Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan visited Vietnam last month to talk to human rights campaigner Father Nguyen Van Ly.By Rebecca Fraser
A LOCAL MP made a secret visit to Vietnam to meet some of the country’s outlawed human rights activists.
Narre Warren North MP Luke Donnellan made the four-day trip last month, travelling on a tourist visa after being denied official entry as a foreign MP.
Mr Donnellan, a coordinator of the parliamentary human rights group MPs for Vietnam, said the experience had been invaluable.
During the trip he met with Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest who has spent 15 years in jail after publicly campaigning for religious freedom and human rights.
Fr Ly was most recently jailed in 2001, but was freed in February 2005 following pressure from Amnesty International.
Mr Donnellan said the priest still lived under house arrest in the city of Hue, and this further highlighted the lack of religious freedom in Vietnam, a Communist-run country.
Mr Donnellan said Catholic church services were taped and monitored, and churches had to seek permission from the government before offering humanitarian aid to the poor.
Mr Donnellan travelled with a translator and paid for the trip with his parliamentary allowance. He also met writer Do Nam Hai during his visit. Mr Hai has called for the need to hold a referendum and turn Vietnam into a one-party state. The underground union activist used to write under a pseudonym but was ousted by the Vietnamese government and since then has been harassed because of his non-conforming opinions.
“He has had his computer confiscated, been chased and lost his job. He used to be a highly paid banker but he was deliberately harassed at work and now has to work as a labourer,” Mr Donnellan said.
Mr Donnellan also met two workers who were living in a cramped room of square metres, with another two men.
“They cannot afford to get married or have children. They earn US$50 a month and $25 is for accommodation, and they eat, live and breathe off the rest. They cannot buy clothes or see a doctor. The cost of seeing doctor is exorbitant and if someone goes to hospital their family will carry the debt for the next 25 to 30 years,” he said.
“There is also very limited education.
“Only about 35 people for every 10,000 go to university.”
Upon his return, the Narre Warren North MP said he received a telephone call from the Vietnamese Embassy in Canberra questioning him about his visit.
Mr Donnellan said he doubted that he would be let back into the country for the next five years.
His visit was also discussed in the United States last week when Loretta Sanchez, representative California’s House of Representatives, was refused a visa to take an official delegation to Vietnam.
