Vietnam Paper Slams U.S. Over Shopowner's Beating
HANOI - An official Vietnamese newspaper lashed out at the
United States Tuesday after a Vietnamese shopowner there was allegedly
beaten for displaying a portrait of Hanoi's late revolutionary leader Ho Chi
Minh.
Communist Party daily Nhan Dan (People), in a stinging commentary,
accused Washington of hypocrisy on its human rights policy and said the
incident would not help bilateral ties.
Vietnam's embassy in Washington had issued a statement expressing anger
over the treatment of Tran Van Truong, local media reported.
According to reports in local media, Vietnamese immigrants attacked
Truong last week for hanging a portrait of Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam's
communist flag in his video store in Los Angeles.
Hundreds of overseas Vietnamese had also demonstrated outside
Truong's shop for several days until a judge ordered him to remove the
portrait and flag late last week, newspaper reports from Los Angeles have
said.
``The violent reaction of extremists against Tran Van Truong is a rude
violation of human rights, causing deep concern,'' Nhan Dan said in the
commentary.
``Reactions violating the human rights of overseas Vietnamese absolutely
do not benefit the process of improving relations between the United
States and Vietnam.
``This behavior should be condemned and rejected by the two countries
and the international community,'' it said.
A large community of overseas Vietnamese lives in Los Angeles and
includes many people who supported the U.S.-backed Saigon regime,
which was defeated by the communist North in 1975, bringing to an end
the Vietnam War.
The newspaper described Truong as American-Vietnamese. It was not
immediately clear which country's citizenship he held.
In a separate statement on the incident, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh referred to the ``violent behavior of
extremists'' and said the rights of all overseas Vietnamese to freedom of
expression needed to be protected.
Vietnam and the U.S. normalized ties in 1995 and occasionally spar over
Hanoi's human rights record.
Reuters - January 26, 1999.
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