![\"AFP](\"..\/images\/AFP.gif\")
<\/a> Agence France Presse<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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GENEVA, Apr 5, 2005 (AFP) – Leading Vietnamese dissident Thich Quang Do said in a message smuggled out of Vietnam Tuesday that the government could not hold back the peaceful struggle for democracy in the country.<\/p>\n
A transcript of the \u00absecret\u00bb message from the Buddhist leader detained in Ho Chi Minh City was released by a Vietnamese human rights group on the sidelines of the UN human rights commission in Geneva.<\/p>\n
Do, deputy leader of the banned Unified Buddhist church, called for three \u00abfirst steps\u00bb towards democracy in Vietnam, including the recognition of his church and all religions, the right to run an independent newspaper and the release of all political and religious prisoners.<\/p>\n
\u00abIn Vietnam today we are not free. We are prisoners in our own country, in our pagodas, in our homes,\u00bb Do said, according to the transcript.<\/p>\n
\u00abBuddhists and Vietnamese people from all walks of life are calling out urgently for freedom, democracy and human rights,\u00bb the message said.<\/p>\n
\u00abThe authorities try to stifle our voice by repression, imprisonment and violence. But they cannot stifle the people\u2019s will.\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00abWe shall continue our peaceful struggle. We will not stop until we realise our aspirations for democracy in Vietnam,\u00bb Do added.<\/p>\n
Urging international support, Do said he was under house arrest at Thanh Minh Zen monastery in Ho Chi Minh City and his telephone was cut.<\/p>\n
\u00abI am sending you this message to ask your help to bring our voices to the world… We are not afraid but we know we cannot win this battle alone,\u00bb he said.<\/p>\n
Representatives of the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights told AFP the original video message was seized by Vietnamese secret police, but a sound recording had slipped out of the country.<\/p>\n
The Unified Buddhist Church has been banned since 1981 for refusing to submit to communist party supervision.<\/p>\n
Do and Thich Huyen Quang, the 86-year-old church patriarch, were accused of possessing state secrets in October 2003.<\/p>\n
Vietnam has come in for repeated international criticism for its suppression of religious freedoms and harassment of political dissidents.<\/p>\n
A Buddhist monk was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on March 30 after he visited Do, the Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau said last week.<\/p>\n
Do charged that \u00abstate corruption, power abuse\u00bb, social injustice and forced labour were widespread in Vietnam, while the gap between rich and poor was growing and social problems were rife.<\/p>\n
The Vietnamese government\u2019s focus on opening of economic markets – \u00abdoi moi\u00bb -\u00bbhas failed disastrously and produced an explosive political and social mixture,\u00bb Do said.<\/p>\n
The Buddhist leader claimed that the \u00abtrue concern\u00bb of Vietnam\u2019s leaders was to maintain the privileges of \u00abtwo million Party members over the majority of 80 million people\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00abThe communist leaders are afraid of democracy because they fear it will make them lose power,\u00bb he added, accusing Hanoi of \u00abdestroying our nation and our cultural identity\u00bb.<\/p>\n
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Agence France Presse GENEVA, Apr 5, 2005 (AFP) – Leading Vietnamese dissident Thich Quang Do said in a message smuggled out of Vietnam Tuesday that the government could not hold back the peaceful struggle for democracy in the country. A transcript of the \u00absecret\u00bb message from the Buddhist leader detained in Ho Chi …<\/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":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-press-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414","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=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}