Today we're posting only once as part of the International Bloggers' Day for Burma. Click here for more information about the campaign. If you have a blog or Web site, it's not too late to join in the worldwide statement!
Today also marks one week since Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai was slain in Yangon while filming a protest. His body has just arrived back in Japan. May he rest in peace, and may his killers be brought to justice.
Vietnamese democracy advocates have extended their support to the Burmese people who have been fighting for democracy -- and meeting with a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar government.
DECLARATION IN SUPPORT OF THE MARCH FOR DEMOCRACY
OF THE PEOPLE IN MYANMAR/BURMATO:- The Government of Myanmar/Burma- All Sangha Leaders, Democratic Organizations and the People of Myanmar/Burma- The Secretary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations- Office of The Secretary General of The United Nations- The United StatesGovernment- The President of the European Union- Human Rights Organizations and International Telecommunications AgenciesFor over a month we have followed with great interest news of the march of people's power in Myanmar/Burma, watching Buddhist monks, students and ordinary people peacefully taking to the streets and demanding that the dictatorial Myanmar/Burma government conduct real dialogue with the people and democratic organizations so as to build a true democratic system that allows for a healthy, competitive pluralistic political society and that respects human rights.We, the undersigned Vietnamese individuals, organizations and associations struggling for a true Democratic and Prosperous Vietnam, would like to share the following sentiments:
- We wholeheartedly support the peaceful struggle of the People of Myanmar/Burma in order to establish a strong and stable civil society within a democratic, pluralistic political system. A successful democratic struggle of the people of Myanmar/Burma will contribute to the stability and security of Myanmar/Burma in particular, ASEAN and the world in general.
- We are holding the current government of Myanmar/Burma responsible for the security and safety of these peaceful demonstrators. The military junta of Myanmar/Burma should take this opportunity to hold direct talks with the people and democratic organizations of Myanmar/Burma such as the National Democratic League, led by Madame Aung San Syu Kyi, the Nationalist Students Organization of 1988, and venerable Buddhist clerics to create a peaceful democracy for Myanmar/Burma.
- We petition the Secretary of the Association of South East Asian Nations and member countries to raise his voice a in timely fashion to support the people of Myanmar/Burma in their current struggle for democracy, and we request that the military government of Myanmar/Burma conduct peaceful dialogue with the opposition in order to work out the differences between the people and the government.
- We are calling upon the United Nations, the United States, the European Union other democratic nations, human rights organizations, and international press and media agencies to raise their voices to support and assist with solutions for the current struggle for democracy of the Myanmar/Burma people.
We resolutely condemn the government of Myanmar/Burma for the use of any violence to suppress peaceful demonstrators. We would like to express our sincere admiration and understanding of the present difficulties that the people of Myanmar/Burma are going through, but we believe wholeheartedly that the non-violent way to struggle for democracy of these brave citizens will be successful.Drafted in Vietnam on September 28, 2007
Cyberdissident Dr. Le Nguyen Sang, who was convicted earlier this year on claims that he tried to weaken the communist party's authority by distributing pro-democracy materials, got his sentence reduced on appeal from five years to four years in prison on Friday. My response -- "whoop-dee-doo" -- is echoed by Tran Nam, who sees through the sham trial and in which lawyer Nguyen Bac Truyen also had his sentence reduced to 3 years, and journalist Huynh Nguyen Dao received 2 1/2 years in prison.
"The People' s Democratic Party (PDP) strongly protests the recent sentence of Dr. Sang's appeal trial. Once again, it shows that Ha Noi authorities have ignored international community' s condemnation and continued to violate human rights in Viet Nam.
Dr. Le Nguyen Sang and Vietnamese dissidents including Father Nguyen Van Ly, lawyers Nguyen Van Dai, Le Thi Cong Nhan, Tran Quoc Hien, Nguyen Bac Truyen, journalist Huynh Nguyen Dao and many other detained individuals are all innocent. Ha Noi should immediately release them instead of continue to crack down on people who dare to exercise freedom of expression's rights."
Thanks to Jeff's Garage & Ale House, the latest addition to our blogroll of supporters, for helping championing the cause of Father Ly! Jeff also penned a noteworthy post this spring studying the outcome of the Vietnam War, read it here.
Michael W. Marine, U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, did an online question-and-answer session today on the State Department Web site. Among his responses to submitted questions:
"During the past year, Vietnam has made significant progress on advancing religious freedom. The Government instituted a new law on religion, including a ban on forced renunciations, registered hundreds of places of worship, allowed the majority of closed places of worship to reopen, began educating central, provincial and local officials on how to implement the new law and, in some cases, disciplined officials responsible for violations of religious freedom. So, while we are encouraged by the progress that has been made, there remains work ahead to ensure full religious freedom and human rights for all Vietnamese."
What kind of religious freedom is it to make places of worship register with the government? The only purpose there is for them to be able to exercise greater control over individual churches and faiths.
"Vietnamese citizens are freer than ever to pursue their own family, economic and career choices; however, basic human rights deficiencies remain. These include: the inability of citizens to choose their own government; detentions of persons for the peaceful expressions of their political views; denial of the right of fair and expeditious trials; restrictions on freedom of the press, speech, and assembly; restrictions on the use of the internet; and the prohibition on the establishment of human rights NGOs.
There remains much to do to promoting human rights in Vietnam, but the United States is committed to making the case for these rights at every opportunity. And we remain hopeful that the Vietnamese people themselves will recognize the importance of these basic rights as well. While Vietnam’s political evolution is likely to lag well behind the legal and economic changes currently underway, change is in the offing. As they are increasingly exposed to global trends and ideas, accountability for government actions and policies will become an increasing priority for this country’s next generation of leaders."
