Washington, D.C.  9/23 – 10/03/07.   The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is planning travel to Vietnam between Sept 23-Oct 2, 2007 to visit  the Vietnamese  who fight for religious freedom.   Loretta Sanchez, California congress and 10 other U.S. congress is supporting  this visiting.
Also, in the following letter dated Sept 10, 2007 to Asst. Secretary Christopher Hill, California congress Loretta Sanchez and 10 other U.S. congress voiced their concern about ongoing restrictions and abuses targeting Vietnam's diverse religious communities and religious leaders active in legal reform, free speech, and human rights organizations.

September 10, 2007
Asst. Secretary Christopher Hill
East Asia and Pacific Affairs
Department of State

Dear Asst. Secretary Hill,

As you may be aware, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is planning travel to Vietnam between September 23-October 2, 2007. We support USCIRF’s trip and hope the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam will work hard to make it both productive and successful.

Vietnam has instituted a wide-ranging crackdown on human rights and democracy activists since joining the WTO in January 2007. The Vietnamese government has consistently denied access, sometimes forcibly, to State Department officials, a Member of Congress, and other interested parties who have tried to meet with the families of those imprisoned or those seeking to meet with religious leaders.  While we appreciate the Administration’s discussion of human rights and religious freedom concerns with Vietnam’s new leaders, we believe much more can and should be done to engage Vietnam on these essential issues. We remain very concerned about ongoing restrictions and abuses targeting Vietnam’s diverse religious communities and religious leaders active in legal reform, free speech, and human rights organizations.
USCIRF provides valuable bipartisan and independent policy advice to the Congress and the Administration. In order to ascertain conditions on the ground in Vietnam and re-enforce the message of concern over Vietnam’s human rights record, we expect them to hold discussion with high level Vietnamese government officials and to meet religious leaders and dissidents during their time in Vietnam.

Any assistance you can offer to make this happen is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Sanchez, Lofgren, Wolf, Lantos, Smith, Tom Davis, Fortenberry, Rohrbacher, Royce, Franks,Cleaver….