Small dams, big impact on Mekong River fish: study

Plans to build hydropower dams along small branches of southeast Asia's longest river could have a devastating impact on millions of people who rely on the world's largest inland fishery, scientists said Monday.

Plenty of attention has focused on plans to develop 11 big dams along the main stem of the 4,600 kilometer (2,850 mile) Mekong River which passes through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

In December, ministers from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos postponed a decision on the first of those efforts - the $3.8 billion Xayaburi dam - saying more research was needed to assuage concerns from conservationists.

But the international study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined the impact of building dams on dozens of the smaller branches, known as tributaries, and warned of a "catastrophic" future.

"We find that the completion of 78 dams on tributaries, which have not previously been subject to strategic analysis, would have catastrophic impacts on fish productivity and biodiversity," said the study.

Since the area is home to many species of migratory fish, the analysis found that several dam projects could block more than 100 kinds of fish from swimming upstream, causing massive losses to diversity and fish supply.

Tens of millions of rural, poor residents in the region depend on subsistence fishing for their main source of protein, said scientists from Cambodia's Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute and Stanford and Princeton University.

"We found there is going to be a very sharp tradeoff between producing energy and the impact on food and biodiversity," lead author Guy Ziv of Stanford University told AFP.

Ziv said researchers focused on 27 of the 78 planned tributary dams, because those 27 are scheduled for construction from 2015 to 2030 and their future remains up in the air.

Also, they require no international accord to be built, even though they will undoubtedly affect fishing populations in neighbouring countries.

"The overall impact of those is greater than some of the mainstream dams which got all of the international attention so far," Ziv said.

"The beneficiary of the production would be Laos, producing energy mostly for export into Thailand and Vietnam, while the impact would be felt by Cambodia and partly by Vietnam, losing a big percentage of their fish catch."

More than one million tonnes of freshwater fish are caught each year in the Cambodian and Vietnamese floodplains alone, and the entire Mekong River Basin is home to 65 million people, about two-thirds of whom rely on fishing to survive, the authors said.

In all, the researchers identified 877 fish species in the Mekong River Basin, 103 of which would be potentially blocked from making their upstream migrations by hydropower development.

Specifically, four planned dams were found to create the largest fish biomass losses, including the Lower Se San 2 in Cambodia, causing a 9.3 percent drop in fish biomass basin-wide, which Ziv said "really looks like a very bad option."

Three others in Laos also posed particular concerns for the amount of biomass they were projected to cut: Se Kong 3d (2.3 percent), Se Kong 3u (0.9 percent), and Se Kong 4 (0.75 percent).

Although those percentages may seem small, Ziv said they would add up fast in communities that depend on fish for survival, noting that the disappearance of one percent of fish in the basin would be equal to losing 10,000 tonnes of food.

Tributary dams fall under national laws and do not require international agreement, even though building these dams could have "potentially significant transboundary impacts" on fish in other countries' waters, said the study.

"Most of the catch is in subsistence fisheries," added Ziv.

"These are poor men who rely on these fish for their livelihood, so you are really impacting the poorest people when you are reducing the catch."-By Kerry Sheridan

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/mekong-river-power-plants-catastrophic-fish-study-200338162.html
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Vietnamese Catholic activists face prison terms for human-right leafletting

Source: Catholic World News - March 09, 2012

Two Catholic activists in Vietnam have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for distributing pamphlets written by the jailed human-rights activist, Father Nguyen Van Ly.

Vo Thi Thu Thuy was sentenced to 5 years in prison, and Nguyen Van Thanh to 3 years. They had been handing out literature advocating a democratic government system. Father Van Ly, who has been imprisoned several different times, is still in prison after his latest arrest last July. ...Read more>>>

China said they will teach Vietnam a lesson

Source: The Diplomat--March 5, 2012

The first Australia-Vietnam Joint Foreign Affairs Defense Strategic Dialogue, held in Canberra late last month, underscored the degree to which Vietnam is seeking to establish a closer relationship with Australia, especially in the area of military affairs.

This is a strategically meaningful move for Vietnam against a backdrop of increasing tensions in the South China Sea, where China has become more aggressive in asserting its claims. Faced with a far more powerful neighbor, Vietnam has faced a dilemma – it can’t afford a hostile relationship with Beijing, but it also won’t sacrifice national sovereignty and territorial integrity in exchange for a “good” relationship with China. As a result, Vietnam has been reaching out to foreign powers in an attempt to at least deter Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, if not balance against its broader regional dominance.

The United States is undoubtedly one of Vietnam’s preferred foreign partners, and despite past hostilities, it has been keen on fostering stronger ties with the United States in all fields. Indeed, Vietnam has even indicated its desire to acquire U.S. weapons and military equipment, although its human rights record is seen as a sticking point in Washington. Still, with the United States pivoting to the Asia-Pacific, a stronger U.S.-Vietnam relationship would most likely put unwanted strain on Vietnam’s already tense relations with China.

And tensions with China are nothing new. Around this time in 1979, then-U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski reportedly remarked after his meeting with Deng Xiaoping that “China said they will teach Vietnam a lesson. I say it will be an entire curriculum.” It was a prediction that ended up coming true. Aside from maintaining incessant shelling and other armed harassment as part of a “phony war” along the Sino-Vietnamese border in the 1980s, China also pursued a policy of isolating Vietnam diplomatically and providing aid to the Khmer Rouge’s efforts to “bleed Vietnam white.” Vietnam’s attempts to break out of its diplomatic isolation and pursue domestic development during the 1980s were also largely unsuccessful due to Chinese obstruction.

China initially claimed that it decided to teach Vietnam a lesson because Vietnam had earlier intervened militarily in Cambodia. However, it later turned out that it was Vietnam’s entry into an alliance with the Soviet Union that was the most important reason behind China’s decision to invade Vietnam. Things have changed since then, of course, and a Chinese invasion of Vietnam seems unlikely – it’s simply not in China’s interests to try this. But China may take a “my enemy’s friend is my enemy” approach to Vietnam if it is seen cozying up too closely to the United States.

This is why it is understandable that Vietnam is instead emphasizing promoting relations with middle powers like Australia. For a start, Beijing tends to be less sensitive to changes in Vietnam’s relationship with countries like Australia than is the case over relations with the United States. In addition, there are genuine benefits for Vietnam in developing such relations. For example, Australia, India and Japan have all voiced their support for freedom of navigation and the peaceful resolution of disputes in the South China Sea, indirectly repudiating China’s sweeping claims. And while the United States may be unwilling to approve arms sales to Vietnam, there is talk of Hanoi approaching India for missile sales. Australia, meanwhile, has also been providing training programs for Vietnamese military staff.

As a middle power that is seeking to enhance its role in the Asia-Pacific region, Australia is a particularly useful partner for Vietnam, and Canberra’s interests apparently dovetail nicely with Vietnam’s judging by its recent agreement to host more U.S. troops. Indeed, that move indicated that Australia might be able to play a significant role in constraining China’s ambitions in the region.

