In Flag Dispute, Both Sides Vow to Stand Firm

On the eve of Tet festivities expected to draw tens of thousands to Little Saigon, a video store owner who hung a Vietnamese flag and anti-Communist protesters who have camped outside his business held dueling news conferences Friday, each vowing to stand their ground.

Owner Truong Van Tran, 37, said he plans to fight eviction from his store, which took effect Friday, and send the message to the community that different opinions should be respected.

“Many people in the Vietnamese community do not speak their mind because they are afraid that they will be attacked by other people in the community,” said Tran at the Los Angeles offices of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented him in his successful 1st Amendment battle to put up the flag and photo of Communist leader Ho Chi Minh. “If we all feel free to express ourselves, the community will be stronger.”

But protest organizers say they have respected Tran’s right to freedom of speech, tolerating statements Tran has made for five years in newsletters advocating better relations with Vietnam. They said they even raised no objections when he began displaying a Communist flag in his store, off and on, in 1996.

“The entire time, the community did nothing. We were indifferent,” said Tuan Anh Ho, who heads the Committee to Preserve National Cause, a group ardently opposed to the Communist government of Vietnam.

However, Tran crossed the line when he sent letters in January to community leaders, daring them to come and remove the items, said Ho.

“He has abused the freedom of speech. He has no right to provoke the refugee community and then hide behind the 1st Amendment,” he said. “He is disregarding our suffering, and disgracing our community.”

Tran’s store along Bolsa Avenue, Hi Tek TV and VCR, has been the site of daily protests by hundreds of demonstrators since mid-January. A judge issued a temporary restraining order Jan. 21 requiring Tran to take down the items but reversed her decision last week after ruling the display is protected speech.

Though he won that legal battle, Tran is now facing eviction by owners of his business complex, who claim he has violated his lease agreement by being $20,000 behind in rent, failing to have liability insurance and creating a public nuisance.

Tran has vowed to fight the eviction, which he describes as retaliatory and discriminatory. Santa Ana attorneys Nancy Kaufman and Edwin Printemps have agreed to represent Tran pro bono.

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Passions have become very heated in Little Saigon, considered the capital of the Vietnamese emigre community. It is home to about 200,000 Vietnamese Americans, many of them refugees and former prisoners of war under the Communist Vietnamese government.

Those passions are reflected in the widespread view that Tran is backed by the Vietnamese government. Those claims are rejected by Tran and by Vietnamese consular officials in San Francisco, who issued a statement Friday denying a rumor that the airport in Hanoi is levying a $50 arrival fee on visitors to support Tran.

“This is in fact an impudent fabrication by those who . . . are trying to forge a supposed outside interference to justify their intent to deny Mr. Tran’s right to free expression,” read the statement.

In Little Saigon, many who lost relatives during the war feel Tran has insulted their pain and suffering by displaying the photo of the man they hold responsible.

Tran says he understands their pain, having had relatives injured or killed by Communist soldiers, including two cousins, a brother-in-law, and a brother. But it is time to move on, he said.

“They misunderstand me. I’m not a Communist. But that was the past. We cannot live in the past. The only way to change Vietnam is to have friendly relations,” he said.

However, protesters have made it clear that a resolution must include a public apology from Tran.

“Tran owes us a debt of honor. If he apologizes to the community, we will extend a warm welcome and embrace him back,” said Ho.

Meanwhile, Westminster Police Chief James Cook sent an open letter to the Vietnamese American community, pleading for calm in the days to come should Tran rehang the flag and photo.

“I ask each and every freedom-loving citizen in Little Saigon to allow Mr. Tran safe and peaceful access to his business. In this way, you honor our Constitution and the laws of this nation,” Cook wrote.

No matter how distasteful his views, Tran has a right to express his political beliefs, and any physical attempt by demonstrators to stop him will not be permitted, Cook warned.