Canada Should Hold Freeze On Vietnam Relations
Canada should hold a freeze on relations with Vietnam, despite the release of Canadian-Vietnamese citizen Tran Thi Cam, Rights & Democracy said today.
Montr?al, September 1st, 2000 ? Canada should hold a freeze on relations with Vietnam, despite the release of Canadian-Vietnamese citizen Tran Thi Cam, Rights & Democracy said today.
Tran Thi Cam, 74, spent four years in a Hanoi prison on drug trafficking charges. Her daughter Nguyen Thi Hiep was executed in April in the same case, despite the existence of Toronto police evidence that suggested their innocence.
?The case illustrates the appalling human rights situation that prevails in Vietnam,' said Warren Allmand, President of Rights & Democracy.
?If two Canadian citizens were treated with such barbarity, then what kind of treatment can the average Vietnamese citizen expect? Canada should not provide assistance to a country that so systematically tramples on the rights of its citizens.'
Following Ms. Hiep's execution, Ottawa suspended all ministerial-level contact between Canada and Vietnam, withdrawing offers of training on the World Trade Organisation and indefinitely postponing upcoming consultations on existing development assistance and future programming. Nonetheless, foreign affairs officials have hinted recently that relations with Vietnam may be thawed following the release of Tran Thi Cam.
Despite Vietnam's ratification in 1982 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Tran Duc Luong regime routinely commits abuses. It has barred all national and international groups from monitoring human rights within the country, but information still filters out through informal networks.
Rights & Democracy is particularly concerned about the case of Ha Sy Phu, the former director of the
Vietnamese Institute of Science in Dalat, who has written essays questioning the communist ideology. Mr. Phu has been under house arrest since December 1996. He has now been charged with treason and could face the death penalty. Dozens of other high-profile dissidents are under house arrest, and members of churches that oppose the government are currently suffering under a government crackdown. Those arrested for opposition activities face solitary confinement, pressure to sign confessions and forced labour.
?Our government should make it clear to the Vietnamese authorities that Canada will not normalise relations until the regime has made significant progress in human rights,' Mr. Allmand said.
