US asks Vietnam to free key prisoners before Bush visit
AFP via Yahoo! News Thu, 30 Mar 2006 6:26 AM PST
The United States has asked Vietnam to release all key prisoners ahead of President George W. Bush's visit to that country for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in November.  

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060330/pl_afp/usvietnamrights_060330142633

 US asks Vietnam to free key prisoners before Bush visit  

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has asked Vietnam to release all key prisoners ahead of     President George W. Bush's visit to that country for a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC) in November.   

US Assistant Secretary of State Barry Lowenkron made clear at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday that Vietnam had to polish up its human rights image for Bush to undertake the trip.

Three weeks before the United States resumed a suspended human rights dialogue with Vietnam in February in Hanoi, Vietnam released high-profile political prisoner Nguyen Khac Toan.

"Welcoming his release as a step in the right direction, we urged Vietnamese officials to release all prisoners of concern before

 President Bush

's trip to Hanoi in November for the APEC meeting," Lowenkron said.

He said that the United States had submitted a list of 21 such prisoners to the Vietnamese authorities -- six imprisoned for political or religious reasons and 15 who are not in prison but under some form of detention, such as house arrest.

The Vietnamese government claimed that the 21 were found guilty of violating national security laws, he said.

Among those on the list were prominent physician Pham Hong Son, convicted for "espionage" for translating an essay on democracy from a State Department website.

"I bluntly told the (government) officials that the American people will not understand why a country that wants to have better relations with us would imprison someone for translating an article on democracy," Lowenkron said.

Other prisoners of concern include journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, who was convicted of "espionage" for drafting articles on human rights, Do Van My, imprisoned for reporting on forced relocation and his support for grassroot activism in the countryside, and Phan Van Ban, a 69-year-old ex-police officer arrested for joining a group calling for peaceful political change, he said.

Lowenkron said he told Vietnamese officials that "dialogue without concrete progress would not just be an empty exercise, it would be counterproductive.

"By making concrete progress on human rights, the government of Vietnam would pave the way for a successful visit" by President Bush, he said.

"I told Vietnamese officials that they must decide which Vietnam they will showcase to the international community: an open Vietnam, or a Vietnam that closes off its people from a world of ideas, information and opportunity," he said.

With regard to prison conditions, he said, the United States has urged Hanoi to allow UN inspectors full access.

To underscore the US commitment to human rights, he said he travelled after the dialogue from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city to meet with political and religious dissidents.

Among them was Nguyen Dan Que, a leading democracy activist released from prison in April last year.

"Dr Que and the other dissidents with whom I met continue courageously to call for peaceful change and a future of freedom for all Vietnamese," he said.

Vietnam is lobbying hard for the granting of permanent normal trading relations, or PNTR status, by the US Congress and accession to the the     World Trade Organization this year.

The two steps will culminate a decade of normal bilateral ties following the Vietnam War.