
eventually became an attorney and devoted his entire practice
to defending political prisoners.
We are joined by Mr. Garrett from Virginia, if you'd like
to make any comments.
I would like to now go to Dr. Thang.
STATEMENT OF NGUYEN DINH THANG, PH.D., PRESIDENT AND CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, BOAT PEOPLE SOS
Mr. Thang. Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the
committee, around this time last year some optimistic ones out
here have had some cautious hope and expectation that with a
new leadership coming in to play in Vietnam there would be a
better day for the country and her people.
Instead, over the past 12 months, we have observed a
crackdown against independent religious communities intensify
significantly.
We have documented close to 100 religious prisoners at this
time, with over 60 percent of them being Montagnard Christians
in the Central Highlands. Less than a month ago, Pastor A Dao,
whom I know personally, of the Montagnard Evangelical Church of
Christ in Kontum Province, was sentenced to 5 years in prison
on bogus charges.
Following his arrest the authorities in five provinces
mounted a very well-coordinated effort to force members of his
church to renounce their faith. So far, they have succeeded
because out of the 1,500 regional members of the church, 1,000
have signed a statement to abandon the church, to leave the
church.
The following chart illustrates the gravity of religious
persecution in the Central Highlands over the past few years.
In green are forced conversion--incidents of forced conversion
in three provinces across a number of years.
In yellow are incidents that involve torture. In red are
incidents of death caused by torture and in blue are prison
sentences in each of those years.
So, clearly, persecution against independent churches in
Vietnam has not subsided and the government frequently uses
torture as its tool for religious repression. Perhaps best
known to the State Department and Members from Congress is the
case of Ms. Tran Thi Hong, and Chairman Royce and Congressman
Lowenthal have mentioned that case.
But let me add one thing here. There is a picture of Ms.
Hong after the first working session with the public security.
She was beaten up, tortured. She couldn't walk at all, and her
neighbors had to drag her into her home.
Fortunately, the torture after almost 2 months stopped only
because Ambassador-at-Large Saperstein made a phone call
himself to the Vietnamese Embassy expressing great concern and
also because six U.N. human rights experts jointly and publicly
denounced the violation of human rights against Ms. Hong.
We have received many reports of death by torture. As an
example, Pastor Ksor Xiem of the Dega Church Gia Lai Province
was arrested on Christmas Eve of 2015 so that he could not hold
Mass for his followers. His captors tortured him brutally as he
refused to renounce his faith and disband his church. He was
left to go home but he died 15 days later.
Around Christmastime last year, Y Ku Knul, a member of the
Montagnard House Church in Dak Lak Province, was abducted while
working the field. Two days later, his wife found his body
hanged on a tree and all covered with bruises, and this is his
body before burial. The public security had demanded him, the
victim, to deliver his own younger son, 21 years old at the
time, who was doing missionary work in Cambodia, to the public
security police and he refused, and the surviving wife believed
that his death was a result of that. And now his son is seeking
asylum in Thailand.
Most tragic was the death, perhaps in police custody
earlier this month, of Nguyen Huu Tan, 38 years old. He came
from a very respected Hoa Hao Buddhist family. His father is a
Buddhist monk with the UBCV.
That is Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, which has been
outlawed by the Government of Vietnam for the past 42 years. On
May 2nd--that is about 3 weeks ago--some 80 public security
agents searched his home--Tan's home--without a search warrant.
They collected receipts of money transfer from the U.S. and a
small piece of yellow cloth.
Based on that, the public security charged that Tan had
received money from reactionary forces abroad to work on a plan
to fly the South Vietnamese flag in public someday.
Actually, the receipts came from the monthly remittance
sent by Tan's oldest sister from Savannah, Georgia, and the
yellow cloth is the lining of a gift box also from the same
sister.
Tan was taken away at 2:00 a.m. At 7:00 a.m., his family
was told to report to the provincial department of public
security of Vinh Long Province. Hours later, Tan's wife and
father were brought inside to see his body.
His throat was thoroughly slit. The authorities said that
Tan had cut his own throat with a letter opener only this long.
And here is Tan. I apologize for the gruesome picture. His
family did not believe in that story and demanded an autopsy by
an independent professional and proper investigation. The
authorities now are threatening to arrest the two brothers of
Tan unless the family drops its demand.
Tan's older sister, the one who sent money home to Tan over
the years, is Ms. Nguyen Thi My-Phuong. She and her husband
arrived in town from Savannah yesterday to be at this hearing.
So I would like to acknowledge their presence here. This is Ms.
