Vietnam Human Rights Network requests US  officials to help 

minister Nguyen Hong Quang and journalist Nguyen Vu Binh

  

 

The Vietnam Human Rights Network has demanded a number of US senators, US Congress members and state and local elective officials to get involved into Vietnamese communists’ recent oppressive measures against minister Nguyen Hong Quang and journalist Nguyen Vu Binh.

The following is a letter addressed to senator Richard G. Lugar, Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee:

 

 

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Vietnam Human Rights Network

 

4745 El Cajon Boulevard, Ste. 104 San Diego, CA 92115 - U.S.A.
Tel.: (619) 284-5111  / Fax: (619) 284-5115 / Email: vnhrnet@vietnamhumanrights.net

Website: www.vietnamhumanrights.net

 

 

 

 

June 21, 2004

 

 

To: The Honorable Richard G. Lugar

Chairman of The Foreign Relations Committee

United States Senate

Washington, D.C.

 

 

Subject: Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang and Journalist Nguyen Vu Binh

 

 

Dear Senator Lugar:

 

We at the Vietnam Human Rights Network would like to request that you intervene with the Vietnamese communist government concerning the following two serious violations of human rights:

 

1.                  Against Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang

 

A Secretary General of Vietnam’s Mennonite Church, he was arrested on 6-8-2004 after he had distributed an 8-page report denouncing the Saigon City's 2nd District police of using force in their arrest and beating of four Mennonite missionaries. The missionaries had complained of injustice and demanded that government officials respect the laws. After the Pastor had been arrested, the police also took away his computer and private as well as legal documents for lawsuits he was defending.

 

2.                  Against Journalist Nguyen Vu Binh

 

Accused of “espionage” based on Vietnam’s Criminal Law and of slandering the state for his sending in July 2002 a letter to the U.S. Congress denouncing human rights violations by the Vietnamese authorities, Mr. Binh was arrested in September 2002. On 5-5-2004 he was sentenced to seven years in prison and three years under house arrest by the Hanoi high court.

Journalist Binh had worked nearly ten years for the Communist Review, the official publication of the Vietnamese Communist party, until December 2000 when he resigned to work on the formation of an independent political party. In 2001, together with other democracy activists, he planned to start an “Anti-Corruption Association”. A man of courage and sacrifice for freedom and democracy, he was granted several awards by a number of international organizations, including Human Rights Watch’s “Hellmann/Hammett” award in 2002.

According to Vietnam’s Constitution as well as the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Vietnam ratified in 1982, everyone is entitled to freedoms of speech, assembly, and association. Though his “espionage” sentence is listed in Article 80 of Vietnam’s Criminal Law, Mr. Binh countered that his case was unfounded due to complete lack of evidence.

Because of the seriousness of the violations by the Vietnamese communist government against Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang and Journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, we would like to request that you kindly intervene with the Vietnamese authorities for the immediate and unconditional release of both victims. We hope your intervention and that of your colleagues would effectively prevent more numerous and serious violations of human rights in Vietnam.

Thank very much for your assistance.

 

Sincerely,

 

(Signed)

 

Nguyễn Thanh Trang

Chairman, Coordinating Committee

Vietnam Human Rights Network