Democracy And The US' Pivot To Asia

By Ellen Bork, the Director of Democracy and Human Rights at the Foreign Policy Initiative.

President Obama's announcement last fall of a "pivot" to Asia has been greeted with skepticism. For one thing, there will be no appreciable increase in U.S. military assets in the region any time soon. Furthermore, even for an administration generally unconvincing in its commitment to the promotion of democracy and human rights abroad, Team Obama has been remarkably timid in advancing any such agenda in this region of 4 billion people.

So it was encouraging that on her swing through Asia last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a conference in Mongolia that support for democracy and rights are at the "heart" of the Asia pivot. She also left no doubt about the biggest obstacle to democracy's success in Asia. In several passages that seemed directed at China, Clinton rejected the idea that economic success could be sustained in the absence of political reform and the rule of law. Repression, she said, can "create the illusion of security, but illusions fade because people's yearnings for liberty do not." Unfortunately this welcome rhetoric was absent when it came time to meet China's foreign minister and Vietnam's Communist party general secretary.

The administration also raised doubts about its commitment to democracy and human rights when it took a backward step in its Burma policy, easing sanctions on investment there, including in the energy sector. President Obama abandoned an earlier "step by step" approach that was supposed to maximize the benefit to Burma's people by allowing investment in sectors like tourism, manufacturing, and agriculture first, and only later, after progress on institutionalizing democracy, in sectors controlled by the unreformed, brutal military, like natural gas.

Washington's move undermined Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's democracy leader, who recently warned against allowing investment in the state-controlled oil and gas industry until guarantees of transparency could be implemented. With a small presence in Burma's parliament, Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party have limited political capital during a precarious phase that will last at least until elections in 2015 offer a chance for the popular democratic movement to consolidate its position. American support during this time is vital.

America's conduct of its foreign policy can never be separated from its identity as the world's leading democracy. "It is who we are," President Obama likes to say of America's commitment to democratic values and human rights. Indeed, the United States contributed to democratic transitions in the Philippines, Taiwan, and South Korea that transformed the region.

Those of course were small authoritarian regimes, ones that did not seek to project their power or political model. In China, Washington faces a bigger and more complicated challenge. The secretary of state staked out an ambitious position in her Mongolia remarks. If the United States fails to follow through, the Asia pivot will lose credibility. Asia's people will lose much more.
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Effort to dump ambassador to Vietnam over human rights gains steam

By Julian Pecquet (THE HILL) - 07/24/12Three lawmakers have signed on to Rep. Frank Wolf's (R-Va.) effort to have the Obama administration replace its ambassador to Vietnam over concerns that he hasn't done enough to boost human rights in the country.

Reps. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.) and Chris Smith (R-N.J.) signed on to a letter – Wolf's third – to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging the dismissal of David Shear. Wolf began gunning for Shear's head earlier this month after finding out that he had not contacted the family of Vietnamese-American imprisoned in Hanoi and did not invite many prominent human-rights activists to the embassy's July 4th party.

“We do not believe that this administration, especially Ambassador David Shear, have sufficiently advocated for basic human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam,” the letter states. “In fact, Ambassador Shear has sidelined these issues, which has been a cause for concern.”

Shear was sworn in as ambassador in August 2011 after serving since 2009 as deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State. His nomination was held up temporarily by Sens. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) over concerns that Vietnamese children in the process of getting adopted by U.S. citizens were being left in limbo.

The full text of the letter is below:

The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
2201 C St NW Ste 7276
Washington D.C. 20520


Dear Secretary Clinton:
We strongly believe that human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam need to be at the forefront of bilateral relations with Vietnam, including any discussion about a strategic partnership with the United States. While we were pleased to hear that you mentioned democracy activists, lawyers and bloggers on your recent trip to Vietnam, we were deeply disappointed that there was no public mention of imprisoned Vietnamese-American Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan. In fact, in a letter sent earlier this month prior to your trip, several members of Congress urged you to raise the matter of his continued detention and press for his release.

We do not believe that this administration, especially Ambassador David Shear, have sufficiently advocated for basic human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam. In fact, Ambassador Shear has sidelined these issues which has been a cause for concern. The people of Vietnam yearn for American leadership in this realm – leadership which Ambassador Shear has been simply unable or unwilling to provide. As such, we urge you to dismiss Ambassador Shear from his post, and move swiftly to appoint an individual who will embrace the struggle of the Vietnamese people and advocate on their behalf.
Unfortunately, the outstanding congressional request for the list of invitees to the Embassy Hanoi’s July 4th celebration remains unfulfilled. As such, we also urge you to make sure that the list is provided in a timely fashion so that we are able to see which religious freedom and democracy activists were invited, if any.

