October 30, 2010
Hanoi – US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was to raise human rights and religious freedom concerns with Vietnam following a recent crackdown on journalists, bloggers, and activists, the US State Department said Saturday.
Clinton arrived in Vietnam on Friday to attend the East Asia Summit and host a meeting with her counterparts in the Lower Mekong Initiative.
’The Secretary again will raise the arrests and convictions of peaceful dissenters; restrictions on the internet, including blocks on Facebook; and attacks on religious groups,’ the State Department said in a press release.
’Advancing our relations with Vietnam allows the United States to promote its core values and discuss our differences on human rights and religious freedom more candidly and openly.’
In a speech Thursday in Hawaii, Clinton hailed improved US-Vietnamese relations ’that would have been unimaginable just 10 years ago.’
It is to be Clinton’s second visit to Vietnam in just over three months. In July, she attended the ASEAN Regional Forum in Hanoi where she raised also human right concerns with Vietnam.
On Thursday, the US Embassy in Hanoi said recent arrests and trials of labour activists, bloggers, and of a group of Catholics involved in a clash with police in May ’contradict Vietnam’s own commitment to internationally accepted standards of human rights.’
In Washington, Senator Barbara Boxer and four members of the US House of Representatives wrote letters to Clinton this week urging her to take up human rights issues in Hanoi on Saturday.
Human Rights Watch and the banned Vietnamese pro-democracy group Viet Tan also asked Clinton to take up the cases of several democracy activists and bloggers jailed in recent weeks, notably that of university professor Pham Minh Hoang. Hoang, a French-educated math professor, was arrested in August on charges of belonging to a banned political group.
The US and Vietnam have grown closer in recent months over shared concerns about rising Chinese power.
At the regional meeting in July, Clinton expressed US support for Vietnam’s multilateral approach to resolving maritime territorial disputes betweeen China and several South-East Asian countries including Vietnam.
China has repeatedly insisted on dealing with each country bilaterally, as the hot-button issue of disputed territory has intensified over the past year.