Thread: Freed Vietnamese prisoner tells his story

Thursday, June 5, 2008
Freed Vietnamese prisoner tells his story
Nguyen Quoc Quan describes his ordeal to Rep. Sanchez as he tours the Capitol to thank his champions.
By BRITTANY LEVINE
The Orange County Register


WASHINGTON – Locked in a three by four foot room with another prisoner, Nguyen Quoc Quan had to sleep on the floor next to the toilet. With the heat of Saigon welling up in his windowless cell, he often found it hard to breathe and stripped down to just a pair of shorts to keep cool.

Three weeks after his jailers let him go, Quan sat comfortably in a suit and tie in Rep. Loretta Sanchez's office Thursday and told her his story.

Vietnamese police arrested and jailed Quan and other members of a democratic activist group in Ho Chi Minh City in November of last year. Members of the group Viet Tan were arrested while distributing pamphlets that preached non-violent peaceful change in Vietnam.

While in jail, Quan was allowed to see sunlight only 15 minutes a week. He ate two meals a day of tasteless food that had often turned sour. Although he said he was never physically hurt, he endured long sessions of psychological torture.

Quan returned home to his wife and two young sons in Sacramento last month. Since then he has been making the rounds as a full time democratic activist for Viet Tan, the Vietnamese Reform Party, sharing the story of his jail time across the country.

Sanchez, D- Garden Grove, spoke out against the arrests last year along with Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton. Earlier Thursday Quan met with State Department officials and other members of Congress who helped him get out of jail.

"I am not a terrorist," Quan told Sanchez. "Why did they jail me for six months? And if I am a terrorist, why six months? It should be 60 years."

The Vietnamese government accused Quan of being a terrorist and of entering the country with false documents. But Quan said although he had false documents with him when he crossed the Cambodia-Vietnam border on a bicycle, he never used them.

Most jailed members of Viet Tan— once an underground operation that went public three years ago— were sent home before Quan. Only one activist, a Thai citizen, remains in jail.

Sanchez said that she will continue pushing for human rights reform in Vietnam although it has been difficult to convince other congressmen of the importance of this issue.

The Vietnamese prime minister is slated to visit Washington later this month. Sanchez said during his visit she plans to enlist the help of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, to focus on human rights issues in Vietnam.

"We'll make his visit uneasy just like he made yours uneasy,'' she told Quan as he patted his hand. "I wish I could put him in prison, but I don't have those powers.

Quan said he believes the Vietnamese government kept him in jail for so long as an example and to scare other democratic activists.

Despite what he endured, Quan kept his dream for democracy alive and even taught a fellow prisoner how to read in jail. Quan said he likes to teach and would one day like to be a high school teacher in a democratic Vietnam. The Vietnamese government has banned Quan from returning, but he said he would like to return if the country becomes a democracy.

Quan said there are three things that lodge in your brain and in your soul when you've been wrongfully jailed in Vietnam: first it is fear, then comes loneliness, and then the heaviness that time has lost all meaning.

To overcome all that, he focused on his deceased mother who always believed in his dream to bring democracy to Vietnam. His memories of family and friends helped him fight off the loneliness and fear, Quan said.

When he returned home, his wife told him about the support she had received from their neighbors. "I'm surprised my wife can do the things she did…. I love my wife, even more than before,'' Quan said. In December of last year, Quan's wife, Huang Ngo, visited with Sanchez to talk about her husband.

"This can happen to any U.S. citizen. They can make you disappear and then deny everything," Quan said. "I dared to pay the price to tell the people."

And for that, his two teenage sons look up to him, he said. And the oldest one, 15, plans to become a Viet Tan member.

"I tell the people and my sons that we are all ordinary people, but if you believe in something strong enough, you can do good things," he said.

Contact the writer: (202) 628-6381 or blevine@ocregister.com





http://www.ocregister.com/articles/quan ... se-sanchez

Sanchez said that she will continue pushing for human rights reform in Vietnam although it has been difficult to convince other congressmen of the importance of this issue.

Congressman Sanchez, how the same human rights for Ramos and Compeon? If you want to do some good for the country, you might consider supporting the border patrol.

This is Vietnam's problem, not ours, send him back.

Anyway, how could his story be verified? Remember, the first World Trade Center bombers got in on political asylum pleas.

Originally Posted by jonhaloi

This is Vietnam's problem, not ours, send him back.

Anyway, how could his story be verified? Remember, the first World Trade Center bombers got in on political asylum pleas.

Check your facts, he has been a LEGAL immigrant here since 1981. Either we stand behind our legal immigrants or we are no better that what the OBL's accuse us of being. I want enforcement of the laws, if I don't like the laws, I will work to change them. That being said, we must respect those legally here. That by no means means we need to agree with his politics any more than we need to agree with anybody else's.

The first world trade center bombers were let in the country LEGALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Dip***** at immigration let them in hearing their SOB story....THE US CAN NO LONGER TAKE IN EVERY OTHER COUNTRY'S PROBLEMS....(well, we created the Vietnam problem ourselves....that's another thing we need to stop doing)

What would the US be like if we let in every person with a SOB story?