their freedom when he meets government officials during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hanoi.
As Bush landed on Friday in the Vietnamese capital on his first visit to a country where America lost a two-decade-long fight against communism, a group representing over 350 jailed, predominantly Christian, Montagnards suggested that the president should make human rights part of his discussions.
"We call on President Bush to request the release of these and all Montagnard Degar prisoners unjustly held," said the Montagnard Foundation Incorporated (MFI) in a statement to BosNewsLife and an open letter.
MFI said it was particularly concerned about two loig-time Christian prisoners, including Bom
Jona, 50, from Plei Kueng Grai village in the Dakdoa district of Gia Lai Province.
He was detained in February 2001 and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment on charges related to "publicly protesting government" repression of his people, said well-informed MFI.
NEW CONCERNS
In addition the group said it was concerned about 43-year-old Ksor Kroih from Plei Sor village in the Pleiku City area of Gia Lai Province who was also arrested on similar charges in February 2001, and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment.
Both Christians, it said, are held at "the notorious" Ha Nam prison. "Jesus is looking over these prisoner’s shoulder," said MFI Advisor Scott Johnson. "Will [they] be forsaken,?" he wondered.
Bush did not see pro-democracy activists protesting against these and other reported human rights abuses in the Communist nation, BosNewsLife learned. Dissidents and eyewitnesses told BosNewsLife signs such as "no trespassing" and police posts have been placed around areas where pro-democracy activists gather or are held under house arrest.
There has been around the clock police surveillance around homes of the activists, including Christians, to prevent contact with outsiders such as journalists and human rights groups, dissidents said. Across the country Christians and secular activists opposing the Communist government and one party rule have been detained or harassed by police forces ahead of the summit, said several human rights groups working in and outside Vietnam, including the International Movement for Democracy and Human Rights in Vietnam (IMDHR).
VIETNAM WAR
Montagnard Christians are believed to have been harassed and detained because of their faith and past support for US forces during the Vietnam War, MFI and other observers have said.
Speaking in Hanoi on Friday, November 17, Bush did not mention reported human rights abuses, focusing instead on overcoming the wounds of war and ways to help the communist nation in its surge for freedom and prosperity.
A baby boomer who came of age during the turbulent Vietnam era and spent the war stateside as a member of the Texas Air National Guard, the president said the United States and Vietnam have reconciled differences after a war that ended 31 years ago when the Washington-backed regime in Saigon fell.
LONG MARCH
"My first reaction is history has a long march to it, and societies change and relationships can constantly be altered to the good," Bush explained after reporters noted how his motorcade was speeding past signs of both poverty and commerce produced by Asia’s fastest-growing economy.
"It’s just going to take a long period of time for the ideology that is hopeful, and that is an
ideology of freedom, to overcome an ideology of hate," Bush said after having lunch at his lakeside hotel with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, one of America’s strongest allies in Iraq, Vietnam and other conflicts.
He met in succession with Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet at the bright orange presidential palace, with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung next door, and with the country’s most powerful leader, Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh, at the ruling party headquarters across the street, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
Each time, he and his hosts sat under a large bronze bust of Ho Chi Minh, the victorious North’s revolutionary communist leader. Nong said the president had "opened a new page in the relationship."
EXILE LEADER
Vietnamese exile leader and staunch Hanoi foe Chanh Huu Nguyen, 57, said this week he had warned Bush to avoid being pictured near that statue in a letter. "Be careful and remember that the Vietnamese Communist regime never changes," he wrote. "Be careful if he stands in front of Ho Chi Minh’s picture, because the communists will use President Bush’s picture" to boost its image among Vietnamese youth, said Nguyen to reporters, referring to the revolutionary founder of the communist state.
Nguyen’s controversial party Government of Free Vietnam is accused by Hanoi of attempting to bomb Vietnamese embassies in Thailand and the Philippines and other violent plots. Seven affiliates of the group were jailed by Hanoi last week on charges of plotting "terrorism" against the government, although one US citizen among them has since been deported, Reuters news agency reported.
As the president began his four-day trip however, dissidents said they hoped he will not forget to talk about religious freedom and other human rights issued. Earlier this week several groups, including Christian Solidarity Worldwide, expressed their disappointment that the US State Department had removed Vietnam from its List of Countries of Particular Concern regarding religious freedom.