Stronger and friendlier ties with Australia, a longstanding ally of the United States, also have the potential to lay the groundwork for closer military ties between the U.S. and Vietnam. In the meantime, though, there are still numerous areas for cooperation that the two countries can explore, such as intensifying strategic study and intelligence exchange, promoting humanitarian aid, disaster rescue, or exchanging experiences in peacekeeping and maritime security.

Given the current state of Sino-U.S. relations, now seems the right time for Vietnam to take the opportunity to further foster relations with Australia and other regional middle powers to provide an alternative option for managing China’s rise.

Le Hong Hiep is a lecturer at the Faculty of International Relations, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City.
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International Women's Day Observed Worldwide

My Fox New York - Published : Thursday, 08 Mar 2012, 7:03 PM EST

(NewsCore) - Around the world, women turned out Thursday to mark International Women's Day with events that included a march in Cairo, a topless protest in Istanbul, a conference in Iraq and an awards presentation by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama in Washington.

In one of the most universal acknowledgements of the date and cause, Google came up with a special Women's Day doodle in bright colors, with the universal female symbol replacing the first "g."

The day to celebrate women's economic, social and political achievements is celebrated globally, and in some countries, including China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, March 8 is a national holiday.

According to the official International Women's Day website, some 437 events were planned to mark the day in the UK this year, followed by 254 in the US, 189 in Canada and 139 in Australia.

In a statement released by the White House, President Barack Obama lauded women's achievements and stressed their role in furthering progress and democracy around the world.

"We are committed to a future in which our daughters and sons have equal opportunities to thrive, because when women succeed, communities and countries succeed," Obama said. "Experience shows that true democracy cannot be built without the full and equal participation of half our population."

In Washington, Clinton and the first lady honored ten other women from around the world with International Women of Courage Awards presented at the State Department.

"Women in Egypt and Tunisia and other nations have just as much right as the men to remake their governments, to make them responsible, accountable, transparent," Clinton said. "We will certainly be watching and the world will watch."

As if echoing her words, hundreds of women marched through Cairo demanding the right to co-draft the country's new constitution, AFP reported.

"Women's rights are human rights," read one of their banners and many wore badges demanding 50 percent representation on the panel that will write the new constitution.

In Istanbul, AFP said, police detained four Ukrainian feminists who staged a topless protest in a busy location to protest domestic violence in Turkey.

Iraqi women organized a number of events, including a conference on violence against women, and in Mauritania, women marched against rising food prices.

UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay called in Geneva for women to play a greater leadership role, pointing out that women held only 19.3 percent of seats in single or lower houses of parliament and only 12 of the Fortune 500 companies had women in charge.

Read more: InternationalWomensDay.com
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Stop the crime against humanity in Cambodia

PLEASE HELP FIGHT HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN CAMBODIA NOW!

PLEASE SIGN THIS ONLINE PETITION IN ORDER TO GAIN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S RESPONSES TO DICTATORIAL REGIME UNDER HUN SEN. LET'S BRING JUSTICE,DIGNITY, PROSPERITY, NATIONHOOD TO ALL KHMERS. ...Read more>>>

US committee passes bill on Vietnam rights

source: AFP March 7,2012

WASHINGTON — A US congressional committee on Wednesday approved a bill to restrict assistance to Vietnam unless the communist nation makes progress in improving its record on human rights.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed by voice vote without objections legislation that would prevent any increase in non-humanitarian US assistance beyond 2011 levels unless the State Department judges "substantial progress" by Vietnam.

The measure still needs approval by the full House and Senate, which are led by opposite parties. The House has previously voted for the so-called Vietnam Human Rights Act, but it has died in the Senate.

Representative Chris Smith, the author of the bill, said that "religious, political and ethnic persecution" was continuing or even worsening and charged that Vietnamese authorities have tolerated forced labor and sex trafficking.

"Despite assertions by some that increased trade with Vietnam would lead to greater freedom and democracy, the Vietnamese people instead are suffering from more repression and denial of their fundamental human rights," said Smith, a Republican from New Jersey.

Representative Ed Royce, a Republican from California whose district has a large Vietnamese American community, said the bill was "an inspiration to the brave dissidents inside Vietnam who continue to be brutally repressed by Hanoi."

The bill voiced concern about Vietnam's restrictions on people "for the peaceful expression of dissenting political and religious views" and raised alarm about the treatment of government critics such as outspoken Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly.

Vietnam and the United States have been building closer relations, putting aside bitter memories of war, amid friction between Hanoi and Beijing over territorial claims in the South China Sea.

President Barack Obama's Democratic administration has repeatedly called on Vietnam to address human rights concerns, although it has also pushed ahead with greater cooperation with Hanoi including in military exchanges.

The US Agency for International Development said that the United States provided $134 million for Vietnam in the 2010 fiscal year, more than half of it devoted to improving health and child survival. The agency requested $125 million for 2012.
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Former Rep. Anh 'Joseph' Cao urges tougher line against Vietnam

Source: March 7,2012 By Jonathan Tilove, The Times-Picayune

WASHINGTON -- Former Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao, R-New Orleans, was back on Capitol Hill Tuesday as part of the largest-ever lobbying day by Vietnamese Americans. Some 1,000 members of the Vietnamese community in the United States were in Washington Monday and Tuesday to seek a tougher line by the United States against Vietnam for human rights violations.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee today will mark up the Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2012, which would restrict U.S. aid to Vietnam until it makes progress in establishing democracy and promoting human rights.
In January, Cao, the first Vietnamese-American to serve in Congress, testified in favor of the legislation sponsored by Rep. Chris, Smith, R-N.J., at a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights, which Smith chairs.

The bill would stipulate that the United States can only increase its assistance to Vietnam above FY2011 levels when the president is able to certify progress on the human rights and democracy fronts, prohibiting any increase in non-humanitarian funding unless Vietnam releases all political and religious prisoners and protects the rights of freedom of assembly, religious expression and association.

On Monday, a delegation of Vietnamese Americans met with Obama administration officials at a White House meeting that was the result of a petition on the White House web site signed by nearly 140,000 people, asking the administration to "stop expanding trade with Vietnam at the expense of human rights."

Since the end of the trade embargo against Vietnam in 1994, trade with the United has grown dramatically, to more than $15 billion in 2009.

But Cao said that since gaining improved trade status, Vietnam has regressed in its treatment of its own citizens.

According to the text of the petition:

Since 2007, the Vietnamese government has continuously waged a brutal crackdown against human rights advocates, arresting and/or detaining notables such as: Rev. Nguyen Van Ly, Nobel Peace Prize nominees Ven.Thich Quang Do and Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, blogger Dieu Cay, and most recently songwriter Viet Khang, who merely expressed love for freedom and patriotism through songs he posted online.

