U.S. Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) – Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Global Human Rights, Africa and International Operations – is leading a Congressional Delegation that arrived in Vietnam this morning for four days of meetings with government officials, religious leaders and the relatives of political prisoners to discuss religious freedom, human rights and trafficking. Smith is the author of a landmark human trafficking law, and is currently sponsoring the reauthorization of that law in a strengthened version. Smith will also meet with Vietnamese and US Personnel Accounting Command to discuss ongoing problems in the unresolved MIA cases from the Vietnam War.

    "I remain steadfast in my commitment to obtaining a thorough and responsible accounting of the remaining American MIAs from the conflict in Vietnam," said Smith who has been actively engaged in this issue since 1984, when he first visited Vietnam as a member of Congress to discuss this issue. "Thirty years after the return of our American troops, nearly 1,400 remain unaccounted for in Vietnam. I intend to use this visit to keep the attention of US and Vietnamese officials focused on this vital cause."

    "The government of Vietnam could be more forthcoming in providing the fullest accounting and better information pertaining to the missing and the last-known-alive," said Smith. "It is our sacred duty to the families of the missing that we never forget their sacrifice and maintain a vigilant pursuit of achieving the fullest possible accounting of our MIAs." 

    Smith will also use his time in Vietnam to follow-up on hearings he conducted this year. In June, his committee focused on human rights and religious freedom in that country. Smith was the sponsor of the Vietnam Human Rights Act, legislation designed to promote human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam that has passed the House in various forms on three separate occasions but has stalled in the Senate. 

    "My hearing in June confirmed that despite progress in trade relations with the US, the human rights situation in Vietnam remains deplorable – especially in the areas of free speech and religious freedom," said Smith. "Any dissent from the Vietnamese government’s draconian restrictions on speech and religious freedom will result in imprisonment."

    For the second year, Vietnam was designated as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) in the US State Department’s 2005 International Religious Freedom Report. Smith, who held a hearing earlier in November on the State Department report, will get a first-hand review and talk to Vietnamese citizens directly to determine whether Vietnam is abiding by a signed "binding agreement" with the US to improve its observation of religious liberty. Specifically, his team will assess whether or not all levels of Vietnamese government – ranging from the highest government officials to local authorities to village police forces – have sincerely adopted an attitude of respect for citizens who choose to worship and peacefully practice their religious beliefs. 

    "Vietnam’s CPC designation keeps people of good will aware of the actual situation in Vietnam," said Smith. "True freedom of movement and travel still does not exist, especially for political and religious dissidents. We will continue to pressure the government to grant its people religious freedom and other basic human rights." 

    "Human rights must remain in the forefront of all of our international relationships, and I intend to stress the commitment of the US Congress and people to that principle," Smith said.