Federal
Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony
June 20, 2005 Monday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 1995 words
COMMITTEE: HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
SUBCOMMITTEE: AFRICA
HEADLINE: HUMAN RIGHTS IN VIETNAM
TESTIMONY-BY: CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, U.S.
REPRESENTATIVE
BODY:
Opening Statement of Christopher H. Smith U.S. Representative
Committee on House International Relations Subcommittee on Africa,
Global Human Rights and International Operations
June 20, 2005
The Committee will come to order. Today we are meeting to examine the
government of Vietnam's respect for human rights and religious freedom.
But let me say at the outset that I remain deeply concerned about
obtaining a full, thorough and responsible accounting of the remaining
American MIAs from the Vietnam conflict. As my colleagues know well, of
the 2, 583 POW/MIAs who were unaccounted for - Vietnam (1,921), Laos
(569), Cambodia (83) and China (10) - - just under 1,400 remain
unaccounted for in Vietnam. While the joint POW/MIA accounting command
normally conducts four joint field activities per year in Vietnam, I
remain deeply concerned that the government of Vietnam could be more
forthcoming and transparent in providing the fullest accounting. It is
our sacred duty to the families of the missing that we never forget and
never cease our pursuit until we achieve the fullest possible accounting
of our MIAs.
This hearing takes place in the context of an official visit this week
to Washington by Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. Designed to
mark 10 years of diplomatic relations between the United States and
Vietnam, the visit is the highest-level since the end of the Vietnam
War. Khai will meet with President Bush and Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld, conclude intelligence agreements on terrorism and
transnational crime, as well as begin IMET military cooperation, meet
with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, and ring the bell on the floor of
the New York Stock Exchange.
Vietnam hopes to gain U.S. support to join the World Trade Organization
this year. Trade with the United States has exploded in the past decade,
from $1.5 billion to $6.4 billion in 2004. Vietnamese exports to the
United States have also jumped from $800 million in 2001 to $5 billion
last year.
An outside observer looking at all of this activity would in all
likelihood conclude that Vietnam is a close business and political
partner of the United States in Asia. And that observer, if asked, would
also likely deduce that in order to cooperate so closely, Vietnam must
also share the core values of the United States that make our country
great. Values such as the promotion of democracy, respect for human
rights, and the protection of religious freedom, free speech, and the
rights of minorities.
A quick look at the State Department's annual Human Rights report on
Vietnam, however, reveals the opposite. According to the 2004 report
released just three months ago, "Vietnam is a one-party state, ruled and
controlled by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). . .. The
Government's human rights record remained poor, and it continued to
commit serious abuses. The Government continued to deny citizens the
right to change their government. Several sources reported that security
forces shot, detained, beat, and were responsible for the disappearances
of persons during the year. Police also reportedly sometimes beat
suspects during arrests, detention, and interrogation. . .. The
Government continued to hold political and religious prisoners. . .. The
Government significantly restricted freedom of speech, freedom of the
press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association. . .. Security
forces continued to enforce restrictions on public gatherings and travel
in some parts of the country, particularly in the Central Highlands and
the Northwest Highlands. The Government prohibited independent
political, labor, and social organizations. . .. The Government
restricted freedom of religion and prohibited the operation of
unregistered religious organizations. Participants in unregistered
organizations faced harassment as well as possible detention and
imprisonment. The Government imposed limits on freedom of movement of
some individuals whom it deemed a threat. The Government did not permit
human rights organizations to form or operate."
Moreover, in September 2004, the State Department designated Vietnam as
a "Country of Particular Concern" or "CPC" for its systematic, ongoing,
egregious violations of religious freedom.
Congress has also expressed its grave concern about the state of human
rights in Vietnam. The House of Representatives has twice passed
legislation authored by me on human rights in Vietnam. HR 1587, The
Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2004, passed the House by a 323-45 vote in
July of 2004. A similar measure passed by a 410-1 landslide in the House
in 2001. The measures called for limiting further increases of
nonhumanitarian U.S. aid from being provided to Vietnam if certain human
rights provisions were not met, and authorized funding to overcome the
jamming of Radio Free Asia and funding to support non-governmental
organizations which promote human rights and democratic change in
Vietnam. Regrettably, both bills stalled in Senate committees and have
not been enacted into law.
I regret that no one from the State Department was available today to
explain the incongruity of United States support for the government of
Vietnam, as expressed in our close and growing-ever- closer trade and
military relations, and U.S. concern for the appalling lack of respect
for the basic human rights of its citizens that the Vietnamese
government has consistently demonstrated.
The Human Rights Reports, the Report on International Religious Freedom,
the Trafficking in Persons Report, the reports of leading international
human rights organizations, and countless witnesses, some of whose
testimonies you will hear today, all testify that the government of
Vietnam has inflicted and continues to inflict terrible suffering on
countless people.