Cao said that the administration officials agreed to open lines of communication with the Vietnamese-American community.

During his day on the Hill Tuesday, Cao met with a number of his former colleagues, including House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair leana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida.

He also met with Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Mary Landrieu, D-La.

"I am more confident that the legislation we want to pass through the House and Senate will receive traction," said Cao, who had spearheaded efforts to crack down on human rights violations in Vietnam during his single term in office, and visited Vietnam to press his concerns.

Cao fled Vietnam at the age of 8 as Saigon was falling to the Communists. His father, an officer in the South Vietnamese military was held and tortured in a "re-education" camp for seven years. He died in 2010, on the eve of his son's defeat for re-election.
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Vietnamese Population Outside Vietnam

KKP's Commentaries: Vietnamese population in Cambodia is a cause for concern to all Khmers.  This migration of Vietnamese to Cambodia is being promoted by the Vietnam government which can lead to the Vietnamization of Cambodia, as it has already materialized in Kampuchea Krom (the Mekong Delta) which was Khmer's former territories.  The numbers of Vietnamese in Cambodia is too large in comparison to neighboring-nation Laos.  This is clearly the work of 'NAM TIEN' expansionist policy of Vietnam continued to take place in Khmer's land.

Please refer to data presented in the following:


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Vietnam's Communist Party Ponders Change

Source: ASIA Sentinel by Khanh Duc Vu

The party is living on borrowed time as it drifts aimlessly

The Communist Party of Vietnam turned 82 on Feb. 3, of which 36 years have been spent ruling Vietnam. We can only guess what the next 82 years will bring. Indeed, this past week the party’s delegates and executives met in Hanoi to discuss much needed reform.

These discussions will focus on curbing corruption and deficiencies among party members, along with supposed improvements to human rights. However, any serious suggestion about reform by senior party officials has been just that – a suggestion. As these proposed reforms are designed to benefit the party, change for the Vietnamese people will continue to remain a distant hope.

The party today has strayed far from its Marxist-Leninist roots, evolving into a semi-benevolent dictatorship whose iron-fisted tactics are reserved for those democratic and human rights activists unwilling to accept the one-party rule of the government.

The party at present

Economic reforms have helped Vietnam prosper, but the reforms have done little to address the hopes and aspirations of the people, providing only a cover for the party to say, “I did something for Vietnam.” For Vietnam? Perhaps. For the party? Most definitely.

Afflicted with a grandiose sense of accomplishment, the party has found reason to act only when absolutely necessary, if only to stave off a domestic Arab Spring from seizing the streets of Hanoi and Saigon. This complacency not only ignores future planning but it ignores the needs of the people until it is too late. This is not to say the party does not have its finger on the pulse of the nation, but the unwillingness of the Communists to act until needed betrays any sense of accountability.

What future, then, does the party have in Vietnam? Change is necessary, of course. Change within the party. Constitutional change and political change. But these necessary changes will not happen by themselves. A spark – peaceful or violent, although one hopes for the former – is needed, but what “spark” and how? And what happens after for Vietnam and the party?

Vietnam will undoubtedly change and likely in reaction to external forces. These forces can be China or the United States exerting their influence over Vietnam, providing Vietnam with some benefit but not before the government is required to make some adjustments. One need only look at the South China Sea maritime and territorial disputes to see evidence of this. Vietnam’s unease about China and its desire to acquire arms from the US requires Hanoi to undertake serious democratic reform and improve human rights conditions.

These external forces can also come from market pressure. Presently, Vietnam is suffering from high inflation and trade and budget deficits. However, economic reform may not be enough as we have seen Vietnam change economically but not politically. This is not true change but merely a diversion. It is an attempt at distracting the people while the system continues to fail.

True change requires a complete renovation of the political institutions of Vietnam, but what force can bring about this required act? And what of the Communist Party?

Limitations of the Internet

Short of a revolution, the party will not simply disappear overnight but slowly whittle away. As such, it may be years before we can measure the level of progress. Currently, one of the driving forces behind the need for reform in Vietnam. such as internal reforms as discussed in Hanoi, has been technological advances like the Internet.

The Internet has provided an outlet for Vietnamese citizens to voice their frustration. It has provided a means for them to compare their government to those around the world, to better understand its successes and failures. It has also provided an opportunity for citizens to become part of the global community, to become current with international developments. Access to information is greater than ever before.

But the Internet alone will not drive the Vietnamese people to demand change, for if this was the case, there would have been change long ago. The Internet can be controlled, as witnessed in China and Iran. Information can be manipulated. Although the people will play a vital role in building a new Vietnam, they will not be the primary actors in instituting change. The catalyst for change will undoubtedly come from without.

The big, red tent

What the South China Sea disputes have succeeded is lighting the flames of nationalism in the Vietnamese people. The government, however, trying to maintain friendly relations with China while requesting arms assistance from the US, has both quashed and supported public demonstrations against China.

As a result, this sending of mixed signals has infuriated Vietnamese citizens, who are unsure if their government is pro-China, pro-American, or simply lost. Moreover, this indecision has also created a rift between party members, many of whom are asking the same questions as the people. Although united in public, it is hard not to imagine that factions are forming behind closed meetings.

What will inevitably doom the Communist Party is not revolution but differences of opinion. The party is no longer driven by communist ideology. Given the one-party rule of Vietnam, the Communist Party has become a very big tent for those well-connected citizens and individuals with political aspirations. Ideological purity no longer matters.

As such, current party members are of different minds about a variety of issues. Factions will inevitably form as some party members coalesce around one position while others form around another, pushing their separate agendas to advance their interests. What will emerge is a very basic, if not limited form of democracy within the party. Should any faction gain momentum and influence, they may very well separate and kick-start democratic reform throughout Vietnam.

The catalyst for change will come from without, but the first instances of change will come from within. It will come from the Communist Party itself, reacting to issues that have inflamed the people. Whether this issue is the South China Sea disputes remains to be seen, but it is almost certain that the party will divide over how best to handle critical domestic and foreign policy concerns.

The Communist Party will not implode and disappear, but deep divisions and lack of party unity will eventually cause its downfall, this year or the next or maybe just the next decade.

(Khanh Vu Duc is a Vietnamese Canadian lawyer in Ottawa, focusing on various areas of law. He researches on International Relations and International Law.)
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Vietnam Authorities to Defrock Khmer Krom Buddhist Monk

NEWS ALERT
Source: VOKK NEWS: March 2, 2012

On February 16, 2012, the Vietnam authorities of Soc Trang province have summoned the Khmer Krom Buddhist committee of  the Sarey Ta Sek temple in Sarey Ta Sek(Vinh Hai) commune, Chruol Nhor (Vinh Chau) district, Khleang (Soc Trang) province, Kampuchea Krom (south Vietnam), to the office of Vinh Hai commune for a forced defrocking of Khmer Krom monk within next ten days.

