Free Vietnam Alliance
(http://www.fva.org)
Press Release
October 28, 2003
In recent days, the Vietnamese government has shown a blatant disregard for international norms on religious freedom and human rights as it has increasingly cracked down on top leaders of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and continued to arbitrarily punish and imprison political dissidents.
On October 9, security forces detained eleven clergy of the UBCV at Luong Son in Khanh Hoa province as the delegation was on its way from Binh Dinh to Saigon. The delegation comprised the top leaders of the UBCV, including Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, the newly chosen Supreme Patriarch of Vietnamese Buddhists, and Very Venerable Thich Quang Do, the Executive President of the UBCV Executive Council. Both of these monks, past nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize, are currently under detention and isolated in their pagodas. Authorities have turned pagodas into prisons, jailing the top 13 leaders of the UBCV. In response to this oppression, Venerable Thich Thien Hanh, secretary of the UBCV Executive Council, has gone on an indefinite hunger strike at Bao Quoc pagoda in Hue to end only when authorities cease the current persecution against Buddhists.
The above repressive acts are not new to Vietnam. The Vietnamese authorities have used similar tactics to sentence Father Nguyen Van Ly to 15 years of prison just for making public calls for religious freedom. Followers of other faith--Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, Protestant--have also faced similar repression. Meanwhile, individuals whose views differ from the communist party are also victim to constant harassment and persecution. Besides well known figures like Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, historian Pham Que Duong, journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, professor Tran Khue, Dr. Pham Hong Son, and attorney Le Chi Quang, countless others are also unjustly imprisoned solely for expressing opposition to the anti-democratic policies of the government.
The international community needs to take stronger measures against a dictatorial regime that flaunts international norms and increasingly represses basic human rights. Without international pressure, the travesty of justice in Vietnam will continue.
The Free Vietnam Alliance urges democratic governments and international bodies like the UN, the European Union, to sanction the Vietnamese government for its human rights abuses. In light of that government’s disrespect for the international covenants to which it is a signatory, all forms of aid and cooperation with Hanoi should be tied to measurable improvements in respect for basic rights. The lofty ideals of the world’s democracies need to be accompanied by concrete actions.