My-Phuong, flying in from Savannah.
Expropriation of properties is another form of persecution
often used by the government to cripple independent religious
organizations.
Of the thousands of facilities belonging the Hoa Hao
Buddhist Church before 1975 only one temple remains to this
day, the Quang Minh Tu Temple in An Giang Province, and the
government is determined to take it. The independent Cao Dai
groups now control only 5 percent of its 532 pre-1975 religious
facilities and the government is targeting the remaining
facilities one by one.
Similarly, about 90 percent of all pagodas belonging to the
United Buddhist Church of Vietnam have been expropriated and
turned over to the government-created Vietnam Buddhist Sangha.
The government demolished the Lien Tri Pagoda last year and
is targeting half a dozen other pagodas in Danang City, Ba Ria-
Vung Tau, and Dong Nai Provinces. Entire Catholic parishes have
been targeted as well. Located near the now infamous Formosa
Steel Plant in Ha Tinh Province, the century-old Catholic
parish of Dong Yen is facing extinction.
On March 17, 2015, one of the districts of Ha Tinh Province
sent in the police to seize land, destroy homes, and bring down
religious facilities.
They beat up parishioners, causing injuries to many,
including one pregnant woman and a Catholic nun. The government
then barred 153 children of the parish from going to school for
more than 2 years as punishment.
Of the 1,000 original families in the parish, 158 continue
to fight to preserve their church and their community. And this
subcommittee has held many hearings on the Catholic parish of
Con Dau in Danang City. In May 2010, the police assaulted
mourners attending the funeral of a 93-year-old parishioner.
Over 100 parishioners were injured, 62 arrested and tortured
for days or weeks, and some of those victims have testified
before this subcommittee, six sentenced to prison terms.
One parishioner who initially escaped capture was caught
and beaten to death. The government then handed 110 acres they
had took from Cao Dau Parish to Sun Group, a private developer,
to sell to individual investors for a total price estimated at
$ deg.1.2 billion U.S. dollars.
Ironically, Danang City were host of this year's APEC
Summit, which President Trump will attend in November, and key
summit activities will be held at a five-star resort in Danang
City owned by none other than Sun Group.
This would give the appearance that the U.S. Government
tolerates religious persecution, land grabbing, and the use of
torture. As he welcomes Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan
Phuc to the White House next week, President Trump should
insist that APEC Summit be moved to another location and its
venue not be at any facility owned by Sun Group.
I further recommend that in its enforcement of the Global
Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and the Frank Wolf
International Religious Freedom Act, our State Department
should investigate information that we have provided to them on
close to 100 religious prisoners and close to 200 government
officials implicated in gross violations of human rights.
Finally, I'd like to propose and recommend that concerned
Members of Congress establish an ongoing communication
mechanism to raise concern directly with the Vietnamese
Government on reported gross violations of human rights as they
arise.
While hearings like this are very important, they shed
light on the most recent and most egregious violations, there
is a need for an ongoing mechanism that offers the same level
of attention to reported violations between hearings.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Thang follows:]
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----------
Mr. Smith. Dr. Thang, thank you very much for your
testimony and recommendations.
We have a substitute for Dr. Quan. I just have to--under
orders of his cardiologist Dr. Quan was told he--it would be
better not to be here just because of that.
But we do have Mr. Dave Nguyen, who has also been very
active in the human rights fight who will read Dr. Quan's
testimony.
STATEMENT OF QUAN Q. NGUYEN, M.D., CHAIRMAN, RALLYING FOR
DEMOCRACY
Mr. Nguyen. Thank you. Honorable Chairman Chris Smith and
distinguished members of the subcommittee, I'm here to read a
letter on behalf of Dr. Quan Nguyen, the chairman of Rallying
for Democracy in Vietnam.
The letter: Forty-two years ago when the Communist forces
began to occupy South Vietnam, I left my country on a small
boat and escaped to America.
I have been lucky to be able to rebuild my life here and
it's truly an honor to testify before the distinguished
subcommittee about the long struggles of Vietnamese people.
Thank you for holding this hearing, allow me to share some
important issues that I believe should be brought to light.
As we all know, Vietnam is a one-party system where there
is no separation of administrative, judiciary, and legislative
branches. The situation in Vietnam is ripe for transformation.
The people in Vietnam deserve support for their quest for
freedom and democracy from the international community,
particularly the United States.
In that spirit, I would like to draw attention to the
important issue of religious freedom. To the Government of
Vietnam, religion is opium and the Hanoi government's policy
has always been to repress religious freedom.
