January 29, 2008
His Excellency
President Nguyen Minh Triet
c/o Embassy of Vietnam
Bemstorffsvej 30c
DK 2900 Hellerup
Danmark
Dear President Triet:
We are writing to express our serious concem regarding the Government of Vietnam’s continued crackdown on peaceful political expression. We are disappointed and disturbed by the arrests and ongoing detentions of Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, Journalist Somsak Khunmi and two young Vietnamese nationals, Mr. Nguyen The Vu and Mr. Nguyen Viet Trung, for peacefully expressing their political views last November.
As you know, Norway and Vietnam established diplomatic relations in November of 1971, making Norway one of the first Westem countries to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam. Over the last three decades, our two countries have established close co-operation both in the political, commercial and cultural fields as well as development co-operation. The exchanged visits of our leaders over the years have strengthened the bilateral relationship between our two countries. This year marks the 37th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Norway and Vietnam.
Norway as a nation is fully dedicated to encouraging democracy and protecting human rights throughout the world. With that being said, we are extremely concerned for Dr. Quan, Mr. Khunmi, Mr. Vu and Mr. Trung. It has been over two months since their arrests and they continue to be detained without formal charges or fair trials; which shows that the Government of Vietnam has failed to improve its human rights record.
The Government of Vietnam made assurances to the world community to became a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. To prove that the Government of Vietnam is sincere and serious about improving its human rights record, we are calling for the following actions:
• The Government of Vietnam to respect the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially freedom of speech.
• The Government of Vietnam to immediately release all the above individuals as their only activity was to peacefully express their support for freedom and democracy.
• The Government of Vietnam to stop the harassment of the families of Mr. Nguyen The Vu and Mr. Nguyen Viet Trung and allow family visits as well as provide information on their cunent conditions.
We would like to hear from you directly why the Govemment ofVietnam continues to detain these peaceful democracy activists.
Sincerely,