CORRESPONDENCE - 85A COMBINED REPORTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN VIETNAM 2012

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-3— November 18, 2012 and carry on with the lives without any problem. The number of those people is too insignificant to represent even a minority element in the Vietnamese American community. You mention the case of Viet Khang who is imprisoned for composing a song to express his love for his country against foreign invasion or objection to the Vietnamese government in arbitrarily arresting people for expressing such love is a case in point where you justify such punishment as due to differences in legal traditions or human rights views between the two countries. As Vietnam is a signatory the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights 1976, there is no and there should not be any difference on the most fundamental and basic rights to free expressions in plain language. Countries may have differences on higher level of protection afforded to the people, but they cannot differ on the bare minimum of such rights. Any deviation downward from such basic and minimum rights required under the Covenant is a blatant violation of such international treaty. The proposed ordinance is simply an expression of the will of the residents in the City of Santa Ana and it's the function of the elected officials in this city to listen to the people and reflect on such view even if it is inconsistent with the view of the national government. It's the beauty of the democracy in America that we the people in the U.S. can stand up to express our view against our own government without being punished for doing so. This is something that the Vietnamese government should learn in governing its own people. This proposed ordinance is a shining example for such a lesson to the Vietnamese government. On behalf of the residents in the City of Santa Ana, I'll urge the city leaders in the strongest terms to adopt the proposed ordinance. To assist you and the Santa Ana city leaders to understand more about the current human rights condition in Vietnam, I'm attaching a copy of the following reports: 1. The 2011 Human Rights Report issued by the U.S. State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor on May 24, 2012; 2. Report on Human Rights in Vietnam 2011 issued by the Vietnam Human Rights Network; 3. County Summary in Vietnam issued by Human Rights Watch in January 2012; 4. Freedom in the World Report on Vietnam in 2011 issued by Freedom House; and 5. Annual Report 2011 on Vietnam issued by Amnesty International Sincerely, Zan Lan Quoc Nguyen, Esq. Trustee, GGUS Board of Education Cc: Miguel Publido, Mayor Claudia Alvarez, Mayor Pro Temp Michele Martinez, Carlos Bustamente, David Benavides, Sal Tinajero, and Vincent Sarmiento, Councilmembers