Obama chides Vietnam for poor human rights record

HANOI — President Obama pressed Vietnam's communist government Tuesday to improve its human rights record, saying greater freedom for citizens holds the key to economic prosperity the country seeks.

“Upholding these rights is not a threat to stability but actually reinforces stability and is the foundation of progress," Obama said in a speech at Hanoi's National Convention Center, attended by government officials and students from five universities.

“Vietnam will do it differently than the United States does. ... But there are these basic principles that I think we all have to try to work on and improve,” he said.  “That’s how a Facebook starts. That’s how some of our greatest companies began.”

Earlier Tuesday, Obama met with six activists, including a pastor and advocates for the disabled and sexual minorities, who were prevented from attending his speech.

“I should note that there were several other activists who were invited who were prevented from coming for various reasons,” Obama said. “Although there has been some modest progress ... there are still folks who find it very difficult to assemble and organize peacefully around issues that they care deeply about.”

“Vietnam has made remarkable strides in many ways,” Obama said, but “there are still areas of significant concern.”

Agence France-Presse reported that activist lawyer Ha Huy Son had been placed under surveillance, preventing him from attending Obama's meeting with activists. Banker turned dissident Nguyen Quang A told Reuters that 10 policeman came to his house early that morning and drove him away as Obama was about to leave Hanoi.

“Vietnam has demonstrated itself that it doesn’t deserve the closer ties the U.S. is offering,” said John Sifton of Human Rights Watch. “Detaining or preventing civil society from meeting President Obama is not just an insult to the president, it’s also a human rights abuse in itself."

Obama's reprimand on human rights came a day after he lifted the remaining portions of a five-decades-old arms sale embargo against the former U.S. enemy, a move that prompted international groups to renew criticism of the government's poor treatment of political critics.

"In one fell swoop, President Obama has jettisoned what remained of U.S. leverage to improve human rights in Vietnam — and basically gotten nothing for it," said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division.

“Even as it faces the glare of global attention with (Obama's) visit, the Vietnamese authorities, shamefully, are carrying out their repressive business as usual,” said Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty International’s director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Obama ends U.S. arms embargo on Vietnam during visit to former enemy

Obama, who ends his three-day visit to Vietnam on Wednesday, also used the speech to push for closer ties between Hanoi and Washington 41 years after the end of the Vietnam War.

"It has taken many years and required great effort," Obama said. "But now we can say something that was once unimaginable: Today, Vietnam and the United States are partners." He noted that the peace and normalization process was led by Vietnam war veterans on both sides, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, and Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in the audience.

In defense of his lifting of the arms embargo, Obama criticized China for building military bases in parts of the resource-rich South China Sea that Vietnam and other countries in the region say encroach on their territory. Obama received a round of applause after he said “big nations should not bully smaller ones.”

Obama said that while the United States is not a claimant in the disputes, it "will stand with partners in upholding core principles, like freedom of navigation and overflight, and lawful commerce that is not impeded, and the peaceful resolution of disputes, through legal means, in accordance with international law."

U.S. warships have sailed in the contested waters to challenge China's territorial claims.

The China Daily newspaper, a mouthpiece for China's ruling Communist Party, warned Obama on Tuesday not to turn the region "into a tinderbox of conflicts."

After his visit in the capital here, Obama traveled  to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam during the war, where he visited an ancient pagoda and planned to meet with young entrepreneurs in the bustling city.

In addition to lifting the arms embargo, the U.S. and Vietnam announced several agreements on Monday, including the sale of 18 patrol boats to Vietnam's Coast Guard and deals on energy efficiency and climate change collaboration.