A leading Vietnamese dissident freed by Hanoi was mobbed by supporters late on Tuesday as he arrived in the US vowing to fight for democracy and other detainees in his home country.
Nguyen Van Hai, one of Vietnam’s most prominent bloggers, was freed two years after being jailed for 12 years by a Vietnamese court on charges of “anti-state propaganda.” His case had been raised by US President Barack Obama.
“This is a result of the victory of democratic values,” he said as dozens of supporters crowded around him at Los Angeles International Airport.
“This is the most effective message that we can convey to other political prisoners who are still now in communist prisons ... that they are not alone,” he said in Vietnamese, translated by one of many activists there to greet him.
His release was announced earlier by the US Department of State, which welcomed Hanoi’s decision “to release this prisoner of conscience” and said it was Hai’s decision to travel to the US.
However, Hai — alias Dieu Cay — claimed otherwise.
“This trip is the decision of the US government,” he said. “The US government wants me to become a citizen of the US, but I don’t understand why the Vietnamese government wants to deport me.”
Speaking to Vietnamese-Americans who greeted him at the airport, he said: “I come here and I will fight for my return, not only for my return but for the return of all of us here. So we can all return.”
The news came weeks after Washington partially lifted a 40-year ban on arms sales to Hanoi, citing some “modest” progress in human rights as one of the reasons for reviewing a prohibition in place since the Vietnam War.
Hai, who went on hunger strike at least twice to protest his jailing, has been in detention since September 2008, after first being sentenced to two-and-a-half years for tax fraud.
Hai’s former wife, Duong Thi Tan, told Radio Free Asia that he was not given any choice about his release and deportation, but was taken straight from his jail cell to the airport and put on a plane to the US.
“Hai could not call us at home,” she said. “In fact, they did not let the family know anything about his release. There was no signal or notice. They deported him to exile, they did not release him just like what they said.”
Hai’s son, Nguyen Tri Dung, spoke briefly to his father when he was in transit in Hong Kong and said his father had little choice but to leave the country.
“If he stays in Vietnam, he has to stay in prison... If he could be free in Vietnam, he would have stayed,” Hai’s son told reporters.
Dozens of peaceful political activists have been jailed since Vietnam began a new crackdown on dissent in late 2009. Vietnam bans private media, and all newspapers and television channels are state-run, but earlier this month, the US partly lifted its ban on arms sales to its former foe to help boost defenses in the tense South China Sea area.
About 40 percent of the world’s seaborne trade passes through the sea, which is claimed in part by Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines.
At the time, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “Vietnam will need to make additional progress on human rights for the United States to consider a full lift of the ban on lethal defense articles in the future.”
State Department officials have presented a list of dissidents to Hanoi whose cases they are closely monitoring. They said that, in the past months, 11 dissidents had been freed.
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