[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 42 (Wednesday, April 5, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H1479-H1482]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CALLING ON VIETNAM TO IMMEDIATELY AND UNCONDITIONALLY RELEASE DR. PHAM
HONG SON AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS AND PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 320) calling on the
Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to immediately and
unconditionally release Dr. Pham Hong Son and other political prisoners
and prisoners of conscience, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
H. Con. Res. 320
Whereas in March 2002, Dr. Pham Hong Son was arrested after
he had translated an article entitled ``What is Democracy?''
from the Web site of the United States Embassy in Vietnam and
sent it to both friends and senior party officials;
Whereas Dr. Son has written and published on the Internet
articles entitled ``The Promotion of Democracy: A Key Focus
in a New World Order'', ``Sovereignty and Human Rights: The
Search for Reconciliation'', and ``Hopeful Signs for
Democracy in Viet Nam'';
Whereas in none of his activities did Dr. Son advocate
violence in his opposition to the Vietnamese Government or
its policies;
Whereas Dr. Son has been arrested for the peaceful exercise
of his fundamental rights to freedom of expression and
association in violation of Article 69 of the Vietnamese
Constitution which states: ``The citizen shall enjoy freedom
of opinion and speech, freedom of the press, the right to be
informed and the right to assemble, form associations and
hold demonstrations in accordance with the provisions of the
law'';
Whereas Dr. Son has been arrested, tried, convicted, and
imprisoned in contravention of the rights enshrined in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
to which Vietnam is a state party, specifically Article 19
(freedom of expression) and Article 22 (freedom of
association);
Whereas Dr. Son did not have a trial that would be
considered fair and that met even the most basic standards of
internationally accepted justice, in contravention of Article
14 (right to a fair trial) of the ICCPR;
Whereas Dr. Son was sentenced in June 2003, after a half-
day closed trial in Hanoi, to 13 years of imprisonment and
three years of house arrest on spurious espionage charges;
Whereas such spurious charges are routinely used to
suppress peaceful democracy activists, as in the notorious
cases of Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, his two nephews and
niece, and in the cases of Pham Que Duong, Tran Khue, and
Tran Dung Tien;
Whereas Dr. Son's appeal was held on August 26, 2003, in a
closed trial before Vietnam's Supreme Court, from which
international observers and Western journalists were barred,
although diplomats from more than eight countries gathered
outside the courthouse during the trial to register their
concern;
Whereas, although the Vietnamese Supreme Court upheld Dr.
Son's sentence, it reduced the sentence of imprisonment from
13 to five years;
Whereas Dr. Son remains imprisoned in harsh conditions,
including imprisonment for more than a year in solitary
confinement, which have endangered his health;
Whereas Vietnam has imprisoned, detained, placed under
house arrest, or otherwise restricted numerous other peaceful
democratic and religious activists for reasons related to
their political or religious views, such as Do Van My, Mai
Thi Dung, Nguyen Thanh Phong, Nguyen Thi Ha, Nguyen Van Dien,
Nguyen Vu Binh, Phan Van Ban, To Van Manh, Vo Van Buu, Vo Van
Thanh Liem (Nam Liem), Bui Thien Hue, Nguyen Lap Ma, Nguyen
Nhat Thong, Nguyen Van Ly, Phan Van Loi, Thich Dong Tho,
Thich Huyen Quang, Thich Nguyen Ly, Thich Nguyen Vuong, Thich
Phuoc An, Thich Quang Do, Thich Tam Lien, Thich Thai Hoa,
Thich Thanh Huyen, Thich Tien Hanh, Thich Tue Sy, Thich Vien
Dinh, Ngo Van Ninh, Le Van Chuong, Le Van Tinh, Phuong Van
Kiem, Nguyen Van Si, Tran Van Thien, Thich Thien Tam, Hoang
Chinh Minh, and Do Nam Hai (Phuong Nam);
Whereas Dr. Son and other political prisoners and prisoners
of conscience have been deprived of their basic human rights
by being denied their ability to exercise freedom of opinion
and expression;
Whereas the arbitrary imprisonment and the violation of the
human rights of citizens of Vietnam are sources of
continuing, grave concern to Congress;
Whereas Vietnam continues to restrict access to Western
diplomats, journalists, and humanitarian organizations to the
Central Highlands and the Northwest Highlands, where there
are credible reports that ethnic minorities suffer serious
violations of their human and civil rights, including
property rights, and ongoing restrictions on religious
activities, including forced conversions;
Whereas there are continuing and well-founded concerns
about forcibly repatriated Montagnard refugees, access to
whom is restricted;
Whereas on December 1, 2005, the European Parliament
