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Press Release
The following is a letter written by Congressman
Dana Rohrabacher regarding recent human right abuses in Vietnam.
February 12, 2001
The Honorable Colin Powell
Secretary of State,
Department of State,
2201 C Street
Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Mr. Secretary:
I am writing to request that the U.S. embassy in Vietnam send observers to
monitor the widespread human rights abuses and Vietnamese army crackdown on
ethnic Montagnards in Gia Lai and Daklak provinces in the Central highlands. On
Friday, February 9, the U.S. Embassy issued a travel advisory urging American
citizens to "postpone travel" to the Central Highlands. Numerous
international wire services are reporting that the Vietnamese government has
dispatched a large number of soldiers backed by helicopter gunships into the
area to quell protests by Montagnards over religious persecution, government
corruption and cultural repression.
My foreign policy advisor Al Santoli has been in close contact with Montagnard-Americans
and their former U.S. military advisors. They report that before telephone
service to the Central Highlands was cut off last weekend, initial phone calls
from Montagnards in Pleiku and Ban Me Thout described shootings of unarmed
protesters by Vietnamese troops and other forms of government violence. The
situation is being called a "Vietnamese Tiananmen Square." For these
reasons , it is critical that American embassy personnel and any other means of
information gathering assets available to the U.S. be utilized to obtain an
accurate account of ongoing events.
There are also numerous reports that the Vietnamese communist government has
stepped up repression on independent Buddhist monks and worshippers. I also
request that the Bush administration inform the Hanoi regime that the abuse of
religious believers and ethnic minorities will have an impact on U.S.-Vietnam
relations. In addition, the "Freedom From Religious Persecution" law
has provisions for penalties to be imposed on countries who persecute or abuse
religious believers. I am preparing to seek those statutory penalties be applied
to the Vietnamese communist government.
I request a briefing by both the Vietnam desk officer and a representative from
the State Department's Religious Freedom office on the afternoon of Wednesday,
February 14. Thank you for your assistance in these important matters. To
discuss my requests, please contact me or my Special Assistant Al Santoli at
225-2415.
Sincerely,
Dana Rohrabacher
Member of Congress
cc: Hon. Henry Hyde
Hon. Jesse Helms
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