VIETNAMESE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE FREE WORLD

6338 Victoria Avenue Suite 6, Montréal, Québec, CANADA H3W2S5

Website : www.hqtysvntd.org

 

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DECLARATION ON THE TRAGIC TRAFFICKING OF VIETNAMESE WOMEN AND CHILDREN

 

Considering that :

A countless number of social scourges have been existing for several years in Vietnam, leading to the decay of the national mores that were once a source of pride for all Vietnamese people. The most recent shameful event is the human trafficking of Vietnamese women and children which shook the whole world, yet Vietnam's communist authorities remain complicitly silent.

On January 23, 2004, NBC Television Network broadcast a report in the United States on the trafficking of Vietnamese children in Cambodia brothels. Among these poor children, some are as young as five years old. According to Mrs. Mu Sochua, Minister of Women's and Veteran's Affairs, paedophilia is now a growing problem in Cambodia, and there are about 30,000 children who are exploited in this inhumane trade. According to the register book shown on NBC (and another source), most victims are Vietnamese children.

On March 2, 2004, eBay's Taiwanese site listed three items for auction : three young Vietnamese women. The site included their photos and shipping details. These talking goods were auctioned for a starting bid of 180,500 Taiwanese NT dollars (US $5,400). This is yet another typical example of the trampling of Vietnamese women's dignity that has been going on for many years in the indifference shown by communist authorities. So called Taiwanese "marriage agencies" have been flourishing in the last 10 years essentially trading women. Young women from Vietnam, due to abject poverty, have to sacrifice their happiness, virtue and dignity for their family's survival. In Taiwan, most of them are sold as sex or labour slaves and are often subject to multiple transactions. According to the magazine Tuoi Tre in Vietnam, at the end of 2003, there have been more than 65,000 Vietnamese women arriving in Taiwan to begin their hellish existence.

This tragic issue is a national shame for all Vietnamese people. The Vietnamese communist government's tolerant if not complicit attitude toward these criminal activities on their own soil has shown once again the truly inhumane nature of their regime. The responsibilities of any government are to protect its people and their rights, and to look after their welfare such as providing for their most basic needs : food/ clothing and education. Nearly thirty years on after the war, Vietnam should have developed into another Japan. Instead, the Vietnamese communist government has plotted itself along the path against humanity's progressive trends, leading the country to be one of the poorest in all aspects, be it income per capita or human rights oppression.

Thus we, the undersigned, solemnly declare that :

1. Since the physician's role is to preserve man's wholistic well being (physical, spiritual and environmental health) hopefully in a free and democratic society, we strongly condemn the communist government of Vietnam for their non-action when their own citizens are being sold like inanimate objects.

2. We demand that the communist authorities in Vietnam take effective measures to halt this human trade immediately and resume proper government's responsibilities toward their citizens such as stamping out social ills and improving the people standards of living.

3. We urgently call on our compatriots in Vietnam and abroad to unite together in the fight for Dignity and Human Rights in Vietnam.

4. We ask that the governments of Taiwan and Cambodia concentrate their efforts to stop this human trade and rescue those captive women and children still suffering mal-treatment in their respective countries.

5. We call on the United Nations, international human rights organizations, all the freedom-loving nations to intervene, applying sanction as appropriate in order to pressure the Vietnamese communist government putting in real efforts in freeing women and children from the said shameful trafficking.

The 30rd of March, 2004

Prof. Dinh Xuan Anh Tuan, M.D.

President, Board of Representatives

Vietnamese Medical Association of the Free World

 

Tran Dinh Thuy, M.D.

President, Executive Committee

Vietnamese Medical Association of the Free World

 

Tran Duy Ton, M.D.

President, Executive Committee

Vietnamese Medical Association of the USA

 

Tran Dinh Thang, M.D.

President, Executive Committee

Vietnamese Medical Association of Canada

 

Ta Thanh Minh, M.D.

President

Association of Health Professionals from Free Vietnam in France

 

Tran Thanh Nhon, M.D.

President

Australian Vietnamese Health Professionals Association of Australia