[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 82 (Monday, June 20, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1294-E1295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HUMAN RIGHTS IN VIETNAM

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 20, 2005

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today in the Subcommittee on 
Africa, Global Human Rights and Africa, I chaired a timely and critical 
hearing that examined the government of Vietnam's respect for human 
rights and religious freedom.
  Our witnesses included Ms. Nina Shea, Vice Chair, U.S. Commission on 
International Religious Freedom; Ms. Minky Worden, Media Director, 
Human Rights Watch; Ms. Helen Ngo, Chairwoman Committee for Religious 
Freedom in Vietnam; Dr. Nguyen Than, Executive Director, Boat People 
S.O.S.; Mr. Vo Van Ai, President, Vietnam Committee on Human Rights; 
Mr. Y Khim Nie, Executive Director, Montagnard Human Rights 
Organization. The excellent testimony these witnesses provided can be 
found online (http://wwwc.house.gov/international_relations/)
  Before I report on the human rights crisis in Vietnam, let me say at 
the outset, Mr. Speaker, that I remain deeply concerned about obtaining 
a full, thorough and responsible accounting of the remaining American 
MIAs from the Vietnam conflict. As my colleagues know well, of the 
2,583 POW/MIAs who were unaccounted for--Vietnam, 1,921; Laos, 569; 
Cambodia, 83; and China, 10--just under 1,400 remain unaccounted for in 
Vietnam. While the joint POW/MIA accounting command normally conducts 
four joint field activities per year in Vietnam, I remain deeply 
concerned that the government of Vietnam could be more forthcoming and 
transparent in providing the fullest accounting. It is our sacred duty 
to the families of the missing that we never forget and never cease our 
pursuit until we achieve the fullest possible accounting of our MIAs.
  Today's hearing on human rights abuses in Vietnam must be reviewed in 
the context of the official visit this week to Washington by Vietnamese 
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. Designed to mark 10 years of diplomatic 
relations between the United States and Vietnam, the visit is the 
highest-level since the end of the Vietnam War. Khai will meet with 
President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, conclude intelligence 
agreements on terrorism and transnational crime, as well as begin IMET 
military cooperation, meet with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, and ring 
the bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
  Vietnam hopes to gain U.S. support to join the World Trade 
Organization this year. Trade with the United States has exploded in 
the past decade, from $1.5 billion to $6.4 billion in 2004. Vietnamese 
exports to the United States have also jumped from $800 million in 2001 
to $5 billion last year.
  An outside observer looking at all of this activity would in all 
likelihood conclude that Vietnam is a close business and political 
partner of the United States in Asia. And that observer, if asked, 
would also likely deduce that in order to cooperate so closely, Vietnam 
must also share the core values of the United States that make our 
country great. Values such as the promotion of democracy, respect for 
human rights, and the protection of religious freedom, free speech, and 
the rights of minorities.

[[Page E1295]]

  A quick look at the State Department's annual Human Rights report on 
Vietnam, however, reveals the opposite. According to the 2004 report 
released just three months ago:

       ``Vietnam is a one-party state, ruled and controlled by the 
     Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). . . . The Government's 
     human rights record remained poor, and it continued to commit 
     serious abuses. The Government continued to deny citizens the 
     right to change their government. Several sources reported 
     that security forces shot, detained, beat, and were 
     responsible for the disappearances of persons during the 
     year. Police also reportedly sometimes beat suspects during 
     arrests, detention, and interrogation. . . . The Government 
     continued to hold political and religious prisoners. . . . 
     The Government significantly restricted freedom of speech, 
     freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of 
     association. . . . Security forces continued to enforce 
     restrictions on public gatherings and travel in some parts of 
     the country, particularly in the Central Highlands and the 
     Northwest Highlands. The Government prohibited independent 
     political, labor, and social organizations. . . . The 
     Government restricted freedom of religion and prohibited the 
     operation of unregistered religious organizations. 
     Participants in unregistered organizations faced harassment 
     as well as possible detention and imprisonment. The 
     Government imposed limits on freedom of movement of some 
     individuals whom it deemed a threat. The Government did not 
     permit human rights organizations to form or operate.

  Moreover, in September 2004, the State Department designated Vietnam 
as a ``Country of Particular Concern'' or ``CPC'' for its systematic, 
ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.
  Congress has also expressed its grave concern about the state of 
human rights in Vietnam. The House of Representatives has twice passed 
legislation authored by me on human rights in Vietnam. H.R. 1587, The 
Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2004, passed the House by a 323-45 vote in 
July of 2004. A similar measure passed by a 410-1 landslide in the 
House in 2001. The measures called for limiting further increases of 
non-humanitarian U.S. aid from being provided to Vietnam if certain 
human rights provisions were not met, and authorized funding to 
overcome the jamming of Radio Free Asia and funding to support non-
governmental organizations which promote human rights and democratic 
change in Vietnam. Regrettably, both bills stalled in Senate committees 
and have not been enacted into law.
  I regret that no one from the State Department was available to 
participate in today's hearing to explain the incongruity of United 
States support for the government of Vietnam, as expressed in our close 
and growing-ever-closer trade and military relations, and U.S. concern 
for the appalling lack of respect for the basic human rights of its 
citizens that the Vietnamese government has consistently demonstrated.

