[Thai] Govt won’t use security law against PAD [demonstrating against Hun Xen and Thaksin]

11/11/2009
Bangkok Post

The government has no plan to invoke the Internal Security Act to control the planned mass gathering of supporters of the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) on Sunday, acting police chief Gen Pateep Tanprasert said on Wednesday.

Pol Gen Pateep earlier this morning met with Deputy Prime Minister for security affairs Suthep Thaugsuban to discuss plan to deal with the yellow-shirt demonstration.

“Police believe the Sunday demonstration by PAD supporters will be peaceful,” the acting police chief said. Mr Suthep directed him to refrain from the use of force against the protesters.

Pol Gen Pateep it had not yet been decided how many police would be be deployed during the rally.

The PAD said in its statement on Tuesday that it would stage a major rally on Nov 15, to show dissatisfaction with Cambodia's appointment of Thaksin Shinawatra as economic adviser and Thaksin's interview with The Times online about the monarchy.

The demonstrators would send a message to the world community that Thai people were loyal to the monarchy and denounce Puea Thai Party chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, Thaksin and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen for having trodden on the dignity and integrity of Thailand, said Suriyasai Katasila, PAD coordinator.

Vietnam deports another Viet Tan member

Nguyen Thi Thanh Van

13/12/2007
SGGP (Hanoi)

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese authorities deported Wednesday a Vietnamese French national who took part in Viet Tan party plans to sabotage the Vietnamese state.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, 51 years old, was taken to Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport, to be flown back to France.

Van was caught November 17, 2007 at a friend’s home preparing to spread anti-State leaflets and was soon arrested on charges of “terrorism” under Article 84 of the Criminal Code.

During investigation, Van admitted to taking part in the Viet Tan party since late 1999, as a newscaster of the party’s “New Horizon” radio and a reporter for the reactionary “Democratic Viet Nam” newspaper under the “Free Viet Nam Alliance”, a side organization of the Viet Tan.

In 2007, Van returned to Viet Nam twice to take part in anti-state activities, including bringing 7,000 leaflets and 900 Viet Tan logos from Cambodia to Viet Nam for distribution.

She was caught November 17. Given her repentance, Vietnamese authorities decided not to prosecute her and instead deported her.

Van is the second member of Viet Tan to be expelled from Viet Nam.

On December 11, Truong Leon (Vietnamese name: Truong Van Sy), 54 years old, was deported to the US after being arrested last month with thousands of anti-state leaflets in Ho Chi Minh City.

Pro-democracy protest in front of Vietnamese embassy in US

Mon Dec 10, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) - About 300 Vietnamese-Americans protested in front of the Vietnamese embassy in Washington Monday against the arrest in Ho Chi Minh City of six political activists, including two US citizens.

Vietnamese police on November 17 arrested the six, including two Vietnamese-American members of the California-based Viet Tan, or Vietnam Reform Party, which is banned in the Asian communist one-party state.

The protestors, some who travelled from California and Chicago, carried pro-democracy banners and flags and shouted slogans such as "It's time for democracy in Vietnam" and "Free the peaceful democracy activists."

The two arrested Americans -- Nguyen Quoc Quan, a mathematician from Sacramento, and Leon Truong, a restaurateur from Honolulu -- were among a group that circulated petitions produced by Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group promoting peaceful political change in Vietnam.

Families of the two met Monday with State Department officials, who "basically reaffirmed that it was a priority of the US government to seek their release," said Duy Hoang, a US-based leader of Viet Tan.

The officials also said Washington had protested at the highest levels in Vietnam "that you can't hold people for their peaceful expression of their beliefs," he said.

Eleven US lawmakers meanwhile wrote to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, saying the arrests "violate the government of Vietnam's promise to continue to improve its human rights record."

Also arrested on November 17 were Frenchwoman Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, Thai citizen Somsak Khunmi and two Vietnamese nationals.

