Free Vietnamese in France : Declaration by Movements and Organizations of Free Vietnamese in France in support of the Appeal by Most Venerable Thich Quang Do (29.3.2009)

The following declaration was unanimously adopted by participants at the Conference organized by the Liaison Office of Free Vietnamese in France on 11 April 2009 in the 13th Ward, Paris:

1) We strongly support the appeal by the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do for a month of civil disobedience during which people inside Vietnam will stage sit-in demonstrations in their homes, and overseas Vietnamese will organize support activities to protest China’s aims to invade Vietnam by military, cultural and economic means, with the connivance of their lackeys, the Communist Party of Vietnam;

2) We are firmly determined to struggle to defend our territorial integrity and retrieve our sovereignty over lands encroached upon by the Communists. We are ready to join all other initiatives by Vietnamese at home and abroad to protect our national sovereignty and win freedom and democracy for Vietnam;

a. We call upon the Hanoi authorities:

b. To urgently submit Vietnam’s claims on the continental shelf to the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) before the deadline of 13 May 2009;

c. To make public the full contents, including detailed maps, of the Land and Sea Border Treaties signed with China in 1999 2000;

d. convene an urgent conference of scientists, economists, specialists in the environment, mining, geology, as well as military advisers and representatives of the people, from all opinions and religions, including overseas Vietnamese, and reach a consensus of opinion to halt bauxite mining in the Central Highlands;

3) We call upon call on Vietnamese abroad not to visit Vietnam during the month of May 2009 and not to send money to Vietnam (with exceptions for humanitarian or urgent situations). This boycott is our signal to the Hanoi authorities that they should urgently embark on a process of transition from authoritarianism to democracy in Vietnam.