. On September 16, the Bush administration's John Hanford touted a new report, saying "Vietnam has turned the corner and made enormous progress on religious freedom."
. On September 18, it was the third torture session for Y-Tao Eban. This time, he was beaten unconscious with an AK-47. The torturers, Vietnamese authorities, feared that he would die in custody, so he was released and taken to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with "bleeding inside his brain."
. On September 30, police arrest a Montagnard named Ngram who then went missing / whereabouts unknown.
. On October 9, police arrested and beat a Montagnard named Y-Leng Ya.
. On October 13, police arrested two Montagnards for refusing to join the government church.
. On October 15, police arrested three Montagnards for refusing to join the government church.
. On October 22, a Montagnard named Moi went missing. He was found hung, with a cracked skull, two broken arms, and other marks of torture. The instrument of his hanging was Vietnamese military-issue shoestrings.
. On October 28, U.S. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) is reported by AP to be concerned about Thuong Nguyen "Cuc" Foshee, his Florida constituent who was held without charges by the Vietnamese government. Her activism in Florida for a free Vietnam was enough to make her "suspected of terrorism" as far as the Vietnam government is concerned. This is the second time that the PNTR bill was threatened by a hold in the U.S. Senate.
. On November 5, Vietnamese troops surrounded more villages, sealing off 16 villages.
. On November 10, this headline-- "Vietnam Convicts 3 US Citizens on Terrorism Charges" (Your author feels I should say, "I'm not making this stuff up, folks!") One of those convicted is Thuong N. "Cuc" Foshee, the Orlando Florida resident of concern to Senator Mel Martinez.
Most of the above items are behavior of the Vietnamese government, shooting themselves in the foot for passage of PNTR. (Your author feels I should say, "But wait, there's more!") In recounting events, we would be remiss if we didn't notice the Bush administration and the U.S. State Department, shooting themselves in the foot. Vietnam has long been on "the CPC list," a U.S. State Department list of Countries of Particular Concern due to their violations of religious freedom. Vietnam has repeatedly been cited as one of the eight worst countries in the matter of religious freedom.
On November 13, the U.S. State Department removed Vietnam from the CPC list described above. In light of the recent events above (a list with its own death toll!), the move to do this was ludicrous, unwarranted and disconnected from reality. In my view, the removal from that list was less about playing to Congress (which rejected PNTR on the same day), and it was more about pandering to the Vietnam dictators who are hosting this year's APEC summit, with a visit by President George W. Bush happening as I write this. Also on Monday the 13th, Vietnam released and deported Thuong N. "Cuc" Foshee, the Mel Martinez constituent, in an obvious gesture to remove an irritant in U.S.-Vietnam relations ahead of the summit.
Vietnam's removal from the State Department's CPC list flew in the face of a recommendation just a week earlier, by the bipartisan, independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which announced on November 6 that it had sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, urging that she maintain Vietnam as a Country of Particular Concern. Their letter seemed to be far more connected with reality and with outcomes "on the ground" rather than diplomatic rhetoric. (In the realm of rhetoric, Vietnam's Constitution and laws ostensibly allow religious freedom.) The move by Condoleeza Rice might best be described as an expedient curtsey in fantasyland, for the benefit of communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs.
Smoking gun emerges:
What ELSE was happening, simultaneously with this move by the Bush administration? Elsewhere, the disconnect from reality was being highlighted in a very embarrassing way. Consider this headline: "Leaked Vietnamese Government Manual Outlines Plan to Subdue Protestants." Multiple human rights groups reported this week about the "Training Document: Concerning the Task of the Protestant Religion in the Northern Mountainous Region," issued this year by Vietnam's Central Bureau of Religious Affairs. It said that its plan was to "resolutely subdue...development of the Protestant religion." In regard to Protestants, the manual said, "treat them severely and denounce them to the citizens."
In other reports, authorities in Vietnam have been harassing dissidents and rounding up street children in the run-up to this week's APEC summit.
The first Generation X presidential candidate, John Kusumi was the 18-year-old for U.S. President in 1984 (Independent / Practical Idealist). He is the founder and Director Emeritus of the China Support Network, formed with fellow Americans in 1989 to respond to the tragedy of China's Tiananmen Square massacre. He is also a leader of the Freedom First, Olympics Second Coalition -- a combination of many groups that are opposed to Beijing's Olympic Games unless China first is free. He is also a columnist, podcaster, public speaker and advisor to leading Chinese dissidents, with material at Kusumi.com.
