Political reform, rights essential for Vietnam: Clinton

Political reform and respect for human rights are essential if Vietnam wants to realise its potential, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday.

Despite friendship and cooperation which would have been unimaginable a few years ago between the former wartime enemies, disagreements remain, she said on the sidelines of a regional summit.
"The United States is concerned about the arrest and conviction of people for peaceful dissent, attacks on religious groups, and curbs on Internet freedom," Clinton said after talks with Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem.
"Vietnam has so much potential, and we believe that political reform and respect for human rights are an essential part of realising that potential."

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Vietnam to reopen Cam Ranh Bay to foreign fleets: PM

Vietnam plans to reopen to foreign navies the Cam Ranh Bay port facility formerly used by both the US and Russia, the prime minister said Saturday after a summit dominated by China's territorial disputes.

"In the centre of the Cam Ranh port complex Vietnam will stand ready to provide services to the naval ships from all countries including submarines when they need our services," Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said in response to a reporter's question, at the close of the East Asia Summit.

Countries will pay for services at the facility which will be developed with Russian assistance, Dung said.

The base in southern Vietnam was used by the United States navy during the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. The Soviet Union and then Russia later used the facility, until Russia withdrew several years ago.

Vietnam and the US, which restored diplomatic ties 15 years ago, are both concerned about China's growing military might and assertiveness in the South China Sea.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Vietnam Saturday that Hanoi and Washington are "broadening our security exchanges".

On Saturday the US and Russia were formally invited as members of the East Asia Summit in what analysts say is a blow to Chinese attempts to diminish US influence in the region.

With its core the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), EAS also includes Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

http://news.malaysia.msn.com

Vietnam activists jailed

HANOI (AFP) - – Vietnam convicted three labour activists and six Catholic villagers Wednesday, shortly before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives for an ASEAN summit hosted by the communist nation.
The six villagers who US Congressmen alleged were tortured after a dispute over a cemetery, were convicted at a one-day trial in the central Vietnamese city of Danang, relatives said.
In a case which sparked concern from the United States embassy, the villagers were arrested after a clash in May between residents and a large group of police in Con Dau Catholic parish, near the central city of Danang, said residents.

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Vietnam jails 3 labour activists up to 9 years

HANOI, Vietnam - A court in southern Vietnam sentenced three labour activists to up to nine years in prison for instigating labour strikes and distributing anti-government leaflets, a court official said Wednesday.

Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, 29, was convicted of disrupting security and sentenced to nine years in jail at the one-day trial Tuesday by Tra Vinh provincial People's Court, the court official said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.

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Father of Rep. Cao dead at 78

My Quang Cao, a former officer in the army of South Vietnam and the father of U.S. Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao, has died in New Orleans at age 78. That's according to a statement from Cao's campaign.

The cause of Cao's death on Wednesday was not listed but Thursday's statement said he been battling diabetes, as well as post-traumatic stress syndrome resulting from his years as a prisoner following the fall of South Vietnam to the communists in 1975. He was held prisoner for about seven years.
Joseph Cao became the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress two years ago, representing Louisiana. His parents sent him to the United States as a child when he was 8 years old as Saigon was falling. He did not see his parents again until 1981.

taiwannews.com.tw

Activist free after 10 days in Vietnam prison

A MELBOURNE mother has vowed to continue fighting for democracy in Vietnam after being imprisoned without charge for 10 days for her part in a political protest in Hanoi.

Social worker Hong Vo, 53, was reunited with her family in Melbourne yesterday after a frightening 10-day ordeal that began when she was arrested on October 10.
Mrs Vo was locked in a cell with one other prisoner and threatened with terrorism-related offences. She had no contact with a lawyer, but saw an Australian consular official on Monday, the eighth day of her incarceration.

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Biểu tình xé cờ máu tại San Francisco ngày 30.9.2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oALW05IYaVE

Biểu tình nhân dịp CSVN mừng Quốc Khánh Trung Cộngvà thắp nến cầu nguyện cho giáo xứ Cồn Dầu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V5bmSbiFFc

Đài SBS về nhà tranh đấu Võ Hồng

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC9YWgLVMdU
Đài SBS tại Úc phỏng vấn Võ Daniel, con trai của bà Võ Hồng, và ông Nguyễn Đỗ Thanh Phong, Ủy viên Trung ương Đảng Việt Tân, về việc nhà cầm quyền CSVN bắt giữ bà Võ Hồng.

