VZCZCXRO9335
PP RUEHHM
DE RUEHHM #0542 1380943
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 180943Z MAY 07
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2639
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 1907
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 2838

UNCLAS HO CHI MINH CITY 000542 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL SOCI PINR VM
SUBJECT: HCMC ERO OBJECTS TO WEB SITE POSTING OF CONGRESSMEN'S OP-ED 
 
REF: A) HCMC 514; B) HCMC 528; C) HANOI 872 
 
¶1. (SBU) PolOff was called in by HCMC External Relations Office 
(ERO) May 16, to discuss ConGen's request to observe voting 
during the May 20 National Assembly elections.  However, the 
Deputy Head of the ERO Consular Section also used the meeting to 
give an oral protest regarding posting on the ConGen website of 
the May 4 Wall Street Journal op-ed "Memo to Hanoi" by 
Representatives Smith, Stupak and Wolf.  HCMC's website posted 
the column, which is sharply critical of the GVN's human rights 
record, in both English and in Vietnamese.  The ERO protested 
that the article contains a "number of distortions."   The 
Consulate should disassociate itself from this article because 
it reflects poorly on the executive branch when Vietnamese read 
it.  Moreover, the decision by ConGen to post the article does 
not reflect the true state of our relationship where both sides 
try to work with each other to resolve problems. 
 
¶2. (SBU) We responded that the article is an accurate reflection 
of growing concern over the ongoing human rights crackdown in 
Vietnam.  This concern is also reflected in the unanimous 
passage of House Resolution 243 on Vietnam Human Rights, the May 
11 White House statement condemning the sentencing of political 
prisoners in Syria and Vietnam, and May 15 "Declaration by the 
EU Presidency on the sentencing of human rights defenders in 
Viet Nam."  We noted that -- as the crackdown intensifies and 
other dissidents, such as Le Quoc Quan and Nguyen Vu Binh, 
remain incarcerated -- the view of Vietnam in Washington could 
turn increasingly negative.  For example, already some of the 
strongest voices in favour of engagement with Vietnam in the 
U.S. Senate expressed to the GVN their strong concern over its 
worsening human rights record.  Some in Washington could argue 
that Vietnam's recent sentencing to long prison terms of six 
more dissidents in the weeks following our Human Rights Dialogue 
as a sign that the GVN was ignoring USG concerns on the issue. 
 
¶3. (SBU) We told the ERO officials that we would forward GVN's 
concerns about our posting of the op-ed piece, but we observed 
that the GVN should be more concerned that this, and similar 
articles, appeared in the Wall Street Journal and other 
international newspapers in the first place. 
 
¶4. (SBU) We also took the opportunity to ask ERO why we were 
barred from two dissident trials in HCMC on May 10 and May 15 
(reftels A and B) even though Embassy officers and other 
international observers had been permitted to attend the May 11 
trial of two Hanoi-based dissidents (reftel C).  The ERO 
official said that he believed that there was more obvious 
pressure and interest in the Hanoi trial because the principal 
defendant in that trial -- Nguyen Van Dai -- was an 
internationally-recognized dissident.  This extra pressure led 
Hanoi to waive its normal restrictions on foreigners attending 
trials involving Vietnamese citizens.   Our ERO counterpart 
closed the meeting by asking why the Consul General and PolOff 
went to the HCMC court to attend two dissidents' trials despite 
prior ERO notification that we would not be admitted.  We 
responded that the Consul General had hoped that the GVN 
authorities might reconsider the decision to deny access to 
these trials and that we wanted to make clear USG concern about 
the trials. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Comment:  The ERO complaint about the ConGen website is 
unusual, especially as the article had not attracted a large 
number of "hits" since its posting; about 140 hits on the link 
and 157 separate downloads of the PDF file containing the op-ed. 
 End Comment. 
 
WINNICK