Excerpts: Lawmaker Decries Vietnam's Repression of Religions
(Representative Christopher Smith on HR 2833)Representative Christopher Smith (Republican of New Jersey) spoke out September 6 against religious oppression in Vietnam and urged fellow lawmakers to back his bill on promoting democracy in that communist country.
Smith, a leader in Congress on issues of religious freedom, was seeking support for HR. 2833.
"The Human Rights Act for Vietnam," Smith said, "will ensure that putting an end to those egregious abuses remains central to U.S. foreign policy toward Vietnam."
His bill, Smith continued, "will not restrict trade in any way, but it uses other forms of leverage to construct a human rights program that is comprehensive yet reasonable and flexible."
The bill passed the House of Representatives in a 410-1 roll call vote the same day as House Joint Resolution 51 -- a resolution approves granting Vietnam nondiscriminatory treatment for its products on an annual basis.
Hanoi, Smith charged, "systematically denies the fundamental right to freedom of religion."
While conceding that "some freedom of worship is permitted," Smith noted that religious believers "are forbidden to participate in religious activities except under circumstances rigidly defined and controlled by the government."
Smith, an ardent anti-communist, drew attention to Hanoi's "recent intensification of the government's systematic repression of the Montagnards."
Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, Smith said, "the Montagnard people have been severely persecuted, in part because of their wartime association with the United States, and in part because of their strong commitment to their traditional way of life and to their Christian religion, and that is regarded as inconsistent with the absolute loyalty and control demanded by the Communist system."
Smith related how he had gone to the web site of the Vietnamese Embassy and saw that they had a statement "about how religious freedom is respected, it is constitutionally protected." If that is the case, Smith observed, then the Hanoi government has nothing to fear from his bill.
However, Smith added, in truth the communists in Vietnam "are repressing people. They are beating people. They are killing people."
Following are excerpts from the September 6 Congressional Record:
(begin excerpts)
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, first of all, let me thank my good friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), and other cosponsors of this important human rights legislation for their strong support for this measure that is before the body today.
Madam Speaker, to hear some of our colleagues talk, we would think that Viet Nam was well on its way to being a human rights success story. Unfortunately, this is simply not the case. Just this week, a Buddhist monk in Danang committed suicide by self-immolation to protest the increasingly harsh repression of the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam.
Just yesterday, the Hanoi security cadres arrested two prominent reform advocates, retired Colonel Phan Que Duong and writer Hoang Minh Chinh. Their only crime appears to have been asking permission to start a nongovernmental organization that would expose corruption and promote transparency in government. Yet, these thoughtful and courageous men were dragged away from their homes and families on the very eve of the vote on the trade agreement whose supporters say is evidence that the Vietnamese Government is on the road to reform.
It is true that there have been some improvements since the dark days of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when hundreds of thousands of people were confined to so-called "reeducation camps;" and as we know, many died there, simply because they had taken the side of freedom. But in recent years, there has been no such progress. Indeed, in the last few months, the government of Viet Nam has substantially increased the frequency and the severity of its human rights violations.
Madam Speaker, the Government of Viet Nam systematically denies the fundamental right to freedom of religion. Although some freedom of worship is permitted, believers are forbidden to participate in religious activities except under circumstances rigidly defined and controlled by the government.
In 1999, the government issued a Decree Concerning Religious Activities which declared, in pertinent part, "All activities using religious belief in order to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, to prevent the believers from carrying out civic responsibilities, to sabotage the union of all the people, to go against the healthy culture of our Nation, as well as superstitious activities, will be punished in conformity with law."'
The Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam, Madam Speaker, the largest religious denomination in Viet Nam, has been declared illegal by the government, and over the last 25 years its clergy have often been imprisoned and subjected to other forms of persecution.
The Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church, 83-year-old Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, has been detained for 21 years in a ruined temple in an isolated area of central Vietnam. Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, the Executive President of the Unified Baptist Church, has also been in various forms of detention for many years, and was recently rearrested and placed under house arrest after he had proposed to bring the most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang to Saigon for medical treatment. For that, he was punished.
The Hoa Hao Buddhist Church was also declared to be illegal until 1999, when the government established an organization which purports to govern the Hoa Hao, but is dominated by government and Communist cadres, which is not acceptable to the believers. Several Hoa Hao have been sentenced to prison terms for protesting this denial of their religious freedom.
Independent Protestants, most of whom are members of ethnic minority groups, are subjected to particularly harsh treatment by the Government of Vietnam. According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, such treatment includes police raids on homes and house churches, detention, imprisonment, confiscation of religious and personal property, physical and psychological abuse, and fines for engaging in unapproved religious activities such as collective worship, public religious expression, the distribution of religious literature, and performing baptisms, marriages, and funeral services. In addition, the U.S. Commission's report goes on to say, it is reported that ethnic Hmong Protestants have been forced by local officials to agree to abandon their faith.
A Catholic priest, Madam Speaker, Father Nguyen Van Ly was arrested in March of 2001, just a few months ago, and remains in detention after submitting written testimony to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. For that, this great trading partner of the United States, this man, this priest, was arrested: submitting testimony to an official organ, a function of the United States Government that investigates religious persecution.
Madam Speaker, the other human rights violation in Vietnam right now is the recent intensification of the government's systematic repression of the Montagnards. Since 1975, the Montagnard people have been severely persecuted, in part because of their wartime association with the United States, and in part because of their strong commitment to their traditional way of life and to their Christian religion, and that is regarded as inconsistent with the absolute loyalty and control demanded by the Communist system.
