Sep 13, 2006

Montagnards: Human Rights in Vietnam


Mr. Kok Ksor, UNPO Member representative, will be amongst a group of prominent panelists gathered by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus.

Mr. Kok Ksor, a UNPO Member representative, will be amongst a group of prominent panelists gathered by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) to brief on the present state of human rights in Vietnam. Particular attention will be given to recent reports suggesting the United States State Department has softened its position on the Vietnamese authorities during the past year, despite reports of continued religious persecution.

Thursday, September 14th, 2006

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Room: 2237 Rayburn HOB

Please join the Congressional Human Rights Caucus (CHRC) at a Member's briefing on the current state of human rights in Vietnam.

This briefing will be co-chaired by Senator Sam Brownback, Representative Loretta Sanchez and Representative Zoe Lofgren.

In recent years, tensions between the United States and Vietnam over human rights issues have increased.  Vietnam, is a one-party, authoritarian state ruled by the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), which, for the past several years, appears to have followed a strategy of permitting various forms of personal and religious expression while selectively repressing individuals and organizations that it deems a threat to the party's monopoly on power.

The VCP has reportedly cracked down harshly on anti-government protests by various ethnic minority groups, most prominently the Montagnards in the country's Central Highlands.  These clashes between protestors and government security forces have flared periodically since 2001. Furthermore, in its effort to control the Internet, the central government has stepped up repression of so-called "cyber dissidents."

One of the most notable features of the State Department's 2005 report on human rights in Vietnam, released in March 2006, is citation of evidence of improving conditions. Whereas past reports described the Vietnamese government's human rights record as "poor," the 2005 version uses the term "unsatisfactory." The report states that the government in 2005 "took steps to improve respect for human rights," including granting amnesty to an unusually large number of prisoners including several high-profile dissidents. However, there are continuous reports from human rights groups operating in Vietnam, of religious persecution and physical abuse carried out by government police.

In September 2004, for the first time Vietnam was designated as a "country of particular concern" (CPC) in the State Department's International Religious Freedom Report. On May 5, 2005, the State Department announced it had reached an agreement on religious freedom with Vietnam. The agreement, which has not been released and has been named classified at the request of the Vietnamese government, enabled Vietnam to avoid punitive consequences, such as sanctions, associated with its CPC designation.

To discuss these serious issues, the following expert witnesses will be present:

I.   Panel:

Representative, US State Department (invited)

II.  Panel:

Ms. Kathryn Porter, Leadership Council for Human Rights

Mr. T. Kumar, Amnesty International

III. Panel:

Ms. Helen Ngo, Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bich, National Congress of Vietnamese Americans

Mr. Kok Ksor, Montagnard Foundation

Dr. Chan Dang-Vu, Viet Tan

 

For further information, please contact:

Fay Johnson (Rep. Wolf) at 202-225-5136,  Ur Jaddou (Rep. Lofgren) at 202-225-3072 or Maryamu Aminu (Rep. Lantos) at 202-225-3531.