[CTC] Japan in the TPP -- Better never than late!

[Dolan Mike]

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/US-Vietnam-backsliding-on-human-rights-4373676.php


US: Vietnam backsliding on human rights
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press
Updated 7:07 pm, Thursday, March 21, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration expressed concern Thursday  
about Vietnam's "backsliding" on human rights and asserted that  
advancing individual freedoms is key to U.S. policy in Asia.
One example cited is Hanoi's treatment of bloggers who have faced  
prosecution under national security laws. Deputy Assistant Secretary  
of State Dan Baer told a congressional panel that Vietnam's  
authoritarian government is rightly proud of expanding Internet use,  
but it has diminished the value by curbing free exchange of ideas.  
Baer described those national security laws as draconian.
U.S. senators urged the administration to emphasize the promotion of  
human rights and democracy as part of its strategic pivot to Asia,  
which has primarily been cast as an attempt to increase America's  
military presence and boost trade in response to China's rise.
"What would set us apart from authoritarian competitors and would lay  
the groundwork for a truly American legacy in East Asia is a strong  
commitment to advancing individual freedoms," said Republican Sen.  
Marco Rubio.
Vietnam is one focus of Washington's outreach but Hanoi's poor human  
rights record has made that awkward. Vietnam began opening its economy  
in the late 1980s and wants to integrate with the world, but it  
remains a one-party state with strict controls on freedom of speech  
and political expression. Activists, including bloggers, are routinely  
arrested and imprisoned.
"The government needs to come around to seeing that the Internet  
penetration they are proud of isn't fully valuable without people  
being able to exchange ideas," said Baer, whose portfolio covers human  
rights, democracy and labor standards. He also noted that Vietnam's  
progress of a few years ago in religious freedom has stagnated.
There's been some brighter news. Hanoi freed American-Vietnamese  
democracy activist Nguyen Quoc Quan in January and U.S.-trained human  
rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh in February. That progress, however, has  
been overshadowed by recent convictions of dozens of other Vietnamese  
activists who have recent stiff jail terms.
Frustration over Vietnam's failure to improve its rights record  
prompted the U.S. to postpone an annual human rights dialogue that was  
due in late 2012. Officials tell The Associated Press the next  
dialogue has now been set, and will be held in Hanoi in mid-April.
Baer said the U.S. will "continue to make its case firmly" to Hanoi on  
various rights concerns, and will also raise Internet freedom and  
labor conditions in negotiations on the U.S.-backed Trans-Pacific  
Partnership, a regional trade pact that involves Vietnam.
Addressing the situation across the broader region, acting Assistant  
Secretary of State for East Asia Joe Yun asserted that advancing  
democracy and human rights "binds together" the Asia rebalance strategy.
He expressed deep concern about deteriorating human rights in China,  
and said the U.S. has told Beijing it regards its repatriation of  
refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing to China from North Korea as a  
violation of its international obligations.
On North Korea, which is reputed to hold up to 200,000 people in  
prison camps, Yun said that improving dire conditions there is an  
"essential goal" of U.S. policy. Washington has mostly been focused on  
the threat posed by the North's nuclear weapons program, but it  
supported a resolution approved Thursday by the U.N.'s highest human  
rights body to establish an international commission of inquiry into  
grave abuses there.
Yun voiced optimism about reforms in Myanmar, but said the situation  
in the country — which is shifting from five decades of direct  
military rule — would remain difficult until long-running ethnic  
conflicts are settled. With critical national elections due in 2015,  
Yun also described the constitutionally mandated presence of 25  
percent military appointees in the nation's legislature as  
"unsustainable."
Referring to neighboring Laos, Yun raised concern over the  
disappearance of award-winning social activist Sombath Somphone and  
the situation faced by Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who  
lives in exile to avoid imprisonment on what Yun said were politically  
motivated charges.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/US-Vietnam-backsliding-on-human-rights-4373676.php#ixzz2OHYMrtHY
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