Joint Statement by Human Rights and Religious Groups on Prime Minister Phan Van Khai’s Visit to the US

 

Vietnam Human Rights network

Press Release

June 12, 2005

The following statement was issued on June 11, 2005 by representatives of the Vietnam Human Rights Network, the Vietnamese Laity Movement in the Diaspora, and the Overseas Hoa Hao Buddhist Association.

 

STATEMENT BY VIETNAMESE

RELIGIOUS AND HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS

ON PREMIER PHAN VAN KHAI’S VISIT TO THE USA

 

Vietnamese Communist Prime Minister Phan Van Khai  is going to visit the United States late this month, marking the first visit by a Vietnamese communist head of government to this country. Considering the importance of this event, the undersigned Vietnamese religious and human rights groups unanimously make the following statement:

1. Ever since the Vietnamese Communists imposed their totalitarian rule on Vietnam, especially following their invasion of South Vietnam in 1975, they have carried out a strict policy of systematic oppression within the framework of a dictatorship, aiming at destroying all basic human rights, particularly the Vietnamese people’s religious freedom;

2. The Vietnamese communist authorities have enforced sophisticated and atrocious measures against religions, including:

-          Detention, house arrest, or elimination of prominent religious leaders;

-          Restriction or prohibition of the recruitment, training, and appointment of the clergy;

-          Confiscation of faith-based properties;

-          Disbanding of religious organizations and maximum restriction of religious activities such as, worship, pastoral services, and circulation of religious reading materials; and

-          Intervention into churches’ affairs through state-controlled churches or creation of division within each religion and among different denominations.

 The religious and human rights organizations named below, therefore, solemnly:

      1.       Protest against the Vietnamese communist religious suppression, and

2.       Urge President George W. Bush and the US Congress to set human rights issues, especially the Vietnamese people’s freedom of professing and practicing their religions, as a precondition in their negotiations with Vietnam.

  

Made on June 11, 2005

 Representatives of Involved Organizations:

Nguyễn Thanh Trang  Chairman    The Vietnam Human  Rights Network

Đỗ Như Điện Coordinator  The Vietnamese Laity  Movement in the Diaspora

Nguyễn Văn Cội  Advisor The Overseas Hòa Hảo Buddhist Association

                                                                                                  

                                                               

 

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