Vietnamese know the importance of these rights, they just get tossed in prison when they speak up for those rights. I'd call these more than "human rights deficiencies." As long as we have ambassadors who whitewash the problems by using gentle language and stressing the "good" before the bad reality, the U.S. will never play a good, moral role in aiding all Vietnamese who yearn to be free, from the peasants protesting governmental land grabs to the prisoners of conscience who languish in sordid jails.
For the record, I submitted a question asking Ambassador Marine what the U.S. was doing to help Father Ly and other political prisoners. He didn't respond.
About 1,000 members of Southern California's Vietnamese community rallied this past weekend against Viet Weekly. From the Orange County Register:
"An estimated 1,000 community members chanted and waved American and former South Vietnam flags, saying they were fed up with articles published in Viet Weekly.
'I don't agree with their work,' Duy Sinh, president of the Association of Vietnamese Press and Media (USA) in Westminster, said through a translator. 'They (the articles) aren't the truth.'
One article published earlier this year 'praised Ho Chi Minh as a savior of the Vietnamese people,' while another article in May justified the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a posting on the blogspot Viet-Am Review.
Le Vu, Viet Weekly's publisher, has previously denied charges that the publication intentionally misrepresents stories or events to present a pro-communist slant."
In an article previewing the protests, the OC Register delved more into the community's disagreements with Viet Weekly:
"...The problem many Vietnamese-Americans have with the Viet Weekly is that their reporting is not fair and balanced, said Jean Libby, a retired history teacher who created her own blogspot titled Viet-Am Review, where she mostly writes about accomplishments of Vietnamese-Americans.
'From what I've seen, Viet Weekly thinks free speech includes lying, fabricating news and defaming individuals who mean a lot to the community,' Libby said.
She said Viet Weekly recently twisted the words of Michael Marine, U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, saying that he condoned the actions of the communist government in suppressing the rights of political dissidents such as Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly. The photograph of Ly, whose mouth was covered by a plainclothes officer as he tried to speak in a Vietnam courtroom, was widely circulated in Little Saigon and viewed with disgust by local community members.
But Vu vehemently denies his newspaper concocts news or manipulates audio files, as Libby alleges."
From Tran Nam:
At around 10PM. (July 19), Sai Gon police began to violently suppress Vietnamese peasants as they protest for their land rights. Thousands of police have surrounded the protesters, firing tear gas and spraying water into the crowd. Hundreds of organizers and protesters are being arrested and taken to unknown locations.
Since June 22, thousands of peasants from Southern provinces including Tien Giang, Binh Thuan, Dong Thap, Long An, Binh Duong, Ben Tre, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Kien Giang have traveled to Sai Gon. They are currently camped outside of the Congress House 2, at 194 Hoang Van Thu Street, Sai Gon in outraged protest over seizure of their land by the government.
Due to corruption, unlawful and arbitrary land policy, thousands of Vietnamese peasants have lost their land, homes and other properties. Many are living homeless, poor and hungry while corrupt government officials continue to pocket peasants' compensation to fund their lavish life style.
The authorities have failed to solve these contentious land issues properly. Instead of engaging in direct and peaceful dialogue, the government has chosen to use brutal force to suppress the protesters.
The People's Democratic Party strongly calls on the Ha Noi government to listen to its own people's concerns. We condemn the using force in order to suppress innocent people and hold the Ha Noi government accountable for committing these acts of violence against its own people. We call on human rights organizations, government officials of the free world and religious leaders to raise your voices to support the struggle of the Vietnamese peasants for the right to land and property.
The Vietnamese regime balked today about a European Union resolution demanding the immediate release of prisoners of conscience like Father Ly, and all those behind bars for exercising the inherent human rights of freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion. Said Foreign Ministry spokeman Le Dung:
"It is regrettable that the European Parliament adopted a resolution that is based on incorrect information and accompanying biased comments. ...The resolution fails to correctly grasp Vietnam's situation and is not in line with the fine development in cooperative relations between Vietnam and the European Union."
Dung further claimed that "ensuring and upholding human rights constitute ... major goals" for Vietnam, which had "worked hard to build an apparatus that ensures those rights are maintained, developed and improved upon." He also had the gall to claim everyone in jail had broken the law and was not suppressed for having political opinions. Of course, Vietnam just brands everyone who expresses differing political opinions as threats to the socialist state and jails them under that excuse.
A recent news item from the Committee to Protect Vietnamese Workers (with thanks to Trung):
In January 2007, Đào Văn Thuy joined the Vietnamese Independent Union and wrote an article on the VIU, published on protectVietworkers.com. As an active member of VIU, he has also performed a number of important tasks for it.
In January 2007, immediately after his VIU membership was known and his article was published, the Vietnamese regime told his employer to sack him. A number of overseas Viets volunteered to send him money to help fight what many regarded as a mean, gutter-level act of the regime. However, Thuy refused such assistance.
Now, for his personal safety as the regime has been rounding up civil rights and democracy advocates, he had to flee to Cambodia. CPVW will help him to seek asylum status at the UNHCR.
In Cambodia, there are several Vietnamese asylum seekers and recognised refugees. Their safety is uncertain, as the Hanoi regime has in the past sent secret agents to capture asylum seekers. They fled Vietnam with little more than the clothes on their back, and find it hard to make a living in Cambodia. They need overseas Viets' financial assistance, and CPVW is sending some money to assist them.
Tran Nam sends along these photos of protests that have been occurring in Saigon since June 22. He reports that more than 500 farmers have been gathering in front of Congress House 2 to demand fair compensation for their lost properties. "Most of these farmers came from the South including Tien Giang, Kien Giang, Binh Thuan and Ben Tre provinces who came all the way to Sai Gon to raise their voices," he writes today.
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