adopted a resolution calling on the Vietnamese authorities,
among other measures, to undertake political and
institutional reforms leading to democracy and the rule of
law, starting by allowing a multi-party system and
guaranteeing the right of all currents of opinion to express
their views;
Whereas the resolution further calls on Vietnamese
authorities to end all forms of repression against members of
the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and officially
recognize its existence and that of other non-recognized
Churches in the country;
Whereas the resolution further calls on Vietnamese
authorities to release all Vietnamese political prisoners and
prisoners of conscience detained for having legitimately and
peacefully exercised their rights to freedom of opinion,
expression, the press, and religion;
Whereas the resolution further calls on Vietnamese
authorities to guarantee full enjoyment of the fundamental
rights enshrined in the Vietnamese Constitution and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in
particular by allowing the creation of a genuinely free
press; and
Whereas the resolution further calls on Vietnamese
authorities to ensure the safe repatriation, under the
Cambodia-Vietnam-UNHCR Agreement, of the Montagnards who fled
Vietnam, and allow proper monitoring of the situation of the
returnees by the UNHCR and international nongovernmental
organizations: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That--
(1) Congress--
(A) condemns and deplores the arbitrary detention of Dr.
Pham Hong Son by the Government of the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam and calls for his immediate and unconditional
release, and for the immediate and unconditional release of
all other political prisoners;
(B) condemns and deplores the violations of freedom of
speech, religion, movement, association, and the lack of due
process afforded to individuals in Vietnam;
(C) strongly urges the Government of Vietnam to consider
the implications of its actions for the broader relationship
between the United States and Vietnam;
(D) urges the Government of Vietnam to allow unfettered
access to the Central Highlands and to the Northwest
Highlands by foreign diplomats, the international press, and
nongovernmental organizations; and
(E) applauds the European Parliament for its resolution of
December 1, 2005, regarding human rights in Vietnam, and
urges the Government of Vietnam to comply with the terms of
the resolution; and
(2) it is the sense of Congress that the United States
should--
(A) make the immediate release of Dr. Pham Hong Son a top
concern;
(B) continue to urge the Government of Vietnam to comply
with internationally recognized standards for basic freedoms
and human rights;
(C) make clear to the Government of Vietnam that it must
adhere to the rule of law and respect the freedom of the
press in order to broaden its relations with the United
States;
(D) make clear to the Government of Vietnam that the
detention of Dr. Son and other persons and the infliction of
human rights violations on these individuals are not in the
interest of Vietnam because they create obstacles to improved
bilateral relations and cooperation with the United States;
and
(E) reiterate the deep concern of the United States
regarding the continued imprisonment of Dr. Son and other
persons whose human rights are being violated and discuss the
legal status and immediate humanitarian needs of such
individuals with the Government of Vietnam.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to present this bill to my colleagues today
in defense of a man who has fought for democracy in Vietnam at great
personal cost. There has been a tremendous amount of publicity lately
about Internet dissidents in China. As a matter of fact, we had a day-
long hearing on this use of the Internet to capture and to really
decapitate the dissidents and religious freedom movements in China, in
Vietnam and Belarus and in other countries, but we now focus on one
particular man, as well as others who have suffered because of that, in
the case of Dr. Pham Hong Son of Vietnam.
In March 2002, Mr. Speaker, police arrested Dr. Son. He had
translated an article from the Web site of the U.S. Embassy Hanoi that
was entitled, ``What is democracy?'' and he sent it to some of his
friends and senior Vietnamese officials. In addition, he had
[[Page H1480]]
written an open letter, published on the Internet, protesting the fact
that his house had been searched illegally and his computer and
documents confiscated.
Dr. Son was charged with espionage by the government, which accused
him of collecting and dispatching news and documents for a foreign
country to be used against the Socialist State of Vietnam. Let us not
forget who that foreign country is. It is us. It is the U.S. Embassy's
Web site in Hanoi, and that is where he went to download that essay,
``What is democracy?''