A small group of the protestors at the Vietnamese embassy later walked a mile (1.6 kilometers) to the Chinese embassy to defend Vietnam's claim of sovereignty over the disputed Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea.

China last month set up a county-level Sansha administrative unit on Hainan island, which covers 2.6 million square kilometres (1 million square miles), mostly ocean, including the disputed isles.

The disputes stir strong passions in Vietnam, which remembers a millennium of Chinese rule and fought its last border war with China in 1979.

The two countries fought a brief naval battle in 1988 near one of the Spratly Island reefs, in which more than 50 Vietnamese sailors died.

The two communist-ruled countries normalized relations in 1991.

"Our demonstration in front of the Chinese embassy is not in support of the Vietnamese government but in support of the position of the nation of Vietnam in the claim of sovereignty over the islands," Duy Hoang said.

Anti-Hanoi protest in front of the White House

Demonstrators protest in Lafayette Park across from the White House, Friday, June 22, 2007, as Nguyen Minh Triet, the president of Vietnam was to meet with President Bush. (Photos: AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

Americans Against the Annexation of Cambodia and Laos by Vietnam

AAACLV Press Release

My name is Nicole Ung, and I'm with the Americans Against the Annexation of Cambodia and Laos by Vietnam (AAACLV). I am here in front of the White House to protest President Bush's hosting of Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet, the leader of a repressive neo-colonialist regime.

Vietnam is in egregious violation of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement because of its annexation of Cambodian territories, and its neo-colonization of Laos. Furthermore, Vietnam's tri-border security and economic development zone scheme, involving three North Eastern provinces of Cambodia and three South Eastern provinces of Laos, is but yet another form of expropriation, land-grabbing and plunder of all the natural resources of its neighbors. AAACLV also wants to bring attention to the fact that Vietnam policies amount to de-facto ethnic cleansing of the native population in the territories involved. Vietnam's neo-colonization of Cambodia is so apparent that authorities of the Hun Sen government have completely abdicated their authority. They no longer prosecute even common law crimes committed by Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia, thereby relegating Cambodians to second-class status in their own country.

AAACLV points out that what is happening now in Cambodia and Laos is proof that Vietnam's aim has always been its expansion into and domination over all of the countries of former Indochina, and validates the reason for America's involvement in that war. Although this vindication comes 32 years too late, it is now clear that those Americans, Cambodians, Lao, and ethnic minorities who gave up their lives in the Vietnam War did it for the right cause -- to stop the expansion of a ruthless, evil communist regime.

AAACLV would like to appeal to the Congress and President Bush to suspend aid to Vietnam until:

• Vietnam stops supporting and manipulating Hun Sen and his ruthless regime.
• Vietnam agrees to recognize the borders set by the 1954 Geneva Convention, void all treaties Vietnam and Cambodia have signed between 1979 and 2005 that amount to Vietnam's expansion into Cambodian territory and unlimited settlement of Vietnamese population in Cambodia.
• Stop all their religious persecution and policies of ethnic-cleansing against the minorities who fought on the US side during the Vietnam War.
  

AAACLV also appeals to the American people to voice their support for the American Veterans and the families of the more than 55 thousand Americans who lost their lives in Vietnam by:

• calling on American businesses that have already invested in Vietnam to divest from Vietnam until that government stops its expansionism and lives up to international laws. These include, but are not limited to: Intel, Microsoft, SSA Marine, Honeywell International, International Textile Group (ITG), Winvest Investment, Wells Fargo & CO,
• calling upon those businesses that are about to invest in Vietnam to halt their plans by boycotting that regime until it stops its expansionism and tyrannical rule over its people and the peoples of Cambodia and Laos. These include, but are not limited to: Abbott International, Agilent, Alcoa, Apco Worldwide, Boeing Company, Chevron, Conoco, Phillips, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, JHPIEGO, Raytheon International Inc, Time Warner, UPS, Vietnam Partners, Universal Telecom Services, Inc.
  

AAACLV supports the American Veterans in their search for a full and accurate accounting of the US MIA in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

AAACLV will protest in front of the White House Friday June 22, 2007.

