Vietnam Must Improve Rights Record For Closer Economic Ties: US Lawmaker
RFA –
5/07/2015
Hanoi
must improve its human rights record if it expects to build closer economic ties
with Washington, a U.S. lawmaker visiting Vietnam said Thursday, ahead of an
annual round of talks between the two nations.
Democratic Congressman Alan Lowenthal of California, who represents the largest
Vietnamese community outside Vietnam, said that meetings with dissidents and
members of civil society in the country over the last week had convinced him
Hanoi’s rights record needed improvement.
“I think that Vietnam must do better in terms of human rights,” he told RFA’s
Vietnamese Service.
“People are not able to freely express themselves … there is censorship. I think
[the government is] trying to begin to make some changes … but they have a long
way to go.”
Lowenthal said that he and several other members of congress were opposed to
including Vietnam in the proposed U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to
create a multilateral free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region, given
Vietnam’s current rights record.
“I think the Vietnamese government realizes that if they want to have closer
economic ties with the United States, they must change their position,” he said.
“If they keep putting people into prison … Congress will not support any kind of
agreement with them. They have to stop doing what they’re doing.”
Lowenthal led an 11-member delegation to meet with the 87-year-old leader of the
banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) Thich Quang Do on Monday at the
Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in Ho Chi Minh City, where he has been under effective
house arrest since 2003.
At the meeting, Do told the delegation—which also included republican
Congressmen Matt Salmon and Tom Emmer—that the U.S. “has real leverage to help
put Vietnam on the path of reform” ahead of the 19th session of the U.S.-Vietnam
Human Rights Dialogue in Hanoi on Thursday.
“As Vietnam seeks to play a greater role on the regional and international
stage, it needs the support of the United States and the TPP to boost its
slowing economy,” Do said, according to a press release by Paris-based Vietnam
Committee on Human Rights (VCHR).
“The Communist leadership … policy of economic liberalization without political
reforms is disastrous, resulting in alarming social inequalities and wealth
disparity. Without democracy, pluralism and human rights, we can never build a
just, safe and peaceful society for Vietnam,” he said.
“By maintaining human rights as a cornerstone of U.S. engagement, [Washington]
can impress upon the Vietnamese leadership that they cannot enjoy full economic
relationships whilst suppressing their citizens’ basic rights.”
The Buddhist patriarch also applauded a report issued by the U.S. Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) last week, recommending that Vietnam be
designated as a “Country of Particular Concern” by the United States for
egregious violations of religious freedom.
Rights dialogue
According to a statement by the U.S. State Department issued ahead of Thursday’s
meeting, the U.S.-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue was expected to include topics
such as legal reform, rule of law, freedom of expression and assembly, religious
freedom, labor rights, and disability rights.
“The promotion of human rights remains a key tenet of U.S. foreign policy and is
part of our ongoing dialogue within the U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership,”
the statement said.
U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius and Assistant Secretary for Democracy,
Human Rights, and Labor Tom Malinowski are leading the U.S. delegation, while
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for International Organizations Vu
Anh Quang is heading the delegation from Vietnam, it said.
Phil Robertson, deputy director of New York-based Human Rights Watch’s Asia
Division warned in a statement in the lead up to the meeting that “no one should
mistake the … talks as meaning that Vietnam has committed to take actual steps
to improve its dire human rights record.”
“Vietnam is more than happy to engage in rights dialogues where the final result
is too often an 'agreement to disagree' rather than meaningful rights reforms
like releasing political prisoners or doing away with draconian penal code
provisions that criminalize civil and political rights,” he said.
“The U.S. should be telling Vietnam that the only way that Hanoi can be
considered a partner in the TPP trade talks is if it makes real reforms to end
criminalization of freedom of speech, permits formation of independent unions
and holding of peaceful public assemblies, allows real freedom of religion, and
lets all its political prisoners go free.”
The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi on Wednesday invited representatives from Vietnam’s
civil society to meet with a U.S. human rights delegation to discuss issues
related to human rights and democracy and gauge their support for the TPP,
sources told RFA.
The morning before the meeting, police detained some activists to prevent them
from possibly attending the event, including Thao Teresa as she took her child
to school in Hanoi and Nguyen Dan Que at his home in Ho Chi Minh City, they
said.
Reported by Mac Lam for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by
Joshua Lipes.