After a closed trial and a closed appeal, from which Western
reporters and diplomats from Europe, the United States and Canada were
barred, Dr. Son was sentenced to 5 years, plus an additional 3 years of
house arrest.
Dr. Son's case has been highlighted repeatedly by the U.S. Department
of State's Human Rights Report for Vietnam and by Human Rights Watch,
Reporters without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and
Amnesty International.
Mr. Speaker, I went to Vietnam last year, accompanied by Eleanor
Nagy, who is our Director of Policy on the Subcommittee on Africa,
Global Human Rights and International Operations, and met with some 60
dissidents in the course of the better part of a week in Hanoi, Hue and
in Ho Chi Minh City. We met with Dr. Son's extraordinary and courageous
wife, Vu Thuy Ha, who continues to campaign for her husband's freedom
despite constant surveillance and harassment, which I personally
witnessed. I knew that we could not let this brave woman battle alone.
As a matter of fact, when Eleanor and I, along with some people from
the embassy, sat with his wife, right across from us at a hotel were
some thugs from the secret police who were taking pictures of her and
trying to intimidate her, which they have been doing day in and day
out.
The State Department, to its credit, put Dr. Son at the head of their
list of political prisoners who need to be released during the February
Human Rights Dialogue with Vietnam. As Assistant Secretary of State for
Democracy, Barry Lowenkron told the Vietnamese, and this is his quote,
``I bluntly told them that the American people will not understand why
a country that wants to have better relations with us would imprison
someone for translating an article on democracy.''
On Friday March 31, Vietnam flatly rejected Lowenkron's call to
release Dr. Son and 20 other religious and political prisoners, saying
it only jails criminals. In Vietnam, they said, there are no prisoners
of conscience, and no one has been arrested for their viewpoints or
their religion.
That is unmitigated nonsense and a big lie, Mr. Speaker, and that has
to be confronted by this Congress.
Less than a day after the unanimous subcommittee markup of this
resolution on December 9, plainclothes officers detained two other
well-known Internet writers, Do Nam Hai, whom I met with in Vietnam and
who is mentioned in our resolution. They were at a public Internet
cafe. The police also forced Hai to open his personal e-mail account
and printed about 30 of his sent messages.
{time} 1215
The two writers were interrogated for 6 hours at the cafe and later
at a police station in Hanoi. Both were released from police custody
that day.
And the persecution continues, Mr. Speaker. On March 12, according to
Reporters Without Borders, an Internet user calling himself ``Freedom
For the Country,'' joined the discussion group ``Democracy and Freedom
the Only Way for Vietnam.'' He went on-line in a Hanoi cyber cafe, and
he discussed politics for about half an hour with two other people in
the group. During the discussion, he said he was a member of a pro-
democracy working group. The entire on-line conversation was recorded
by the forum administrator, police entered the cyber cafe, and they
arrested him.
On the recording, someone could be heard asking the Internet user to
go with them, and then someone else shouting, hit him. The
administrator continued recording after the police intervention, and no
one came to disconnect the computer linked to Pal Talk. Afterwards, a
man's voice is heard on the microphone introducing himself as the cyber
cafe's owner and confirming that one of his customers had been taken
away by the police. He added that he had been fined for violating
Internet law. The Vietnamese denied the arrest, and the victim's
identity is unknown. He joins three other cyber dissidents who were
arrested in October and whose whereabouts remain unknown.
This sort of persecution, Mr. Speaker, will obviously not go away by
itself. But tyranny hates and fears public exposure, and we need to
keep attention focused on Vietnam's continuing violation of the rights
that it claims to grant to its people.
Vietnam is at a critical crossroads. It wants to expand its
burgeoning trade relations with the United States and seeks to join the
WTO. There would be no better way to convince Vietnam of the
seriousness of our human rights concerns and their centrality in any
relation with the U.S. It seems to me you can't trust a country on
intellectual property rights and copyright infringement if they jail,
incarcerate, and beat their own people because they simply espouse
basic fundamental human rights.
The European Parliament, I might add, has already passed a resolution
calling for Vietnam to release all of its prisoners of conscience,
allowing democracy and political pluralism and ensuring the human
rights for Vietnam's Montagnards. It is appropriate that we do likewise
and that we do it today.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution,
and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I would first like to commend my very good friend and distinguished
colleague from New Jersey, Congressman Chris Smith, for introducing
this important resolution and for his unique, dogged pursuit of
Vietnamese human rights issues.
