Press Release
Success of President’s Vietnam Visit Should Be Measured by How Many Human Rights Prisoners Are Released UnconditionallySmith Says Lifting of Vietnam Arms Embargo Should Be Linked to Improvements in Religious Freedom & Release of All Prisoners of ConscienceAs President Obama prepares for his first trip to Vietnam, the chairman of a congressional panel that oversees international human rights urged the President to emphasize the release of prisoners of conscience and the fundamental right of religious freedom during meetings with Vietnam’s Communist leaders. Chairman Chris Smith (NJ-04), the author of the Vietnam Human Rights Act, H.R. 2140, also urged the President to meet with religious and civil society leaders, bloggers and journalists, and labor and democracy activists during his visit. “The President may give a speech that makes reference to human right concerns, but his words must be matched with deeds or Vietnam’s Communist Party leaders will expect and receive lucrative trade benefits and arms sales,” Smith said. “Without establishing human rights conditions, nothing will change in Vietnam, and the American people will continue to subsidize the repression of democracy advocates and religious groups. We should judge the success of the President’s trip by how many of the 100-plus religious and political prisoners are released, such as human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, Buddhist leader Thich Quang Do and others from Vietnam’s diverse religious and ethnic communities—Buddhist, Christian, Khmer Krom, Montagnard, Hmong, Hoa Hao and Cao Dai.” Smith and Vietnamese human rights activists are planning to hold a press conference Tuesday, May 24, when the President’s trip concludes. Vu Minh Kanh, the wife of Nguyen Van Dai, testified at a recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing chaired by Smith. The hearing can be viewed here. Smith noted the release of Catholic priest Father Nguyen Van Ly today, but said the release of the veteran human rights advocate should not be considered a major improvement. “Fr. Ly was released a couple months before his sentence ended, and it is certainly better to be free than in a Vietnamese prison, but his release should not be considered a major human rights breakthrough. Hopefully, this courageous advocate will be able to exercise his freedom of speech and movement and is not exchanging one prison for another.” Citing the findings of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) 2016 Annual Report, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Global Human Rights asked the President to send a clear message that stronger U.S.-Vietnam relations, including the lifting of an arms embargo, will depend on concrete improvements in religious freedom, and related human rights. Regarding Vietnam, the USCIRF report concluded that “the government’s continuing heavy-handed management of religion continues to lead not only to restrictions and discrimination, but also to individuals being outright harassed, detained, and targeted with physical violence.” The USCIRF’s chapter on Vietnam can be read here. “The connections between the protection of religious freedom, economic freedom, democracy, and the rule of law are so compelling it should be one of the President’s top priorities in Vietnam, but if past is prologue, it won’t be,” Smith said. “Regrettably the Obama Administration has shown only occasional interest in advancing this fundamental freedom. New trade benefits and arms sales are unwarranted until Vietnam advances concrete legal protections for independent religious groups and releases all religious prisoners. Failure to take these steps should lead the President to designate Vietnam as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ adding the one-party communist state to the list of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom.” On Monday, May 16, 2016, the House unanimously passed H.R. 1150, the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, a bill authored by Rep. Smith that gives the State Department new tools and resources to help combat the worldwide escalation of religious persecution in places like Vietnam, China and the Middle East. Information about H.R. 1150 can be found here. “The visits to Cuba and Vietnam share the same sad pattern,” Smith said. “The President is more interested in photo-ops with dictators than standing up for persecuted individuals who share our values of freedom and human rights. He touts the benefits of engagement, but offers economic and security benefits without conditions, giving dictators unwarranted legitimacy. Ask any American outside the Washington beltway whether Vietnam belongs in the Trans-Pacific Partnership or deserves to have the arms embargo lifted—the answer would be a resounding no. Ask them if the U.S. can trust the Castro brothers and the answer would be the same. This is not smart diplomacy, it is surrender of U.S. interests and values. The President’s legacy will be the propping up of a Communist old guard when he should be standing with the new generation of freedom advocates seeking our rights and freedoms more than our trade. There is no future in the repressive rule of the Communist Party, losing sight of this fact is a serious mistake.” Last month, Smith and a bipartisan group of House members sent a congressional letter to the President urging him to link better bilateral relations with human rights improvements. ###
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