Ranking Member Eni Faleomavaega of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on
Asia and the Pacific on June 27 expressed disappointment with the
mark-up by the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee of
H.R. 1897, the Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2013.
Faleomavaega’s press release showed his disappointment with both the
way the bill was adopted and its motivation. The measure was packaged
together with three other measures so that no separate vote was taken.
Instead, all four measures were passed together by unanimous consent
with no recorded vote count.
He noted that the act
does not show the tradition of the US and reflects the human rights
situation in Vietnam in an accurate manner.
“Regrettably, the information put forward by the Vietnam Human Rights
Act of 2013 does not paint a true or accurate picture of Vietnam,”
Faleomavaega said.
“ Vietnam leaders are
fully committed to advancing US-Vietnam relations and promoting human
rights. Vietnam is party to almost all core international human
rights treaties. Vietnam is engaged in human rights dialogue with the
European Union, Australia, Norway, Switzerland, and the US.
And Vietnam is improving its human rights records by strengthening
its legal system, economic, social and cultural rights. The Vietnam I
know welcomes international assistance for the implementation of human
rights policies,” he said.
According to the US
parliamentarian, the measure continues to be heavily influenced by the
Vietnamese-American community.
“As a Vietnam
Veteran, I empathise with those from the Vietnamese-American community
who are still hurting. But toppling governments and putting out
information that is not accurate is not the right way forward. The
United States has a long and proud history of moving beyond war and
re-building and strengthening relations with those with who we once
fought and, in the case of Vietnam, it is time to put the past in
the past and for healing to begin,” he said in his release.
Faleomavaega also spoke highly of Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s H.R. 2519,
a bill to provide assistance for those affected by exposure to Agent
Orange .
“I am an original cosponsor of this
bill because I believe the US must be responsible for cleaning up the
mess we left behind when we sprayed more than 11 million gallons of
Agent Orange in Vietnam, exposing innocent civilians, including men,
women and children, to dioxin – a toxic contaminant known to be one of
the deadliest chemicals made by man. Any Member of Congress truly
committed to human rights will agree that this is a human rights issue
that must be addressed,” he said.
The
Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2013 urges the US Administration to not
provide non-humanitarian assistance to Vietnam based on one-way
reports on Vietnam’s human rights situation and calls for renaming
Vietnam in the list of “country of particular concern” (CPC).
This is not the first time some US parliamentarians have attempted
to create a bill on Vietnam’s human rights. Some years ago, similar
bills were only adopted by the House of Representatives and refused by
the Senate.-VNA