A test for President Bush on democracy, human rights - (urges leaning on commie Vietnam)

AUGUSTA FREE PRESS.COM ^ | JUNE 20, 2005 | BRUCE KESLER

[CHARLITE]

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai of Vietnam will meet with President Bush. Today, New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, chairman of the Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations subcommittee, is holding a hearing on Vietnam's human-rights record.

On Friday, Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said: "President Bush needs to send a clear message to Hanoi that progress on human rights will affect other aspects of Vietnam's evolving relationship with the United States." However, the State Department has declined to send a representative to Smith's congressional hearing. What message does this send?

Human Rights Watch reports: "Hundreds of dissidents have been jailed on criminal charges simply for advocating democratic reforms or using the Internet to disseminate proposals for human rights and religious freedom." Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch concludes: "President Bush has raised expectations with his call for democracy and more open societies around the world. The biggest test of whether he means it is his willingness to press countries such as Vietnam on basic rights issues."

For example:

- Dr. Pham Hong Son translated the article "What is Democracy?" from the U.S. Embassy Web site, and distributed it through the Internet. He is now serving a 12-year sentence.

- Mr. Nguyen Khac Toan helped others write petitions and appeals against illegal appropriation of land. He is now serving a four-year sentence.

- Mr. Nguyen Vu Binh applied for permission to form an independent political party. He is now serving a seven-year sentence.

- Montagnard Christians, Mennonites, Cao Dai, Hoa Hao and Unified Buddhist Church adherents are beaten, persecuted and imprisoned for not following communist orthodoxy. Catholics are severely restricted in their observance.

- A Web site you can visit for more examples is www.fva.org, from the Free Vietnam Alliance.

In typical despotic affrontery to clear and widely known evidence to the contrary, Khai said to a Washington Post reporter (June 17 edition) before leaving Hanoi: "We have no prisoners of conscience in Vietnam."

Khai is visiting with Microsoft's Bill Gates during his visit. Microsoft wants to increase its foreign business. On June 13, Microsoft, joining Google and Yahoo, agreed with China to block users of its Internet portal from using the words "democracy," "freedom" and "human rights," to appease Beijing. In an understatement, Human Rights Watch's Adams said, "America's political and business leaders should not assume that a stronger Vietnamese economy has brought greater respect for human rights."

Indeed, it seems U.S. big business could care less about human rights in its pursuit of profits. The U.S. is Vietnam's biggest export market, $5 billion last year. The U.S. sold $1 billion to Vietnam, and U.S. companies are eager to sell more, regardless of the effects on the Vietnamese people's human rights.

You may write to President Bush at president@whitehouse.gov if you want to express an opinion. President Bush has held several widely publicized meetings with notable human-rights advocates. (See, for example, the Washington Post article of June 15, "Bush meets with dissidents to highlight abuse of rights.") You might ask when he plans to meet with Vietnamese dissidents.

In President Bush's second inaugural address, he pledged, "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors." President Bush has been stalwart in keeping that pledge. Let's hope and demand he continues to keep that pledge, to oppressed Vietnamese.

Reporters from Vietnam and Vietnamese say that the thugocracy ruling Vietnam only respond to Western media and political pressure, to free some dissidents and lighten up a bit in their oppression, in order to further their kleptocracy through Western business investment and foreign aid.

Vietnam's true priorities were expressed when Khai joined with other Vietnam Politburo leaders in rejecting more reforms, when he said: "We need to breathe and have opened our windows and doors to the world but bugs and flies are coming in so we have to stop them from contaminating our society."

The United States must demand far greater quid pro quo from Vietnam before further entrenching its regime's oppression.

Bruce Kesler is a regular contributor to The Augusta Free Press.