Following an initiative from the Transnational Radical Party, the Foreign Commission of the Chamber of Deputies will organize a hearing on religious freedom - in particular on China and Vietnam - beginning at 2pm tomorrow and will hear to representatives of Protestant Montagnards, Vietnamese Buddhists, Falun Gongs and Muslim Uiguri that live in China. This hearing will be attended by Erping Zhang - worldwide spokesperson for the Falun Gongs -, Kok Ksor - President of the Montagnard Foundation -, Enver Can - President of the National Congress of East Turkestan - and Dr. Quan Nguyen - President of the Committee supporting the non-violent movement for freedom and democracy in Vietnam founded by Dr. Que Nguyen.

Beginning with the indisputable political value of this meeting, Italy and Europe must decide to immediately take the initiative in condemning all the economic agreements that are continuously breached by many regimes and which lead to no concrete improvement in respect for human rights.
The alternative to this is merely remaining inactive and thereby becoming an active accomplice to such regimes.

Meanwhile, the USA Commission on religious freedom (www.uscirf.gov) included Vietnam in the list of "concerned countries" for the first time and recommended the State Department to adopt suitable sanctions to induce the Hanoi regime to interrupt the flagrancy of such violations.

This decision by the USA Commission on the one hand acknowledges the numerous breaches to fundamental human rights - in particular religious freedom - that the Vietnamese regime systematically carries out in contrast to the international treaties it has signed and, on the other, highlights the inadequacy of procedures used by Governments, the European Commission and the European Parliament to monitor compliance with the «democratic clauses» in cooperation agreements with dictatorial and authoritarian regimes.

With regards to this matter, it must be noted that until now European institutions and Governments have merely “bowed their heads” before the arrogance of the Communists in Hanoi despite the extensive amount of reliable information regarding breaches to fundamental rights in Vietnam and the incredible refusal from the Vietnamese Authorities to a request from a delegation of the European Parliament to meet a number of religious leaders deprived of their personal freedom.