VOA News May 11: Vietnam Human Rights Day

Washington D.C., May 11, 2007

At ceremonies at the U.S. Capitol marking Vietnam Human Rights Day, members of Congress, labor leaders, representatives of the Vietnamese-American community, and activists are calling on the government of Vietnam to respect human rights.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed House Resolution 2-4-3, calling on the government of Vietnam to immediately release Father Nguyen Van Ly, Nguyen Van Dai, Le Thi Cong Nhan, Le Quoc Quan, and others arrested for legitimately expressing their right to free speech.

http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2007-05-15-voa3.cfm

Radio Australia, May 11: US Congress Says Vietnam Should Face Sanctions Again

Australia, May 11, 2007

Lawmakers in the United States are pressing Washington to reimpose sanctions on Vietnam.Congress has criticised Vietnam's crackdown against dissidents, which have reportedly intensified after it entered the World Trade Organisation in January. The US government has normalised trading relations with its former battlefield enemy and removed it from a dreaded human rights blacklist. But Ed Royce, a US Republican Party lawmaker, told a Congressional meeting on Hanoi's current anti-dissident campaign he is "appalled by the lack of progress in human rights reforms" in Vietnam.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1920717.htm

White House May 11: Statement Condemning Sentencing of Political Prisoners and Syria and Vietnam

Washington, D.C., May 11, 2007
STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY
Political Prisoners in Syria and Vietnam
The United States condemns the recent sentencings of democracy activists Anwar al-Bunni and Kamal Labwani to long terms of imprisonment and is alarmed by reports that they have been subjected to inhumane prison conditions. These developments demonstrate that the Asad regime in Syria continues to suppress dissent and crack down on those who peacefully seek to defend their rights and bring democratic reform to their country. As the President stated last year, all political prisoners in Syria should be released immediately.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070511-11.html

Que Me May 11: Vietnam Committee Condemns Hanoi's "Systematic Liquidation" of the Vietnamese Dissident Movement

Paris, May 11, 2007

The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights is deeply disturbed by the extremely harsh prison sentences handed down today against human rights lawyers Nguyen van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, and against other dissidents in the unfair trials of 10 and 11 May 2007. The Committee fears that other harsh convictions will follow. The Committee strongly denounces the recent vast wave of repression against dissidents whose sole “crime” is that of exercising their legitimate right to freedom of expression and association, rights enshrined in the Vietnamese Constitution and the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Vietnam acceded in September 1982.

http://www.queme.net/eng/e-news_detail.php?numb=803

Vietnam News Agency May 5: Vietnam Calls U.S. House Resolution Tuesday of Sovereignty

Hanoi, May 5, 2007

Viet Nam opposes the interference of foreign countries in its internal affairs, said Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung on May 3. Dung was answering correspondents’ questions regarding a US House of Representatives’ Resolution passed on May 2 that calls for the release of individuals found to be in violation of Vietnamese law.

http://www.vnanet.vn/Home/EN/tabid/119/itemid/194255/Default.aspx