  The Human Rights Reports, the Report on International Religious 
Freedom, the Trafficking in Persons Report, the reports of leading 
international human rights organizations, and countless witnesses, some 
of whose testimonies were provided today, give evidence to the fact 
that the government of Vietnam has inflicted and continues to inflict 
terrible suffering on countless people.
  It is a regime that arrests and imprisons writers, scientists, 
academics, religious leaders and even veteran communists in their own 
homes, and lately in Internet cafes, for speaking out for freedom and 
against corruption. In fact, the comments I am making right now would 
easily fetch me a 15-year prison sentence replete with torture if I 
were a Vietnamese national or Member of Parliament making these 
comments in Vietnam.
  It is a government that crushes thousands of Montagnard protestors, 
as they did in the Central Highlands during Easter weekend in 2004, 
killing and beating many peaceful protestors.
  The government has forcibly closed over 400 Christian churches in the 
Central Highlands, and the government continues to force tens of 
thousands of Christians to renounce their faith. I would note here that 
it is inspiring but not unexpected that many of these Christians have 
steadfastly resisted those pressures and refused to renounce Christ. 
One pastor estimated that 90 percent have refused to renounce their 
Christian faith, despite government efforts to compel them to do so.
  This is a government that has detained the leadership of the Unified 
Buddhist Church of Vietnam and continues to attempt to control the 
leadership of the Catholic Church.
  This is a government that imprisoned a Catholic priest by the name of 
Father Ly and meted out a 10-year prison sentence. Father Ly was 
imprisoned in 2001 when he was arrested after submitting testimony to a 
hearing of the United States Commission on International Religious 
Freedom. In his testimony, he criticized the communist government of 
Vietnam for its policies of repressing religious freedom. In fact, I 
was the author of H. Con. Res. 378, which called for the immediate 
release of Father Ly and cleared Congress 424-1 on May 12, 2004.
  Thankfully Father Ly, along with Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, were released 
from prison earlier this year, in all likelihood due to the pressure 
from the United States with its CPC designation.
  Their release was part of a process called for in the 1998 
International Religious Freedom Act, which I cosponsored, which 
mandates that the U.S. government engage in dialogue with severe 
violators of religious freedom to improve conditions or face 
``Presidential actions,'' which could include sanctions or withdrawal 
of non-humanitarian assistance.
  The Vietnamese government also took some other positive steps in 
response to the CPC designation, including a new law streamlining the 
application process for religious groups registering with the 
government and prime ministerial directives which prohibit 
forced renunciations of faith and allow Protestant ``house churches'' 
in ethnic minority provinces to operate if they renounce connections to 
certain expatriate groups, particularly the Montagnard Foundation, 
which is based in the United States.

  And in May, the State Department announced it had reached an 
agreement on religious freedom with Vietnam. Under the agreement, the 
Vietnamese government committed to:

       Fully implement the new legislation on religious freedom 
     and to render previous contradictory regulations obsolete;
       Instruct local authorities to strictly and completely 
     adhere to the new legislation and ensure their compliance;
       Facilitate the process by which religious congregations are 
     able to open houses of worship; and
       Give special consideration to prisoners and cases of 
     concern raised by the United States during the granting of 
     prisoner amnesties.

  Time will tell whether the government will respect this agreement and 
comply with its provisions, or whether there will be a return to 
business as usual once the spotlight is removed. But the agreement does 
shows that the provisions of the International Religious Freedom Act 
seem to be helping to improve the respect for religious freedom in some 
of the worst violator countries.
  The more important point is that religious freedom is not a matter of 
compliance with an agreement, but an attitude of respect for citizens 
who choose to worship and peacefully practice their religious beliefs 
that extends from the highest government leaders down to local 
authorities and the village police.
  In a recent interview given prior to his visit to the United States, 
Prime Minister Khai stated, ``we have no prisoners of conscience in 
Vietnam,'' and declared that ``political reforms and economic reforms 
should be closely harmonized.''
  His statement is typical of the attitude of the government of 
Vietnam, which has scoffed at the Vietnam Human Rights Act and 
dismissed charges of human rights abuses, pleading the tired mantra of 
interference in the internal affairs of their government and that our 
struggle is some way related to the war in Vietnam. They say, Vietnam 
is a country, not a war. That is their protest, and I would say that is 
precisely the issue.
  The hearing we held today was about the shameful human rights record 
of a country, more accurately, of a government that abuses the rights 
of its own people. And, of course, Vietnam is a country with millions 
of wonderful people who yearn to breathe free and to enjoy the 
blessings of liberty. We say, behave like an honorable government, stop 
bringing dishonor and shame to your government by abusing your own 
people and start abiding by internationally recognized U.N. covenants 
that you have signed.
  When is enough, enough? Vietnam needs to come out of the dark ages of 
repression, brutality and abuse and embrace freedom, the rule of law, 
and respect for fundamental human rights. Vietnam needs to act like the 
strategic partner of the United States we would like it to be, treating 
its citizens, even those who disagree with government policies, with 
respect and dignity.
  Human rights are central, are at the core of our relationship with 
governments and the people they purport to represent. The United States 
of America will not turn a blind eye to the oppression of a people, any 
people in any region of the world.

                          ____________________