None of us here today should be under any illusions about the
Vietnamese government. According to the State Department's Human Rights
Report, the Vietnamese government is an unrepentant authoritarian
regime, and true political opposition is not allowed. Freedom of
expression does not exist in Vietnam, and Vietnamese are locked in
prison for simply expressing political opinions.
In the case which is the focus of this resolution, the Vietnamese
government has even imprisoned someone from translating into Vietnamese
an article entitled ``What is Democracy,'' from the U.S. embassy Web
site in Hanoi. It boggles the mind, Mr. Speaker, that the Vietnamese
government is so fearful of dissent that it won't even allow citizens
to discuss, let alone implement, meaningful democracy.
The Vietnamese government also places severe restrictions on the
expression of religious beliefs, particularly upon Buddhists, who do
not worship as part of the official church, and upon Christians in the
Vietnamese highlands.
With the approval of the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement 5
years ago, the political security and economic relationship between the
United States and Vietnam has become increasingly more complex, but we
must continue to send a strong signal to Hanoi that the United States
continues to make it a top priority to promote internationally
recognized human rights everywhere, including Vietnam.
Passage of our resolution will indicate to the administration and to
the government of Vietnam that we in Congress expect to see real
progress on the human rights front in Vietnam, and that we have not
forgotten those Vietnamese who are being persecuted for their beliefs.
Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this carefully
crafted resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to my good friend and
distinguished colleague from California, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.
Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in
support of a dangerous man. In Vietnam, Dr. Pham Hong Son is considered
a criminal, a man who must be silenced and incarcerated for the good of
society.
Is Dr. Pham a violent man, a terrorist, perhaps? Does he advocate the
[[Page H1481]]
violent overthrow of his government? No, absolutely not. Dr. Pham is a
dangerous man not because of his dangerous actions, but because of his
dangerous ideas. Dr. Pham's great crime was to translate articles on
democracy into Vietnamese and to write and publish his own articles
about democracy and human rights in Vietnam.
Dr. Pham's case is typical of how the government of Vietnam deals
with voices of peaceful and patriotic dissent. A case in point is a
personal one for me. I was scheduled next week to go to Vietnam. I was
interested in talking with their government about issues of human
rights and religious freedom, issues that are very important to the
people of Orange County, California. Unfortunately, I was informed last
night that my visa application was denied by the Vietnamese government
for the third time in 2 years, despite the fact that we have welcomed
their dignitaries to the United States and that I was personally
invited by Madam Ninh, the Vice Chair of the Committee of Foreign
Affairs of the Vietnamese National Assembly.
Some of my colleagues continue to push for closer ties with Vietnam
through trade relations and military partnerships and other forms of
nonhumanitarian cooperation and assistance. We, as a Congress, will be
asked in the coming months to decide on issues fundamental to the
nature of our relationship with Vietnam. Supporting this concurrent
resolution today is an important step in the right direction, but I
would also ask my colleagues to keep Dr. Pham and others like him in
our minds for the future.
Vietnam's actions against its own patriots demonstrate that they are
not ready yet to be full partners with the United States. The United
States must live by our own professed values, our true values, and we
must do everything we can do to protect the human rights of the people
of Vietnam.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to our
distinguished colleague, my good friend from Texas, Congresswoman
Sheila Jackson-Lee.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Lantos. Again, I
express my appreciation to Mr. Smith, and I express my appreciation to
Congresswoman Sanchez, who has been a strong stalwart of vocalizing the
inconsistencies with the image of Vietnam, a united country, and the
reality.
And let me express my personal outrage that Members of Congress
extend themselves to a foreign land to be able to be a fact-finder, to
find out information, to share that with their constituents; that
foreign governments who are welcomed into the United States would be so
arrogant as to deny a visa so that information could be written.
I have a personal story, of course, which I did not mention
previously in the same way of attempting to visit the Sudan and going
through the normal channels and finding that visas would not be
rendered. And they have done that to Members of Congress who are there
doing the work of the American people. So to the Vietnamese government,
we know what you are and what you are doing.
