April OLeary Report Editorial Expresses Shock and Awe at Congress Selective Efforts to Punish Countries With Poor Human Rights Records

Associated Television News Contact: Clara Hickerson 323-556-5600 x 404 or ClaraHickerson@aol.com For Immediate Release April 28, 2003

In this new session of the American Congress, only North Korea, one of the top 10 countries identified as major violators of human rights, was cited for Congressional sanctions.

Congress has shown no interest in passing legislation to strip economic and military aid to the other top nine violators. While we can argue who these other nine countries are, the editorial writers around the country, including ones from the New York Times, The Herald Tribune and Kansas City Star, have identified those countries as Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Macedonia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Sudan, China and Cuba. Impartial observers at Freedom House said we should also look at the human rights records of several other countries, including Laos, Russia (Chechnya), Syria, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan.

With the exception of North Korea, the top violators seem to be getting a free ride by Congress. In part, because many of those support our actions against Afghanistan and Iraq. And many of the others are protected because American business wants to open those countries for American products.

In this session of Congress and in the last session, Congress selected Vietnam, for aid and economic sanctions. But, that country receives hardly any aid or economic assistance from the U.S. to begin with. Vietnams 80 million people use the United States Dollar or their own countrys currency as a means of commerce and the people have embraced a love for Americans, American products, and American entertainment.

Vietnam is striving to become a free market economy thanks, in part, to economic aid and trade with France, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, and the new government of Russia. America lags behind in participating in the free market miracle in Vietnam.

The State Department, in its March 31, 2003 report, praised Vietnam for making progress on human rights. In fact, the State Department praises the government of Vietnam in 20 different instances. Some of the more important points include:

1.    In recent years, the Party gradually reduced its formal involvement in Government operations and allowed the Government to exercise significant discretion in implementing policy."

2.    The National Assembly played an increasingly independent role as a forum for local and provincial concerns and as a critic of local and national corruption and inefficiency."

3.    The Ministry of Public Security has become less obvious and pervasive in the intrusion into most citizens daily lives."

4.    The Government amnestied over 9,500 prisoners during the year."

5.    The Government cooperated with the International Labor Organization ILO to improve implementation of the existing labor law."

6.    The National Assembly rejected a bill that would have given district courts authority over more crimes because legislators were concerned that the change would have led to miscarriages of justice."

7.    A system of surveillance; registration when leaving their homes and seeking government permission to seek other employment seems to have disappeared."

8.    The Government allowed access to the internet and allowed 4,000 cyber cafes to start as independent businesses. It has issued statements, but not laws to discourage citizens from accessing anti-government sites and site for pornography.

9.    There was an increasing interest in subjects such as American Studies that officially were discouraged in the past.

10.    The Government generally allowed persons to practice individual worship in the religion of their choice and participation in religious activities throughout the country continued to grow significantly. The Government officially recognized Buddhist, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, and Muslim religious organizations.

There are more freedoms available to Vietnamese citizens today than there have been in the past 150 years, including when the Vichy French ran Vietnam for the Japanese and Nazis in World War II, and during the Diem regime that was so religiously oppressive, Buddhist monks immolated themselves. That government was followed by military coups and regimes in the 60s and 70s, and then the reconstruction years of the 80s and 90s that include a war with China.

As we approach the 30th anniversary of the conclusion of the Vietnam War, its time for Congress to set aside the ill-will of the past and help Vietnam use its natural resources to achieve economic success for its market economy which will pave the way for more political, economic, social and religious freedoms.

-30-