There is an unfortunate misconception from the West that
the mere existence of churches and temples in Vietnam implies
that there is freedom of religion. That is far from the truth.
Per the latest report on the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom, religious freedom in Vietnam has
deteriorated significantly.
The Vietnamese Communists used Decree 92 issued in August
2012 to strictly control all religions in Vietnam. All churches
need to be registered and accepted by the government.
The registration procedure allows the government to refuse
application of a church considered to be nonfriendly to the
government.
For years now the Communist government has refused to
recognize the Unified Buddhist Church. So if you want to become
a monk, nun, or priest, you have to notify and get permission
from the local government.
All promotions and appointments inside a church have to be
accepted by the government. Even if the Vatican wants to
appoint a new cardinal or bishop, it needs to inform and get
approval from the Vietnamese Government.
So at the end of every year each church is required to
notify the local governments of its detailed plans for the next
year such as the dates and times of events being held and what
are the purpose and how many people will attend. Bishop of
Kontum Patriarch Hoang Duc Oanh was actually refused permission
to organize a Christmas Mass.
Father Nguyen Van Ly, the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do,
Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, and several leaders of local
indigenous Cao Dai and Hoa Hao Churches are all examples of how
religious leaders who advocate religious freedom are continued
to be imprisoned and placed under house arrest.
The recent death of Mr. Nguyen Huu Tan, Hoa Hao Buddhist
follower, in the police station in Vinh Long where his neck was
cut by the police and the violent attacks of the Vietnamese
security forces on peaceful manifestations of the Catholics in
central Vietnam against the destruction of the environment have
caused people's anger and upset.
The government continues to seize several properties
belonging to the Catholic and Buddhist churches. Last year,
they pressured Lien Tri Temple to stop activities and to sell
its lands to the local government for a development project.
The local government also pressured the Fathers of the
Redemptorists Vietnam--Dong Chua Cuu The Viet Nam--to stop its
health care program for the veterans of the south.
In light of this religion freedoms violation, the U.S.
Government should push for the following course of action. The
Vietnamese Government should implement U.N. principles on
religious freedom including the release of those in prison for
beliefs and practices and fully restore the rights of
citizenship, property, and residence permits.
The Vietnamese Government should stop repressing indigenous
religious subsets, Hoa Hao and Cao Dai. They should also stop
promoting its state churches to interfere with the Buddhist and
Catholic religions.
Lately, on November 18, 2016, the National Assembly finally
rectified a law of belief and religion even with the extensive
criticism from human rights and religious groups.
In fact, in an open letter to the Vietnamese Government
prior to the ratification of the law, a number of organizations
and lawmakers reject the clause stating that ``religious groups
must be registered and approved by the government in order to
practice.''
This clause should be omitted as it gives the government
the power to continue to oppress the people. In fact, the law
will go in effect starting January 2018. The current situation
in Vietnam on human rights, labor rights, transparency,
intellectual property, copyrights really do not meet the
requirements of the U.S. Government as a trusted bilateral
economic partner.
We are truly looking to Congress to emphasize that Vietnam
needs to carry out fundamental reforms in these areas and to
make sure that they become reality before Vietnam can be taken
off the CPC list.
There should be no waivers or delays implementing these
requirements. International monitors need to strictly enforce
treaty provisions before written and verbal agreements with
Vietnam.
The reforms that Vietnam must carry out will ultimately
help to democratize Vietnam. Only a democratic Vietnam can be
the U.S.'s true reliable strategic partner in Asia.
Therefore, now is the golden opportunity for the U.S.,
especially with the upcoming visit by the Prime Minister of the
Communist regime of Vietnam, to convince the Hanoi's government
to embark on this win-win journey for all which would allow
Vietnam to become a more democratic country and to
simultaneously secure a comprehensive strategic partnership
with the United States in Asia.
This would bring prosperity to Vietnam, bring peace and
security to the region and neutralize the pressure from China.
Vietnam should see this opportunity and react positively by
ensuring more human rights.
Last but not least, Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members
of Congress, I have been lucky to live in America's free
society where I can express my own opinion without being
intimidated or harassed.
Therefore, I believe that is my responsibility to speak for
my compatriots back home who do not have at all these
privileges.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity for today.
Respectfully yours, Dr. Quan Q. Nguyen.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Quan follows:]
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----------
Mr. Smith. Mr. Nguyen, thank you very much for your
personal leadership for reading Dr. Quan's statement. Tell him
how we hope he feels better.
I would like to now yield to Mr. Kumar.
