Monday, April 9, 2007

Rice: Hanoi events 'troubling'

Incident with women who were to meet O.C. Rep. Loretta Sanchez elicits 'strong concern' from secretary of state.

By DENA BUNIS

The Orange County Register

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Michael Marine, the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, have expressed their "strong concerns," over last week's incident involving Rep. Loretta Sanchez's cancelled meeting with the relatives of jailed dissidents.

"We find this action by Vietnamese authorities to be deeply troubling,'' State Department spokeswoman Jenelle Hironimus said today. "The secretary and our embassy in Hanoi have raised our concerns over these developments with the government of Vietnam.''

Last week, Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, and Marine had invited to tea five women whose husbands were jailed, and one whose daughter was jailed, for their political activity. Three of the women were barricaded in front of their homes and the two that arrived at the ambassador's residence were confronted by 15 Vietnamese soldiers, according to Sanchez and Marine.

"This incident,'' Hironimus said, "comes in the wake of a disturbing increase in the harassment, detention and arrest of individuals peacefully exercising their legitimate rights to peaceful speech in Vietnam."

In its March report on the status of human rights around the world, the State Department listed Vietnam's record as "unsatisfactory."