New York, U.S. (October 25, 1995) -- The Vietnamese-American community denounces the attendance of General Le Duc Anh, president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, at the United Nation's 50th anniversary. Gen. Le Duc Anh and his oppressive regime do not represent the Vietnamese people. The communist government in Hanoi violates the basic civil and political rights of the Vietnamese people. Its officials face protest wherever they go.
The Hanoi government is criticized and condemned by international human rights groups for a wide range of violations, including arbitrary detention, punishment and imprisonment for peaceful dissent, persecution of religious groups, mistreatment and imprisonment of Catholic and Buddhist leaders. A list of approximately 1,000 confirmed political and religious prisoners with names, sentences, and prison locations has been compiled by human rights groups. These 1,000 jailed for their beliefs are a part of the estimated tens of thousands of political prisoners in Vietnam whose whereabouts and fates are unknown to the outside world.
The human rights violations of the Hanoi regime are serious and ongoing.
* In August 1995, the Hanoi government put on trial, convicted, and sentenced--all in one day--six Buddhist monks and lay persons for organizing a relief mission to aid flood victims. As result of the regime's persecution of religion, the entire leadership of the Unified Buddhist Church, numerous Catholic priests, and leaders of other faiths are now in jail.
* Also in August, the government sent to prison--after a two day trial-- nine pro-democracy activists for attempting to organize a democracy conference, showing again that peaceful expression is a crime in Vietnam.
* With no tolerance for dissent, the government has even imprisoned communist party members who question the one-party system and lack of freedom.
A government that rules by force, maintains political prisoners, a leader of Vietnam, then who is he? Gen. Anh is best known for masterminding the 1978 invasion of Cambodia, a pursuit for regional domination that wrought untold misery on the people of Vietnam and her neighbors. Sadly, on the 50th anniversary of the body devoted to peace and cooperation among peoples of the world, the self-appointed representative of Vietnam is a war- criminal responsible for sacrificing the lives of so many Vietnamese youths.
Living in freedom, the Vietnamese-American community is compelled to speak out against the injustices in Vietnam and demand the freedoms that our compatriots at home are imprisoned for wanting. The communist government in Vietnam must respect the rights of its citizens, including the right to worship and the right to think differently than the communist party. It must release all political prisoners, and allow open and free elections. The Hanoi dictatorship must return to the people of Vietnam the fundamental right to choose one's own government and political leaders.
We urge for your support in the Vietnamese struggle for freedom. The Vietnamese are the people. They are the seventy million. They are not the small minority with a monopoly on power maintained through brute force and deceit.
Le Duc Anh, president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, was on hand for the United Nation's 50th anniversary in New York. Receiving the Hanoi leader were throngs of Vietnamese protesters. The demonstrators had a simple message: Le Duc Anh and his government do not represent the people in Vietnam
Like in previous protests against Hanoi officials, the crowd held high signs calling for human rights and democracy in Vietnam; the marchers chanted "freedom for Vietnam."
Yet this time, the protests had a new wrinkle, in line with the United Nation's spirit of international cooperation.
On October 23, the first day of the Anniversary program, Cuban- and Vietnamese-Americans shared a demonstration site near the UN building, underscoring the universal principle of human rights. The two ‚immigrant‚ groups drew light to a powerful point: individuals, whether born in the Caribbean, Asia, or anywhere else, have fundamental rights as human beings.
Two days later, on October 25, a crowd of 100 Vietnamese picketed in front of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, site of a dinner attended by Le Duc Anh and other heads of states. Next to the Vietnamese demonstrators on the sidewalk were those calling for an independent Tibet. Interestingly, as the evening progressed, the Tibetans and Vietnamese first took turns, then joined each other, in denouncing repression in their respective homelands. The two groups shared their hand-held speaker systems; the Vietnamese chanted demands for human rights in Tibet and the Tibetans did the same for Vietnam.
The delegation led by Le Duc Anh probably never saw the demonstrators, as the Hanoi group made its way into the elegant hotel by a back entrance. Most diplomats and guests of the dinner, arriving by the normal front-entrance, stopped to look at the protesters. Some may have noted that many of the heads of states at the 50th UN anniversary were welcomed and received by members of their nation's immigrant community in the U.S.
The leaders of communist Vietnam were protested by Vietnamese wherever they went.