Vietnam's most prominent dissident dies
HANOI - Communist Vietnam's leading dissident, retired Lt. Gen. Tran Do,
died Friday after more than a month of treatment in a hospital for
multiple
ailments, a doctor said. He was 78.
Do was a decorated war veteran and former head of the ruling Communist
Party's ideology and culture department. He was expelled from the party
in
January 1999 for advocating that it give up its monopoly on power and
had
since been under informal surveillance.
Do died at Huu Nghi (Friendship) hospital after having suffered from
acute
diabetes for an extended period, the hospital doctor said.
In June last year, public security officials briefly detained Do in Ho
Chi
Minh City, where he was visiting his son, and confiscated his three-part
memoirs containing his thoughts on the country's future.
Do repeatedly sent letters to authorities as well as the Vietnam Writers
Union protesting the confiscation of his manuscripts and demanding their
return.
Much of Do's criticism reflected disappointment over the gap between the
country's reality and the goals of the communist revolution and war of
independence against French colonialism he had helped fight.
"Our present life, it seems, is less and less like what we dreamed of
building, and more and more like what we had spent time overthrowing,"
he
wrote in the second part of his memoirs, circulated outside Vietnam on
the
Internet.
"Do we have a way out?" he wrote. "I believe we do.
"One, it is not to depend on any ideology or dogma. Two, one must have
widespread discussion with and among the people, no one can think on
behalf
of the entire nation. Three, the rulers must be truly of the people, by
the
people and for the people."
While Vietnam's government has allowed expression of a somewhat wider
range
of views in recent years, it does not tolerate calls for pluralism or
for
any reduction of the Communist Party's monopoly on power.
In January, the Ministry of Culture and Information ordered police and
cultural inspectors to confiscate and destroy books written by several
prominent dissidents, including Do.
It said they were printed in violation of the Publishing Law, which
requires
that books be approved by the government before they are published.
Human rights groups say Vietnam's government restricts freedom of speech
and
religion and accuse it of holding political and religious dissidents.
Vietnam denies that it holds any political prisoners and says it only
detains people who break the law.
Do's burial plans were not immediately known.
The Associated Press - August 9, 2002
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