We wish to see a mutually beneficial relationship with Vietnam. In order for this to happen, we must have confidence in this administration’s efforts to promote religious freedom and democracy in Vietnam. We have lost confidence that Ambassador Shear is up to the task.

Sincerely,


Frank Wolf
Dan Lungren
Joseph Pitts
Chris Smith

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UN caves in to Vietcongs pressure, rejects the consultative status of the NGO KKF

JOINT PRESS RELEASE - THE OBSERVATORY

Viet Nam: UN caves in to Vietnamese pressure, rejects human rights group’s consultative status

Bangkok-Paris-Geneva, July 24, 2012. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (an FIDH and OMCT joint programme) and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) condemn the resolution passed by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) overturning a previous decision to grant consultative status to the non-governmental human rights organisation Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF).

In May 2012, ECOSOC’s Committee on Non-governmental Organisations, in a consensus decision, approved KKF’s application for special consultative status with the Council. Vietnam protested strongly against the decision. On July 23, member States of ECOSOC, in a vote of 27 in favour to 14 against, with 10 abstentions, adopted a resolution to rescind that decision. The resolution was tabled by Vietnam along with El Salvador and fellow ASEAN member States Burma, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

In a joint letter[1] issued on July 18, 2012, the Observatory, along with 12 international and regional human rights groups across the globe, urged ECOSOC member states to oppose the draft resolution and to “support the ability of civil society organisations to freely participate in the work of the United Nations”. Special consultative status is granted to non-governmental organisations that “have a special competence in, and are concerned specifically with, only a few of the fields of activity covered by the Council and its subsidiary bodies, and that are known within the fields for which they have or seek consultative status”.

Before the vote, representatives of Cuba, Indonesia, Philippines, Lao PDR, Nicaragua, Russia, and Venezuela took to the floor in support of the resolution. On the other hand,, the United States and Ireland, speaking on behalf of the European Union, expressed their opposition to the resolution. “It was not appropriate to oppose accreditation for an organization simply because it expressed views different from those of Governments represented on the Council”, said the representative of Ireland.

“It is shameful that many UN member states caved in to Vietnam’s pressure and became an accomplice in stifling the rightful voices of human rights defenders. It sends a chilling signal to the people in Vietnam that the international community is not on their side in their quest for greater freedom”, said Vo Van Ai, president of VCHR.

KKF is headquartered in the United States and conducts human rights advocacy globally. KKF aims, “through the use of peaceful measures and international laws, to seek freedom, justice, and the right to self-determination for the Indigenous Khmer-Krom Peoples”. It has an established track record in engaging with UN human rights mechanisms and providing valuable and quality information on abuses against the Khmer Krom minority group in Vietnam. Vietnam’s ambassador to the UN, Le Hoai Trung, labeled KKF’s activities as “politically motivated” and characterised KKF’s aim to seek freedom and justice for the Khmer people as a “grave offence” to the “sacred, national value” of national unity.

In the 2010 joint report Vietnam: From “Vision” to Facts: Human Rights in Vietnam under its Chairmanship of ASEAN, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) documented human rights violations against the Khmer Krom, including religious persecution, land confiscation, and excessive use of force. In the last five years, the Observatory and VCHR documented instances of arbitrary arrests and forced defrocking of Khmer Krom Buddhist monks in retaliation of their peaceful protests against religious persecution[2].

In another example of its diplomatic offensive against criticisms abroad, in September 2010, Vietnam lobbied the government of Thailand to obstruct a press conference in Bangkok where FIDH and VCHR were to launch their joint report on Vietnam.[3] Vietnam’s hostilities against independent human rights defenders and groups at home and abroad are nothing new and reflect its consistently dismal human rights records, said FIDH and VCHR.

Vietnam intends to run for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, which requires member States to uphold the highest human rights standards. “Before it is even elected to the Human Rights Council, Vietnam is already busy obstructing human rights groups from cooperating with the UN to promote human rights. This kind of intimidation must not be tolerated anywhere in the UN system”, said Souhayr Belhassen, President of FIDH.

"The political intervention led by a coalition of Asean States overturning the decision of the competent committee excluding civil society access is an expression of fear to hear unpleasant truths and opinions. The basis of any commitment to human rights defenders is the recognition of their very existence and their right to speak and to be heard, and the states have failed in this test - Vietnam in the first place", said Gerald Staberock, Secretary-General of OMCT.