STATEMENT OF MR. T. KUMAR, DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL ADVOCACY,
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Mr. Kumar. Thank you very much, Congressman and Chairman
Smith, and other members of the committee.
Before I start, I would like to urge chairman to admit our
statement in the record.
Mr. Smith. Without objection, so ordered.
Mr. Kumar. Thank you. I also want to mention about you,
Chairman Smith, about your unwavering and strong commitment to
human rights and this hearing is an example of that, and thank
you again from Amnesty International.
Today we are here to discuss Vietnam's Prime Minister's
visit to Washington to meet with President Trump. We were also
here when the annual U.S.-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue is on
its way now and we are also here before President Trump will be
visiting Vietnam for the APEC Summit. Even though it's not
bilateral, it's a visit by President Trump.
So we are looking at three opportunities. The first
opportunity is taking place at the moment. I hope State
Department, which is leading the discussion, is very clear and
firm in highlighting the cases and the abuses that are
happening, including religious freedom issues.
We hope that reflects in the Prime Minister of Vietnam's
visit to Washington when he makes statements. We will know the
results when he comes, whether dialogue is making any
difference or not.
So going into the issue of what's happening in Vietnam from
the human rights perspective, I just want to touch on the
overarching issue. The institutions which guarantee human
rights, freedom, and even fair existence are the two main
institutions--their judiciary and media.
Both are under the complete control of the government
there. We know that the party is in control--the Communist
Party--but even these institutions are not free. So what the
results is when there is an abuse against an individual, a
citizen of Vietnam, he or she has no way to get justice there.
Media can't report because they are under the control of the
government.
They can't go to the judiciary. The judiciary is under the
control of the government. That's why international pressure is
extremely important to make changes in the country so that
citizens of Vietnam can have some basic protections to live as
human beings and enjoy their rights.
What we have documented over the years is that there are
hundreds of political prisoners who have been arrested,
tortured, some died during torture, and have been incarcerated
in gruesome manners in that country purely for peaceful
political expression of views including the latest online
actions.
That also extends to the religious freedom issues where
religious minorities as well as independent religious groups
are facing the difficult times in that country.
One other issue that disturbs us there is that Vietnam is
extremely numb when it comes to international pressure. The
only country or few countries that have some leverage on
Vietnam are the U.S. and some other countries in Europe. That's
why U.S. leadership is extremely important in this.
If the U.S. fails to speak, you can't expect any other
countries in Asia or any other country, even European will dump
it, saying ``Okay, the powerful country is just ignoring the
plight of the people--why should we get involved?''
On the other side of the coin is that the Vietnamese
Government takes it extremely serious about what the U.S. is
saying. Congressman Smith, you know, you have visited Vietnam.
I presume you even visited some prisoners or prisoner
families that need changes there. Even you have seen changes
when there is a threat of Vietnam being put on the list for
religious freedom issues.
That shows they take it very serious. So the question today
is now a great opportunity is happening in a week's time and
whether President Trump will take advantage of that. That's
what the big question now we are having.
So this particular hearing is of extreme importance on that
note. President Trump and his advisors will be watching this
and we hope that'll translate into some action in terms of
human rights.
The issue of religious freedom--coming back to the issue--
there are two issues that disturb us. One is the new draft law
now which has become a law, per se, on religion and belief.
It's pretty much tightened the noose--pretty much tightened
the control of the government on religious issues. They are
religious freedom for religious groups there. Even the
registration aspects make it very difficult to register.
So you throwing a new law that the group wanted to
register. It makes it impossible to register because the
cumbersome nature of the registration makes it very difficult.
Number two, the law is written in such a way that the
government authorities have numerous openings to interfere in
religious activities. Legally they can interfere.
When this draft law came up, Amnesty International and
numerous international human rights organizations who take a
strong view on every country--Chairman, you know, even in--on
this country we take strong views--so we have taken a very
strong view and said wait a minute, you have this draft law.
Make sure you change the law so that--make edits so that it
will have some impact on the--so that religious groups can act
freely and have freedom. It did not happen.
So President Trump can raise that from the religious point
of view. This is the beginning, by the way, there. We don't
what else is going to come up there. Second issue is the forced
renunciation of religious groups.
Okay, they don't not only allow people to worship as they
wish or belong to a group or a religious group as they wish.
They come after you and force individuals to renounce religion.
So even these two issues should shake the conscience of the
White House and President Trump. We hope he will take note of
this and take advantage of the meeting he's having. We all know
that security will be on the top of the agenda. We have nothing
against it.
