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Seattle PI – Protesters heckle Vietnamese prime minister

The first day of a historic U.S. visit by Vietnam’s prime minister had a rocky start yesterday, as hundreds of noisy protesters lined the street outside his Seattle hotel and others heckled him at an afternoon news conference.

Phan Van Khai, the first Vietnamese prime minister to visit the United States in the 30 years since the Vietnam War ended, yesterday kicked off his weeklong, multistate tour by urging Vietnamese emigres to help strengthen relations between the two nations.

I just think it’s so weird that he’s here. I mean, we’re the devil, right? And yet he crawls here on his knees to ask us for investment. So much for the communism his country fought for. Then, if maybe he thought time had passed and no one would remember, he’s confronted with the same people the communism his country fought for drove away. So it’s all just very strange.

Vietnamese Americans must recognize they “have the same roots,” Khai said through an interpreter. “The Vietnamese community living in the United States will be the bridge, building friendship between the two countries.”

Hah. Fat chance, pal.

An extensive security detail kept most of the protesters away from Khai, but two dissidents confronted him during a question-and-answer session for the news media.

Vietnamese radio talk-show host Binh Quoc Huynh demanded to know how Khai could try to build up a relationship with the United States “when you don’t support democracy.”

Huynh, who is also a minister, also questioned whether there was any religious freedom in Vietnam.

Khai defended the country’s “progress” and said “the state does not have any policy of discrimination against any religion in Vietnam.”

But midway through Khai’s answer, Huynh jumped to his feet.

“You’re a liar!” he said, pointing at Khai and edging away from the security guards who approached to remove him from the room. “You’re a liar.”

Good lord. Can you imagine if a Russian on that radio show Condi went on lept to his feet and called her a liar? We’d still be talking about it. This is buried two-thirds of the way down a long article on an event that didn’t make any of my usual news sites. And you can’t tell me it doesn’t matter cuz this guy’s just the head of a small third-world country, that Americans have no connection with or emotional investment in.

The woman, economist and human rights activist Chan Tran, held an impromptu news conference of her own after Khai was hustled from the room.

“His visit is to promote trade and fill his pockets,” she said, adding that she didn’t believe anything the prime minister had said about protecting human rights. “He lied through his teeth.”

Outside the hotel, protest organizers bellowed through bullhorns, leading the crowd in continuous chants of “Communists, go home!” or “Phan Van Khai, go home!”

Huzzah.

Some protesters had traveled from as far away as Canada and Southern California.

Dr. Hoang Co Dinh, co-founder of the TonleSap-CuuLong Committee, drove more than 14 hours straight from San Jose, Calif., with seven other members of the Vietnamese group to make it to Seattle in time.

“I’m here to protest and support my friends,” Dinh said. “We know there are almost a million boat people, and for everyone at least one or two died at sea. We have a lot of victims of this government, so it’s very emotional.”

Dinh’s own brother died in Vietnam at the hands of communist soldiers nearly 20 years ago, and others in the crowd had similar stories, he said.

But despite such strong feelings, the protest remained peaceful, and Seattle police said last night that there were no arrests.

And yet fat spoiled western white children protesting because they’re bored can’t keep themselves from burning and pillaging a few Starbucks.

“This is about Vietnam now. It’s about people being denied basic human rights,” she said. “It’s not about what happened 30 years ago. … Everywhere Phan Van Khai goes, there will be a protest welcoming him, until he takes care of these human rights issues.”

Curtsy: Michelle Malkin.