This is an important resolution that establishes the importance of
human rights and dignity in Vietnam. Although the war is behind us, we
realize that the Vietnamese people in the United States love democracy.
They fled the country because they love democracy, but they want
democracy for the existing Vietnam.
The plight of Dr. Pham and many, many others that are now being
detained is a poor story, a poor assessment of the outright rejection
of human rights and freedom of expression that should be the call of
this Nation that claims that it wants to be part of the world human
family. So I call upon this issue to be addressed not only by this
resolution, which I enthusiastically support, and I thank the authors
of this bill, but also for the United Nations to get in gear and get a
grip.
The Human Rights Council, Mr. Lantos, as you well know, has been
revised just recently with some difficulty and opposition from the
American government because it was a little less strong, if you will, a
little less in great depth than we would have wanted it to be, where we
could have prevented some of the more heinous actors against human
rights from even being on this council. But it is a first step.
Now is the time for the United Nations, along with this resolution,
to show itself truly committed to human rights. Do something about the
Sudan. Do something about Vietnam. This is not to suggest that we don't
want a thriving economy. For years, I voted against the Jackson
amendment that deals with trade in Vietnam. Why? Not because I am
against Vietnam, Mr. Speaker, but because I want human dignity and
human rights.
So I rise in support of this resolution, H. Con. Res. 320, but I am
asking that as we put forward this resolution, that institutions that
deal with human rights wake up and smell the coffee or the tea and
begin to address these questions in a forthright way.
And let me close by simply saying that there is a whole mountain of
people that are being detained and their human rights violated. Can we
suffer this indignity? I ask that this resolution be supported, and I
ask the United Nations to do its job.
General Leave
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their
remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New Jersey?
There was no objection.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I would close by especially
thanking Dennis Curry, Eleanor Nagy, and Dan Freeman, our staff who
have worked so hard on this resolution. The hearing that we held
recently was a very insightful hearing that focused on the ongoing and
persistent violations of fundamental human rights in Vietnam. Last
year, right before Prime Minister Khai came to the United States, we
held another Vietnam human rights hearing, and it was very telling.
We can't reduce human rights to an asterisk or a ``see page 3''
footnote in our relationship with the government of Vietnam. I would
urge every Member, when and if they travel to Vietnam, that they
prepare themselves by really understanding the nature of this
government. Yes, there may be some modest progress being made in the
area of religious freedom, and I underscore the word ``modest,'' but
they still are a country of particular concern, so designated by the
Department of State because of their egregious violations of religious
freedom and the persecution of people, whether they be members of the
Montagnards, the Evangelical Christians, or the Unified Buddhist
Church, people like the Venerable Thich Quang Do, whom I met with.
Let me say finally that I met with the Venerable Thich Quang Do in
his pagoda, as he is under house arrest. When we began to leave, all of
a sudden he stopped, and he said, ``I take one step beyond this and the
guys across the street will have me in handcuffs.'' That is the reality
of what is going on in Vietnam today. I would hope Members, before they
go to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, acquaint themselves very thoroughly
with the human rights abuses the Vietnamese commit and raise those
issues, particularly as it relates to trade.
Mr. TOM DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.
Con. Res. 320, calling on the Government of the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam to immediately and unconditionally release Dr. Pham Hong Son
and other political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.
The Vietnamese people have endured extensive struggles for many years
in their ongoing fight for basic human rights and freedom.
As a member of the Vietnam Caucus, I am dedicated to promoting
awareness and policy debates among the U.S. Congress, the American
public, and the international community about the greater need for
fundamental human rights in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
I would like to voice my support for H. Con. Res. 320, as it calls
for the immediate release of Dr. Pham Hong Son and other political
prisoners of conscience.
In March 2002, Dr. Pham was arrested after he had translated an
article entitled ``What is Democracy?'' from the Web site of the United
States Embassy in Vietnam and sent it to both friends and senior party
officials. On August 26, 2003, the Vietnamese Supreme Court sentenced
Dr. Pham to 5 years in prison, to be followed by 6 years of house
arrest.
The arrests of Dr. Pham, along with many others, demonstrate the
ongoing human rights abuses and lack of religious freedom in Vietnam.
We must continue to bring attention to
[[Page H1482]]
these issues, generate pressure on Vietnamese officials, and hold the
Vietnamese government accountable.
