Man’s Extradition Fight Divisive

For nearly four years, Van Duc Vo has been in a federal jail, accused of plotting to throw a bomb over the wall of the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand.

As a federal appeals court prepares to decide whether Vo should be extradited to Bangkok to stand trial, the 45-year-old Baldwin Park man has become a much-debated symbol in Southern California’s Vietnamese American community.

On Monday, about 200 supporters rallied outside the Pasadena courthouse where Vo’s extradition appeal was heard. They waved U.S. and South Vietnamese flags and wore yellow pieces of paper around their necks that read “Freedom and Democracy for Vietnam.” To them, Vo has become a folk hero who had the courage to stand up to the Communist government in Vietnam.

“Van Vo is a freedom fighter,” said Kim Vo, 55, of Lawndale, who is not related to Van Vo. She said she arrived at the courthouse at 6:30 a.m. She wore a sign around her neck that said, “When you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you,” a paraphrase of a quote by President Bush.

But to others in the community, Vo is an embarrassing extremist who is out of sync with political realities.

“He should know that the war is over a long time ago,” said Thuy Reed, 52, of San Pedro, a community activist who fled Vietnam 30 years ago and supports the normalization of relations with Vietnam. “These people aren’t helping Vietnam, and they’re not helping their cause. They think they’re Superman and want to fix everything.”

Vo’s case has been covered aggressively in the Vietnamese-language press. And the anti-Communist group he belongs to -- the Garden Grove-based Free Government of Vietnam, which organized Monday’s rally -- has received international attention for its efforts against the Vietnamese government.

U.S. authorities have alleged that on June 19, 2001, Vo and another man placed a backpack with explosives outside the Vietnamese Embassy and threw a brown box over the wall. The box contained 11 pounds of diesel fuel and ammonium nitrate, the same combination of explosives used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The packages were linked to a detonator that failed to explode.

Vo denies allegations that he is a terrorist, and he has said he defused the detonators before the bombs were placed at the embassy. The Free Government of Vietnam has denied any prior knowledge of the plot. Vo is a founder of the group, which includes former South Vietnamese military officers and bills itself as a government in exile.

The Thai government has demanded that Vo be returned to that country to stand trial. Vo supporters say sending him back would amount to a death sentence, contending that Thai officials would turn him over to Vietnam.

Vo’s case has captured so much attention in Little Saigon in large part because he represents disdain some Vietnamese Americans -- especially the older generations -- still have for the Communist government.

“People have really mixed feelings for Vo,” said Lan Nguyen, an attorney and a board member of the Garden Grove Unified School District. “For those who see him as a freedom fighter, they feel sorry for him. To others, he’s associated with a controversial group, so they think he may be a scapegoat. A majority of the community does not go out and support him because of that mixed feeling.”

The hearing in Pasadena comes as the local Vietnamese American community has debated exactly what relationship it should have with the Vietnamese government.

In the years after the Communists took over South Vietnam, many fled the country on boats, waiting to be rescued by commercial vessels. Many refugees settled in Southern California, home to the largest Vietnamese population in the U.S.

Anti-Communist feelings remained strong for decades, even as the U.S. normalized relations. In 1999, 15,000 protesters faced off with police in riot gear when a Westminster store owner placed the Vietnamese flag and a picture of the late Communist leader Ho Chi Minh in his shop. Just last month, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to officially recognize South Vietnam’s flag as the official flag of the county’s Vietnamese American community.

While anti-Communist activities -- such as opposing local visits from Communist officials -- capture headlines, they come amid growing business ties between Vietnam and some in Little Saigon.

Vo’s lawyer, W. Michael Mayock, said Monday that Vo acknowledged helping to assemble the explosive devices but decided to disable the detonators before they were placed at the embassy.

Mayock said Vo had intended to only make a statement, not to kill anyone.

The purpose of placing the disabled bombs, he said, was to send a message that “the Vietnamese regime is not invisible, that they are being watched, and that they should stop violating the rights of their citizens.”

Vo was arrested by Orange County sheriff’s deputies when he returned to John Wayne Airport after the bomb incident. U.S. prosecutors dismissed their case against Vo when the Thai government requested his extradition to face charges in that country.

A federal magistrate judge granted the extradition request last year, but Vo appealed the decision, filing a writ of habeas corpus. Mayock said he expected the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard the case Monday, to make a decision within the next two months. Ultimately, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would have to sign off on Vo’s extradition.

But even some Vietnamese who don’t support Vo said they didn’t want to see him extradited to Thailand.

“We can’t abandon him because he will face a kangaroo court in Thailand. We don’t have confidence in the Thai court system,” Lan Nguyen said. “We don’t have faith in the political will of the Thai government to stand up to the Vietnamese government. The Thai government will say, ‘If you want him, come get him.’ We shouldn’t extradite our own citizens to that kind of environment.”

Vo’s most ardent supporters said they will continue rallying for him until he is free.

“He did it for the entire people [of Vietnam],” said Danny Nguyen, 30, of Gardena. “People should learn from him. If more people were like him, I think our country would be free.”