Today, the World Movement for Democracy / National Endowment for Democracy issued the following alert: According to BosNewsLife, within the last week, police officers arrested human rights lawyer Le Quoc Quan at his house in Nghe An province, Vietnam. He is still in police custody, but his whereabouts are unknown. Quan had just returned from Washington, DC, where as a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), he researched the theories and practices of civil society. (14-MAR-07)
Based on WMD / NED´s own alert, this article has been prepared for publication here by HRHF / Niels Jacob Harbitz.
NED serves as the Secretariat of the World Movement for Democracy. Some have suggested that Quan is being detained for his involvement in human rights issues. For years, he has spoken out against religious and human rights violations. His writings have appeared on the BBC and in various Vietnamese newspapers and Web sites.
The Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience Empowerment (VOICE) has written a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on behalf of Quan. In the letter, Hoi Trinh, President of VOICE, urges Secretary Rice to raise the case of Le Quoc Quan at her upcoming meeting with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem and insist on Quan’s immediate and unconditional release.
Go to:
www.bosnewslife.com/news/2840-vietnam-releases-christian-activist-but-human
, he researched the theories and practices of civil society. (14-MAR-07)
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