Press contact:
VCHR: Vo Tran Nhat: +33 1 45 98 30 85
FIDH: Karine Appy +33 1 43 55 14 12 / + 33 1 43 55 25 18
OMCT: Isabelle Scherer: +41 22 809 49 39
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Congressman wants ambassador to Vietnam fired over human rights issues

Washington D.C., Jul 12, 2012 / 12:07 am (CNA).- Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) has called for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam David Shear, charging that he has marginalized human rights and religious freedom concerns.

“Sadly, his sidelining of serious human rights issues in Vietnam is symptomatic of this administration's overall approach to human rights and religious freedom,” the congressman said in a July 9 letter to President Barack Obama. “Time and again these issues are put on the back-burner -- to the detriment of freedom-loving people the world over.”

Rep. Wolf said that U.S. embassies should be “islands of freedom – especially in repressive countries like Vietnam,” but he criticized the U.S. embassy in Vietnam for appearing to not play this role.

Rep. Wolf, who co-chairs the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, cited embassy inaction in the case of Vietnamese-American democracy activist and U.S. citizen Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, who was imprisoned after he was detained upon arrival at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City this past April.

The embassy did not initiate contact with Quan’s wife until Rep. Wolf asked. The congressman said there seemed to be “little urgency to securing his release.”

He said that Ambassador Shear also failed to invite many of the most prominent democracy and human rights activists in Vietnam to the U.S. embassy’s July 4 celebration, despite Rep. Wolf’s urging that he open the embassy to Buddhist monks and nuns, Catholic priests, Protestant pastors and bloggers and democracy activists.

Rep. Wolf said that the ambassador should be replaced by a Vietnamese-American who would not be “tempted to maintain smooth bilateral relations at all costs.”

In recent years Catholics have sought the return of confiscated Church property, but the dispute with the Vietnamese government has sometimes turned violent.

The government has also previously arrested Fr. Nguyen Van Ly, a religious freedom advocate, on charges of spreading anti-communist propaganda.
Source: Catholic News Agency, Jul 16,2012
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Hillary Clinton's Message to Hanoi!

The U.S. Secretary of State connects human rights and prosperity.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have been disappointed in her efforts to push Southeast Asia toward unity on South China Sea territorial disputes, but that doesn't mean her pass through the region last week yielded no results. During her brief stay in Hanoi, Mrs. Clinton delivered a particularly important message on human rights.

"I know there are some who argue that developing economies need to put economic growth first and worry about political reform and democracy later, but that is a short-sighted bargain," Mrs. Clinton said after meeting her Vietnamese counterpart. U.S. officials said that during her private session with Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, Mrs. Clinton raised specific cases of bloggers and other activists who have been detained in recent years for peaceful dissent.

The Secretary's comments continue an unsung but important and potentially effective aspect of the Obama Administration's strategic "pivot" to Asia. Mrs. Clinton has consistently pressed Hanoi to improve its rights record. Vietnam's authoritarian government is susceptible to pressure on this point because it is increasingly eager to cultivate closer ties with America to counterbalance China's influence.

Hanoi has been backsliding on rights despite some limited progress on religious freedom in the middle of last decade. The most notable example is the April arrest of U.S. citizen Nguyen Quoc Quan on charges related to peaceful pro-democracy activism. Presumably Mrs. Clinton raised his case in private, although it's disappointing she didn't do so in public. That followed a string of arrests of bloggers—many pushing Hanoi to take a stronger stand against China in South China Sea disputes—that have been part of a long-term crackdown on online dissent.

Mrs. Clinton also helpfully tied the rights issue to economic development. This isn't mere rhetoric. Hanoi already blocks its citizens from accessing uncensored social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Now the regime also is contemplating a draconian Internet regulation that would force foreign service providers to block access to Vietnamese-language content that Hanoi deems objectionable, no matter where the company is based.

Meanwhile, Vietnam will need to undertake major domestic reforms to boost growth, which at 4.4% lags many of its Asian peers. Challenges include privatizing large state-owned enterprises, encouraging greater foreign investment, and fostering more private entrepreneurship at home. Those reforms will be helped by the kind of freedoms and rule of law that Hanoi today undermines in its crack-down on political dissent. Developing a healthy economy will make Vietnam a stronger ally for the U.S. in the region.

One speech won't convert Vietnam's Communist Party. And it must be noted that the Obama Administration's human-rights stance in Asia hasn't always been either strong or effective. But in Vietnam, Mrs. Clinton is talking the right talk. One way to follow up would be to keep pressing Hanoi, often and publicly, to release activists such as Mr. Quan and to rethink its proposed Internet law.

Source: The Wall Street Journal July 16,2012
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