Appendix D: Testimony by Dr. Vu from B14 Detention Center

Hanoi Bar Association

 Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Cu Huy Ha Vu Law Firm  

 Independence-Freedom-Happiness

24 Dien Bien Phu, Ba Dinh Dist., Hanoi

Tel.: (04)-37342679.  Fax: (04) 38435793

Email: havulaw@yahoo.com

CONTENT OF TESTIMONY

I, Cu Huy Ha Vu, Doctor of Law, request my defense attorneys and legal representatives to convey the following content to the website Bauxite Vietnam, the public media, the electronic news websites at home and abroad:

Thang Long – Hanoi, 18 January 2011,

Dear all compatriot Vietnamese,

I am Cu Huy Ha Vu, Doctor of Law, residing at 24 Dien Bien Phu – Hanoi, who was arrested by the Security Investigation Agency – Ministry of Public Security on 5 November 2010 (at present, I am being detained at B14 Detention Center – Ministry of Public Security) and indicted by the Hanoi People’s Procuracy under Indictment No. 18/CT-VKS-P2 dated December 17, 2010 with the charge of “propagandizing against the state of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” according to article 88, item 1, point c of the Penal Code, for the views I expressed in my essays and interviews. Such views could be summarized as follows:

• Firstly, for each and every Vietnamese, Vietnam is the only Fatherland. Socialism is not the Fatherland of Vietnamese! Indeed, while “Fatherland” means “the state founded by ancestors,” “Socialism” is a political theory, and cannot be a “state,” less so be founded by the Hung Kings. Using the terms “the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Fatherland” or “the Socialist Republic Fatherland” is a definitional fallacy which distorts the essence of Fatherland.
• It is based on this viewpoint of “Vietnam is the one and only Fatherland of every Vietnamese” that, on August 30, 2010, I sent a petition to the National Assembly to [recommend that it] select “Vietnam” as the country’s official name in order to implement national reconciliation, with the aim to unite all Vietnamese at home and abroad, regardless of political viewpoints, for the common cause of building and defending the Fatherland of Vietnam, [so that Vietnam] is on  par with the current age.
• Secondly, a multi-party system is the only way that Vietnam can become a country with true democracy, territorial integrity, prosperity, equality and civility.Indeed, democracy is tantamount to living in harmony with diverse viewpoints, thus democracy is identical with a multi-party system. With a democratic, multi-party system, the goals of “territorial integrity,” “prosperity,” “equality” and “civility” will be inevitably achieved. In another words, democracy and a multi-party system will lead to achievement of everything.
• Thirdly, a military coalition with the USA is urgent and crucial to upholding sovereignty over the national territory, in particular the securing of national territory and reclaiming of Vietnamese territories in the Eastern Sea that are occupied by foreign countries, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands. I determine to maintain the above viewpoints in all circumstances for the supreme interest of the Fatherland of Vietnam, of the Vietnamese nation and people as a whole.

On the occasion of the New Year of Tan Mao [the year of the Cat], as a patriotic Vietnamese, I cordially wish all of my compatriots a healthy, peaceful and prosperous new year!

I also ask all compatriots to convey my best wishes to the individuals and organizations who have supported me in the struggle for justice and democracy in Vietnam on the occasion of the New Year in the second decade of the third millennium.

The Fatherland of Vietnam or die!

Cu Huy Ha Vu