The Vietnamese authorities have planned  to coercively defrock a Khmer Krom Buddhist monk named Venerable Thach Thuong of Sarey Ta Sek temple on claims that Ven. Thach Thuong has been in contact with an overseas Khmer Krom human rights organization--the Khmer Krom Federation(KKF) based in the U.S.

The Vietnamese authorities have also threatened the committee of Sarey Ta Sek temple an arrest if the defrocking plan against Ven. Thach Thuong leaked out to media and/or to the Venerable himself.

The temple committee and the local Khmer Krom laypeople have expressed grave concern and injustice for Ven. Thach Thuong and are seeking outside help in order to defend their innocent Venerable against the Vietnamese authorities' threat of defrock and arrest.

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INSIGHT-Conflict looms in South China Sea oil rush

REUTERS - By Randy Fabi and Manuel Mogato

PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines, Feb 28 (Reuters) - When Lieutenant-General Juancho Sabban received an urgent phone call from an oil company saying two Chinese vessels were threatening to ram their survey ship, the Philippine commander's message was clear: don't move, we will come to the rescue.

Within hours, a Philippine surveillance plane, patrol ships and light attack aircraft arrived in the disputed area of Reed Bank in the South China Sea. By then the Chinese boats had left after chasing away the survey ship, Veritas Voyager, hired by U.K.-based Forum Energy Plc.

But the tension had become so great Forum Energy chief Ray Apostol wanted to halt two months of work in the area.

"They were so close to finishing their work. I told them to stay and finish the job," Sabban, who heads the Western Command of the Philippine Armed Forces, told Reuters at his headquarters in Puerto Princesa on Palawan island.

Over the next few days, President Benigno Aquino would call an emergency cabinet meeting, file a formal protest with China, and send his defense secretary and armed forces chief to the Western Command in a show of strength.

The March 2011 incident is considered a turning point for the Aquino administration. The president hardened his stance on sovereignty rights, sought closer ties with Washington and has quickened efforts to modernise its military.

A year later, Forum Energy is planning to return. Top company executives told Reuters the company intends to sail to Reed Bank within months to drill the area's first well for oil and natural gas in decades, an event that could spark a military crisis for Aquino if China responds more aggressively.

The U.S. military has also signalled its return to the area, with war games scheduled in March with the Philippine navy near Reed Bank that China is bound to view as provocative.

"This will be a litmus test of where China stands on the South China Sea issue," said Ian Storey, a fellow at the Singapore Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. "They could adopt the same tactics as they did last year and harass the drilling vessels, or they might even take a stronger line against them and send in warships."

A decades-old territorial squabble over the South China Sea is entering a new and more contentious chapter, as claimant nations search deeper into disputed waters for energy supplies while building up their navies and military alliances with other nations, particularly with the United States.

Reed Bank, claimed by both China and the Philippines, is just one of several possible flashpoints in the South China Sea that could force Washington to intervene in defense of its Southeast Asian allies.

OBAMA PIVOT

U.S. President Barack Obama has sought to reassure regional allies that Washington would serve as a counterbalance to a newly assertive China, part of his campaign to "pivot" U.S. foreign policy more intensely on Asia after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama brought up the South China Sea at an Asia-Pacific summit in Bali last November, and had a surprise one-one-one with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the subject, although Beijing had insisted the issue should not be on the agenda at all.

"As Southeast Asian nations run to the U.S. for assistance, Beijing increasingly fears that America aims to encircle China militarily and diplomatically," said Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt, Northeast Asia Director for the International Crisis Group. "Underlying all of these concerns is the potential that discoveries of oil and natural gas beneath the disputed sections of the South China Sea could fuel conflict."

The area is thought to hold vast untapped reserves of oil and natural gas that could potentially place China, the Philippines, Vietnam and other claimant nations alongside the likes of Saudi Arabia, Russia and Qatar.

Manila is beefing up its tiny and outdated naval fleet and military bases, adding at least two Hamilton-class cutters this year and earmarking millions of dollars to expand its Ulugan Bay naval base in Palawan.

It's no match for China's fleet, the largest in Asia, which boasts 62 submarines, 13 destroyers and 65 frigates, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

China last month launched the fourth of its new 071 amphibious landing ships that are designed to quickly insert troops to trouble spots, disputed islands, for example.

The U.S. Navy has announced it will deploy its own new amphibious assault vessels, the Littoral Combat Ships, to the "maritime crossroads" of the Asia-Pacific theater, stationing them in Singapore and perhaps the Philippines.

Washington's renewed presence in the Philippines, a former U.S. colony that voted to remove American naval and air bases 20 years ago, follows the U.S. announcement last year of plans to set up a Marine base in northern Australia and possibly station warships in Singapore.

Manila is talking about giving Washington more access to its ports and airfields to re-fuel and service U.S. warships and planes. The two countries will conduct war games off Palawan island in late March -- focusing on how to deal with a takeover of an oil rig in the South China Sea.

'SOUNDS OF CANNONS'

China has warned oil companies not to explore in the disputed South China Sea, over which Beijing says it has "indisputable sovereignty". Chinese ships have repeatedly harassed vessels that have tried.

After ExxonMobil discovered hydrocarbons off the coast of Danang in central Vietnam, an area also claimed by China, one of China's most popular newspapers warned in October that nations involved in territorial disputes should "mentally prepare for the sounds of cannons" if they remain at loggerheads with Beijing.

Despite the threats, the Philippines and Vietnam have continued to explore for oil and natural gas further offshore in the South China waters, driven by persistently high oil prices and more advanced deepsea technology.

The Philippines has reported as many as 12 incidents of Chinese vessels intruding into its sovereign waters in the past year, an unusually high number, Sabban said.

In one of the most serious incidents last October, a Philippine navy ship seized Chinese fishing boats after colliding with one of them, prompting protests from China for their return.

At least 12 Chinese fishermen have been arrested over the past year. Half of them remain in detention in Palawan.

"China has no right to tell us that we should first ask for permission from them to explore the area," Sabban said. "We have explored that area back in the 1970s, so why can't we explore it now? We knew that there is a substantial deposit of natural gas even before all of these things started."

Manila says Reed Bank, about 80 nautical miles west of Palawan island at the southwestern end of the Philippine archipelago, is within the country's 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone. Beijing, however, believes it is part of the Spratlys, a group of 250 uninhabitable islets spread over 165,000 square miles, claimed entirely by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and in part by Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.

While China prefers to solve the disputes one-on-one with its smaller Southeast Asian neighbour, Washington has sought to internationalize the issue, given that half the world's merchant fleet tonnage sails across the sea and around these islets each year, carrying $5 trillion worth of trade.