Nicole Ung
President Americans Against the Annexation of Cambodia and Laos by Vietnam
President Cambodia Border Committee for Florida

For additional information or to contact AAACLV:
AAACLV
5979 N Dixie Hwy, #281
Oakland Park, FL 33334
Ph: 561-386-0634
Fax: 954-489-1240
Email: aaacalav@gmail.com

Nguyen Minh Triet's visit to the US sparked protests in Little Saigon and across the country

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Orange County pushes discussion on Vietnam

Vietnamese groups meet with Sanchez and Pelosi to take up democratic reform with the nation's president

By KATHRINE SCHMIDT
The Orange County Register (Southern Calif., USA)

WASHINGTON Rep. Loretta Sanchez and three Vietnamese community leaders met with the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday to make sure she knows what their concerns are about that country's government before she sits down with its president today.

Nguyen Minh Triet's visit is the first of any Vietnamese president to the United States. His trip has sparked protests in Little Saigon and across the country, given what many Vietnamese Americans describe as the regime's poor human rights record and recent crackdown on pro-democracy groups and activists.

Triet will go to Dana Point on Friday after meetings today on Capitol Hill and Friday with President Bush.

The Vietnamese community leaders hoped that Pelosi and Bush would capitalize on the recent closer relations between the two countries – spurred in part by a successful trade agreement and Vietnam's entrance into the World Trade Organization last year – and push the country toward change.

They want Pelosi "to impress upon the Vietnamese president that he must respect human rights, particularly freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and association, and that they must release the peaceful dissidents," said Diem Do, chairman of the Vietnam Reform Party, an international group active in Orange County.

Do, who lives in Anaheim, joined Bich Nguyen of the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans and Thich Giac Duc, a prominent Buddhist leader from Boston in the meeting with the Speaker.

"We walked out of the building, and all felt it was an excellent meeting and an excellent opportunity," Do said. "It was a very lively exchange, and she was very, very engaged. She repeated over and over again that she will bring up the issue that we have discussed to the Vietnamese president tomorrow."

Do has been lobbying in Washington on the issue in recent weeks. He met with Bush and Vice President Cheney, representatives at the State Department and the National Security Agency, and with Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton.

"I really hope that between (the Bush) meeting and this meeting today with the Speaker, we can really send a very strong message," Do said. "They are in a very good position to leverage some changes in Vietnam."

Earlier this year, the Vietnamese government arrested several of the leaders of Block 8406, a coalition of Democratic reform groups. Priest Nguyen Van Ly and lawyer Nguyen Van Dai are among those accused of spreading propaganda against the government, and could serve up to 20 years if convicted.

The House unanimously passed a resolution last month urging Vietnam to release the prisoners and reverse course on human rights.

"She's a very big person with respect to human rights, and she's very interested to see the depth of the human rights issues there," Sanchez said of Pelosi. "I think we educated her, we left her material, and she said that she was going to bring the points up with the president.

Ever since she was elected to Congress Sanchez has made trips to Vietnam and been criticized by the Vietnamese government for meeting with dissidents and arguing for increased human rights and religious freedoms.

"This is a continuous fight," Sanchez said. "We're on the right side of this issue."

Contact the writer: 202-628-6381 or kaschmidt@ocregister.com

Prince’s New Party Says It Plans to Protest Phnom Penh Court

Heng Reaksmey
VOA Khmer
Washington
21/02/2007

The new opposition party of Prince Norodom Ranariddh says it plans to stage a march against Phnom Penh Municipal court.

The party claims leadership of the prince’s former party, Funcinpec, was falsely accused over the selling of Funcinpec’s headquarters.

More than 10,000 protestors are expected from 20 provinces, but NRP Spokesman Muth Chantha gives no date for the proposed march. He says only that it will be before the election of municipal council members.

Interior Ministry Spokesman Khieu Sopheak says the ministry has not received a request for protest from the party.