No one should be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nWe believe that the prolonged sequestering, sometimes called \u201cpagoda arrest,\u201d of the Buddhist monk, Thich Quang Do, violates these universally-recognized principles. The leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam is an 87 year-old man and is recognized as a \u201cprisoner of conscience\u201d by Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights, PEN International, and the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights. He has suffered exile, imprisonment, and detention almost uninterruptedly since 1982.<\/p>\n
In your meetings with Vietnam\u2019s President Tran Dai Quang, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, and the General Secretary of the Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong, with whom you met last summer, we urge you to call for the immediate release of Thich Quang Do. We ask you, as our President, to reinforce to your Vietnamese interlocutors that the United States is committed to human freedom and dignity. Please tell them that we share Thich Quang Do\u2019s belief, expressed to US Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski in August 2015 and cited by the International Buddhist Information Bureau, that human rights are essential and that society must rest on mutual respect and the rule of law.<\/p>\n
We hope that you will use your upcoming trip to the region to convey the profound concern of the United States for Thich Quang Do and our support for the principles for which he has suffered so long and unjustly. Thank you for your efforts to promote human rights in Vietnam and throughout South East Asia.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Senator Elizabeth Warren
\nSenator Edward J. Markey
\nCongresswoman Katherine Clark
\nCongressman Michael E. Capuano
\nCongressman James P. McGovern
\nCongressman Richard E. Neal
\nCongressman Seth Moulton
\nCongressman Joseph P. Kennedy III<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS, 20 May 2016 (VCHR) \u2013 Eight prominent members of the US Congress have written a letter to US President Barack Obama calling on him to press for the release of Buddhist dissident Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 in his upcoming visit to Vietnam. President Obama is scheduled to arrive in Vietnam on 22st May and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113,98,64],"tags":[719,718,722,725,720,721,723,724],"class_list":["post-2670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-edward-j-markey","tag-elizabeth-warren","tag-james-p-mcgovern","tag-joseph-p-kennedy-iii","tag-katherine-clark","tag-michael-e-capuano","tag-richard-e-neal","tag-seth-moulton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a>PARIS, 20 May 2016 (VCHR) \u2013 Eight prominent members of the US Congress have written a letter to US President Barack Obama<\/span><\/a> calling on him to press for the release of Buddhist dissident Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 in his upcoming visit to Vietnam. President Obama is scheduled to arrive in Vietnam on 22st May and will visit Hanoi and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). Human rights and religious freedom are reportedly on the agenda of his discussions with Vietnam\u2019s communist leaders.<\/p>\n