Contact: Sharon Singh, [email protected], 202-675-8579, @AIUSAmedia
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Frank Jannuzi, Amnesty International USA deputy executive director, issued the following statement in advance of President Truong Tan Sang of Vietnam and President Barack Obama’s meeting on Thursday. Frank attended a lunch in honor of President Sang, hosted by Secretary of State John Kerry this afternoon.
"Vietnamese President Sang today said he hopes Hanoi and Washington will deepen their economic and security ties. President Obama tomorrow should remind his guest that absent significant progress on human rights, President Sang's hopes may be dashed. There are no excuses for Vietnam's arrest of bloggers and its discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, and no excuse for President Obama not to raise these human rights violations directly with President Sang."
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists, and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth, and dignity are denied.