"If we don't develop our positions in our exclusive economic zone, then we will only be giving it away and will be at the losing end," Eugenio Bito-Onon, the mayor of Kalayaan islands in the Spratlys, told Reuters at a coffee shop in Puerto Princesa.

China's oil exploration has been limited in the South China Sea with less than 15 deep sea wells drilled so far. Chinese offshore oil and gas specialist CNOOC Ltd, along with international partners Canada's Husky Energy and U.S. company Chevron Corp., plan to step up exploration in the area but focus mainly in the north, staying away from the politically sensitive waters to the south.

Estimates for proven and undiscovered oil reserves in the South China Sea range from 28 billion to as high as 213 billion barrels of oil, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a March 2008 report. That would be equivalent to more than 60 years of current Chinese demand, under the most optimistic outlook, and surpass every country's proven oil reserves except Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the BP Statistical Review.

OIL MANDATE

General Sabban said the necessary patrol ships and surveillance planes will be provided to protect Forum Energy's exploration vessels in Reed Bank.

"We have a mandate to protect all oil companies exploring in our territory," he said. "We don't exactly escort them, but we are in the area to deter any outside force from harassing them."

Forum Energy, whose majority shareholder is the Philippines' top miner Philex Mining Corp., plans to spend around $80 million through 2013 to explore the Sampaguita gas field in Reed Bank, covered by Service Contract 72.

The field is estimated to hold at least 3.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with the potential for five times that amount. That is at least 25 percent bigger than the nearby Malampaya gas field, operated by Royal Dutch Shell, which fuels half of the power needs for the country's main island of Luzon.

The Philippines is eager to further increase its natural gas production to meet growing domestic demand for gas-fired power, which is estimated to surge to 5,000 megawatts per day in 2016, from the current 2,700 megawatts.

"There is no question that there is gas there. We already know one or two locations we would like to drill on," said Apostol, Forum Energy's president, in an interview. "If the first drill is a bonanza, there might be a need to drill back to back."

The company said it is closely coordinating its Reed Bank plans with the military and the energy department, hoping to send drill ships by the fourth quarter.

"We are aware of the implementation risks that have to be taken into account when we contract the drilling services," said Forum Energy's executive director Carlo Pablo. "We have to have plans in case of delays in operations, on mitigating cost overruns, and contractual penalties that may be imposed."

A flotilla of ships could soon follow Forum Energy in disputed waters, with Manila later this year awarding two offshore oil and gas exploration contracts in territory also claimed by China.

That could well keep the phones busy for Sabban and his sailors at Western Command for some time to come. (Reporting by Randy Fabi in Puerto Princesa and Manuel Mogato in Manila; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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U.S. Assistant Secretary Campbell in Vietnam

Source: VOA News Feb 27,2012

Kurt Campbell

“We underscored quite clearly . . . the strong desire of the United States to have a better relationship with Vietnam,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell during his recent visit to Hanoi, Vietnam.
“For the United States and Vietnam to go to the next level, it will require some significant steps on the part of Vietnam to address . . . human rights concerns, systemic challenges associated with freedom of expression, [and] freedom of organization,”


The purpose of Assistant Secretary Campbell’s visit was to expand the scope and depth of our relations with Vietnam, and to explain to Vietnamese interlocutors the multi-faceted steps in the U.S. pivot to the Asia-Pacific region, which includes strengthening our security partnerships with key partners in the region, advancing a stronger, multilateral engagement in the Association of South East Asian Nations’ Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit, and identifying ways to diversify the U.S. military posture in the Asia-Pacific region.


“While the United States is seeking a stronger role in the Asia-Pacific region, we also believe it is essential to have a strong relationship between the United States and China,” Assistant Secretary Campbell said. “We recognize that every country in Asia desires a better relationship with China. We understand that, we support that. We think that’s an essential feature of the maintenance of peace and stability.”


On enhancing existing U.S. - Vietnamese military relations, Assistant Secretary Campbell said, “Our desire is to take this process in a step-by-step manner. . . . We would like to see . . . a greater exchange of views and dialogue . . . to build trust and confidence . . . Then we would very much like to see some of these changes that I’m talking about in . . . human rights so that we will be able to see a more fulsome relationship between our two sides.”


Vietnam is a key country in the Asia Pacific region, and one with which the United States will be working closely in the decades to come. “That’s . . . why . . . we talked about a variety of foundations for . . . [our] relationship, [which includes] the economic relationship, the people-to-people interactions, [and] the . . . consultations that will be necessary to advance our common concerns in multilateral forums.” Assistant Secretary Campbell said in conclusion. “I’m confident that there is a deeper recognition . . . that our role in Asia is inseparable from our own prosperity and security, and . . . that’s in the best interest of all involved.”
...Read more>>>

Vietnam religious minorities face persecution says activist

Source: GENEVA (AFP) - Feb 21,2012

Authorities in Vietnam deliberately persecute and discriminate against religious minorities, a Vietnamese human rights campaigner told the United Nations on Monday.

'The indigenous Montagnards and the Hmongs are among the ethnic groups who have borne the brunt of the Vietnamese government's discriminatory policies,' Vo Van Ai, president of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights said.

He cited the cases of members of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), the Hoa Hao - a Chinese minority -, the Cao Dai and Buddhist Khmer Krom who face persecution.

Mr Ai told the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva that these minorities 'are subject to imprisonment, torture, house arrest, police surveillance, intimidation and harassment in their daily lives.' The head of the UBCV, Thich Quang Go, is 'still under house arrest at Thanh Minhh Zen monastery after nearly 30 years in various forms of detention for the peaceful advocacy of religious freedom'.

...Read more>>>

Bloggers in Repressive Vietnam

VOA: Doug Bernard | Washington DC

Vietnam Cracks Down On The Internet And Free Expression

Dieu Cay knows the risks and rewards of being a blogger in Vietnam. On the risk side, he’s been tossed in and out of prison cells over the last five years, today finding himself detained once more.
His reward? He’s still among the most popular online figures in his nation.  ‘Điếu cày‘ is a pen name meaning “peasant’s water pipe” in Vietnamese. The real person is Nguyen Van Hai, and he started blogging in 2007, just about the moment the Internet began spreading rapidly across the country. Unhappy about China’s policies in Tibet and the Spratly Islands, Nguyen started using his blog (now no longer viewable) to organize protests of the Beijing Olympics torch relay.

“BlogDieuCay” began quietly, but soon drew a lot of attention. Other Vietnamese citizens, unhappy with various Chinese policies, also began protesting the torch relay. Still others began speaking out online, inspired to start writing about Vietnam’s religious discrimination, land rights issues, or general corruption. In just a few months Nguyen was joined by fellow bloggers ‘AnhBa SG‘ (real name Phan Thanh Hai) and former Communist Party member Ta Phong Tan to start the “Club for Free Journalists.” Weekly viewership of their blogs skyrocketed.

