Rohrabacher Resolution Irks Vietnam

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher kicked off a minor international tiff Wednesday with a congressional resolution demanding greater respect for human rights in Vietnam on the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

The Huntington Beach Republican’s resolution, which has no practical effect, attacks the Communist regime as a one-party state that “continues to violate the liberties and civil rights of its own citizens.” It urges the release of all religious and political prisoners.

Approved by the House on Wednesday with only three dissenting votes, the resolution drew a stinging response from the government of Vietnam.

“The adoption of a resolution on human rights in Vietnam . . . is a gross interference in Vietnam’s internal affairs,” said Thanh Thuy Phan, a spokeswoman for the Vietnamese foreign ministry in Hanoi. She said it is hypocritical for the United States, which during the war “committed the most horrific violations of the human rights of the Vietnamese people, to set itself up as judge and lecturer on human rights in Vietnam.”

Rohrabacher said he sponsored the resolution because “it is important that Congress note that after 25 years, there’s been no progress and people still live under terrible tyranny.”

Rohrabacher’s resolution also praises activists in Orange County’s Little Saigon who organized a joint war memorial that would pay tribute to American and South Vietnamese soldiers. Through fund-raisers over the past year, the community has collected about $360,000 of an estimated $500,000 needed to build the bronze statue in Westminster.

Some Little Saigon community leaders applauded Rohrabacher’s resolution, saying it could help the people of Vietnam. Economic development depends on democratic reforms, he said.

“Without basic rights, the economy of the country cannot be improved,” said Cong Tran, 60, of Irvine. “If people don’t have the right to choose, no business will be successful.”