[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 31 (Thursday, March 11, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H1013-H1014]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 UNJUST IMPRISONMENT OF NGUYEN VU BINH

  (Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to voice 
my outrage over the Vietnamese Government's imprisonment of Mr. Nguyen 
Vu Binh.
  On December 31, 2003, writer Nguyen Vu Binh was sentenced to 7 years 
in jail plus 3 years of house arrest after that. His charge? Writing 
and exchanging with various opportunistic elements in the country and 
communicating with reactionary organizations abroad.
  My colleagues might be surprised to know that the United States 
Congress is one of those reactionary organizations. On July 19, 2002, 
Mr. Binh submitted testimony to the congressional Human Rights Caucus, 
highlighting Vietnam's assault on human rights, and I would like to 
read an excerpt from that.
  He said, ``The ultimate goal of the Vietnamese government is to 
isolate, separate and divide the democracy activists. They achieve this 
goal through

[[Page H1014]]

tactics carefully applied to each target.''
  Two months after he submitted this testimony here, Mr. Binh became a 
target and was taken into custody. This simply must stop.
  I urge the Vietnamese government to facilitate the immediate release 
of Mr. Binh and to afford its citizens the freedoms that they deserve.

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