Vietnamese protester guilty of attempted arson and assault, cleared on terrorism charge
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal jury in San Francisco found Ngoc
Hanh Dang Nguyen, a Vietnamese refugee and anti-Communist, guilty on
Friday of two charges from her attempt last year to set herself on fire in
front of a visiting Vietnamese official.
After deliberating over two days, the jury found Ngoc Hanh guilty of
attempted arson and assault of a federal officer, but not guilty of attempted
acts of terrorism and offering violence toward a foreign official.
She will be sentenced in U.S. District Court on Dec. 18. She faces five to
20 years in prison on the arson conviction and a year on the assault
charge.
During the two-week trial, prosecutors said Ngoc Hanh, a mother of four
who lives in Bretagne, France, walked into a ballroom in a San Francisco
hotel on Dec. 13, 2001, carrying a plastic gallon jug of gasoline, two
homemade torches and a cigarette lighter. FBI agents, smelling gasoline on
her, tackled her as she struggled to light the gas-soaked torches.
In her testimony, sometimes punctuated by anti-Communist oratory, Ngoc
Hanh said she had planned to burn her self before the visiting Deputy
Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dung, to protest the U.S.-Vietnam
trade agreement and to denounce human rights violations in Vietnam.
But prosecutors said her plan was to harm the prime minister and burn the
ballroom. The year before, she had tried something similar in Paris and
had thrown a Molotov cocktail at the Vietnamese Embassy in London. This
history, prosecutors said, was an indication of her motives.
"Self-immolation was not part of the defendant's plan,'' Assistant U.S.
Attorney Kyle Waldinger said during closing arguments.
"This is not about the wisdom of the U.S. relations with Vietnam today,'' he
said. "It's about the rule of law. In this country, you don't commit violent
acts.''
Three dozen supporters from the Bay Area and Southern California,
wearing yellow and red scarves symbolizing the old South Vietnam flag,
burst into applause when the court clerk announced the first of the not
guilty verdicts.
Ngoc Hanh, 46, wearing a yellow silk aodai, the traditional Vietnamese
clothing, only nodded in response and smiled a little. As she was escorted
out of the courtroom by federal agents, she waved to the audience.
"Our support and our duty to her, our hero, has not changed,'' said Ky Ngo,
a San Jose resident who acted as a spokesman for the group of
supporters.
Ngo and others said they accept the verdict because the trial in a U.S.
court gave Ngoc Hanh a broad platform when she took the witness stand
this week.
"She won the case last Tuesday because she told the world what she
believes, that she is willing to sacrifice her self for freedom,'' Ngo said.
"She is us and we are her and that's why our support of her is not
changed.''
Ngoc Hanh, known to her anti-Communist supporters as "The Flame of
Liberty,'' has a following in France, Australia, Holland and the U.S.
To them, her attempt to sacrifice her life for a cause is in keeping with the
tradition of the Vietnamese culture.
She was initially charged with an accomplice, Cuong Anh Pham, 53, a
French citizen from Paris. But Pham pleaded guilty to a charge of offering
violence to a foreign official. He was sentenced to time served and
deported to France.
During her testimony, Ngoc Hanh, holding a ballpoint pen on her left hand
as a stand in for a torch, said her plan on that December day was to make
the ultimate protest: self-immolation.
"To the businesses of the U.S., I would say, `I want to use my body to
make a statement,' '' she said. "You had helped the Communist Party
oppress my people.''
"And to the Communist Party, I would say, `I represent your victims and I
denounce your regime.' ''
But not everyone is convinced. Divided support for her in America's
Vietnamese community, usually united on the issue of anti-Communism,
reflects a sea change in the evolving political life of Vietnamese refugees.
"Hero? I don't think so,'' said Sutton Vo, 64, a former major in the South
Vietnamese Army who lives in San Jose. "The men who wore the South
Vietnam uniforms and fought against the Communist invasion of Vietnam
are the heroes.''
By Jessie Mangaliman - San Jose Mercury News - October 11, 2002.
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