Letter to President Bush from Congressional Human Rights Caucus

The Congressional Human Rights Caucus includes over 200 bipartisan members. Its co-chair, Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia sent a letter to President Bush, on September 26.

Excerpts:

As you prepare to visit Vietnam in November, I want to encourage you to address the issues of religious freedom, democracy and human rights by both meeting with Vietnamese human rights advocates prior to your departure, and meeting with dissidents while you are in Vietnam. Meeting with these groups would send a message of hope to Vietnamese around the world….

Those suffering persecution are encouraged when the United States speaks out on their behalf and your raising these issues would send a message of hope….Much like President Reagan did for the former Soviet dissidents, acknowledging the struggle of the Vietnamese people would give them hope.

Congressman Wolf’s handwritten postscript to the President says: “I would appreciate your meeting with these individuals re human rights. Thank you.”

Let’s hope President Bush takes this bipartisan advice from over half of Congress.

I’ve written many times about the horrible and inexcusable persecution of religious and political dissidents in Vietnam, and the mercantile ignoring of their suffering in the pressure by Vietnam’s “new class” of profiteers and their Western business counterparts to grant Vietnam further trade concessions and legitimization. See the below links:
http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002762.html
http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002741.html
http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002722.html
http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002708.html
http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002683.html
http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002657.html
http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002584.html
http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002530.html
http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002380.html

Or, for a link to a roundup of the many concerned organizations and their careful studies and reporting of Vietnam’s disgraceful human rights record, please go here.