US embassy cable - 05HANOI1376

UNCLAS  HANOI 001376 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/BCLTV AND PRM/A 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF, VM 
SUBJECT:  VIETNAM IN-COUNTRY PRIORITY ONE REFERRAL COMMITTEE 
 
 
- SUMMARY OF PENDING REFERRALS 
 
REF:  A) HCMC 0293; B) HCMC 0086 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  The Vietnam in-country Priority One 
referral committee met on May 17 and May 20 to review 13 
pending referrals for possible resettlement in the United 
States.  Eight were submitted by the U.S. NGO Boat People 
S.O.S. (BPSOS) and forwarded to Post by PRM.  Hoi Trinh, an 
Australian lawyer associated with the Philippine Vietnamese 
long-stayer resettlement effort, submitted two cases by e- 
mail.  Three are "self-nominated" cases that approached the 
Consulate General for consideration.  The referral committee 
believes that one case merits referral to PRM for 
authorization to process as a Priority One case (septel). 
Five cases may merit eventual referral, but because the 
information may be dated, ConGen staff is investigating to 
see if persecution has occurred in the past 36 months.  The 
remaining seven cases were found not to rise to the 
threshold of persecution needed to establish a Priority One 
claim.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) Case to be referred to PRM for authorization to 
process: 
 
Nguyen Trung Tuan Quoc: 
 
Hoi Trinh initially nominated this case on April 11, 2005, 
providing only the name and a statement that he was "in 
hiding."  Embassy Hanoi Political Section provided more 
specific information.  Mr. Quoc was a young activist who 
distributed leaflets, then fled to Cambodia and was 
initially granted "person of concern" status by UNHCR in 
Phnom Penh.  UNHCR was considering his case when he was 
reportedly arrested and deported back to Vietnam. 
Australian activists later reported him held in prison. 
UNHCR Hanoi acknowledged that the Phnom Penh office had 
talked with him and that he later disappeared.  UNHCR Hanoi 
followed up and informed Embassy that he may have been 
arrested for other illegal activities.  However, GVN 
informed Embassy on February 18, 2005 that he was not in 
prison.  Post will send a nomination for Nguyen Trung Tuan 
Quoc by septel. 
 
3. (SBU) Cases to be investigated further for evidence of 
recent persecution: 
 
A.  Trinh Van Men, Quan Bich Nga: 
 
These are two pending referrals submitted to PRM by Boat 
People SOS (BPSOS) in 2004 for a husband/wife pair.  The 
information contained in the BPSOS referral was unclear and 
apparently out of date.  Allegations of denial of family 
registration, denial of employment and denial of schooling 
for a 23-year-old child seem based on information well over 
three years old.  ConGenOff met with this couple on June 3 
to obtain updated information, but ConGen HCMC still needs 
to conduct additional follow up and verification.  Following 
this, the referral committee will update its case 
information and make a decision on referral. 
 
B.  Le Van Hai: 
 
This is the first of three BPSOS referrals ConGen received 
in December 2004.  The information appears to be based on 
events that occurred more than three years ago.  Although 
BPSOS indicates that Mr. Hai served five years in a re- 
education camp from 1975-1980 and was imprisoned from 1985- 
2000 for "attempting to overthrow the government," there is 
no indication of persecution in the past three years.  We 
believe that this case may be most appropriate for the 
Humanitarian Resettlement process when it opens for new 
applications in September 2005, since it appears that Mr. 
Hai was unable to apply for the HO program prior to 
September 30, 1994, through no fault of his own.  However, 
we will continue to investigate for evidence of more recent 
or ongoing persecution. 
 
C.  Ho Van Trong: 
 
A Hoa Hao Buddhist follower from An Giang Province who 
submitted a "petition for resettlement" to ConGen HCMC on 
March 26, 2005, Mr. Trong claims he was arrested in 2000, 
beaten and then imprisoned for four years for trying to 
exercise his faith.  He alleges that the police still 
question him, that arsonists burned his house