Local City Hopes To Sever Ties With Vietnam

May 14 - KGO (KGO) -- Strong words from the vice mayor of San Jose, home to one of this country's largest Vietnamese communities. Dave Cortese said the U.S. should sever ties with any country, including Vietnam that does not respect basic human rights.

In response to reports of human rights violations being carried out by the socialist republic of Vietnam, San Jose's vice mayor Dave Cortese has asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to suspend trade relations with Vietnam.

Dave Cortese, Vice Mayor of San Jose: "Until they stop violating peoples right to free speech, free association, freedom of religion, we need to send a message, that we're not going to embark a trade with them."

Cortese says normally the city avoids getting involved with international issues, but feels it's necessary since more than 10 percent of San Jose's population is Vietnamese-American.

Statistics from the U.S. Vietnam trade office show, in 2005, Vietnamese merchandise exports to the us was worth $6.5 billion dollars, while the us exported $1.1 billion in goods to Vietnam.

cortese will also ask the city's rules committee to support house resolution 2-43, which calls on the vietnamese government to immediately and unconditionally release prisoners who advocate religious freedom and democracy.

One prisoner of the Vietnamese government for 10 years during the war, says human suffering, and a lack of democracy remains in his homeland.

Tony Trang Do, Association of Former Vietnamese Political Prisoners: "After 30 years in this country we are expecting conditions to change, and through these actions for the last couple of weeks with Father Ly it hasn't. Conditions remain the same."

Many who live and work in the heart of the Vietnamese community of San Jose say they don't want to go on camera because they still fear communism. Many are afraid their shops will be boycotted, or more importantly they may never be allowed to re-enter their homeland.

The-vu Nguyen, San Jose Resident: "If you are identified as anti-communist or someone who is aggressive, your picture, your name appears on the black list that you cannot enter into the country."

Many in the Vietnamese community hope the U.S. government will listen, and favor human rights over economic gains.

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