Widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the Government of Vietnam were recounted by victims and human rights advocates fighting for basic freedoms including labor, press, religion and political rights, at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill chaired Wednesday by Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04).

     Smith said that against the backdrop of high profile economic issues like Trade Promotion Authority and Trans-Pacific Partnership and other matters, human rights victims in Vietnam are looking to the U.S. government for support in their fight against Vietnamese government oppression.

     “They are looking for U.S. leadership; they are hungry for a U.S. policy that advances the rights and freedoms of the Vietnamese people,” said Smith, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs global human rights subcommittee. “They understand that if the U.S. sides with the Vietnamese Government, they will only receive crumbs from the Communist Party’s table.

     “Our economic, security, and freedom interests must be linked,” Smith said. “The Vietnamese Government needs U.S. security cooperation and economic benefits more than the U.S. needs Vietnam.  We have leverage to bring about concrete changes in Vietnam. We must not give up or ignore this leverage. If human rights issues are not explicitly linked to our economic and security interests, we risk having discussions on trade and defense moving forward, while human rights conditions go backward.” Click here to read Chairman Smith’s opening remarks or here to watch his opening statement.

     Rev. Nguyen Manh Hung of the Vietnam Interfaith Council and pastor of the Cattle Shed Congregation, part of the Mennonite Church of Vietnam, testified. His congregation got it its name after the government seized its land, forcing members to resort to setting up a place of worship in an abandoned cattle shed.

     “Before this trip, I discovered that the Venerable Thich Khong Tanh’s Lien Tri Pagoda was threatened by security police that after the TPP is approved, authorities will tear down the pagoda,” Hung said. “This trip to America comes at a crucial moment because of the discussions on TPP and I hope to bring forth my experiences and perspectives on the conditions of religious freedom in Vietnam.” Click here to read his testimony.

     Opening the testimony was Nguyen Van Hai (who writes under the pen name Dieu Cay), a writer from the Free Journalists Club of Vietnam, who spent six and a half years in 11 communist prisons. He said that all media in Vietnam is in the hands of the communist regime.

     “The people don’t have a platform to raise their voice,” Hai said. “People do not dare to speak their views, simply because any disagreement with the ruling party can get you arrested under vague laws,” he said. “A conviction under one of these statutes can result in a dozen years in prison. It is these vague laws that allow authorities to arrest and imprison anyone with differing opinions and to maintain their dictatorship. My case is a testament to the suppression of human rights in Vietnam when I was sentenced to over ten years in prison simply for peacefully expressing my political views.” Click here to read Nguyen Van Hai’s testimony.

     Mrs. Doan Thi Hong-Anh, widow of a torture victim Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nam, the Con Dau parishioner who was tortured to death in 2010, told her tragic story to Smith and other Members of Congress, including Reps. Dana Rohrbacher and Alan Lowenthal of California and Curt Clawson of Florida.

     “After the brutal police crackdown at the Con Dau Parish cemetery May 4, 2010 and especially after the painful death of my husband by the torture of the local militias, the government found every ways to prevent me from telling the truth about the real cause my husband’s death,” she testified. “I had to close all doors and hid in my house for months, before find a way to escape to Thailand to protect my children and my own life. We were accepted as refugee status and resettled in the U.S. less than a year ago. I am honor to be here today to say thank you to the Congress and the US Government for the concern and support for my family and my parish in Con Dau the last five years during the fight for justice.” Click here to read Ms. Hong-Ahn’s testimony.

     Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Ph.D., Executive Director of Boat People SOS, said that the hearing comes at a very critical juncture in the relationship between the United States and Vietnam.

      Smith is the author of  Vietnam Human Rights Act, which would not prevent funding for humanitarian assistance, food aid, efforts to clean up Agent Orange and unexploded ordinances, programs to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, and combating human trafficking and child labor. The bill is supported by a bipartisan group of co-sponsors that includes Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (CA-39), and Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27), Zoe Lofgren (CA-19), Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48), Loretta Sanchez (CA-46), Alan Lowenthal, (CA-47), Tom Emmer (MN-06) and Gerald Connolly (VA-11). The bill, H.R. 2140, which passed the House overwhelmingly previously only to get stalled in the Senate each time, would make concrete and tangible human rights improvements a prerequisite for any increase in non-humanitarian U.S. financial assistance to Vietnam.

     The legislation would institute measures toward improving human rights in Vietnam, including prohibiting any increase in non-humanitarian assistance over 2012 levels, when it was over $16 million, to the Government of Vietnam, unless it makes substantial progress in establishing a democracy and promoting human rights.

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