Expatriates demand more freedom in their homeland, citing recent government crackdowns and unrest.
By LORENZA MUNOZ, Times Staff Writer

SANTA ANA--In one of the largest rallies ever attended by Vietnamese expatriates, more than 5,000 people turned out Sunday morning to protest what they say are widespread human rights violations and religious persecution in their native land.

The protest march at the Santa Ana Municipal Stadium followed a one-hour Catholic Mass during which worshipers commemorated the Vatican's canonization of 117 Vietnamese martyrs. Although such a service has been held every year since 1989, organizers said Sunday's event took on special significance because it came in the wake of several incidents of civil unrest in Vietnam.

Those in attendance said they want to keep attention focused on the alleged religious and political oppression by their homeland's Communist regime. And Sunday provided an opportunity for Orange County's Vietnamese community--the largest outside Vietnam--to show solidarity with their native kin.

"The people in Vietnam can't do what we are doing here," said 22-year-old Thanh Ngo, referring to the protesters who marched along Flower Street and Civic Center Drive in Santa Ana, without fear of political retaliation. "We are really supportive of them. I'm sure they know we are trying to help them." Though police estimated that about 5,000 people attended the rally, organizers said at least 8,000 people were present for the service and protest march.

Waving flags flown by the former South Vietnamese government and chanting "Freedom for Vietnam," the protesters, some of whom wore anti-Communist signs tied around their necks, were optimistic that their actions would be noticed in Vietnam.

Sunday's event, organized by the Vietnamese Laity Movement, was the second anti-Vietnamese government rally in Orange County in recent months. In September, more than 2,000 Vietnamese immigrants gathered along Bolsa Avenue in Westminster for the same cause. The protests were in response to several incidents in which Vietnamese villagers were punished for acts of civil disobedience, organizers said.

In July, Vietnamese security forces arrested hundreds of protesters who demonstrated against high taxes and official corruption in two cities, Thai Binh in the north and Xuan Loc in the south. Earlier this month, there were news reports of more protests, this time in the Ho Nai and Dong Nai provinces in south Vietnam. Though Vietnam is officially atheist, many of its people practice Catholicism or Buddhism.

"We did this because we wanted to send a message home to the people that are standing up. They are looking for support from outside the country to survive," said event organizer Joe Tran. "It's very emotional for us here because we know that people who stood up for religious freedom are being detained and arrested. We feel it's our responsibility to speak up for the people back home who cannot," he added.

Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton), who is a member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, addressed the crowd on Sunday, saying that the U.S. government has been trying to pressure Hanoi to improve its human rights record.

"It is absolutely imperative that the government of Vietnam hears what we are saying here today," Royce said. "We are here today to show the Vietnamese government that we in America know the religious oppression that is occurring. We are here today to speak out against it."

In 1995, the U.S. monitoring group Human Rights Watch/Asia said at least two dozen Buddhist leaders had been arrested since 1992, in what critics described as acts of religious persecution. Although Vietnamese officials have loosened the reins on religious worship since 1989, Hanoi still exerts tight control over dissent and worship, according to the U.S. State Department's 1995 Human Rights Report.

Indeed, 15-year-old Linh Vi--who arrived in the United States last week--said she could worship privately in Vietnam, but it was not acceptable to speak out or share her religious views in public. "In this country we can do this--we can protest and say what we want," she said through a translator. "In Vietnam, there was no way. People would be arrested."

(LA TIMES, 11-24-97)