=====
1. NAZIS TO DO RESEARCH ON THE HOLOCAUST VICTIMS
====
The Vietnamese Community in Boston, Massachusetts, is protesting against an action of the William Joiner Center in the University of Massachusetts (UMASS), by which the two million Vietnamese refugees around the world are offended.
The Vietnamese refugees living in Boston area are against a large-scaled 4-year research project, conducted by William Joiner Center and supported by Rockefeller Foundation, on the Vietnamese community abroad. The center invites two Hanoi Communist ranking members in the political indoctrination system disguised as literature organizations to join as key researchers.
The protesters compare the participation of the two Vietnam Communist Party members in the project to Hitler's underlings writing about the Holocaust victims.
The incident could provoke waves of protests because every Vietnamese refugee is feeling humiliated by William Joiner Center.
Following is an open letter of the Vietnamese refugees community in Massachusetts.
**
VIETNAMESE IMMIGRATION COMMUNITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
Special Mission Committee for Dealing With the William Joiner Center
P.O. BOX 72, BOSTON, MA 02122
AN OPEN LETTER TO
MS. SHERRY H. PENNEY,CHANCELLOR
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON
100 MORRISSEY BLVD. Boston, MA 02125-2393
And
ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION
(REF. GRANT TO U.MASS BOSTON FOR WILLIAM JOINER CENTER)
420 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10018-2702
And
DR . KEVIN BOWEN
DIRECTOR OF THE WILLIAM
JOINER CENTER
100 MORRISSEY BLVD
BOSTON , MA 02125-2393
Ladies and Gentlemen:
We would like to submit this letter to voice our concern about you hiring two members of the Communist Party from Vietnam to work under the University's Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship Program.
Here are our statements:
(1) It is a very good idea, and also about the right time to begin, to study about the Identity and Place of Displaced Vietnamese as well as Vietnamese refugees around the world.
(2) The members of the study group must qualify in terms of their professional credentials but they also should be among the group of those exiled from Vietnam, or refugees.
(3) Using members of the Vietnamese Communist Party from Hanoi toconduct research and to study about Vietnamese refugees is similar to using members of the Nazi Storm Troopers to study the life of the Jews in concentration camps. Do you think the result of that study would be a benefit for Vietnamese community in general and the students of U.MASS BOSTON in particular?(4) We urge you not to study about the victims of the Vietnam War by creating a situation that could propagate a new conflict in our community. If the Jews may be allowed to research their horrible past, let the "yellow diaspora" Vietnamese refugees do the research and study about their own past, in order to build a strong foundation for their future. We believe in justice, in the spirit of knowledge that lives at the university.
In truth,
***
====
2. HANOI PREPARES SECURITY MEASURES
====
On July 25, 2000, Hanoi Public Security Ministry held a conference about what is called "Mass Movement for National Security in the Renovation Period 1986-2000" with an audience of about 200. All Public Security chiefs and chairmen of the provincial Fatherland Front from the 61 provinces, other officials, along with representatives of outstanding units and individuals in the movement were participating the conference.
The main event in the gathering was the ceremony to commend outstanding units and individuals in the movement, presided over by Tran Duc Luong, Communist state president.But the hidden purposes behind the backdrop of the conference might be to brace up those who are law enforcers and other people who have some relations with the political security system to do their jobs actively with more enthusiasm to confront possible serious problems in the near future.In a speech delivered at the conference,
Tran Duc Luong admitted that in the last 15 years, there have been many important changes that pose national security in a very complicate background and produce burdensome responsibilities. He emphasized that the dangers to national security still exist, one of the dangers is the plot of interference and imposition from outside. The other is corruption, bureaucracy and depraved party cadres and government officials."Mass movement for national security" has been a political term regarding the so-called "people's public security" system, applied since 1947 in the Viet Minh controlled areas and continues till nowadays. It is a simple operation that targets any citizen who could be induced or compelled to serve as a temporary undercover agent.
The task is usually easy, so even a 7-year-old child could be employed. For example, a man might be ordered to watch a neighbor and report everything he was seen doing in the last 7 days, or how many people have visited a coffee shop a day.In most of the cases the collaborators are not paid.In the Communist regime, before an important event or during a critical situation, such as the Party National Congress, or a serious crisis, national security is again raised to a nationwide movement.This time, the movement might have been promoted to meet the challenge of adversaries effects of the more radical economic reforms that Hanoi is supposed to implement in the near future under foreign pressure.
Moreover, the 9th Party National Congress is held in Spring 2001. The congress might be another reason for the security movement.
Meanwhile, the military situation in Laos after many bomb attacks and the ground attack against a government office near the border with Thailand prompted security concerns in the Laos Communist leaders, and Hanoi leaders as well. There are reports of Vietnamese Communist troops seen in Laos near the border area where fighting took place last week. Besides, there have been many visits to Hanoi by Laotian officials including officers from the Political General Department of the Laos Armed Forces in the last few months. A lot of Hanoi delegations, military and civilian, also visited Laos at the same time. Some bilateral trade and economic agreements have been signed.
In the field of national security, Hanoi is always relentless in dealing with religious matters. Besides recent cracking down on Hoa Hao Buddhist, Buddhist, Cao Dai and Catholic dissidents, Communist authorities continue to treat the Protestants with rather rough hands.Last year, Communist Public Security demolished Protestant chapels in Quang Ngai, Song Be provinces. According to news from Vietnam reached the Vietnamese exiled media , the Protestants in Thu Thiem area, across the river from Saigon, have long been harshly restricted from religious practices. Every application for permission to built a chapel has been responded with silence.In late June, the Protestants sent another request for a congregation to hold religious services at a temporarily built chapel on the private estate legally purchased by the parish. On July 1, the scheduled services were about to begin when Public Security officers came to demolish the chapel.
On July 2, in defiance of the Public Security officers, parishioners gathered for services at the site of the dismantled chapel. So far, there has been no clash between the two sides, but religious oppression could bring about unpredictable outcome.
***
]]]]]]