Date: 2001-07-26
Speaker: TOM DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Virginia

Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of H.J. Res. 55. Disapproving the Extension of Immigration Waiver Authority to Vietnam. The resolution on the House floor today addresses the issue of whether the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam allows free and open emigration for its citizens. In 1999. President Clinton granted Vietnam a waiver of the JacksonVanik Amendment on this condition. Unfortunately. little improvement has been made since. Boat People. SOS. an organization headquartered in my district. informed me that the official Communist government in Vietnam is still riddled by corruption. Additionally. the government continues to export thousands of political prisoners and former U.S. Government employees from participating in the U.S. refugee programs. Applicants. in some cases. are forced to pay $1.000 or more in bribes to gain access to these programs. this in a country where the average annual salary is $250. The corruption that exists in the Vietnamese Communist government also undermines U.S. exchange programs. Our programs offer exceptional Vietnamese students the opportunity to study in the United States. However. the Vietnamese government excludes those students whose parents are not members of the Communist cadre. Thus. many qualified students are denied the opportunity to study in the U.S. exchange programs simply because their parents are not cardcarrying members of the Communist party. This bias is one of many examples of the apartheid system that the government has implemented to punish those who do not agree with their ideology. On the human rights front. the government has released some political prisoners. but many more individuals. including religious leaders. remain imprisoned indefinitely. Meanwhile. the government continues to arrest others who dare to speak out against them.. The Vietnamese Communist government simply does not tolerate basic civil liberties. such as the right to free speech. the right to freely exercise ones religion. and the right to peaceably assemble. Reports reveal that the Vietnamese police have forced many religious groups who renounce their beliefs or face the threat of imprisonment. beatings. or torture. When I visited Vietnam in 1998. a Catholic priest told me the Communist government does not even allow him to wear his vestments in public. Even more egregious is the .governments persecution of the Hmong. Over 10.000 of them have had to flee their ancestral lands in the north. traveling 800 miles in the south central highlands in Dak Lak Province because of government harassment and persecution. Many of them were arrested as "illegal migrants" or charged with practicing and "illegal religion" as part of the government crackdown on - Hmong Christians. Mr. Speaker. I urge approval of the resolution. While the Vietnamese government may claim to have made strides. I would like to share with you evidence to the contrary. For example. four prominent individuals are presently imprisoned or under house arrest for practicing their religions. They are: Venerable Thich Huyen Quang. Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. the Venerable Thich Quang Do. Father Nguyen Van Ly. and Mr. Le Quang Liem of the banned Hoa Hoa Buddhish Church. In addition. Dr. Nguyen Dar Que a prominent prisoner of conscience who was released in late 1998. remains under house arrest in Saigon. while Professor Doan Viet Hoat and Mr. Le Chi Thien former prisoners of conscience who had been imprisoned for over 20 years for promoting democratic ideals. were forced to leave Vietnam as a condition of their release. Additionally. since the fall of Saigon. the Govemment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has been systematically abusing the rights of the indigenous Montagnard peoples of Vietnams central highland. There have been reports of summary executions. mysterious disappearances. arbitrary arrests. interrogations. beatings. torture. and forcible .relocations of the Montagnard people from their traditional homes. In 1999. the Vietnamese Communist Govemment ordered and carried out the destruction of a sacred religious site of the. Khmer Krom in the former city of. Saigon. They destroyed the Pali School building. and desecrated the "Bodhi Tree where the remains of Khmer Krom soldierswho fought bravely with the U.S. Special Forces during the warare buried. To this day. the Khmer Krom continue to be harassed and persecuted for their role in the conflict. In February of this year. thousands of Christian Montagnards peacefully demonstrated in the three of the four Central Highland provinces. In response. the Vietnamese Communist Government deployed militdry forces into the area. cutting off telephone communications. banning diplomatic international organizations from visiting the region.-and terrorizing the Montagnard population. There have also been numerous reports of jungle executions. The situation in the highlands has deteriorated to the extent that many Montagnards are now fleeing into Cambodia. Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch. Refuge International. and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have all called for urgent action to protect them. Mr. Speaker. in light of these offenses. I believe H.J. Res. 55 is an important bill that deserves the support of every Member. and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote in favor of this resolution.