Organization: Vietnam Insight
Editor: Chan Tran
Address: PO Box 7826, San Jose, CA 95150, USA
Phone: (408) 226-2261
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Date:         Mon, 4 Jan 1993 13:30:37 PST
              USENET." <VIETNET@USCVM.BITNET>
From:         Vietnam Insight <vinsight@NETCOM.COM>
Subject:      VI: Petition drives in Japan for VN's pol. prisoners

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Campaign on behalf of political prisoners in Vietnam continues
******************

Petition drives in Japan:

TOKYO: Joining their compatriots around the world, Vietnamese in Japan
have launched petition drives and distributed hundreds of leaflets
calling for world attention for the plight of political prisoners in
Vietnam.

The local chapter of the National United Front for the Liberation of
Vietnam, together with other Vietnamese organizations formed an Interim
Committee for the campaign on October 25, 1992.

Since then, the committee has issued an open letter, calling on local
Vietnamese to actively participate in the campaign by:

- Giving information regarding known cases of political prisoners
currently detained by the Vietnamese communist government.

- Sign in support of NUFRONLIV's appeal for the release of all political
prisoners.

- Join in campaign petition drives, protest demonstrations, and inform
people of the campaign.

- Inform friends, both Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese, of Vietnam's
oppression and human rights violations, and urge them to support the
people's democratic cause.

On November 8, the Interim Committee launched its first petition drive
at Tokyo's crowded intersection of Shibuya and Shinjuku. The more than
100 Vietnamese participants dispersed to every corner of nearby streets
collecting signatures of support and distributing material regarding
the campaign.

Many passersby, moved by the cause and scene of Vietnamese children who
joined their parents in the campaign, distributing balloons of slogans
and messages, enthusiastically gave their support and best wishes to
the participants.

The Committee has appealed to Japanese government officials for their
support of the campaign, and so far has received at least 40 letters of
support from them. A call for support from Japan's powerful labor union
is also on the Committee's agenda.

Sharing concern for the plight of political prisoners in Vietnam,
Professor Mitsuro Muto, chairman of the Freedom and Human Rights
Committee in Japan, wrote on the Sankei daily an editorial to promote
the cause. With its circulation of 3 million, the daily's editorial has
helped bringing the matter of human rights abuses in Vietnam to the
forefront.

On December 6 upon the 44th anniversary of the announcement of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10, 1992), the Interim
Committee also held a conference to address the issue of human rights
abuse in Vietnam today. Ven. Thich Chon Le and Father Nguyen Huu Hien
took the podium to inform the audience of the ongoing religious
movement in Vietnam, which demands the release of detained religous
leaders and laymen, and the return of religious freedom. The movement
has added on relentless pressure for democratic change in the country.


--
Vietnam Insight (vinsight@netcom.com)
Chan Tran, editor