Hundreds of Vietnamese emigres protested against Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's upcoming visit to the United States, saying the communist government needs to improve its human rights record.
Khai, who is to meet with President George W. Bush on Tuesday, will be the first Vietnamese prime minister to set foot in the country since the end of the Vietnam War 30 years ago.
The protesters on Saturday marched and carried US and former South Vietnamese flags in Orange County's Little Saigon area, home to the nation's largest Vietnamese community.
"We would like to send a message to the Vietnamese government. We are still here and we will fight for freedom and for human rights in Vietnam," said Lac Tan Nguyen, vice president of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, which organized the rally.
Nguyen, 59, said he was born in North Vietnam and fled with his family to the south when he was 9 years old. Nguyen, who has not been back to his homeland since coming to the United States more than two decades ago, vowed that he would not return until it becomes a democracy.
Tri Duc Ta, 32, said he still has relatives in Vietnam, but has not seen them since he fled the country at age 19.
"I don't want to go home," Ta said. "I will only go back under one condition -- that there is freedom in Vietnam."
Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese have settled in the US since communists gained control of the country. More than 1 million now live in the US, including an estimated 130,000 in Orange County.
Phu Nguyen, a 27-year-old graduate student who left Vietnam when he was 4 years old, said he feels repressed every time he travels back to Vietnam. Nguyen said he always makes certain the American music he brings into Vietnam would not be mistaken as anti-government.
"When people from overseas go to Vietnam, they can't speak out against the government," he said. "There's a lot of social injustice."
In the Pacific Northwest, the first stop for Khai, as many as 1,000 people might attend rallies in downtown Seattle during his stay, said Sai Nguyen of the Vietnamese American Coalition in Northwest America in Seattle.
The US-based Human Rights Watch urged Washington to question Vietnam's civil rights record. The group said it has documented cases of abuses by the communist government, including the arrests of dissidents for promoting democracy or using the Internet to advocate for human rights.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
RSS