From: nguyen@airmics.gatech.edu (Son Nguyen)
Subject: [MISC] Return to Vietnam Lands Him in Jail
Originator: anh@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Organization: SCV Relay
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 13:04:49 GMT



From The Atlanta Journal/The Atlanta Constitution (Dec. 17, 92)

Nguyen Si Binh knew what he was risking.

Communism is alive and well in Vietnam, and pro-democracy work can
result in imprisonment, or even the death sentence.  Yet early this
year the Alpharetta businessman returned to his homeland to try forming
a second political party.

"I guess this is why we support him," said his wife, Khanh Vo,
weeping.  "He is aware of the danger, but he believes if everybody is
so protective themselves, nothing will change."

Instead of changing Vietnam, Mr. Binh and 16 others were arrested on
April 25 and charged with attempting to overthrow the government.
Since then, his family says, the 37-year-old American citizen has been
held at the Ministry of Interior in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.
U.S. government officials have not been allowed to visit Mr. Binh, and
the Vietnamese government has notified the family that he will be put
on trial late this month as a Vietnamese citizen.

The case, which could complicate efforts to normalize U.S.-Vietnamese
relations, has galvanized Atlanta's Vietnamese community, most of whom
already oppose normalization.  President Bush this week moved closer to
lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam, authorizing American
firms to sign contracts, rent office space and hire staff.

While many Americans see the fate of missing American servicemen as the
biggest obstacle to reopening diplomatic ties, Vietnamese-Americans
point to the 275 political prisoners they say the Communist government
is holding.

"We are appealing to every organization to help [Mr. Binh] get released
- not only him, but all other political prisoners released," said Dr.
Tong Minh Huynh, president of the Georgia Association for
Vietnamese-American Education.  "I hope that pressure is on the
Vietnamese government along with the MIA problem."

The human rights group Amnesty International is calling on the
Vietnamese government to let relatives and a doctor see Mr. Binh, who
suffers from heart disease and had a heart attack in 1989.  His family
and friends also are seeking permission for a lawyer to represent him
at his trial.

Bright and idealistic, Mr. Binh graduated from the University of
Maryland in 1981 with a degree in nuclear engineering.  After a few
years with Bechtel Corp., he joined a real estate firm, moving from
Philadelphia to Richmond, Va, and then to Atlanta in 1988 as a branch
namager.

Meanwhile, Mr. Binh set up housekeeping with Ms. Vo, an old friend from
Vietnam, and her daughter, Mary Thompson.  A second daughter
Jacqueline, was born in 1976.

Despite success in his adopted country, Mr. Binh continued to dream of
freeing Vietnam from communism.  Hiet Nguyen, a former classmate from
California, said Mr. Binh decided to form the People's Action Party
after returning to Vietnam for his first visit in 1988.

Mr. Nguyen said Mr. Binh's party was non-violent.  It called for
economic development, the end of the Communist Party and the
establishment of democratic principles in Vietnam.  Though only about a
dozen Vietnamese-Americans joined the group, Mr. Nguyen said it had
many more followers in Vietnam.

Ms. Thompson said the State Department has told her the Vietnamese
authorities have not reponded to its requests to see the prisoner.  At
the same time, Vietnamese officials told Mr. Binh's mother that since
no American officials have visited him, they regard him as a Vietnamese
citizen.

A State Department spokesman said he could not commend on Mr. Binh's
case.  But he noted that the Vietnamese government frequently treats
dual nationals who were born in Vietnam as its citizens.

"One of the basic problems that we have with people who have been
arrested in Vietnam is that we have no consular access," he said.

Since Mr. Binh's arrest, Ms. Vo has been working 12 hours a day, six
days a week at a Clarkston laundry in an effort to pay the mortgage on
their Alpharetta house.  She fears that if the United States lifts the
economic embargo against Vietnam, it will have no leverage to press for
release of political prisoners.

"I hope the [U.S.] government will help my husband and all the other
people in prison," she said last week, crying softly against the roar
of the washing machines and dryers.  "Right now, I need the people and
the government of the U.S. and all the others to help my husband."

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