33 Rue du Panorama, 95800 Cergy – France – ltqvina@gmail.com
To : Ladies and Gentlemen,
Participating in Colloquium on VIETNAM WAR
TEXAS UNIVERSITY
Subject: The Vietnam war
Twice, the iron curtain has fallen upon Vietnam.
The first time, in August 1945, the Vietnamese communists forced Emperor Bao Dai to abdicate, though he just recovered total independence for his country, Vietnam, after the surrender of the invading Japanese forces.
Terrified, about one million North Vietnamese grabbed the first opportunity given by the Geneva Agreements to migrate to South Vietnam, the largest exodus in Vietnam’s history. But the communist leadership, still hungry for power, actively prepared the Second Vietnam War, with the final objective of invading South Vietnam and to expand into Laos and Cambodia. Hence, the first peace treaty was promptly violated, pulling the Vietnamese people into their second tragedy, one that would last 2 decades: 1956-1975!
The second time, in April 30th 1975, the North Vietnamese Communists achieved their invasion of the Republic of Vietnam, trampling the Paris Agreements of January 27th 1973 which dictated the ending of hostilities and the establishment of peace in Vietnam, as well as the final Act of March 2nd 1973, through which, they gave themselves the designation “Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam”, with 11 other governments- France, the United States of America, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, China, Canada, Poland, South Vietnam, Indonesia, Hungary and the Liberation Front of South Vietnam ( created by the North Vietnamese communists and dissolved by them one year after their invasion of South Vietnam)- and in the presence of the General Secretary of the Organization of the United Nations, to “guaranty the end of the war, to maintain peace in Vietnam, the respect of the national fundamental rights of the Vietnamese people and the right of the South Vietnamese people to self-determination and to contribute to peace in Indochina and to guaranty…”
Since then, for almost the past 40 years, the Vietnamese people has been mourning that tragic date of April 30 1975, when their country has become a gigantic “gulag”, similar to those in the former Soviet Union of the 50’s and 60’s. After the “liberation” of South Vietnam, nearly 500,000 South Vietnamese, government workers, military personnel, doctors, journalists, writers, priests, of the “former” regime were incarcerated in hundreds of concentration camps, deceivingly called “re-education” centers, where thousands have lost their lives due to exhaustion, abuse and torture.
The average forced labor detention time was from 8 to 10 years. However, Mr. Nguyen Huu Cau, just set the record by being released after spending 37 years in prison! In comparison, the injustices against Nelson Mandela seemed almost lenient !
Outside of the camps, Vietnamese citizens can get beaten, arrested, incarcerated for any reason, just because they had expressed discontent with any politics or rulings of the government or the communist party, or if they protested against unfair government land seizing.
Hundreds of cases of flagrant human and civil rights violations have been denounced by victims to various human rights organizations, to democratic governments, to the United Nations and to the Council of Human Rights- where ironically, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam just obtained a seat! The recent conditional release of a few citizens, illegally condemned, after a few years of prison, was granted in an effort to calm the world’s opinion while repression has hardened across the country. Who can imagine that Vietnamese patriots who protested the Chinese expansion over Vietnam- military occupation of the Paracels and part of the Spratleys islands, which legally belong to Vietnam for centuries- were severely penalized by the authorities?
Enough is enough! Such a state terrorism must end. Throughout Vietnam, from north to south, farmers and city dwellers, blue collar and white collar workers, college students and old reformed communist cadres, disappointed retired generals and officers of the Popular Vietnamese Army, Catholic priests, pastors and Buddhist monks, have joined voice to demand liberty and democracy. The entire Vietnamese people has never been more ready to fight to regain their sacred right to self-determination, from the hands of the communist leaders, and this at all costs.
The Vietnamese people is well aware that only by shedding their blood, their liberty will be returned. But they also know that the world’s greatest powers, as mentioned above, must implement their commitment at the Paris Agreements, to “ guaranty the respect of fundamental national rights of the Vietnamese people, independence, sovereignty, unity and integrity of Vietnamese territory, as well as the right of the South Vietnamese people to self-determination…”
A commitment taken at an international treaty, which is still in effect, with no statute of limitation, must be implemented. A commitment that is dear to the Vietnamese living in Vietnam as well as to those living abroad, who have been fiercely denouncing the flagrant violations of the Paris Agreements by the North Vietnamese communists.
So there is no cause of lapsing.
An international treaty must be respected and implemented in order to uphold order and justice. It is a basic rule of international law without which, unrest and chaos would inevitably descend on us, where the strong would oppress the weak, among men and among nations.
Paris, April 20, 2016
The Movement for the Self-Determination of the Vietnamese People
The President,
,
Le Trong Quat, Esq
Former Premier Minister of State, Republic of Vietnam
Chairman of the Interior and Defense Committees, National Assembly
Justice at the Constitutional Court (RVN)
