Vietnamese dissidents have pleaded for international help for prisoners of conscience jailed inside their country and warned that warming US ties with Hanoi may send the wrong message to the ruling communists.
Prominent blogger Nguyen Van Hai, who was released from prison in late October and sent into exile in America, told US lawmakers that "his fellow prisoners entrusted me to relay their cries for help."
They wanted the international community to "understand that the persecution of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam is systemic, to lay bare the deceit of Vietnam authorities when they commit to revise Vietnamese laws in order to participate in trade agreements but do not implement such laws."
Hai -- alias Dieu Cay -- whose case was raised by US President Barack Obama, was freed two years after being jailed for 12 years by a court in southern Vietnam on charges of "anti-state propaganda."
News of his release came only 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.
But Hai warned his case was "testament to the suppression of human rights in Vietnam" and added in Vietnam "people don't have a platform to raise their voice."
"People do not dare speak their views, simply because any disagreement with the ruling party can get you arrested under vague laws."
Speaking through a translator, Hai submitted to a panel of the House foreign affairs committee a list of prisoners of conscience in need of "emergency assistance" and called on Washington to push for their release.
Yesterday's hearing came at a critical juncture in ties between the former foes, with Obama soon to welcome Vietnamese communist party head Nguyen Phu Trong to the White House, another activist, Nguyen Dinh Thang, said.
