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Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22, 2004
CONTACT: Nguyen Ngoc Bich, 877-592-4140
JOINT
STATEMENT OF NCVA AND THE VIETNAM HUMAN RIGHTS NETWORK
The National Congress of Vietnamese Americans (NCVA) joins its voice with the
Vietnam Human Rights Network to:
1 - Vehemently protest the refusal by the Hanoi Supreme People's Court on May 5,
2004, to hear journalist Nguyen Vu Binh's appeal on his sentence to seven years
in prison, followed by three years of house arrest upon his release, illegally
meted out to him by the Hanoi People's Court on December 31, 2003. (The very
first illegality of this court's sentencing resides in the fact that Nguyen Vu
Binh was arrested on September 25, 2002, and was not brought to court until more
than a year and three months later in flagrant contravention of the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam's very criminal procedural law.)
2 - Cite Nguyen Vu Binh's shining example in heroism when he declared upon the
stay of his sentencing May 5: "Freedom or Death. I will go on a hunger strike
starting this moment until such time as I am free or dead."
3 - Protest the physical removal of Nguyen Vu Binh in his weakened state
(because of the hunger strike, now in its 18th day) from Hoa Lo Moi Prison in
Hanoi to the Ba Sao Prison Camp in Nam Ha Province, in an obvious attempt to get
him away from the attention of the world press whose representatives must get
permission to get out of Hanoi and visit Ba Sao and to make it more difficult
for his family to bring him any help or medicine in emergency situations.
4 - Appeal to all the major governments of the world and international NGOs to
intervene with the utmost urgency on behalf of Nguyen Vu Binh to save him from
almost certain death in the very near future should he be allowed to go on with
his hunger strike. And,
5 - Finally, join the chorus of governments and NGOs around the world who have
already spoken up and demanded that Nguyen Vu Binh "be immediately and
unconditionally released from prison and given the medical attention that he
urgently needs."
Washington, DC and Orange County, CA
-30-
Founded in 1986, the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans is a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit community advocacy organization working to advance the cause of
Vietnamese Americans in a plural but united America – e pluribus unum –
by participating actively and fully as civic minded citizens engaged in the
areas of education, culture and civil liberties. (www.ncvaonline.org)
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