From: vinsight@netcom.com (Chan T. Vninsight)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Subject: Anti-government leaflets fall from Saigon's skies
Date: 29 Sep 92 20:04:39 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.1992Sep29.200439.13457
Reply-To: vinsight@netcom.com
Organization: SCV Relay
Originator: daemon@media-lab.media.mit.edu



**********************
Anti-government Leaflets Fall From Saigon's Skies
**********************

In the afternoon of September 4, residents of Saigon, Vietnam, were
caught by surprise when some 50,000 anti-government leaflets fell from 
the sky as a commercial airliner circled overhead.

The magnificent scene of the colorful pamphlets dropping and the rumble 
of jet engines was described later by witnesses' accounts.  A Vietnamese
returning from the United States had forced a Vietnam Airlines airplane
to low altitude and dropped leaflets calling on people to rise against
the oppressive communist regime. The courageous man then parachuted out
into the city and was later captured by Hanoi authorities.

The Vietnamese government initially denied the incident, saying there
was only a mechanical problem. This denial caused "unnecessary confusion"
according to foreign businessmen in Saigon. But after its capture of the
dissident and assurances that he had no accomplice, Hanoi displayed its
outrage at the embarrassing blow and condemned it as a criminal act.

The incident, reportedly planned for September 2 -- Hanoi's national day
and celebration of Ho Chi Minh's seizure of power from the Vietnamese
nationalist forces, prompted it to tighten security further. Tourists
and residents said that the atmosphere following the incident was of
enormous anxiety: secret police inundated the streets and hotels where
tourists resided, rooms and houses in the area were searched, travel was
restricted especially to Vietnamese tourists from overseas. This effect
is going to last for some time.

Vietnamese residents both at home and overseas greeted the news with a
mixture of joy and sadness. "We're saddened thinking of the severe
retaliation Mr. Tong will have to endure, but who could expect a free
march to freedom," said a Saigon resident whose name is withheld for her
own safety.

Hanoi now admitted for the first time there are at least 231
anti-government organizations operating in Vietnam, some of which have
overseas connections. Hanoi's fear of these increasingly dangerous
"hostile forces" is reflected in its repeated public warnings and
intimidation, including the release of information on trials and arrests
of dissidents -- a taboo of every oppressive system.


THE HEROIC FIGURE

The man who joined his thousands of compatriots in defying the
oppressive system is Ly Tong, a pilot of the former South Vietnam, whose
spectacular escape from a Hanoi's re-education camp in 1980 followed by
a 1,600 mile journey on foot to freedom has won him thousands of
admirers around the globe. His remarkable journey of 17 months; through
which he hiked, cycled, hitchhiked, travelled by train and bus, and swam
across the sea, escaped three prisons and crossed the border of four
nations: Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore; made headlines in
prominent media such as the Wall Street Journal and Readers' Digest in
1984.

His friends and former re-education camp inmates also give accounts of his
stern braveness, one of which he refused to kneel down at gun point from
a prison guard. Ly Tong valiantly stated, as the guard threatened to
blow his brains out, "If I laid down, there will be another to take my
place," implying the Vietnamese' unyielding spirit against brutality.

Since being granted political asylum in the United States, Mr. Tong, 44,
lived in New Orleans and recently completed his doctoral dissertation in
political science at the state university. Friends said he has never
given up hope for a free Vietnam, and indeed he had carried out this
hope beyond Hanoi's imagination, adding to the already vulnerable
political situation in Vietnam with the ongoing religious freedom
movement.

THE ANTI-GOVERNMENT LEAFLET

(Excerpt)

The collapse of the Soviet Union and communist eastern Europe had
sounded the death knell for Hanoi's communists. Only the Vietnamese
communists, while in their last breath, are still stubbornly trying,
with a governing clique, old, out of date, to go against the tide of
progress of mankind. At our nation's call, we now return to join you
to end this brutal, inhumane regime, and to restore our nation to
freedom, democracy and prosperity.

Dear compatriots, after reading this leaflet, please:

1. Inform others quickly of its call

2. Hold strikes and unanimously demonstrate to demand back our rights.

3. Rally at strategic military positions and government centers, call on
soldiers and secret police to return to the people side.

4. Occupy radio and television stations, make use of all communication
means to call for a general uprising against the communist regime.

5. Coordinate our democratic forces at home and overseas in our uprising
to overthrow the Hanoi regime to rebuild a free, independent and
prosperous Vietnam.


-- 
Vietnam Insight (vinsight@netcom.com)
Chan Tran, editor
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese