Letter to U.S. Consul General Seth D. Winnick
and Ambassador Michael W. Marine
regarding safety of Professor Nguyen Chinh Ket at Ho Chi Minh City.

San Jose, California October 3^rd, 2005

Honorable Seth D. Winnick

U.S. Consul General to Socialist Republic of Viet Nam

1 Le Duan Boulevard, District 1

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Re: Grave concern about safety of Professor Nguyen Chinh Ket, popular activist for Religious Freedom in Vietnam.

Dear Consul General Winnick:

It has been our grave concern about the safety of Professor Nguyen Chinh Ket, our popular activist for Religious Freedom in Vietnam. Unfortunately, this is the second time he has been invited to show up at Go Vap local police station "to work" with police officers after he had met with three other popular religious and/ or political dissidents to pay his friendly visit and exchange views on current social and religious issues in Vietnam.

These three dissidents whom Professor Nguyen had met on September 27, 2005 were Catholic Reverend Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly (a popular conscience prisoner who was just released from prison a few months ago), Professor Tran Khue and Engineer Phuong Nam Do Nam Hai. The visit was at Professor Tran Khue's residence when Professor Nguyen Chinh Ket and Reverend Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly met at Tan Son Nhat International Airport to say goodbye to Father Nguyen's nephews and nieces on their departures to the United States to be resettled as political refugees after years of imprisonment by Vietnamese authorities.

Professor Nguyen is an instructor who has taught Philosophy and Theology at a number of major Catholic seminaries. He also has authored numerous articles regarding his quest for Religious Freedom in Vietnam. He is also our great personal friend and a highly dedicated father of a Catholic family who always dreams of a free, modernized and humanized Vietnam where he, his family and 80 million Vietnamese belong.

We earnestly request that you immediately intervene in this threatening incident to stop the police at Go Vap station and also the police in Ho Chi Minh City not to bother Professor Nguyen Chinh Ket and his family any more.

Certainly, We are strongly convinced that a casual meeting to say hello and exchange views about issues of participants’ beloved country in a friendly atmosphere of a social get-together is not something very important that a legitimate government should be so afraid of and eventually make fun of itself to the whole world.

Respectfully yours,

Viet Si

Activist for proven Democracy and Religious Freedom in Vietnam

Former Prisoner of Conscience in Vietnam

San Jose, California

Cc: Honorable Michael W. Marine

U.S. Ambassador to Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Attachment (Second police warrant issued to Professor Nguyen Chinh Ket)