New York, 17 May 2002 – At the outset of the
afternoon session of the Committee on non-governmental
organizations, the Permanent Representative of the Socialist
Republic of Viet Nam to the United Nations formally lodged a
complaint before the Committee requesting a special report on the
Transnational Radical Party. The delegations of China, Cuba, the
Sudan, Algeria, the Russian Federation, and Pakistan expressed
their support for the Vietnamese request. The TRP special report is
due at the Committee resumed session in January 2003.
The document will have to address both the
accreditation of Mr. Kok Ksor, President of the Montagnard
Foundation Inc. and leader of the indigenous hill tribe that live
in Vietnam’s central highlands, to the 58th session of
the UN Commission on Human Rights and TRP activities within the UN
system.
Viet Nam considers Mr. Ksor a dangerous terrorist
colluded with the CIA and with groups that are “opposed to the
promotion of harmonious inter-ethnic relations and to the cause of
social, economic and cultural development of the ethnic Vietnamese
people.” The TRP will also appear before the Committee on NGOs next
week for a consideration of some questions posed by the delegation
of the Russian Federation on its quadrennial report concerning its
1995-99 UN-related activities.
Statement by Marco Perduca member of the Committee
of Presidents of the Transnational radical Party and TRP UN
Representative:
“Vietnam’s attack on the Transnational Radical Party
is not only an attack against a group that is known for acting
according to UN rules and regulations, but it is also a serious
attack against freedom of speech at the United Nations and
nonviolence. In fact, to denounce the violation of basic human
rights in non-democratic countries, the TRP has oftentimes carried
out nonviolent actions the world over. In the year 2001 alone, TRP
members, starting from its former Secretary Olivier Dupuis, MEP,
have been arrested in Viet Nam and Laos to draw the attention of
the international community to patent and systematic violations of
the individuals rights listed in the Universal Declaration as well
as in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in
those countries.
This initiative is another step - and we hope that
western democracies at the UN will soon realize it - of a common
strategy of authoritarian regimes to join forces to exclude from
the UN the voice of oppressed peoples.
Vietnam complaint follows a Russian request to expel
the TRP from the UN in 2000. The request was eventually rejected by
the plenary of the Economic and Social Council of the UN on 18
October 2000.
The TRP will not be intimidated by this renewed
attack against who, and the assassination of Antonio Russo should
serve as THE example, incarnates the struggle to globalize freedom
and democracy. The TRP will continue to participate in UN meetings
where civil liberties are discussed. In fact, a Radical delegation
attend the July session of the Human Rights Committee in Geneva,
were Viet Nam is up for review.
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