That’s when authorities stepped in. In late April 2009, Nguyen was arrested on tax fraud, a charge many considered trumped up. (Phan and Ta were also arrested on unrelated crimes.) He was subsequently released and began blogging again, only to be repeatedly harassed by police. In October 2010 he was again detained by police, and has not been seen by anyone since. Officially, he’s charged with violating Article 88: “Conducting Propaganda Against the State.” Unofficially, many more call it simply “Blogging While Vietnamese.”
“Abusing Democratic Freedoms”

Nguyen isn’t alone. In just the last few months, as many as nine journalists and 33 bloggers have been jailed in what has become Vietnam’s largest ever crackdown on free speech online.
“It’s bad…it’s very bad,” says U.S. Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia. “The American ambassador (there) is a failure, the American embassy is no longer an island of freedom,” says an unsparing Wolf, condemning what he sees as an Obama administration that’s weak on human rights and freedom issues. “This administration has not done a very good job of speaking out,” says the long time rights advocate, “so these countries don’t believe that the Obama administration cares about these issues, and they feel they can do whatever they want.”

 Others see a different reason for the crackdown: a government motivated less by opportunism and more by fear.

“The government is threatened by the increasing use of the Internet by Vietnamese citizens,” says Human Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson. “With the expansion of the Vietnamese language Internet, their ability to control what people are reading and seeing has definitely diminished.”



Whatever the reason, there’s no doubting that Vietnamese are moving online in droves. In 2000, less than one percent of Vietnam’s population had access to the web. Ten years later, that number had bolted to 27 percent, and it’s likely higher today. Young Vietnamese crowd into Internet cafes and snatch up the latest smart phones (over 111 million mobile phones are registered in a nation with a population of 86 million). All those eyeballs online make for a declining consumption of state-controlled newspapers and broadcasts, and that, says Robertson, has Hanoi nervous:



“When you roll in what has happened in the Arab world, that has caused a great deal of concern by the Vietnamese government. They’re worried if they don’t try to correct the problem, try to control what is going out and control some of the more prominent bloggers or people sharing information, that this situation may somehow get out of control. That’s the core of the increasing crackdown we see by the government trying to go after the more prominent people making their views known, and harassing bloggers and harassing activists; not only trying to firewall their blogs or websites, but also the more traditional harassment: police going by, inviting people out to coffees or “chats,” going in and confiscating computers or cutting people off from the Internet by terminating their phone service.”



Nervous or not, Vietnamese authorities have clearly dropped the hammer recently on the nation’s most prominent bloggers and online activists. In addition to those detained, countless more are being monitored, forced offline or have had their computers seized.

The state has a grab bag of statutes that it can charge bloggers with violating. Most popular is Article 88, but there are many others, including Article 79 – “Subversion of the People’s Administration” – or the ironically termed Article 258: “Abusing Democratic Freedoms to Infringe the Interests of the State.” Whatever allegation is used, the punishments are tough: prison sentences of five to eight years.



“Playing an Easy and Hard Game.”

 Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 32 years old, is a mother in the central coastal city of Nha Trang. She was concerned about a controversial bauxite mining project nearby, and the Chinese partner on the project Chinalco. So in 2009 she began blogging about it, sharing news items or rumors she’d heard, her objections to the project, and what others were saying about similar projects.

Nguyen knew the dangers of blogging in Vietnam, and so adopted the pen name “Me Nam” – or “Mother Mushroom” in Vietnamese. People signed an online petition, and she printed shirts reading “Stop Bauxite – No China – Keep the country safe and clean.” Her blog became a smash success. That is, until the night of September 2, 2009, when 15 police agents smashed through her door and took her under arrest.

“The police arrested and kept me at prison for 10 days,” Nguyen tells VOA in an email interview. “Their reason for my temporary imprison(ment) is ‘abusing democratic freedom infringe upon national benefits.’”
After 10 days and no charges filed, Nguyen was released, but warned about continuing her blog. Despite that, she kept writing – posting her discontents with the government and its land policies. Since then she’s had police stationed outside her home, her landlord and employer have been pressured to fire her, she’s seen her family and friends harassed, and spent more time in jail.

Mother Mushroom says she, too, has noticed a marked increase in the level of harassment directed at her and her online colleagues. “Beside Dieu Cay and AnhBa SG, many young Catholic bloggers are still in jail,” she writes.

“I think that they are warning the others have to be careful when using blog to speak out the idea about the Communist Party’s policy. Being a Vietnamese blogger, it looks like playing an easy and hard game. It will be fine if you just write about the daily simple life. However, you should be arrested at any time if you step over the ‘sensitive areas.’ I still keep writing because it made me feel free in my mind, at least. And the most important thing, we do not feel human if we don’t have the right to speak our mind.”

Nguyen is free at the moment, but acknowledges, amid the current crackdown, that she might be next to be imprisoned. Asked why “Mother Mushroom” keeps writing, she writes simply “Who will speak if you don’t?”

Fighting a Losing Battle?


“Clearly the activists recognize that they’re pushing the edge and they’re potentially facing long prison terms if they push too hard,” says Human Rights Watch’s Phil Robertson:

“But when you talk to them, they’ll say very clearly ‘Look, I’ve done nothing wrong. This is my right to speak out.’ And in fact, they’re right. Vietnam has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which clearly contains an Article 19 guaranteeing the right to freedom of expression. So by saying ‘I’ve done nothing wrong,’ they’re not backing off on this, and the government is just forced to continue to tilt after these activists, to chase them and harass them, and ultimately is continuing to imprison them.”

Early in her term at the U.S. State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called freedom of online expression a basic human right, and pledged the Obama administration would do everything possible to lift the new “digital Iron Curtain” that was falling on various nations around the world. But critics say that since then, little has been done to help, while the situation in countries like Vietnam has grown only worse.

“In the old days…everyone was singing from the same page, and that’s that we were going to advocate for human rights and religious freedom around the world no matter where it would be,” laments Congressman Wolf. “That’s really what has to be done now, but that’s the exact opposite of what’s being done today.”
With all the other foreign policy issues at stake in the U.S. presidential election this year, online freedom of speech and the persecution of Vietnamese bloggers isn’t likely to rate very high. But that’s not to say there isn’t hope.

Columbia University professor Anne Nelson recently traveled to Vietnam, and wrote of her impressions:

“We can’t underestimate the suffering — to say nothing of the nuisance — inflicted by Vietnam’s cyber-cop crackdowns. But at the same time, it appears they’re fighting a losing battle. Vietnam’s media audience is moving online rapidly, partly because they are constantly learning new techniques for outmaneuvering the authorities — and partly because the Communist Party’s traditional news media have failed to hold on to their audience and advertising base.”

As in neighboring China, Vietnam is seeking to have it both ways: expanding access to the web and wiring the nation for the future while limiting what its citizens can do and say online. It’s a tricky balance, and one technology is constantly shifting.

