Milpitas, California - USA: The Free Vietnam Alliance held its biannual Congress on August 21-23 to review past activities, plan future directions, and elect principal officials for the term 1998-2000.
One hundred FVA delegates from various parts of the world attended the Congress.
In assessing FVA activities over the past two years, delegates noted that years of cumulative effort have generated significant public support within the overseas Vietnamese community as well as recognition outside the community. The Congress discussed the acceptance of the FVA political program, the "Roadmap to a Democratic and Developed Vietnam," for its practical and humanistic values. The Roadmap since its introduction in Berlin on December 13, 1997, has been publicized widely around the world.
In an optimistic yet realistic outlook for basic changes in Vietnam in light of the on-going political and socioeconomic crisis facing the communist regime, the delegates agreed on four general directions for their up-coming activities:
1. Publicizing further the Roadmap to invite international support.
2. Increasing pressure upon the Hanoi dictatorship especially for press and speech freedoms.
3. Supporting the peasant protests against corruption, student movements for justice, and general public discontent over religious and socioeconomic issues.
4. Increasing coordination and solidarity among democratic movements overseas and in Vietnam.
The number of members on the elected Representative Council was increased from 9 to 15, with many more young and female faces. Mr. Nguye^~n Ngo.c Ddu+'c, 43, was reelected as FVA Secretary General.
On the third day of the Congress, an open session with the public was held to share FVA's information and viewpoints. The four distinguished guest-speakers were Prof. Nguye^~n Ngo.c Bi'ch, director of the Vietnamese language program of Radio Free Asia; Journalist So+n DDie^`n Nguye^~n Vie^'t Kha'nh; U.S. Immigration Judge Phan Quang Tue^.; and Prof. Vu~ Quo^'c Thu`y, director of the Immigration and Ethnic Affairs Office of Washington State. The session, with the participation of more than 200 representatives of various organizations and media outlets, generated a lively discussion.