I am hopeful H. Con. Res. 320 will serve as a small stepping-stone
towards the ultimate liberation and freedom of the Vietnamese people,
and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution.
Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support
of House Concurrent Resolution 320, a resolution that calls for the
release of Dr. Pham Hong Son and other political prisoners and
prisoners of conscience in Vietnam.
Dr. Pham was imprisoned in 2002 for the simple act of translating a
document posted on the U.S. Embassy's website entitled, ``What is
Democracy?'' He has tirelessly worked in non-violent ways to promote
democracy and freedom of speech, expression, and association in
Vietnam.
But Dr. Pham is not alone. Thousands of peaceful activists have been
harassed, imprisoned, or been placed under house arrest for calling for
basic human rights in Vietnam. The State Department, the U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom, Amnesty International,
the Committee to Protect Journalists, and various Vietnamese-American
groups have documented egregious violations of religious freedom, human
rights, and free speech in the country.
For the past two years, the State Department has designated Vietnam a
``country of particular concern'' which means Vietnam has been engaged
in systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom. In
company with Vietnam are such human rights violators as Sudan, Burma,
China, Iran, and North Korea.
In its 2005 report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious
Freedom states, ``the government of Vietnam continues to commit
systematic and egregious violations of religious freedom by harassing,
detaining, imprisoning, and discriminating against leaders and
practitioners from all of Vietnam's religious communities. Religious
freedom conditions in Vietnam remain poor, and the overall human rights
situation has deteriorated in the past two years.''
The Committee to Protect Journalists says, ``Press conditions in
Vietnam largely stagnated in 2005, despite efforts by the country's
leaders to project an image of greater openness. Three writers remained
imprisoned on antistate charges for material distributed online; print
and broadcast media continued to work under the supervision of the
government; and attacks on journalists were common.''
For the past year, Vietnam has sought a new relationship with the
United States. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and several other high-
level members of the Vietnamese government visited the U.S. in 2005.
But if the Vietnamese government expects to cultivate this new
relationship, it must start by respecting basic human rights of all
citizens of Vietnam.
I hope this Congress will show strong support for change in Vietnam
by unanimously passing House Concurrent Resolution 320 today.
Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Con.
Res. 320 which calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr.
Pham Hong Son and other political prisoners in Vietnam. The Socialist
Republic of Vietnam has been holding prisoners because of their
exercise of basic human rights including freedom of speech, religion,
movement, and association.
Dr. Pham Hong Son was indicted and imprisoned for translating an
article on the Web site of the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam entitled ``What
is Democracy?'' and circulating the article among friends and senior
party officials. He was subsequently sentenced to 13 years imprisonment
and 3 years of house arrest on espionage charges after a half-day
closed trial that deprived him of due process. The Vietnamese
Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR), of which Vietnam is a state party, both protect the
rights to freedom of opinion and speech. The government of Vietnam
should uphold their obligations under the ICCPR and honor other
internationally recognized standards for basic freedoms and human
rights before their accession into the World Trade Organization.
The fall of the Republic of Vietnam displaced approximately three
million Vietnamese. My late husband Ricardo J. Bordallo was Governor of
Guam at the time of Operation New Life. I vividly remember how the Guam
community came together in solidarity with the Vietnamese people and
worked hard to help comfort these brave individuals who had left all
their worldly possessions behind in the name of freedom. The people of
Guam empathized with the Vietnamese refugees, and we opened our hearts
as well as our island to them. One of my assignments as First Lady was
to organize the care for the hundreds of orphan babies that arrived in
Operation Baby Lift. This was a moving experience that has remained one
of my fondest memories of my husband's first term as Governor of Guam.
Of the 150,000 Vietnamese who arrived on Guam in April 1975, many
decided to return to Vietnam to help rebuild their motherland.
Unfortunately, those who remained in Vietnam now face a Socialist
government that denies them basic human rights of freedom of speech,
religion, movement, and association. They deserve the right to a fair
trial and due process.
Today, Congress calls on Vietnamese authorities to end all forms of
repression against small religious sects and for the release of all
Vietnamese political prisoners who have legitimately and peacefully
exercised their rights. I urge passage of H. Con. Res. 320.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
{time} 1230
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) that the House suspend the rules
and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 320, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of
those present have voted in the affirmative.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will
be postponed.
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