THE LAST WEEK OF THE 20th CENTURY
The last week of the 20th Century as well as of the 2nd Millennium saw continuing denial of freedom of the press, freedom of religions and incessant violations of human rights in Vietnam.
On Decemeber 25, 1999, a reporter of the Radio Internationale France (RFI) was deported because of his visit with some Catholic Church officials without permission of Hanoi authorities. According to an anouncement released Tuesday, December 28, 1999, the France-based "Reporters Without Borders" has sent an official letter to Le Kha Phieu, general secretary of the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) to protest Hanoi authorities' actions against Thanh Phuong, a reporter working for the RFI.
Thanh Phuong, of Vietnamese origin, arrived in Hanoi on December 21, 1999 in order to cover activities of the Vietnamese Catholics celbrating the Year 2000 and the economy reform in Vietnam.
Hanoi authorities claimed that Thanh Phuong was in contact with three Catholic Church personages whose names and addresses had not been stated in his paperwork applying for visa of entry. Thanh Phuong was requested to leave Vietnam as soon as possible.
RFI has sent many reporters to Vietnam in the 1990s, covering actual events without biases, some of its news reports were even in favor of the Hanoi Communist regime.
The incident on Christmas day is the second one befalling a RFI reporter. A few years ago, an RFI reporter coming to Saigon for a visit with her relatives. Despite the fact that she was a French citizen, the Public Security office of the city was interrogating her for many hours a day in several days consecutively, indirectly threatening her and forcing the taxi driver to spy on her movements and visits. The apparent purpose of the Communist authorities was to scare her out of writing articles unfavorable to the Communist regime.
She had to cut short her staying in Vietnam to avoid being embarassed.
Thanh Phuong's case was specially significant as it took place on Christmas and only 5 days before the humankind welcomed the 3rd Millennium.
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THE HOA HAO STRUGGLE
A week before the end of the 20th Century, the VCP government was doing its best to hamper the Hoa Hao Buddhist Church and to head off the large gathering for the celebration of the Prophet Huynh Phu So's birthday on Jan 1, 2000. The Jan. 1 celebration is expected to draw many hundreds of thousand Hoa Hao believers to the Hoa Hao Holy Land and the Temple of the Ancestors, the key site of the gathering.
Local Communist authorities ordered owners of all means of transportation on routes and waterways leading to An Hoa Pagoda, not to help pilgrims reach the holy site. The ban was enforced strictly, much more than in the last celebration in memory of the Inauguration of the Hoa Hao Buddhist Church when more than a million Hoa Hao believers got together at the holy site to attend the event.
This time, according to a report from Long Xuyen, capitol city of An Giang province where the holy site locates, on Jan. 1, 2000, there were roughly 100,000 Hoa Hao Buddhists participating the celebration.
Such report is reliable as the pilgrims have been tallied by teams of people serving them food and drink.
During the week, there have been troubles between the board of organizers and local authorities. On Dec. 26, Public Security agents stormed the temple and beat worshippers present inside. Ten people were arrested, one of them is Truong Van Thuc, who had met with U.S. Congress Representative Christ Smith in Saigon. On Dec. 18, 1999, Rep. Smith and his group of 4 American officials had a meeting with some Hoa Hao Buddhist worshippers at Hotel Majestic.
In the meeting, Mr. Thuc and the group explained to the U.S. representative the true situation of the Hoa Hao people and requested Rep. Smith and the U.S. government to help the Hoa Hao people recover freedom of religion.
Now that the VCP regime has had great efforts of econmic reform, but enmity of the VCP toward relegion will never cease as long as its regime exists.
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ANTI-CASTRO LEAFLETS OVER HAVANA BY A VIETNAMESE PILOT
News reports from Miami said that an American citizen of Vietnamese origin was buzzing over Havana on Saturday 1, 2000 and dropped anti-communist leaflets calling President Fidel Castro an "old dinosaur."
The 51-year-old Ly Tong was flying a small Cessna 172 at low altitude to avoid radar detection, reached Havana unharmed at 8:00 AM.
It was the first illegal flight into Cuban airspace since Havana shot down two planes flown near the Cuban shore by the Miami-based exile group, Brothers to the Rescue, in 1996. Four pilots were killed in that incident.
Cuba sent 2 MiG jets to force the Cessna back north toward Florida, U.S. sources said. The U.S. Air Force then sent an F-16 to monitor and provide protection as the plane returned.
Cuban officials were not available for comment, and state media did not mention the incident. But it is expected that Havana and Hanoi will accuse Washington of connivance with Ly Tong's action.
The Spanish-language leaflet bore an illegible signature under the title "Commander-in-chief of the World Anti-Communist Revolutionary Forces."
Titled "Proclamation," it began with a reminder of the fall of communist governments in the former Soviet bloc. "The Cuban communists fight on in their mortal struggle, but the old dinosaur Fidel Castro and his followers insist in opposing the evolutionary trend of humanity," it said.
"God and Justice require all Cuban patriots to stand up and declare the death of the inhuman and tyrannical regime."
"Anywhere there is no freedom, I come there to fight," said y Tong. ``I try to encourage the Cuban people to rise up.''
The Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies are investigating, and charges are pending. The aircraft that Ly Tong rent returned to Tamiami Airport about four hours after it left.
Ly Tong was a former jet pilot of the former Republic of Vietnam Air Force. After April 30, 1975, he was put in Communist "re-education" camps. He then became well known for his bold escape from a prison camp
for Cambodia. After more than one year mostly on foot, Tong crossed many hundred miles through Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and reached the American Embassy in Singapore after swimming the last part of his long journey across the narrow strait from Malaysia.
He was resettled in 1984 in New Orleans, went schooling and won the doctor degree. In 1992, he threatend the crew on a commercial jet about to land in Saigon airport to circle over the city at low altitude so that he could drop many thousands of anti-communist leaflets , calling people to rise and revolt against the VCP rule, somewhat like those he dumped over Havana.
Ly Tong then parachuted into a rice field near Saigon and was arrested by VCP security force. He was sentenced a long prison term but he was released in 1998. He then returned to New Orleans.
"The most important thing is to try to encourage the Cuban people to rise up and overthrow the Havana pirate," Tong said. He added that he wants to make similar flights over China and North Korea.
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