We know that South China Sea issues are going to be on the
agenda. We know that trade deals will be on the agenda, even
though TPP is out, they will be discussed. What we are asking
is to raise the concern of the people of the country.
We have all these deals--trade deals, security deals. But
hold the people of that country--you are dealing with a leader
who is not an elected leader. It's a one-party state. So you
have a duty and responsibility to ensure that you raise human
rights.
What type of human rights issue should President Trump
raise? As I mentioned on the religious freedom issue, two
issues at least he should raise.
One is the new draft law should be amended. Number two,
forced renunciation should stop right away. He should also
demand immediate and unconditional release of political
prisoners and religious leaders and religious prisoners there.
The other one he should urge is when he arrives in November
for the APEC Summit, at least some prisoners should be
released. That call should be there. Chairman Smith, you know
what happened when President Obama visited last time.
They not only did not release any prisoners, they started
arresting people, and President Obama kept quiet and came out.
The same impression should not be given by President Trump.
President Trump should not give the impression to
Vietnamese that he will keep quiet when he's there when they
start arresting and harassing civilians and other human rights
defenders, he will keep quiet.
So the message should be given here next week. One more
thing, while he's in Vietnam in November he should also meet
with families of the political prisoners. It's a goodwill
gesture. Nothing is going to happen to President Trump for
meeting there.
The message should be also very clear to Vietnamese
authorities that if they go after the families whom he is
meeting, they will pay a dear price. Hope that happens.
So we are talking about an issue here from three
opportunities. One is happening now, the dialogue. Second is
next week's meeting. Third is the APEC conference.
Whether the new administration under President Trump will
take the lead issue, we are not asking that human rights become
the top priority.
We are asking human rights be one of the issues you'll
discuss. And always after the event--after the dialogue, after
the meeting here that both leaders come and address the press.
We have an appeal to the press, please ask questions on
human rights, and we have an appeal to President Trump, to
ensure that before even there's a question on human rights you
proactively say what he cares--that he cares about human
rights.
Thank you, Chairman, for inviting Amnesty International,
and once again, we applaud your leadership on human rights
issues.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Kumar follows:]
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----------
Mr. Smith. Mr. Kumar, thank you very much for your stellar
leadership, your personal commitment, having served as a
political prisoner, served in prison.
Just incredible, and now you speak out on behalf of others.
Your recommendations were, I think, extraordinarily incisive.
So thank you for that.
I'd like to yield to Mr. Garrett.
Mr. Garrett. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, gentlemen, Mr. Kumar
in particular, for your leadership not only in word but deed as
it relates to the important issue of human rights.
I see stark parallels as it relates to the previous
administration's visit to Vietnam and the impact it had on the
religious dissident community with testimony we heard before
this subcommittee I believe last week as it related to
religious minorities in China that President Obama was to meet
with them.
They did not show up at the meeting and ultimately 2 hours
after he was on Air Force One returning to the United States a
group was rounded up and arrested, many of whom we believe are
still imprisoned, some of whom we don't know the status of
their well being at all.
And that same thing repeating itself in Vietnam is
indicative of, I think, a lack of attention by the media
globally, here in the United States and abroad as it relates to
these important issues.
I will tell you that you are correct that human rights are
an issue but not the only issue. Certainly, security and
stability are foci of the United States and I would welcome a
strong relationship with a prosperous Vietnam as a stabilizing
force in the region and the counterbalance to regional
dominance by China.
However, it's very difficult if you sit here where I do or
where Chairman Smith does, to have any desire to promote
prosperity and enhanced relations with a nation that treats its
religious minorities the way the current Government of Vietnam
does.
One of the things that troubles me in the short period of
time that I've been here is the concept that perhaps we'll have
these meetings and instead of helping in the subject we will by
virtue of having brought light to it hurt people in places like
Vietnam who are exposed by the courage of individuals such as
yourselves to speak.
And so my immediate question to myself is what can I do to
make sure that this meeting is for a net positive, for the
better?
And so while I have to leave and should have left about 10
minutes for a meeting that I can't get around, I will promise
everyone in this room the following: I will draft a letter to
the President and copy the Vice President relating to the
upcoming meetings with the Vietnamese Prime Minister on any
future travels to Vietnam.
In that letter I will ask that the President speak directly
to human rights violations to Vietnam and articulate hopefully
on behalf of himself and certainly on behalf of members of this
committee and this elected legislative body that there will be
hesitance to enhance relations, be they security relations or
trade relations with any nation that oppresses individuals who
exercises their God-given right to worship as they choose.
