Thư của một thành viên Cộng đồng Người Việt gởi đến bà Hiệu Trưởng trường trung học Chester Hill bày tỏ sự quan tâm về quyết định treo cờ đỏ trong ngày Lễ Đa Văn Hóa

From: Quynh Dao
Sent: Wednesday, June 5, 2019 3:54 PM
To: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.'
Subject: To Ms Dabaja re Chester Hill High's decision to fly the flag of communist Vietnam

To:        Ms. Z. Dabaja
             Principal
             Chester Hill High School
             This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Re: Concern about Chester Hill High's decision to fly the flag of communist Vietnam on Multiculturalism Day 28 June 2019

Dear Ms Dabaja

My name is Quynh Dao. I am a Melbourne author and a member of Amnesty International Australia.

Amnesty International is an international human rights organisation that has continuously voiced its concern about severe violations of human rights in Vietnam.

As you might have known, a brutal communist dictatorship has ruled North Vietnam since 1954, and the whole of Vietnam - North and South - has been under its control since 1975 following the communist victory over the South.

For many decades until now, the Vietnamese people have been deprived of basic human rights, including freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, freedom of religion, freedom of education.

The Vietnamese Communist Party propaganda is part of school curriculum in Vietnam.

Vietnam holds over 100 prisoners of conscience - people who are subject to lengthy jail terms for peacefully exercising their human rights, such as expressing their opinion on social and political issues that differs from the ruling Party's point-of-view.

May I refer you to Amnesty International's 2019 report on the abysmal human rights situation in Vietnam: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa41/0303/2019/en/

A short extraction from this report:

Over the past year, the Vietnamese authorities have intensified their crackdown on the exercise of the human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, association, thought, conscience, and religion. Amnesty International has identified 128 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam, of which 111 are male and 17 are female. This total, based on information compiled in 2018 and the first quarter of 2019, represents an increase in the number of prisoners documented in previous years, even though around ten prisoners named on previous prisoner lists have been released, either because they completed their sentences or were forced into exile.

The Vietnamese authorities portray individuals who are peacefully exercising their human rights as criminals; however, it is the government that flagrantly contravenes international human rights law and its own constitution. Many people have been arbitrarily detained, prosecuted in unfair trials on national security and other vaguely-worded charges, and handed lengthy prison sentences. Individuals have been routinely held incommunicado and in solitary confinement. Many were transferred to prisons distant from their families as a punitive measure and were tortured and otherwise ill-treated in prison. For prolonged periods, human rights defenders and activists have been denied access to legal counsel and their family members have not been informed of their whereabouts, heightening the risk of torture and other ill-treatment. According to credible reports, prisons in Viet Nam are unsanitary and prisoners are denied adequate access to medical care, clean water, and fresh air.

Among prisoners of conscience are teachers such as music teacher Mr Nguyen Nang Tinh https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/vietnam-teacher-arrested-for-facebook-posts-undermining-state/story-tin4lYNoCNV9AqaM93xVRM.html;  and university students such as law student Tran Hoang Phuc https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/tran-hoang-phuc

I am deeply concerned about Chester Hill High's decision to fly the flag of communist Vietnam on Multiculturalism Day 28 June 2019.

Multiculturalism Day, as I understand it, is about celebrating the diversity of ideas, beliefs or people from many different countries and cultural backgrounds.

Unfortunately, this beautiful notion has been completely suppressed in communist Vietnam, and it is those who advocate for difference and diversity in ideas and beliefs who are languishing in Vietnamese prisons today.

To fly the flag of a country notorious around the world for is brutal treatment of those who dare think or say differently is clearly contrary to what Multiculturalism Day is all about, and may give a wrong idea about what values Chester Hill High endorses.

I sincerely hope you and the school board will reconsider this decision.

Sincerely yours,
Quynh Dao

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http://www.lyhuong.net/au/index.php/shcd/301-301