Tokyo, Japan:

The Vietnamese community here held a conference on Dec. 13 to discuss how to help improve the human rights situation in Vietnam.

Various religious and political organizations at the conference cited series of human rights violations against the Buddhist and Catholic Churches in Vietnam, as well as Vietnamese citizens. Among the evident was the December 22, 1998 report of the Freedom House, a prestigious international non-government human rights organization. In this report the authorities in Vietnam is placed among the worst human rights violators in the world in 1998. Included among the victims nowadays are former communist party members who recently called for democracy in Vietnam. The conference called on Vietnamese worldwide and the international community to increase pressure on Hanoi to release all political and religious prisoners in Vietnam.

One of the distinguished guest at the conference was Mr. Ye Htut of the Alliance of Nationalist Burmese for Democracy. Mr. Htut expressed his admiration for the Vietnamese endeavor and hope that people of Vietnam and Burma can unite in their effort to bring freedom and democracy to their two beloved countries.

The conference also celebrated the recent release of Professor Doan Viet Hoat, a political prisoner for 20 years in Vietnam. Professor Hoat was imprisoned for his calling for the respect of human rights in his country. On June 1, 1998, when the Professor was still in prison, he was awarded the "Golden Pen for Freedom" by the Word Association of Newspaper in Tokyo.

Berlin, Germany:

A rally and march for human rights in Vietnam was organized on Dec. 10, 1998 by more than 30 Vietnamese organizations in the country. People from across Germany including Papenburg, Norden, Kiel, Hamburg, Tosledt, Bremen, Hannover, Frankfurt, Manheim, Spreyer, Munchen, Mumberg, Dachu, Freital, Dresden, Leipzig...poured over the Alexander Square to highlight the noble cause despite the freezing winter weather.

Freedom of the press, speech and religion for Vietnam were among the basic rights emphasized at the rally. Hundreds of flyers were distributed. Rally participants then marched across the busy streets of Berlin, chanting aloud in Germany the aspirations of their compatriots in Vietnam. Marchers then rallied before the Hanoi embassy, calling for Hanoi to uphold its committment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Candle in hands as the vigil extended into the night, rally participants sang and prayed for victims of oppression and the end of suffering in Vietnam and elsewhere in the world.

Former political prisoner campaigns in Europe

Released in September 1998, former political prisoner Tran Manh Quynh (a.k.a. Jimmy Tran) wasted no time, not even to recuperate after years of harsh treatment in the communist prisons, in campaigning for other political prisoners in Vietnam. Mr. Quynh has embarked on tour of several weeks long across Europe to meet with various Vietnamese communities, government officials and prominent politicians to promote human rights for Vietnam.

In Oslo, Norway on Nov. 27, he met with Mr. Asbjorn Lovbrak, a representative of the Pacific Affairs Office and a Norwegian official on human rights. During the two-hour meeting, Mr. Quynh shared his personal experiences in the Hanoi's system of prison camps and the aspiration of the Vietnamese political prisoners for human rights not just for themselves but for every human being in their country. The struggle of the Vietnamese people for freedom, human rights, and democracy, according to Mr. Quynh, needs and deserves the support of the world community, especially governments of the free countries.

Mr. Quynh then traveled to the Vietnamese communities in Stavanger and Kristiansand. During the visit, he also met with Mr. John Magnus Naggaard, Principal of the Saint Olav high school at Stavanger, with a request that the truth about the human rights condition inside Vietnam, not the façade presented by the Hanoi embassies, should be made known to the students of history. Mr. Quynh later talked with journalist Marie Rein Bore of the Stavanger Aftenblad and encouraged foreign journalists to visit and interview Vietnamese political prisoners currently under house arrests, especially Venerable Thich Quang Do, the second highest leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. Venerable Thich Quang Do was imprisoned by Hanoi for years and recently released to unofficial pagoda-arrest.

In Brussels, Belgium on Dec. 4, Mr. Tran Manh Quynh attended the International Forum on Human Rights in Vietnam held by the International Council for Democracy in Vietnam. He reported on the treatment of political prisoners by the Vietnamese communist regime.

Mr. Tran Manh Quynh and Mr. Pham Van Thanh, another political prisoner recently released by Hanoi, revealed a list of additional 37 political and religious prisoners in Thanh Hoa and Nam Ha Prison Camps, among which, 9 are in extremely grave health condition. These prisoners could lose their lives in the coming weeks if no immediate medical care is given.

The 9 prisoners are:

1) Father Mai Duc Chuong, Catholic priest of the Co-Redemption Religious Order, 68, imprisoned since 1986, at Prison Camp Thanh Hoa Five

2) Tran Van Luong, former congressman of South Vietnam, 58, imprisoned since 1985, at Prison Camp Thanh Hoa Five.

3) Venerable. Tran Nam Phuong, Buddhist home monk, 49, imprisoned since 1985, at Prison Camp Thanh Hoa Five

4) Phan Van Ban, former officer of South Vietnam Armies, 60, imprisoned since 1978, at Prison Camp Thanh Hoa Five

5) Nguyen Van Bao, history teacher, 65, imprisoned since 1978, at Prison Camp Thanh Hoa Five

6) Y Blot, ethnic Vietnamese, 45, imprisoned since 1985, at Prison Camp Thanh Hoa Five

7) Do Huon, US citizen, 55, imprisoned since 1993, at Prison Camp Thanh Hoa Five

8) Venerable Le Van Son, Hoa Hao Buddhist home monk, 67, imprisoned since 1982, at Prison Camp Thanh Hoa Five

9) Nguyen Truong, peasant, 67, imprisoned since 1985, at Prison Camp Thanh Hoa Five