I find it ironic but not humorous that there are
individuals so devoted to a belief structure that they are
willing to be beaten and in some instances killed and will not
abandon that belief structure and yet a government such as that
in Vietnam, after 42 years, for example, of trying to stymie
the UBCV, still can't put out that light.
You would think that at some point the government would
realize that human beings will continue to make decisions for
themselves and change their policy.
To the extent that my voice might be helpful to prompting
that outcome, I promise you it will be heard by our
administration and I hope that our administration will carry it
to the Government of Vietnam.
Chairman Smith, I thank you for holding the hearing. I hope
that you all will keep us abreast as it relates to developments
following meetings between our head of state and that of
Vietnam because I want to hope that changes for the better will
be made and I want to hear if they are or are not so that we
can act accordingly, moving forward.
Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Garrett, thank you very much for your
leadership and for your very, I think, very appropriate
remarks.
Mr. Garrett. And a sincere apology on having to depart. But
thank you all for having the courage to be here and we will
certainly be a voice on your behalf.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Mr. Kumar, you made an excellent point in reminding us that
when President Obama went to Vietnam in May 2016 that things
got worse as he left and that is--and what was the consequence?
Zilch.
There was no consequence to that kind of abuse of
individuals, almost as if they were trying to insult and in
some way degrade the Presidency of the United States.
I know the President had time to meet with the celebrity
chef, Anthony Bourdain, while he was there on May 23, 2016, but
not with political prisoners or their families, which I think
would have sent a very clear and unambiguous message to Hanoi
as to what U.S. priorities really are.
Shaking hands and big smiles only go so far. Yes, meet with
the Prime Minister. Meet with the top leadership. But only meet
with them if you're prepared to raise individual cases and
raise the larger human rights issues and I think all three of
our distinguished witnesses have outlined that so very, very
well today.
I think it needs underscoring with exclamation points that
when Ms. Hong met with Rabbi Saperstein, who I have a
tremendous amount of respect for, and he certainly personally
intervened after the fact when he realized, again, in an
affront to a high American official, in this case the
Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.
She, as you pointed out, as you all have, certainly, T.
Kumar as well and Dr. Thang made reference to, she met with
Rabbi Saperstein on March 30 of last year. She urged
intervention for her husband, whose health was deteriorating,
and for that she was interrogated 15 days later by the public
security police.
She was tortured for meeting a high official of the United
States Government. That should have invited an immediately
snapback by the United States Government, by the Obama
administration in terms of sanctioning.
CPC should have been immediate--a reimposition of Country
of Particular Concern and the imposition of sanctions for that
outrageous action against her and the picture you've provided
us, Dr. Thang, of her, Ms. Hong, her inability to even walk
just underscores the brutality of the secret police in Vietnam.
And my hope is next week and now with the State Department
in terms of their contacts with the Vietnamese that we will
say, those days are over, and I, frankly, will be unceasing as
chairman of the human rights subcommittee in trying to ensure
that those days of gross violations of human rights and
especially with the proximity of that visit.
Two visits, President Obama, Rabbi Saperstein--retaliation
that follows almost immediately thereafter. So my hope is that
maybe you might want to expand upon that.
How is Ms. Hong doing now and, again, I remember just an
example, in 1982, I was in the Soviet Union.
I met with Natan Sharansky's mother, who pleaded with me
and Sam Gejdenson and members of the National Conference on
Soviet Jewry to try to get humanitarian assistance to her son,
Natan Sharansky, who was dying, or at least she thought he was
very, very sick, in the gulag of the Soviet Union. She was not
retaliated against by the Soviet leadership for making that
plea to a congressional delegation and a National Conference on
Soviet Jewry delegation.
The mom was not retaliated against. Sharansky's situation
actually improved when we raised his case with the Soviet
officials. They responded. How can Vietnam do just the opposite
and make matters even worse?
Again, the reason and the proximity of this hearing is to
say to President Trump and Vice President Pence--and I've known
the Vice President for many years--he is a deeply committed
believer, very faithful man who believes in human rights--that
they need to be very clear and bold, and I think, Mr. Kumar,
you said it doesn't have to be the top priority.
I hope that it would be. But we need it to be a major
priority at the very least in this dialogue and with this
conversation with the Prime Minister. So if you might want to
speak to Ms. Hong as to how she's doing now, and then just a
few other questions that I will put on the table.
You know, the Office of International Religious Freedom
hopefully will soon have an Ambassador-at-Large. I would hope
that the first thing that he does, if it is who I think it will
be, will be to redesignate Vietnam as a Country of Particular
Concern.
