VIETNAM, NEWS ANALYSIS, DECEMBER 23, 2000

On November 15, 2000, Communist Army retired Major-General Tran Do, the most known dissident in Vietnam has sent another letter to the Vietnam Communist Party leaders, demanding explanations on the present situation of the country. Copies of the covertly circulated letter are received early this week by the overseas Vietnamese community media.

The letter addresses Tran Do's complaints to Communist leaders such as National Assembly Chairman Nong Duc Manh, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, Defense Minister Pham Van Tra, and also sent to Hanoi TV and radio stations.

The letter begins with determining his positions in the Party and the Armed Forces. "As a representative in the 7th and 8th National Assembly, a Major General, Political Commissar in the military for 30 years, retired because of sickness, I submit herein an important inquiry to your consideration. It is important because of its influence on the fate of our state mechanism."

He cited experiences from years serving the Communist Army in wars as Political Commissar at regiment, division, military region levels, and Political Deputy Commissar of Communist armed forces in South Vietnam. From that, he learned well of military agencies whose responsibilities are to provide security protection to the military, or the military intelligence branch whose tasks are collecting information relating to the enemy situation - personnel, weapons, strategy, tactics, operation plans. They are Department of Protection under the General Political Department and the Department of Military Intelligence under the General Staff, code C-2. (1)

"They are ordinary (organizations) in the armed forces of other countries, Socialist or non-Socialist. Those agencies have fulfilled their tasks in wars," he asserts.

In his letter, the dissenting general raises a question WHY the above-mentioned departments have been upgraded to assume new roles and functions as below:

- Department C-2 becomes General Department C-2 with subordinated departments including Department of Internal Political Protection, Department of Protection becomes Department of Security Protection. It accumulates responsibility for security and becomes a judicial agency, whose authority includes conducting investigation and interrogations.

The General Department C-2 is given the authority to assign agents to watch, intimidate and interrogate any citizens, saying that the tasks are done to protect the internal activities. Tran Do raises his question: "WHO DECIDED to create General Department C-2 and entrust it with the duty and the authority to protect the internal security?"

- So the ruling mechanism (the Party, the National Assembly and the government) is having too many security protection agencies: 1) the Ministry of Interior with its Security Department. 2) General Department 2, under the Ministry of Defense with equal authority. 3) The Dept. of Security under the General Political Dept.. 4) Furthermore, there is the agency of Political Internal Protection under the Party Central Committee also conducts vigilant watch and investigation...

3. "What does this situation indicate? WHETHER or not our internal situation (the Party and government) is so complicate and chaotic that many more agencies and forces are needed to provide so much security protection?" Tran Do argues. Tran Do complains in his letter:

- Those agencies have great power, all are causing horror to the people and all have cases of misuse of authority.

- If that's not true, i.e. our internal situation is still in good shape, by whose contention such protection agencies have been established and for whom are they serving? Whether there are divisions within the party and the rival factions within the party are contending to create those legal agencies to build their own forces?

The Communist retired general cites some examples as evidence.

* Mr. Le Gian, 88 years old, has sent 5 letters expressing his opinions to the Party 9th National Party Congress scheduled for March 2001. After that, a Public Security Police brigadier general (retired) came to Mr. Gian's home to interrogate him about who helped him write the letters. As to Tran Do, it is an unthought-of insult, and he wonders why a retired Public Security still has authority to interrogate people.

* In a political course, Dao Duy Quat, the deputy chief of the Department of Culture and Ideology, a ranking party official at junior age, was talking about the older veteran party cadres with impolite terms. That man Quat stated that, "Because of difficulties in open and democratic struggle, the leadership has issued directives to the suppressing agencies to hammer out (false) charges to arrest and prosecute the radicals," according to sources that Tran Do refused to identify.

He questions, "Who are the leadership mentioned by Dao Duy Quat? The Party or the government?"

He adds, "WHY? They can arrest people by finding a reason to put them in prison and try them, without respect of laws? And all of those radicals should be arrested? It turns out that the leaders are afraid of the radicals, the progressive, and consider all of them regressive and backward? WHY there is such a cadre who is humiliating the party and the government so much? WHY such situation exists?"

Tran Do also raises the question that whether the leadership is still "for the people," or by actions of the dictatorship enforcing organizations (ideology and public security) the leaders intends to prove that this regime is only for cracking down on democracy, abolishing publicity (of government activities), and what remain are nothing more than secret conspiracies and suppressions.

He concludes his letter by demanding the Hanoi national assembly to make his inquiries public and to have the responsible agencies respond them on the TV screen so that people all over the country could be watching.

This retired general has voiced his dissenting opinions many times since the early 1990's. This Christmas, his new letter was sent to the Communist leaders instead of "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" cards. Communists don't celebrate Christmas anyway.

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Other Christmas and New Year cards are also sent to the Communist leaders by thousands of Hoa Hao Buddhists in An Giang province who are getting together to commemorate the Birthday of the Most Venerable Huynh Phu So, the founder of the Sect. On December 20, hundreds of Public Security troops set up check points in the area around the memorial site, An Hoa Pagoda, to drive back the Hoa Hao people who are on the way to the place. Only some five thousand worshippers could sneak into the pagoda area.

Last year, there were nearly a million worshippers attending the memorial services, although Communist authorities were trying every way to check the flow of people into the pagoda ground.

Reports from Long Xuyen and Saigon said that many Hoa Hao notables were beaten by Communist Public Security troops, some suffered broken bones and one in coma after a blow on his skull. Many people were arrested while those detained weeks ago are still in jail. Hanoi spokeswoman confirmed the crack down, but considered it as an unimportant event.

Meanwhile in Nguyet Bieu parish 7 km west of Hue City, father Nguyen Van Ly, who is leading the protest against Hanoi's religious intolerance, continues to voice his opinions in the three long statements regarding freedom of religion and other issues. Nguyet Bieu as well as An Giang are strongly supported by overseas Vietnamese.

A source from Saigon expects that probably the Protestant Church of Vietnam would join the fast growing movement for religious freedom. Hanoi is raising pressure against the Protestants to force them into a type of state-controlled church.

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