{"id":746,"date":"2007-02-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queme.org\/en\/vietnam-denies-rafto-foundation-chairman-permission-to-visit-vietnam\/"},"modified":"2016-09-09T13:48:36","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T13:48:36","slug":"vietnam-denies-rafto-foundation-chairman-permission-to-visit-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/vietnam-denies-rafto-foundation-chairman-permission-to-visit-vietnam\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam denies Rafto Foundation Chairman permission to visit Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Arne
\nMr. Arne Liljedahl Lynng\u00e5rd<\/b>, Chairman of the Rafto Foundation<\/b> in Bergen, Norway, has informed the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights<\/b> that the Vietnamese authorities have refused his request for a visa to visit Vietnam. On February 7, 2007, he received a letter from the Vietnamese Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, informing him that a long-planned visit to Saigon to meet Vietnam\u2019s leading dissident, Venerable Thich Quang Do, is not possible. The letter accused the Rafto Foundation of harming good relationships between Norway and Vietnam.<\/p>\n

In November 2006, the Venerable Thich Quang Do<\/b>, Deputy leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, was awarded the Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize<\/b> for human rights defenders. Four former Rafto laureates, Aung San Suu Kyi, Kim Dae Dung, Jose Ramos Horta and Shirin Ebadi went on to win the Nobel Peace prize. Since 1998, the Venerable Quang Do has been under \u201cpagoda arrest\u201d, confined to his monastery in Saigon.<\/p>\n

Mr. Arne Lynng\u00e5rd was planning to travel to Vietnam in the beginning of March 2007 to visit Vietnam\u2019s leading dissident in his pagoda and to hand over the Rafto award to him. However, the Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Denmark informed Mr. Lynng\u00e5rd that he is not welcome in the country.<\/p>\n

In a telephone conversation with the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights today, Mr. Lynng\u00e5rd said he was \u201cvery sad\u201d<\/i> that Vietnam had made this decision, which \u201cwill harm Vietnam more than it will harm me\u201d<\/i>. Thich Quang was not a \u201cviolator of Vietnamese laws\u201d, as the Vietnamese Embassy charged, but \u201ca man of peace\u201d<\/i>, respected by the international community. \u201cAny country should be proud to have a person such as Thich Quang Do\u201d<\/i>, he said. In a Press release issued today, the Rafto Foundation opposed the Vietnamese government\u2019s decision and accusations for the following reasons\u00a0:<\/p>\n

\u201c1. There is an ongoing human rights dialogue between the governments of Norway and Vietnam. The Rafto Foundation made an official request to visit Vietnam in a spirit of dialogue, not only to hand the Rafto award to Venerable Thich Quang Do, but to meet officials and learn about Vietnam\u2019s democratic reforms aimed to build a state that is governed by law and committed to democracy, promised last year by prime minister of Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung. <\/p>\n

\u201c- How can Vietnam expect the international community to learn about the progress happening inside the country if such visits from international persons are denied? The Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Denmark says the Rafto Foundation\u2019s attitude is \u201ccontrary to the reality in Vietnam\u201d – so why don\u2019t they let me see this reality for myself, says Mr. Arne Liljedahl Lynng\u00e5rd.<\/p>\n

\u201c2. Thich Quang Do is not a violator of Vietnamese laws, as claimed in the official letter, but an internationally recognized personality, respected worldwide for his non-violent efforts to promote peace, democracy and human rights in Vietnam. In 1995 Venerable Quang Do was sentenced to 5 years re-education camp at an unfair trial in Saigon on charges of \u201cabusing democratic freedoms to harm the interests of the State\u201d<\/i> for sending a critical essay to the Communist Party leadership and organizing a Relief Mission for flood victims in 1994. The Rafto Foundation was therefore totally justified in awarding the Prize to such a person, and was by no way harming good relationships between Norway and Vietnam.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn September 29, 2006, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re commented from New York Rafto\u2019s decision to give Thich Quang Do the Award\u00a0: \u201cThis prestigious prize has previously been awarded to active human rights campaigners such as Rebiya Kadeer, Aung San Suu Kyi and Shirin Ebadi. I am delighted at the committee\u2019s decision to award this year\u2019s prize to Thich Quang Do.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201c3. Venerable Thich Quang Do has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize many times. Nobel Peace prize laureates such as the Dalai Lama, Jos\u00e9 Ramos-Horta, Mairead Corrigan Maguire have repeatedly called for Thich Quang Do\u2019s release, as well as the United Nations, and many Resolutions in this sense have been adopted by the European Parliament, the US Congress and national parliaments worldwide. <\/p>\n

\u201c- According to Hanoi, Thich Quang Do is currently \u201ctotally free\u201d, he is therefore officially subject to no restrictions under Vietnamese law, and should be entitled to receive visits, Mr. Lynng\u00e5rd ends.<\/p>\n

The Rafto Foundation is now calling upon the Norwegian Government to take a position on this affair and to raise the issue in the ongoing human rights dialogue between the governments of Norway and Vietnam\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr. Arne Lynng\u00e5rd informed the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights that the Norwegian government had today confirmed their intent to issue an official protest on the Vietnamese government\u2019s refusal to grant a visa to the Rafto Foundation\u2019s Chairman to visit Vietnam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr. Arne Liljedahl Lynng\u00e5rd, Chairman of the Rafto Foundation in Bergen, Norway, has informed the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights that the Vietnamese authorities have refused his request for a visa to visit Vietnam. On February 7, 2007, he received a letter from the Vietnamese Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, informing him that a long-planned …<\/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":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-vchr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746","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=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}