Calling on Vietnam to Immediately and Unconditionally Release Dr. Pham Hong Son and Other Political Prisoners and Prisoners of Conscience
CALLING ON VIETNAM TO IMMEDIATELY AND UNCONDITIONALLY RELEASE DR. PHAM HONG SON AND OTHER POLITICAL PRISONERS AND PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE -- (House of Representatives - April 05, 2006)
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Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Lantos. Again, I express my appreciation to Mr. Smith, and I express my appreciation to Congresswoman Sanchez, who has been a strong stalwart of vocalizing the inconsistencies with the image of Vietnam, a united country, and the reality.
And let me express my personal outrage that Members of Congress extend themselves to a foreign land to be able to be a fact-finder, to find out information, to share that with their constituents; that foreign governments who are welcomed into the United States would be so arrogant as to deny a visa so that information could be written.
I have a personal story, of course, which I did not mention previously in the same way of attempting to visit the Sudan and going through the normal channels and finding that visas would not be rendered. And they have done that to Members of Congress who are there doing the work of the American people. So to the Vietnamese government, we know what you are and what you are doing.
This is an important resolution that establishes the importance of human rights and dignity in Vietnam. Although the war is behind us, we realize that the Vietnamese people in the United States love democracy. They fled the country because they love democracy, but they want democracy for the existing Vietnam.
The plight of Dr. Pham and many, many others that are now being detained is a poor story, a poor assessment of the outright rejection of human rights and freedom of expression that should be the call of this Nation that claims that it wants to be part of the world human family. So I call upon this issue to be addressed not only by this resolution, which I enthusiastically support, and I thank the authors of this bill, but also for the United Nations to get in gear and get a grip.
The Human Rights Council, Mr. Lantos, as you well know, has been revised just recently with some difficulty and opposition from the American government because it was a little less strong, if you will, a little less in great depth than we would have wanted it to be, where we could have prevented some of the more heinous actors against human rights from even being on this council. But it is a first step.
Now is the time for the United Nations, along with this resolution, to show itself truly committed to human rights. Do something about the Sudan. Do something about Vietnam. This is not to suggest that we don't want a thriving economy. For years, I voted against the Jackson amendment that deals with trade in Vietnam. Why? Not because I am against Vietnam, Mr. Speaker, but because I want human dignity and human rights.
So I rise in support of this resolution, H. Con. Res. 320, but I am asking that as we put forward this resolution, that institutions that deal with human rights wake up and smell the coffee or the tea and begin to address these questions in a forthright way.
And let me close by simply saying that there is a whole mountain of people that are being detained and their human rights violated. Can we suffer this indignity? I ask that this resolution be supported, and I ask the United Nations to do its job.
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