Vietnam expels MEP after rights protest
HANOI - Vietnam has expelled a member of the European parliament and his assistant after they protested in Ho Chi
Minh City against the detention of a leading religious dissident, his party said Thursday.
Olivier Dupuis, secretary of the Italy-based Transnational Radical Party, and his German aide Martin Schulthes
were put on a plane to Bangkok after being detained for several hours Wednesday evening, the party said in a
statement.
They were arrested after holding two demonstrations in Vietnam's commercial capital against a renewed house
arrest order imposed against Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Quang Do late last week.
They had both travelled to Vietnam on tourist visas.
There was no immediate confirmation of the expulsion from the Vietnamese authorities.
But in April Vietnam deported another MEP -- Lars Rise from the Norwegian opposition Christian People's
Party -- and his two assistants after they visited dissidents including Do.
Dupuis, who is a Belgian national even though he represents an Italian constituency, had intended to barricade
himself inside the Thanh Minh Zen pagoda where Do is held.
After police aborted a first protest Wednesday morning, he returned to the pagoda for a further demonstration
late in the afternoon, Schulthes told AFP by telephone.
There was no further word from either man as there was no answer from their mobile telephones.
In a statement Thursday, Dupuis vowed that his party would continue its campaign for the liberation of Do and
other Vietnamese dissidents.
The reactivation of the five-year-old house arrest order against Do has sparked protests from Washington just
as the White House prepares to submit a key trade agreement between the former foes to Congress for
approval.
"We regret that the Vietnamese authorities have taken this action," State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher said in a statement Monday.
"The United States calls on the government of Vietnam to respect the autonomy of all religions, to allow all
person to practice their religious faiths freely."
Diplomats said the trade deal was expected to go before Congress later Thursday.
Several dissident religious organisations, including Do's outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, have
urged lawmakers to postpone ratification of the deal until Vietnam improves its rights record.
Agence France Presse - June 7, 2001.
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