Pretty thin gruel, uw. Quite a stretch for a number of unremarkable items.
The gruel is thick and the stretch is limp if you are well-informed.
It will take several posts but I will answer your questions. I have a very busy day planned with my son...so pardon if I don't get to all of it today.
Here is some background...I think it is important to look at Kerry's political record. As I noted before, I, personally, have no issues with his military service. It is his politics that irk me.
Your post was unusual in that you don't normally hold a poster personally responsible for the thoughts and writings of others that he copies and posts on the thread. So be it...I'll start with this:
The Washington Times
April 7, 2002
Commentary: FORUM section
Creeping genocide in Asia
I commend Michael Benge's Commentary Forum contribution (The Washington Times, Jan. 13, "Terrifying abuses in Vietnam") for highlighting the truth about Vietnam's treatment of the Montagnards.
The International Commission of Jurists has also concluded that the Vietnamese government is committing systematic persecution of these indigenous people (ICJ Report: Australian Section, July 2001) - namely through torture, killings, religious oppression and confiscation of ancestral lands.
It is disturbing however, to note attempts to downgrade Vietnam's unspeakable brutality (See: Forum, March 10, "True labeling or red-baiting," by Andrew Wells-Dang). Such reporting only serves to legitimize Vietnam's human rights abuses while prolonging the suffering of innocent Montagnards. Mr. Wells-Dang should be reminded that no country (communist or noncommunist) should be excused for human-rights abuses and that inside Vietnam's central highlands today, thousands of soldiers and security forces have brutally enforced martial law. While this persecution may not be classed as "international terrorism" in a "al Qaeda" context, I can assure him that a Christian Montagnard chained to the floor in an underground cell and paralyzed from electric shock torture, would still consider it an act of "terrorism".
There is evidence that not only are U.N. population funds being used for forced abortion in China (The Washington Times, Jan. 29, "Population fund at U.N. protested") but that these funds are being used by the Vietnamese communist government to eliminate the Montagnard hill tribes through "forced and coercive" sterilizations programs.
This is most disturbing given that "imposing measures to prevent births" is defined as a crime of genocide under the U.N. Convention on the Crime and Punishment of Genocide. The Montagnard Foundation has documented more than 1,000 cases of Montagnard women who were sterilized by the Vietnamese authorities through force, coercion, bribery, threats of fines or imprisonment. The total figure however, is unknown as the Montagnard's homelands remains under martial law and hidden from international scrutiny.
In July 2000, another lawyer and I questioned Eric Palstra, the Senior External Relations officer of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Geneva on Vietnam's "sterilization policies." He confirmed the UNFPA and World Bank do indeed fund family planning programs in Vietnam, but nervously shifted all blame from the United Nations. His exact words concerning the sterilizations were "In Vietnam there is not always a trickle down effect of proper implementation." I asked if he knew whether Vietnam was targeting the Montagnards "specifically" and how U.N. monies for these procedures are monitored. On this he could not give me an answer.
On Aug. 8, 2001, I watched as the Vietnamese ambassador to the United Nations, Nguyen Quy Binh, faced the U.N. Committee for Elimination of Racial Discrimination. His response to questions of forced and coerced sterilizations was that the Vietnamese government offers "incentives and fines only" for sterilizations of Montagnard women. He denied these sterilizations are "forced." These "fines" and "incentives" are however, themselves nothing less than grave violations of the international standards regarding reproductive rights. The U.S. government even passed a law (Tiarhart Amendment), which prohibits the granting of U.S. monies to programs by countries conducting such violations of women's rights.
Montagnard women continue to recount that during 1996-2001 Vietnamese authorities entered their villages daily to round up women of childbearing age and forced, bribed and threatened them to undergo surgical sterilization. One woman sobbed when she told me how her sister died during the operation. In the early 1990s, the communist authorities conducted sterilizations using an acid chemical "quinicrine," in pellet form which, when inserted into the uterus, would dissolve and burn the uterus shut. The British Medical journal Lancet (1993, 342, July 24, pages 213-217) reported more than 31,000 women being sterilized in Vietnam by this method.
While it is unknown whether Vietnam still uses this "acid," it seems Hanoi has an agenda to lower the population of the Montagnards. Recently, Vietnam Minister Tran Thi Trung Chien stated that Vietnam intends to achieve a zero growth rate, especially in rural remote areas, by the year 2005 (Asia Pulse, "Vietnam plans target 0 percent population growth in rural areas by 2005," Dec, 27, 2001).
"Rural remote areas" is notably, where the Montagnards reside and, given Vietnam's escalating repression against them, this prospect of zero growth warrants urgent investigation. Sterilizations however, are just the tip of the iceberg of persecution confronting the Montagnards. Since 1975, the Vietnamese government has arrested, imprisoned and tortured them, while confiscating their ancestral lands and persecuting them for converting to Christianity. The revenge for the Vietnam War continues, for more than 40,000 Montagnards had once served as allies to the U.S. during that conflict.
Over the past year, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, two European Parliament Resolutions, various nongovernmental organizations, U.N. bodies, and U.S. members of Congress have condemned Vietnam's abuses of the Montagnards. The U.S. State Department and Human Rights Watch even reported how Montagnards were made to drink animal's blood while being forced to renounce their Christian beliefs. More than 1,000 Montagnards who have escaped into Cambodia now suffer an uncertain fate as they languish in emergency refugee camps set up by the United Nations. Vietnam has offered "bounties" for their capture, while both Vietnam and Cambodia have blatantly ignored international law and sold, beaten, kidnapped and arrested many fleeing refugees.
The situation is deplorable and full support should be given to the members of U.S. Congress who are appealing to President Bush to exercise his discretionary powers over funding destined for family planning programs by nations who violate women's rights.
In Vietnam's case, justice would also demand that all aid and trade benefits to Vietnam be halted immediately until persecution of the Montagnards ceases. I echo the words of Former Deputy Ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam, Wolf Lehman (The Washington Times, Jan. 30) "that Vietnam must address abuses." America's loyal allies from the Vietnam War must not be abandoned to continually face the revenge enacted by Hanoi. It is thus America's duty to now assist the Montagnards.
While President Bush and the State Department should be highly commended for the recent offer of asylum to the 1,000 Montagnard refugees who escaped to Cambodia, we must not forget the underlying problem inside Vietnam. Forced from their ancestral lands and allocated small plots to farm, the Montagnards continue to suffer malnutrition and poverty. If they voice a protest, they face torture, imprisonment or death.
Vietnam's intent becomes quite clear - it is practicing "creeping" genocide.
The lies and denials by Vietnam's official spokespeople on the Montagnard situation is criminal, as is Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry's refusal to permit the "Vietnam Human Rights Act" from being voted on in the U.S. Senate. What reason can Mr. Kerry have for holding a "human rights" bill from being voted on? Vietnam remains one of the worst violators of human rights in Asia and its reign of terror against the Montagnards must cease. In the name of humanity - the international community must act urgently and force Vietnam to end the persecution of these indigenous peoples.
SCOTT JOHNSON
International Commission of Jurists, West Australian Branch. |
