[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 10, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H1075]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR DOAN VIET HOAT

  (Ms. SANCHEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SANCHEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today and urge my colleagues to join 
me in paying tribute to an outstanding individual: Professor Doan Viet 
Hoat of Vietnam.
  A journalist and a university professor, he has spent the last 19 of 
21 years in a Hanoi prison for his efforts to bring freedom of the 
press and democracy to Vietnam. And despite all efforts by the 
Vietnamese government to prevent his writings from surfacing, his 
message continued to reach beyond his prison cell.
  Professor Hoat instantly became a prisoner of conscience championed 
by Amnesty International and is a recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy 
Human Rights Award and the Golden Pen of Freedom Award. This summer 
Professor Hoat was finally released after decades of government 
harassment and repression.
  Mr. Speaker, today we honor Professor Hoat for his moral courage in 
the face of absolute tyranny, and I urge all of my colleagues to honor 
him. I have just brought a resolution to this House, and I hope my 
colleagues will all help to cosponsor the legislation.

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