Let's not forget that before the bilateral agreement
between the United States and Vietnam agreed to, Ambassador
John Hanford removed CPC status because he was told that there
was a whole series of what he called deliverables, and ending
of forced renunciations of faith was one of those and a greater
expansion of freedom.
I travelled to Vietnam, went to Hanoi, Hue, and Saigon. Met
with about 60 pastors. I went and visited with the Venerable
Thich Quang Do in his pagoda and another high-ranking leader of
the Unified Buddhist Church, who was also under house arrest in
another pagoda, and they were all hopeful.
We were told the Vietnamese Government, with the trade
agreement things would change. Almost immediately after that
bilateral trade agreement went into effect, there was a
snapback and retaliation has been brutal ever since and many of
the people who signed Bloc 8406 and that wonderful manifesto
for freedom and human rights became a hit list for the
Vietnamese Government.
So we have to be forewarned, eyes wide open that we are not
kidding as a government. Vietnam has to change in a very
significant way.
Free the political prisoners, end the renunciations of
faith and I think the Danang concern that you've raised, Dr.
Thang, is an excellent one because we had, as you recall,
hearings on how that land was stolen and how people were killed
and you reiterated some of that today.
So if you'd like to speak to any of those points and then
we'll conclude.
Mr. Thang. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Hong, we got words from
her a few days ago. Last week she did go to make a prison visit
to her husband in prison.
His health doesn't look promising. He's still being denied
access to medical care. Ms. Hong herself was in very frail
health and therefore she had to skip for the past 2 months a
prison visit to her husband.
I'd like to point out Vietnam's response to the official
communication from six human rights experts from the U.N.
Just last month they came with a response claiming that Ms.
Hong wasn't tortured, wasn't beaten, but she bumped her head
against the taxi, the car that was taking her to the People's
Committee office and injured herself, and she was very
aggressive and abusive.
She was a menace to the public security agents. That's
their response. But, you know, she is very petite and very
frail herself.
So I couldn't imagine that she could pose any threat to
those bullying public security agents at all. But the positive
aspect of it is is that they stopped harassing her since the
day that Rabbi Saperstein made the phone call directly to the
Vietnamese Embassy in town and the U.N. special rapporteurs
came out with a public statement denouncing the mistreatment of
Ms. Hong.
That points to the fact that the more attention given to
people inside Vietnam, the communities who are under
persecution inside Vietnam, the more intense the attention, the
better off they are. That's why I suggested that Members of
Congress take all the available opportunities to communicate
directly their concerns to the Vietnamese Government.
Now, the persecution against Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh and
Ms. Hong is just reflective of a long-term consistent policy
from the top leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam to
eradicate all independent house churches in the Central
Highlands.
In 2002, the Communist Party set up the so-called Central
Highlands Steering Committee to oversee the implementation of
that policy and then 2 years later the Ministry of Public
Security established the so-called Central Highlands Security
Bureau to execute that policy.
And therefore the ordinance on belief and religion of 2014
didn't change that policy at all. The designation of CPC status
for Vietnam and the lifting of that designation didn't change
that policy at all.
On February 27, 2015, on the Web site of General Tran Dai
Quang there is an article. At the time he was the Minister of
Public Security.
There was an article extolling the exploits of the public
security forces in Central Highlands and this is the verbatim
statement:
``When I arrived in the Central Highlands, our task
of rescuing the people from the evil Ha Mon cult . .
.''
Hai Mon is actually a Catholic variance based on the common
belief that the Virgin Mary did appear in Ha Mon location and
that stirs a lot of Montagnard to become Catholics.
``. . . was accomplished only recently. The Security
Team of the Police Force of the Town of Kontum
performed deeds that were representative of the
indefatigable efforts of safety forces throughout the
Central Highlands in our fight against reactionary
enemy forces disguised as ethnic religious groups.''
Unfortunately, General Tran Dai Quang, the former Minister
of Public Security, is not Vietnam's President, and that might
explain why things have gotten worse over the past 12 months.
And I would like to also add one point here about APEC
Summit. It shouldn't be held in Danang City because Prime
Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc knows very well about that incident.
He's fully aware about that incident, about Con Dao Parish.
The Con Dao parishioners have twice engaged and talked directly
to him when he was still the Vice Prime Minister and after he
had become the Prime Minister, the parishioners of Con Dao also
talked with him directly one more time.
So he's fully aware of that incident and he should
understand why we have so much concern about having the APEC
Summit held in Danang City. That would bring all the issues
about religious persecution, torture, land grabbing into
sharper focus.
Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Let me just ask, if I could, your
recommendations to the President and to the State Department,
and I think it bears underscoring how important it is to--and
it's the law.
And as you know, I am the author of the Frank Wolf
International Religious Freedom Act that was signed at the end
of last year and that requires designated persons lists and the
idea of a religious prisoners list so we know who it is
regardless of their denomination or faith tradition that are
being held and are prisoners of conscience.
You did ask that the State Department investigate 200
Vietnamese Government officials implicated in gross violations
of human rights.
They certainly can be made inadmissible to the United
States pursuant to the Magnitsky Act--brand new human rights
legislation--and they ought to be and have to be, and we can do
identical, in a parallel way, with the new International
Religious Freedom Act, make them--those who persecute based on
faith inadmissible to the United States and other things as
well like not being able to use our financial system.
I think what should go forward from this hearing is that we
are calling on the Trump administration to implement the law
robustly.
Not a cursory way, not just a few individuals but to be as
comprehensive as possible and I think this is an engraved
invitation to you, to Mr. Kumar, and others what you do already
but to all of us, when we know of someone or have lists to get
it to State, get it to the White House, get these people on the
list if the information is accurate, and I know you
painstakingly seek accuracy, so that we focus on those who are
committing these crimes.
In 2004, I authored a bill called the Belarus Democracy Act
and that had these similar provisions like we put into the
Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act and that was to
hold individuals to account.
So if you're part of a regime that tortures and abuses, you
can't come here nor can your family. We don't want you here. We
think you should be prosecuted, frankly, but that's probably
not going to happen but at least the inadmissibility to the
U.S. has to become a mainstay of our human rights work and it
will make a difference.
So, again, if you wanted to elaborate or speak to that
issue and also on the issue of human trafficking and we have
had specific hearings on human trafficking and the abuse of
labor trafficking especially by the Vietnamese Government.
I wrote the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the very
first case prosecuted by the U.S. Government was a Vietnamese
case which has never been adequately resolved with Daiwa.
And, you know, it just shows the past is prologue. They
still, I believe, with a great deal of impunity, violate the
rights of their own citizens by turning into commodities
people's labor, completely in contravention of ILO standards.
So if you wanted to speak to that as well and then we will
conclude.
Mr. Thang. Yes, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to elaborate on the fact that since January
2014 our organization, Boat People SOS, has joined with two
other organizations, one based in England and the other one
based in Germany, to train people inside Vietnam, especially
members of independent religious communities and indigenous
communities, on how to compile and prepare reports to the U.N.
special rapporteurs and so far they have generated over 100
reports--incident reports, and we have shared most of them with
the State Department.
And in those reports there is a very elaborate process to
identify government officials who are behind the violations and
we have lists of witnesses.
We have contact information. So it has been very, very
thoroughly worked on we are very confident about the accuracy
of the information in there.
And we continue to train people inside Vietnam to become
rapporteurs themselves. So we will continue to produce and
submit reports to your subcommittee.
Regarding human trafficking, things haven't changed at all.
Most alarming is that--you still remember the case in Jordan,
and you talk with the King of Jordan, the Queen of Jordan about
that case. That involved over 250 Vietnamese workers who are
under slavery conditions in Jordan.
At the time, we got a copy of a communique from Vietnam to
an interagency delegation from Hanoi Center, Jordan--Amman,
Jordan--to identify the strike leaders and take them home for
punishment and the one who authored that or approved that order
was none other than the then Minister of Labor, Invalids, and
Social Affairs (MOLISA) and she's now the Chairwoman of
Vietnam's National Assembly.
So I don't think that things would change at all with
regard to the fight against human trafficking by the Vietnamese
Government. So she got promoted, and you know many other
instances where the perpetrators got promoted. Those who
committed or who are complicit in human trafficking got
promoted to higher positions in the Government of Vietnam
before.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Kumar?
Thank you both, all three of you, for your very, very
incisive testimony, for your leadership. You know, we will be
looking at some additional legislation toward Vietnam.
Four times the House passed the Vietnam Human Rights Act,
which I was a sponsor of, with great input from both of you,
and each time it failed in the Senate, even though we had
overwhelming bipartisan support in the House.
So we are looking at a new imitative and above all right
now we are asking the President to raise these issues and the
State Department, and you have provided tremendous insight as
to what those issues ought to be and also to enforce our law
and hold the country itself responsible and also individuals
who are perpetrating these horrific crimes.
The hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 1:57 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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