In February 2001, several thousand Montagnards participated in a series of peaceful demonstrations throughout the Central Highlands, demanding religious freedom and restoration of their confiscated lands. The government responded by closing off the Central Highlands and sending in military forces, tanks and helicopters. Credible reports by refugees who have escaped to Cambodia indicate that at least one participant in the demonstration was killed and that the government has subjected others to imprisonment and torture and other forms of physical abuse. The Government of Vietnam has also taken steps to prevent further Montagnards from escaping, and the Vietnamese security forces in Cambodia are offering bounties for the surrender of Montagnard asylum seekers.
Madam Speaker, I want to also call attention to the active involvement of officials and entities of the Vietnamese Government in severe forms of trafficking in persons. There is evidence that the government's official labor export program has subjected workers, many of whom are women, to involuntary servitude, debt bondage, and other forms of abuse. In the recent case of several hundreds of workers who were trafficked by Vietnamese-owned corporations to the Daewoosa factory in American Samoa, the reaction of government officials to worker complaints of severe mistreatment was to threaten the workers with "punishment under the laws of Vietnam" if they continued to complain.
Madam Speaker, as most Members know, these are not the only human rights violations committed by the Vietnamese Government. The Government of Vietnam also pursues a policy of harassment, discrimination, intimidation, and other types of detention against those who peacefully express dissent from the government or the party policy. The arrests of Mr. Chinh and Colonel Duong are just the latest episode in that awful story.
Madam Speaker, the Human Rights Act for Vietnam will ensure that putting an end to those egregious abuses remains central to U.S. foreign policy toward Vietnam. It will not restrict trade in any way, but it uses other forms of leverage to construct a human rights program that is comprehensive yet reasonable and flexible.
First, the act tells the truth about human rights and the situation of human rights in Vietnam. It describes the violations by the Government of Vietnam of the rights to freedom of expression, association, and religion, and the rights of workers, as well as the persecution of ethnic minorities, as I said, including the Montagnards and persons associated with the United States prior to 1975. The act concludes that Congress and the American people are united in their determination that expansion of trade relations should not be construed as approval or complacency or complicity about human rights violations, and that the promotion of freedom and democracy must be central to U.S. foreign policy.
Second, the act will link increases in foreign aid, other than humanitarian assistance to the Government of Vietnam, to a finding by the President that the government has made "substantial progress" toward meeting certain human rights benchmarks. These benchmarks are reasonable and easily attainable: substantial progress toward release of political and religious prisoners; substantial progress toward respect by the Government of Vietnam to the right of freedom of religion, including the right to participate in religious organizations not connected to the Government of Vietnam; substantial progress, Madam Speaker, toward respect for the rights of members of ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands and elsewhere; and an end to the government complicity and severe forms of trafficking in human persons.
Madam Speaker, the Vietnam Human Rights Act does not require cuts in current levels of assistance or impose any restrictions at all on assistance that goes to nongovernmental organizations or private sector enterprises. It affects only increases in nonhumanitarian aid that goes to the Government of Vietnam. It also has a waiver capability that the President can exercise in the national interest or if he feels that the purposes of the act would be better served by waiving its provisions.
Madam Speaker, finally, just let me say the act also authorizes assistance to NGOs committed to promoting freedom and democracy in Vietnam. It will support efforts by the United States to overcome Hanoi's systematic jamming of the pro-freedom broadcasts by Radio Free Asia. It is amazing to me that right now, as we are about to approve a bilateral trade agreement, they are jamming every day the broadcast coming out of Radio Free Asia.
The act would require the State Department to take steps to ensure that U.S. cultural and exchange programs are open to people who share our values not just of the Vietnamese Government and Communist Party officials and persons close to those officials.
Finally, Madam Speaker, the act declares it to be the policy of the U.S. to offer refugee resettlement to pro-American combat veterans and other residents of Vietnam who meet the statutory criteria for U.S. refugee programs, who have been wrongfully denied access to these programs for reasons beyond their control, including but not limited to their inability to pay bribes that have been demanded by the Vietnamese Government officials.
The act does not change existing refugee law and does not mandate the admission of any person or group. The act does insist, however, that discretion under current law should be exercised to promote fairness for people who have been persecuted for 25 years because of their wartime associations with the U.S. or simply because they share our values.
Madam Speaker, I urge a positive vote on this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time. . . .
I do hope Members are listening--and K Street and some of the lobbyists, and the government of Vietnam itself, which through its embassy has admonished this Congress not to support this legislation.
Why? I went to their Web site, Madam Speaker, just the other day and looked and they had a statement about how religious freedom is respected, it is constitutionally protected.
Then what do they have to worry about? This simply says there has to be "substantial progress" in that area; we are not even saying achievement. We are saying progress; move in the right direction.
I would hope that Members would find it in their hearts to vote for this and say, we are going to give away the store and have free trade with the hope and expectation that will lead to a liberalization of human rights. I do believe that is naive, but if this is our belief, I do not know how we cannot support this legislation.
This is waivable. It provides the President, who we hope will make an honest determination, to decide whether a waiver is in the best interests of the tenets that are contained within this legislation.
Madam Speaker, we want to see real progress. We are tired of words. We want deeds by the government of Vietnam.
They are repressing people. They are beating people. They are killing people. That is not hyperbole, that is the truth on the ground. There are religious believers such as the Unified Buddhist Church, as we mentioned earlier, and others have mentioned it, who have suffered immeasurably simply because of their faith. . . .
I hope my colleagues hear these words and will support this legislation.
(end excerpts)
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