It is a regime that arrests and imprisons writers, scientists,
academics, religious leaders and even veteran communists in their own
homes, and lately in Internet cafes, for speaking out for freedom and
against corruption. In fact, this statement I am giving today would
easily fetch me a 15-year prison sentence replete with torture if I were
a Vietnamese national or Member of Parliament making these comments in
Vietnam.
It is a government that crushes thousands of Montagnard protestors, as
they did in the Central Highlands during Easter weekend in 2004, killing
and beating many peaceful protestors.
The government has forcibly closed over 400 Christian churches in the
Central Highlands, and the government continues to force tens of
thousands of Christians to renounce their faith. I would note here that
it is inspiring but not unexpected that many of these Christians have
steadfastly resisted those pressures and refused to renounce Christ. One
pastor estimated that 90 percent have refused to renounce their
Christian faith, despite government efforts to compel them to do so.
This is a government that has detained the leadership of the Unified
Buddhist Church of Vietnam and continues to attempt to control the
leadership of the Catholic Church. This is a government that imprisoned
a Catholic priest by the name of Father Ly and meted out a 10-year
prison sentence. Father Ly was imprisoned in 2001 when he was arrested
after submitting testimony to a hearing of the United States Commission
on International Religious Freedom. In his testimony, he criticized the
communist government of Vietnam for its policies of repressing religious
freedom. In fact, I was the author of H Con Res 378, which called for
the immediate release of Father Ly and cleared Congress 424-1 on May 12,
2004.
Thankfully Father Ly, along with Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, were released from
prison earlier this year, in all likelihood due to the pressure from the
United States with its CPC designation.
Their release was part of a process called for in the 1998 International
Religious Freedom Act, which I co-sponsored, which mandates that the
U.S. government engage in dialogue with severe violators of religious
freedom to improve conditions or face "Presidential actions," which
could include sanctions or withdrawal of non-humanitarian assistance.
The Vietnamese government also took some other positive steps in
response to the CPC designation, including a new law streamlining the
application process for religious groups registering with the government
and prime ministerial directives which prohibit forced renunciations of
faith and allow Protestant "house churches" in ethnic minority provinces
to operate if they renounce connections to certain expatriate groups,
particularly the Montagnard Foundation, which is based in the United
States.
And in May, the State Department announced it had reached an agreement
on religious freedom with Vietnam. Under the agreement, the Vietnamese
government committed to:
-- fully implement the new legislation on religious freedom and to
render previous contradictory regulations obsolete;
-- instruct local authorities to strictly and completely adhere to the
new legislation and ensure their compliance;
-- facilitate the process by which religious congregations are able to
open houses of worship; and,
-- give special consideration to prisoners and cases of concern raised
by the United States during the granting of prisoner amnesties.
Time will tell whether the government will respect this agreement and
comply with its provisions, or whether there will be a return to
business as usual once the spotlight is removed. But the agreement does
shows that the provisions of the International Religious Freedom Act
seem to be helping to improve the respect for religious freedom in some
of the worst violator countries.
The more important point is that religious freedom is not a matter of
compliance with an agreement, but an attitude of respect for citizens
who choose to worship and peacefully practice their religious beliefs
that extends from the highest government leaders down to local
authorities and the village police.
In a recent interview given prior to his visit to the United States,
Prime Minister Khai stated, "we have no prisoners of conscience in
Vietnam," and declared that "political reforms and economic reforms
should be closely harmonized."
His statement is typical of the attitude of the government of Vietnam,
which has scoffed at the Vietnam Human Rights Act and dismissed charges
of human rights abuses, pleading the tired mantra of interference in the
internal affairs of their government and that our struggle is some way
related to the war in Vietnam. They say, Vietnam is a country, not a
war. That is their protest, and I would say that is precisely the issue.
Today's hearing is about the shameful human rights record of a country,
more accurately, of a government, and it is not about the war. And, of
course, Vietnam is a country with millions of wonderful people who yearn
to breathe free and to enjoy the blessings of liberty. We say, behave
like an honorable government, stop bringing dishonor and shame to your
government by abusing your own people and start abiding by
internationally recognized U.N. covenants that you have signed.
When is enough, enough? Vietnam needs to come out of the dark ages of
repression, brutality and abuse and embrace freedom, the rule of law,
and respect for fundamental human rights. Vietnam needs to act like the
strategic partner of the United States we would like it to be, treating
its citizens, even those who disagree with government policies, with
respect and dignity.
Human rights are central, are at the core of our relationship with
governments and the people they purport to represent. The United States
of America will not turn a blind eye to the oppression of a people, any
people in any region of the world. I welcome our witnesses and the
valuable eyewitness testimony they bring today, so that the world will
get a true and complete picture of this government with whom we are
growing ever closer.