Making their voices heard

Two-day protest outside the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort and Spa in Dana Point drew thousands.

By DEEPA BHARATH, MARY ANN MILBOURN AND NORBERTO SANTANA Jr.

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1741241.php

DANA POINT - They wanted to speak for those who can’t. And organizers of the two-day protest of the unprecented Orange County visit by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet believe they did just that.
It was a protest that had been in the works for months, said Dung Tran, one of the organizers of the demonstration outside the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort and Spa that drew thousands over two days.
Many of the Vietnamese-American community in Little Saigon are refugees who came to the United States after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Orange County, with more than 100,000 Vietnamese-Americans, now has the largest Vietnamese community outside of their home country. And on Friday and Saturday, several thousand stood outside the St. Regis for hours as Triet met with local business groups in an attempt to forge trade ties between the two countries.
But Tran says this show of support by the community has been a success at many levels.
“First it’s created awareness among the general public about the human rights violations in Vietnam,” he said. “Secondly, the president had meetings with President Bush and congressional leaders who all urged him to improve Vietnam’s human rights record.”
But what made it worth their while was the way Triet’s limousine arrived without Vietnam’s flag on it.
“To us that is symbolic,” Tran said. “It tells us right away that he is afraid to put the flag on his car and has to move around like someone who is ashamed of what he represents.”
Saturday morning’s protests drew more than 2,000 people, who brightened an overcast morning as they waved the red and yellow South Vietnamese flags that were interspersed with the Stars and Stripes on the sidewalk in front of the upscale resort.
Hundreds showed up in organized tour buses from Little Saigon as early as 8 a.m. to participate in what was a peaceful, yet passionate show of opposition. Demonstrators in Little Saigon solemnly sang the pre-Communist Vietnamese National Anthem before boarding four buses to take them to the Dana Point protest.
Triet arrived at the St. Regis Friday night only to be greeted by loud jeers and slogans of “Down with Communists” and “Go home Viet Cong.” The Communist leader came to Orange County at the invitation of the Irvine-based Vietnam Business Association and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
But protesters outside, angered by recent imprisonment of human rights activists including Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, balked at the idea of trade ties with a country that has been ruled by the Communist Party since the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975.
Timothy Ngo of Orange said the “people inside,” especially Vietnamese-Americans, will be looked upon as “traitors.”
“They’ve forgotten how they got to this country – sitting on a boat, driven out of their own country by these Communists,” he said, impassioned. “Now they’re inside this hotel making deals with those same people. It’s a shame.”
Organizers of the St. Regis event did not return calls Saturday, but earlier told the Register that the meeting was entirely for “trade purposes.” Vietnamese government officials could not be reached for comment.
The crowd gathered outside the resort booed and shouted anti-Communist slogans as cars left after the meetings. Some of the cars’ occupants covered their faces with magazines as their vehicles zoomed away from the intersection.
The president and his entourage left the resort late in the morning as Orange County Sheriff’s deputies in patrol cars and on horseback and motorcycles created a barricade on Niguel Road for security. Numerous protesters from the crowd rushed to the street shouting slogans as Triet’s vehicle made its way out of the gate and drove away.
It was quite a sight for local residents, many of whom were caught unaware when they went out for their morning walk.
Despite the noise and the disruption of traffic, most of the locals supported the protesters.
“I don’t understand why (Triet) came here and disrespected everyone,” said Sherry Merrick, who stopped to talk during her morning walk. “I think it’s so flagrant and in their face.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-3646 or mmilbourn@ocregister.com

LOUD PROTEST: Hundreds of Vietnamese-Americans protest along Niguel Road across from the St. Regis Resort in Dana Point Saturday morning as the president of Vietnamese attends meeting inside.

MARK RIGHTMIRE, The Orange County Register

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Video: Thousands come to protest

Vietnam's president gets earful

Members of both parties beseech the leader to improve his country's record on human rights.

By KATHRINE SCHMIDT

The Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/nationworld/washingtonbureau/article_1740544.php

WASHINGTON– House leaders of both parties had human rights and religious freedom on their minds Thursday when they met with the president of Vietnam.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Ed Royce were among the lawmakers who spoke with President Nguyen Minh Triet in an hour-long closed meeting on Capitol Hill.

Triet will visit President Bush at the White House this morning and then fly to Southern California, where he speaks to business leaders in Dana Point later in the day. His visit to the United States, the first ever by a Vietnamese president, comes in the wake of what opponents call a crackdown on democratic movements and religious freedom in Vietnam that has stirred protests from Little Saigon to the nation's Capitol.

"The meeting focused on human rights issues, including political expression and religious freedom in Vietnam, and the desire for greater economic cooperation between our two nations," said Nadeam Elshami, deputy communications director for Pelosi, D-San Francisco.

According to Royce, R-Fullerton, lawmakers repeatedly brought up the situations of Vietnamese dissidents arrested by the government. One such case was that of Catholic priest Father Nguyen Van Ly, recently sentenced to eight years in prison in what critics called a show trial. Vietnam has said it only jails those who break the law.

Royce, said the Vietnamese president's responses were "very evasive" and marked by "propaganda" and statements that those who have been jailed threatened Vietnam's national security.

"We've got to see a stop to this conduct if the relationship between our countries is going to improve," Royce told reporters in a telephone conference afterwards. "Member after member asked about religious freedom and that particular trial."

Economic relations between the two countries have grown closer lately. A two-way pact that netted $10 billion in trade between the nations last year.

"I think that the (Vietnamese) emissaries are receiving a message from the (U.S.) president and U.S. Congress, and to a certain extent from the public, that they are appalled by the crackdown," Royce said. "I think that's an impression they will take back to Hanoi."

Contact the writer: 202-628-6381 or kaschmidt@ocregister.com

Making their voices heard

Two-day protest outside the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort and Spa in Dana Point drew thousands.

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Vietnam's president gets earful

Members of both parties beseech the leader to improve his country's record on human rights.