In the meantime, somewhere in Vietnam, Dieu Cay sits in a prison cell, awaiting his fate.
...Read more>>>

Vietnamese Americans Wage Vigorous Human Rights Petition Drive

Source:BPSOS, News Report, Posted: Feb 21, 2012

Within two weeks, over sixty thousand Vietnamese-Americans with the support of human rights advocates from across the country have voiced their concern to President Obama, calling on the Administration to not expand trade with communist Vietnam at the expense of human rights.

The US Trade Representative, which reports directly to the President, is considering Vietnam's efforts to expand trade with the US through the Trans-Pacific Partnership and gain preferential tariffs on goods exported to the US through the Generalized System of Preferences. The petition asks President Obama to not decouple trade from human rights and seek the immediate and unconditional release of all detained and imprisoned champions of human rights as part of the trade negotiation with communist Vietnam. A list of 600 such prisoners is being compiled for presentation to the White House.

"With this petition drive, we would like to demonstrate our community's ability for self-mobilization around a common cause," said Truc Ho, President of SBTN who officially launched the petition drive on Feb 8, 2012.

The online petition drive makes use of the White House's "We The People" website. The petition must collect 25,000 endorsements within 30 days for the Administration to issue an official response. By the fourth day, the petition had already surpassed that threshold.

"Following the recent reforms in Burma, Vietnam has become the worst violator of human rights in Southeast Asia; the US and the world should shine the spotlight on its increasingly repressive regime," Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Executive Director of BPSOS, explained.

SBTN, BPSOS and many Vietnamese-American community organizations have set up stations in multiple cities across the country to assist community members faced with difficulties using the internet. Hundreds of bilingual college students and young professionals have signed up to volunteer at these stations.

A delegation of some 200 Vietnamese-Americans is being formed with representatives from all 50 states to present a hard copy of the petition to the White House on March 5. On the following day twice that number will meet with members of Congress or their staff to support the Vietnam Human Rights Act.

All American citizens and residents who care about human rights are asked to lend a hand and sign the online petition. [A petitioner needs to first open an account at https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions, then sign the petition at https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/stop-expanding-trade-vietnam-expense-human-rights/53PQRDZH
...Read more>>>

Laos and Vietnam: no to human rights and religious freedom because they create "chaos"

Leaked Document: Asean waters down human rights 
Friday, 17 February 2012 12:40 Mizzima News

A leaked draft of the Asean Human Rights Declaration obtained by Mizzima has lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding the centerpiece of the human rights agenda of the Association of Southeast Asian States (Asean).

A working draft, written in January at the time of the first meeting of Asean Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights on the Asean Human Rights Declaration held in Siem Reap, Cambodia, includes detailed comments by officials from Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore.

The draft revealed a number of the Asean-member states – most notably Laos – are seeking to water down the declaration by proposing wording that would limit its scope and application, while officials from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, providing comment as a block of nations, proposed more progressive wording.

Laos has arguably taken the most hardl-line stance, placing conditions on a number of sections in the draft declaration.

Commenting on the duties and responsibilities of the Asean member States, Laos said the “realization of universal human rights” must be in the context of “regional and national particularities” such as political, economic, social, cultural, historical and religious backgrounds.

Laos’ position is contrary to the more expansive wording drafted by the Asean Secretariat that “…it is the duty of member states, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Laos is also proposing the inclusion of a “national security” and “public morality” trigger to override claims to universal human rights and freedoms, perhaps fearful of an erosion of national security and moral principles.

“The exclusive insistence on rights can result in conflict, division, and endless dispute and can lead to lawlessness and chaos,” Laos said.

While the secretariat’s original wording acknowledges rights shall be exercised with “due regard” to national security and contains no mention of “public morality,” Laos’ rewording would extend the reach of limitations, potentially enabling a member state to claim exemption from the Declaration where national security, public morality and other issues enacted in national laws permit.

“The exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose... to meet the just requirements of national security, public order, public health and public morality and the general welfare of the peoples in a democratic society,” Laos said.

Some member states appear to have accepted the inclusion of “public morality” as a limitation.

In other comments, Laos proposed limiting “the right to practice one’s religion or belief” with the condition that “advocacy or dissemination of religions or beliefs shall be in compliance with national law of each Asean Member State.”

Both Laos and Vietnam held reservations about the right to freedom of opinion and expression and to freely receive information. Laos added the qualification, “Freedom of expression carries with it special duty not to defame the reputation of others and incite hatred, discrimination, war, social division and violence.”

Laos is the most vigorous advocate for cementing state rights above claims to universal human rights and freedoms, with Malaysia and Vietnam making supporting comments.

“Each Asean member state has the right to pursue its own economic and social development and freely choose it s own political system which suits the historical culture and social realities and national values of each nation, based on the aspirations of its people without external interference or pressure in whatsoever forms,” Laos said.

And in a clear statement designed to shield trade and investment from the scope of the Declaration, Laos said, “Human rights should not be used as conditionality for extending official development assistance to, engage in trade with, and making investment in Asean-member states.”

Burma did not directly comment on the draft but did support the position of Laos “not to mention international binding instruments in this political declaration” and agreed with Laos which had “reservations in regards to the use of the term[s] ‘minority groups’ and ‘indigenous peoples’.”

The definition of who holds rights and freedoms under the Declaration appears to be contentious, with a number of member states providing views.

The draft stated, “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, sexual identity, property, birth, disability or other status.”

However, socially conservative Brunei and Malaysia are opposed to the inclusion of “sexual identity” and Malaysia raised concerns about the definitions of “sex” and “other status” seeking to ensure they are “determined by Asean common values in the spirit of unity in diversity,” and not based on other internationally accepted definitions.

Thailand proposed changing “sexual identity” to the more progressive term “sexual orientation” to reflect the language of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Thailand also proposed that the phrase “gender identity” be included.

Of the other member states’ comments, Singapore took a relatively cautious approach, stating it has reservations about a number of issues notably that, “Primary education shall be compulsory and free,” and “A person’s nationality cannot be revoked or otherwise deprived if it will result in the person being stateless.”

Vietnam questioned the use of the word “freely” in a citizen’s right to participate freely in government and proposed removing “torture, enforced disappearance or other serious human rights violations” from the list of persecutions preventing a State from extraditing an asylum seeker.

The current draft also defines when the death penalty can be used. However, some member states oppose its inclusion.
The raft of changes proposed in the leaked draft will be a cause for concern among many civil society groups.

Worried by the possibility the declaration may fall below international standards under the guise of the “Asean way,” civil society’s position paper on the declaration submitted in June 2011 by the Solidarity for Asian People’s Advocacy Task Force on ASEAN and Human Rights (SAPA TF-AHR), a coalition of more than 70 nongovernmental organizations in Southeast, said:

“Under no circumstances may the standards for human rights in the AHRD fall below those provided by universal human rights instruments. Instead, ASEAN as a regional association should aspire to commit itself to higher standards of human rights and contribute to the advancement of the promotion and protection of human rights globally.”

