Vietnamese Americans Organize Hunger Strike to Protest Religious Persecution

December 16, 2003

Source: NCM

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=ec1ff42f6189fb8627f8fa29b48ba6a0

On December 16, 2003 NCM reported, "Braving the bitter cold and frost after the East Coast's first major snowstorm, two dozen Vietnamese Americans staged a hunger strike in front of the United Nations headquarters in New York last week to demand an end to religious persecution in Vietnam, reports Vietnamese-language weekly CaliToday in San Jose. Vietnamese Americans nationwide also organized protests locally to appeal to Washington and international governing bodies to put diplomatic and financial pressure on Vietnam to improve their record of human rights. The New York City demonstration drew some 200 people. Among those who went on the 24-hour hunger strike were Father Pham Van Chinh, a Catholic priest who was imprisoned in Vietnam for 12 years and only recently released, as well as four Buddhist monks from the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), which touts a large membership of overseas Vietnamese."