Hundreds of Vietnamese emigres protested against Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's upcoming visit to the United States, saying the communist government needs to improve its human rights record.
Khai, who is to meet with President George W. Bush on Tuesday, will be the first Vietnamese prime minister to set foot in the country since the end of the Vietnam War 30 years ago.
The protesters on Saturday marched and carried US and former South Vietnamese flags in Orange County's Little Saigon area, home to the nation's largest Vietnamese community.
"We would like to send a message to the Vietnamese government. We are still here and we will fight for freedom and for human rights in Vietnam," said Lac Tan Nguyen, vice president of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, which organized the rally.
Nguyen, 59, said he was born in North Vietnam and fled with his family to the south when he was 9 years old. Nguyen, who has not been back to his homeland since coming to the United States more than two decades ago, vowed that he would not return until it becomes a democracy.
Tri Duc Ta, 32, said he still has relatives in Vietnam, but has not seen them since he fled the country at age 19.
"I don't want to go home," Ta said. "I will only go back under one condition -- that there is freedom in Vietnam."
Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese have settled in the US since communists gained control of the country. More than 1 million now live in the US, including an estimated 130,000 in Orange County.
Phu Nguyen, a 27-year-old graduate student who left Vietnam when he was 4 years old, said he feels repressed every time he travels back to Vietnam. Nguyen said he always makes certain the American music he brings into Vietnam would not be mistaken as anti-government.
"When people from overseas go to Vietnam, they can't speak out against the government," he said. "There's a lot of social injustice."
In the Pacific Northwest, the first stop for Khai, as many as 1,000 people might attend rallies in downtown Seattle during his stay, said Sai Nguyen of the Vietnamese American Coalition in Northwest America in Seattle.
The US-based Human Rights Watch urged Washington to question Vietnam's civil rights record. The group said it has documented cases of abuses by the communist government, including the arrests of dissidents for promoting democracy or using the Internet to advocate for human rights.
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