Orange County pushes discussion on Vietnam
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
WASHINGTON Rep. Loretta Sanchez and three Vietnamese community leaders met with the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday to make sure she knows what their concerns are about that country’s government before she sits down with its president today.
Nguyen Minh Triet’s visit is the first of any Vietnamese president to the United States. His trip has sparked protests in Little Saigon and across the country, given what many Vietnamese Americans describe as the regime’s poor human rights record and recent crackdown on pro-democracy groups and activists.
Triet will go to Dana Point on Friday after meetings today on Capitol Hill and Friday with President Bush.
The Vietnamese community leaders hoped that Pelosi and Bush would capitalize on the recent closer relations between the two countries – spurred in part by a successful trade agreement and Vietnam’s entrance into the World Trade Organization last year – and push the country toward change.
They want Pelosi “to impress upon the Vietnamese president that he must respect human rights, particularly freedom of speech, freedom of religio, and association, and that they must release the peaceful dissidents,” said Diem Do, chairman of the Vietnam Reform Party, an international group active in Orange County.
Do, who lives in Anaheim, joined Bich Nguyen of the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans and Thich Giac Duc, a prominent Buddhist leader from Boston in the meeting with the Speaker.
“We walked out of the building, and all felt it was an excellent meeting and an excellent opportunity,” Do said. “It was a very lively exchange, and she was very, very engaged. She repeated over and over again that she will bring up the issue that we have discussed to the Vietnamese president tomorrow.”
Do has been lobbying in Washington on the issue in recent weeks. He met with Bush and Vice President Cheney, representatives at the State Department and the National Security Agency, and with Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton.
“I really hope that between (the Bush) meeting and this meeting today with the Speaker, we can really send a very strong message,” Do said. “They are in a very good position to leverage some changes in Vietnam.”
Earlier this year, the Vietnamese government arrested several of the leaders of Block 8406, a coalition of Democratic reform groups. Priest Nguyen Van Ly and lawyer Nguyen Van Dai are among those accused of spreading propaganda against the government, and could serve up to 20 years if convicted.
The House unanimously passed a resolution last month urging Vietnam to release the prisoners and reverse course on human rights.
“She’s a very big person with respect to human rights, and she’s very interested to see the depth of the human rights issues there,” Sanchez said of Pelosi. “I think we educated her, we left her material, and she said that she was going to bring the points up with the president.
Ever since she was elected to Congress Sanchez has made trips to Vietnam and been criticized by the Vietnamese government for meeting with dissidents and arguing for increased human rights and religious freedoms.
“This is a continuous fight,” Sanchez said. “We’re on the right side of this issue.”
