By Diane S.W. Lee and Nick Castele
11/12/2011
APEC protesters call for human rights in Vietnam
Scores of pro-democracy Vietnamese protesters joined the hundreds of anti-APEC activists at Stadium Park and marched to Waikiki Saturday.
The crowd of more than 60 came together to oppose human rights violations and Chinese aggression in Vietnam, said organizer Trinity Pham, a 23-year-old from San Diego, Calif. Pham said the Viet Tan pro-democracy group put the rally together. APEC was an opportunity for national — and global — exposure.
"We want the international community to pressure Vietnam to put human rights on its agenda," she said.
Vietnamese protesters trickled in to the park just before 2 p.m. A few men showed up at first, hauling cases of bottled water and yellow flags marked by three horizontal red stripes — the flag of the old South Vietnamese government. Forty minutes later, about 60 more people had arrived.
They lined up at the edge of the park facing King Street, holding U.S. and their South Vietnamese flags. The group began by playing the U.S. and Vietnamese national anthems from portable amplifiers. A handful of people gave speeches in Vietnamese.
"We do not accept a dictatorial regime in our homeland," Pham told the crowd. She demanded "the immediate and unconditional release of all activists and bloggers" imprisoned in Vietnam.
Officers on bicycles — and more in aloha shirts — arrived, until the total climbed to more than 10. Three officers stood on the other side of King Street, filming the rally.
The speeches and music continued for about an hour, cut short when protesters from World Can't Wait, Moana Nui and Occupy Honolulu started the march toward the Hale Koa Hotel. The Vietnamese protesters took up the rear of the larger group, chanting and playing a Vietnamese song calling for a stand against communism.
One protester, Cu Ngoc Duong, said he flew in from Maui in the morning and would fly back at the end of the day.
"We are here in protest of the Vietnamese communist government, who betrayed the Vietnamese people," protester Duong said on the walk to Waikiki. Born in Vietnam, the 55-year-old came to Hawaii 10 years ago. "We condemn the practice of gangster government in Vietnam and China."
The group collected at the corner of Ena Road and Ala Moana Boulevard. They jostled against other protesters, media and passers-by trying to weave through the crowd.
A man wearing a blue Moana Nui T-shirt approached Pham. It was Victor Menotti, executive director of the International Forum on Globalization. He asked her to address the whole group over World Can't Wait's megaphone.
"You can tell them why you're here," he told her. "We should try to have one march, you know?"
Pham led the crowd in a quick chant. "Freedom for Vietnam, human rights for Vietnam, democracy for Vietnam."
Even from a few feet away, she could barely be heard over the sound of drums beating down the street.
When the rest of the group started to move again back up Ala Moana, the Vietnamese contingent had had enough. They packed up and headed home.
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