VIETNAM HUMAN RIGHTS JOURNAL

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~sdenney/vietnam.htm

Vietnam Human Rights Journal
From Ape to ManFrom ape to man, the process took millions of years From man to ape, how many years? World, please come and visit The concentration camps in the heart of the far-off jungles! Naked prisoners, taking baths together in herds Living in ill-smelling darkness with lice and mosquitoes. Fighting with each other for a piece of manioc or sweet potato Chained, shot, dragged, slit up at the will of their captors Thrown away for the rats to bite without anyone's notice! This kind of ape is not fast but very slow in action indeed Quite different from that of the remote prehistory They are hungry, they are thin as toothpicks And yet they produce the nation's wealth all year long World, please come and visit! Poem of Nguyen Chi Thien written in 1967. Translated by Nguyen Huu Hieu. A long time prisoner of conscience in northern Vietnam, Thien was allowed to emigrate from Vietnam a few years ago for health reasons and is now living in the United States).
Contents
Introduction Introductory remarks about this web page.
Asian Values and Democracy Message by President Vaclav Havel on the presentation of Letters from Prison by Wei Jingsheng
Buddhism and Communism A letter by Ven. Thich Quang Do, Secretary General of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. After the war ended the government proceeded to suppress Buddhism and arrested the most prominent monks, including Ven. Quang Do.
Fr. Chan Tin Letter by Father Chan Tin to Cardinal Pham Dinh Tung of the Vietnamese Catholic Church, commenting on the recent Politburo's Directive on Religions and the problems the Church is facing under the communist regime.
Ginetta Sagan Honored Clinton's statement when he presented the USA's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Ginetta Sagan, who was one of the first people to systematically investigate reports of mistreatment of re-education camp prisoners in Vietnam
Human Rights in Vietnam Speech on Human Rights in Vietnam, 1998.
Monk Protests Repression Thich Huyen Quang Protests Religious Repression in Vietnam. Thich Huyen Quang is one of the most prominent monks in Vietnam, with the An Quang Buddhists. He has spent most of the last 24 years under house arrest or in prison for his protests against religious repression and other human rights violations.
The Paris Agreements and Human Rights in Vietnam Today. On the 180-degree reversal on this issue by the NLF and Democratic Republic of Vietnam, after 1975.
Human rights and daily life in Vietnam, 1990. On how political discrimination has been exercised against Vietnamese for their family background.
A Form of Torture: Food Deprivation, by Cao Ngoc Phuong (now known as Sister Chan Khong). On how hunger has been used to manipulate and torture re-education camp prisoners in Vietnam.
Religion and Communism in Vietnam, 1975-1992
The official policy of repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam 1982. Vietnam's official press commentaries on the issue of human rights and political repression.
Cultur e and Revolution Official policy of repression: Part II. On the campaign to wipe out "reactionary and decadent" culture in the South; a campaign that eventually failed.
Vietnamese Communist Party Statute Promulgated
Vietnam: Tran Duc Luong Orders Tighter Security
State Department Report on Human Rights Practices in Vietnam for 1997. The annual State Department report, released on Jan. 30, 1998.
Re-e ducation camps in Vietnam. Written in 1982.