Australian arrested over Vietnam protest

An Australian member of a banned Vietnamese opposition party has been arrested after joining a rare Hanoi protest, the group said on Monday.
"A member of Viet Tan who gave public statements at the demonstration - Mrs Hong Vo, a 53-year-old social worker from Melbourne, Australia - was arrested in the evening of October 10, 2010," said a statement from Viet Tan, the Vietnam Reform Party.
Hong appeared in a Hanoi park on Saturday for a demonstration at which she handed out leaflets protesting China's "threat" to Vietnam.

Read the full story here.

Communists Puppets celebrate 1000yrs Thang Long

A musical refrain blared from a loudspeaker as this weekend began — “Hanoi, Hanoi, Hanoi” — and on the sidewalk below, Nguyen Thi Thuy was selling red heart-shaped decals printed with the gold star of Vietnam’s flag.

Red flags with their single gold stars filled the streets, and banners celebrating the city’s 1,000 years of history were trumped by others that declared, “The Vietnamese Communist Party will live forever!”

For some people here, weary of propaganda and cynical about the country’s leaders, the gaudy and expensive celebrations were an occasion for discontent.

“I keep asking myself, a thousand years of what?” said the writer Vo Thi Hao in a widely quoted essay. “The whole country is flooded with flags, but people remain poor, and corruption is widespread along with many other social evils.”

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Viet Tan Organizes Civic Action in Hanoi

October 9, 2010

On the 1000th anniversary of Hanoi (historically known as Thang Long), Viet Tan today held a peaceful demonstration in the center of the capital city. Before hundreds of onlookers at Ly Thai To park, a Viet Tan representative read out a statement calling on all Vietnamese “to assume the responsibility and right to defend the nation’s interests.”

According to Viet Tan’s Statement on Thang Long’s Millennium:

“Today, our nation is threatened again by Chinese encroachment. The archipelagos of Hoang Sa (Paracels) and Truong Sa (Spratlys) are occupied by the Chinese navy. The East Sea is falling under China’s domination. Vietnamese fishermen are being killed and detained in our own waters. Forests located around the headwaters of rivers and bauxite mines in the Central Highlands are given over to their exploitation, despite the environmental and security implications for the Vietnamese people.”

This civic action by Viet Tan follows a series of public calls by other Vietnamese activists in recent years to raise awareness over China’s assertiveness including:

• Protests by students outside Chinese diplomatic offices in Hanoi and Saigon in December 2007 following China’s official annexation of Vietnamese islands.
• The appeal of cyber activist Pham Thanh Nghien and public displays by six democracy activists from Hai Phong in 2008 who were later imprisoned by the Hanoi government.
• The leaflet campaign by the Action For Democracy Coordinating Committee in February and August 2010.
• The appeals by the Venerable Thich Quang Do and Reverend Nguyen Van Ly to boycott Chinese goods and pray for Vietnam’s sovereignty.
• The thousands of HS.TS.VN (Hoang Sa – Truong Sa – Viet Nam) signs painted on public spaces throughout the country this year.

Today’s peaceful demonstration by Viet Tan members, from inside Vietnam and overseas, is to affirm that Vietnamese have the right to public assembly and to express their views on matters of national importance. Viet Tan will continue organizing acts of civil disobedience to campaign for social justice and democratic change.

viettan.org

Cuộc biểu tình tại Bruxelles ngày thứ bảy 2.10.2010

Cuộc biểu tình tại Bruxelles ngày thứ bảy 2.10.2010 nhằm
tố giác chế độ cộng sản Việt Nam trước dư luận quốc tế nhân Hội Nghị Thượng Đỉnh Á-Âu (Asia-Europe Meeting, ASEM 8) sẽ diễn ra tại Bruxelles, Bỉ, với sự tham dự của nguyên thủ hoặc thủ tướng 27 quốc gia thuộc EU, 10 quốc gia thuộc ASEAN (trong đó có Việt Nam)

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Rally against arrest of Viet Tan members in Vietnam

San Francisco, Sep 24, 2010:
Rally in front of consulate of communist Vietnam against the arrest of Vietnamese dissidents and Viet Tan members in Vietnam: Math Professor Pham Minh Hoang, Pastor Duong Kim Khai, Ms. Tran Thi Thuy, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tam, Writer Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, Ms. Pham Thanh Nhien, etc.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbY7DlR1C9U