Last month, Amnesty International criticized the Asean panel charged with drafting a human rights code saying it is working largely in secrecy and not consulting with human rights’ NGOs.

Asean officials say the Asean grouping hopes to finalize the draft of the rights charter in 2012. The final draft must be passed by consensus.
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US House moves to press Vietnam on rights

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON — US lawmakers moved forward Wednesday on a bill that would curb aid to Vietnam unless it improves its human rights record, raising concern over the treatment of dissidents and religious practitioners.

The proposal would block any increase in non-humanitarian US assistance beyond 2011 levels unless the State Department certifies that Vietnam has made "substantial progress" in respecting freedom of religion and expression and that the Hanoi government is working against human trafficking.

"It is imperative that the United States government send an unequivocal message to the Vietnamese regime that it must end its human rights abuses against its own citizens," Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey who sponsored the bill, told a hearing.

A House subcommittee on human rights led by Smith approved the proposal with support from both major parties. The bill still needs passage by the full House Foreign Affairs Committee, and then the full House and Senate.

The House has approved the bill twice in previous sessions, but it has died in the Senate.

The draft bill seeks Vietnam's release of prisoners detained "for their peaceful advocacy of religious freedom, democracy and human rights" including outspoken Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly.

The proposal also voices concern about restrictions on press freedom and the treatment of Buddhist clergy and churches, including those of the minority Montagnard and Hmong ethnicities.

A Vietnamese woman, testifying last month to a House panel, accused Hanoi authorities of complicity in human trafficking after she was sent to a factory in Jordan where she said she worked day and night for little pay.

Vietnam and the United States have been building closer relations, putting aside bitter memories of war, amid friction between Hanoi and Beijing over territorial claims in the South China Sea.

President Barack Obama's administration has repeatedly called on Vietnam to address human rights concerns, although it has also pushed ahead with greater cooperation with Hanoi including in military exchanges.

The US Agency for International Development said that the United States provided $134 million for Vietnam in the 2010 fiscal year, more than half of it devoted to improving health and child survival. The agency requested $125 million for 2012. ...Read more>>>

House members press Obama administration on Vietnam human rights

Source: The Hill

Several House members on Thursday called on the Obama administration to take a tougher line on human rights violations in Vietnam.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), ranking member Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and four other members wrote a four-page letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking for new details to be included in the State Department's upcoming human rights report.


Among other things, the letter said the U.S. should note that Vietnam's government is still silencing dissidents, repressing religion and violating the rights of ethnic and religious minorities in the country.

Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), one of the letter's signatories, said it is significant that top committee members called for these changes to the Vietnam report. He said he hopes State moves up Vietnam as a "country of particular concern," a status that would require State to more actively work on improving the situation there.

Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) also signed the letter to Clinton.

Lofgren, Sanchez, Wolf and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) wrote a separate letter to David Shear, the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, asking him to look into reports that some of Vietnam's drug treatment centers "operate as forced labor camps."

This letter is based on reports from Human Rights Watch (HRW) that what Vietnam calls "labor therapy" is actually forced labor that is doing little to rehabilitate participants, an issue the Ros-Lehtinen letter also mentions.

"On the contrary, the relapse rate for released detainees is estimated at 80 to 97 percent," the letter said. "Yet HRW has found that the Vietnamese government persists in using it, often lengthening detention periods without due process while prison officials profit off of selling the cheap or free labor."

The letter said forced labor is a violation of international law. The lawmakers ask Shear to "keep attention focused on the allegations detailed in the HRW report" and "call publicly for the closure of these centers."

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Hanoi Plays Hide the Dissident

source: the Wall Street Journal

Hanoi purports to want closer relations with Washington as a counterbalance to Beijing's rising assertiveness in the South China Sea. Washington says it wants Hanoi to improve its human-rights record. Which means both sides face a new test in dissident Bui Thi Minh Hang.

Ms. Hang was dispatched recently for a two-year stint of "re-education" in a labor camp for peaceful protests that would not be illegal in a normal country. On several occasions last year, she rallied her fellow Vietnamese to protest China's growing aggression in maritime territorial disputes.

It's a hot-button issue for ordinary Vietnamese, and such protests are a major irritant in Hanoi's relationship with its comrade neighbors in Beijing. Several other activists and bloggers have been arrested over the past two years for criticizing Hanoi's sometimes limp response to Chinese provocations.

Ms. Hang's case represents a worrying development in Hanoi's strategy against its internal critics. Rather than going through the normal show trial and appeals process, Ms. Hang was summarily sentenced via an administrative process more often used for drug offenders and other criminals.

While the precise reason for the change in procedural tack is unknown, a plausible guess is that Hanoi feared Ms. Hang's trial becoming a spectacle. Other dissidents have used their court hearings as platforms to criticize the government—authorities gagged Roman Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly with duct tape during his trial for pro-democracy activism in 2007—and courthouse steps are tempting locations for sympathy protests.

So Ms. Hang was quietly trundled off to a labor camp, her family left in the dark. Once her fate became known, her son was detained for a day when he tried to protest by distributing "missing person"-style flyers about his mother.

The worry now is that Hanoi will turn Ms. Hang's case into a new template for handling other critics. The outside world should score Hanoi for this attempt to brush its abuses under the carpet.

The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi last week criticized Ms. Hang's detention and called for the release of all political prisoners. Meanwhile, a European Union delegation today will inaugurate what's billed as an annual human-rights dialogue with the Vietnamese government. Ms. Hang should feature prominently on the agenda.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sought closer ties with Hanoi to bolster stability in the South China Sea, but she has also emphasized that Vietnam must do more to improve its human-rights record. Hanoi knows that greater strategic cooperation with the West is in Vietnam's best interest. That gives foreign leaders leverage to raise Ms. Hang's case and others.
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Vietnam Authorities Continue to Ban Cambodian TV Broadcasts

Source: VOKK News

Khmer Krom local, Mr. Son Kim Sang, has told VOKK News that the Vietnamese authorities have prohibited his family from installing a satellite disk in order to receive TV signals from Cambodia.

Being a Khmer person living in the Mekong Delta, Mr. Son has explained to the Vietnamese authorities that he and his family only plan to learn about Khmer culture and Khmer language by watching Cambodian TVs, however the Vietnamese disregard his request and told him to take down his satellite, or else face arrest.

Mr. Son has also expressed that the half-hour Khmer-language show produced by the Vietnamese authorities in his hometown is too short and useless information, and while the rest of the programming in Vietnamese-language only. Hence, he has to find other source of information for his family in order to keep his cultural identity alive.

Mr. Son family reside at District 9, Tra Vinh city, Tra Vinh province, Mekong Delta. ...Read more>>>