Loretta Sanchez Says Vietnam's Rulers Are Pimps
http://www.ocweekly.com/2010-05-06/news/moxley-confidential-loretta-sanchez-vietnam-communism
The OC congresswoman's tough stance on human trafficking should play
well in Little Saigon
By R. SCOTT MOXLEY
May 6 2010
In Orange County's Little Saigon, the communist officials running
Vietnam have been called countless derogatory names over the years.
Their hero, Ho Chi Minh, has been likened to Adolf Hitler, Joseph
Stalin and Satan. Now, Vietnam's officials have a new label: pimps.
This suggested description didn't come from a bitter ex-South
Vietnamese soldier while singing sad karaoke songs and downing
Heineken. Instead, a stone-cold-sober Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez
uttered it on the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Yet Sanchez
hadn't come to a community meeting room at Viet Bao newspaper to
whine about a long-ago lost conflict or post-war atrocities. She'd
arrived to talk about a current outrage: human trafficking. And she
wanted to blame the communists running Vietnam for what she sees as
their nefarious, behind-the-scenes participation in the international crime.
"I believe that the government of Vietnam is helping to enslave their
own people in other countries," Sanchez told a crowd of about 25.
"That includes in the sex-exploitation trade."
The seven-term Orange County congresswoman's critics privately
suggest her bold accusation is an election-year stunt to blunt
rabidly anti-communist Vietnamese American voters from supporting
state Assemblyman Van Tran. To pull an upset, Tran is hoping to rally
Little Saigon away from Sanchez and take advantage of mounting
anti-incumbent sentiment in the November elections. Other opponents
suggest Sanchez's attack is the petty result of Vietnam refusing to
grant her entry when she recently toured Southeast Asian nations.
Officials in Hanoi said at the time of the denial that she "lacks
objectivity and goodwill" for their nation's interests.
Sanchez趴ho represents Garden Grove, Westminster, Anaheim and Santa
Ana苓ismisses the cynics. She says she "feels passionately" about the
impacts of human trafficking and points out, with vocal support from
local vice cops, that she's not new to this issue. Indeed, she has
helped to direct increased federal funding to anti-trafficking
efforts. Had Vietnamese officials allowed her visit last month, she
planned to address three topics with them: draconian Internet
censorship, harassment of pro-democracy advocates and human trafficking.
"At least 80 percent of the victims of human trafficking worldwide
are women and children, and it is our responsibility to help them," she said.
Based largely on interviews with trafficking victims, Sanchez gave
the crowd the following "typical" story: A "big shot" in a rural
Vietnamese village recruits local women for, say, Taiwanese
businessmen, who promise to pay these workers lucrative salaries if
they move to Taiwan. But prior to the overseas trip, the broker and
the businessmen demand the workers obtain from local banks loans to
allegedly pay for expenses of about $7,000. Because the workers are
promised large incomes for a two-year period, their families agree to
put up their homes in Vietnam as collateral to the banks. When the
workers arrive in Taiwan, however, they are treated as slaves,
charged outrageous amounts for room and board, and find themselves in
perpetual, seven-days-per-week servitude.
"The women are never given the money for their work," said Sanchez.
"Some of the money goes back to the bank [in Vietnam]. Their visas
are taken. They can't make phone calls. They can't leave. Their debt
to their employers always grows. These women are forced to be slaves."
The congresswoman asserted that some of the women working in Taiwan
are forced into prostitution, though she didn't elaborate except to
say that she believes Vietnam's officials are not concerned about
this aspect of the problem, either.
Sanchez, who has genuinely made Little Saigon concerns her own since
she first won office in 1996, paused and scanned the room. Numerous
Vietnamese American women present, the ones who'd given her warm hugs
before she even spoke, nodded in agreement. The congresswoman then
said in an exasperated tone, "It's the state, the government of
Vietnam, that's doing this to their own women and children. The
government owns all the banks! This is a very vicious thing that is happening!"
Though attendees wore frowning faces, applause ensued.
Attempts to get a response to Sanchez's claims from officials at
Vietnam's Washington, D.C., embassy were not successful.
Last month, Sanchez趴ho is the ranking female on the powerful House
Armed Services Committee赳isited four Asian countries (Thailand,
Singapore, Cambodia and Taiwan) in seven days on an anti-terrorism
fact-finding mission, but she also used the time to study trafficking
issues. In Taiwan, she met with the Reverend Peter Nguyen Van Hung,
who recorded a video statement for this Little Saigon gathering. He
praised Sanchez for visiting.
"I was most impressed with the congresswoman's easy rapport with the
victims in my shelter," Hung said.
On the local front, the congresswoman called Orange County "a
destination point" for human-trafficking victims from around the
world苧ussia, Africa, Asia, Central America and Europe苑ecause of
OC's diversity and high incomes here. She also predicted increased
exploitation and encouraged residents to report suspicious activity
at (888) 373-7828, the line for the National Human Trafficking Resource Center.
"For every victim we find [in OC], there are probably hundreds more
we may never find working in sweatshops or being used in sex
exploitation," said Sanchez, who noted that even in a wealthy enclave
such as Irvine, authorities found a young Egyptian slave working for
a family. "Why should we care? Because it makes each one of us less
human when this happens."
She called for more citizen vigilance, saying, "Unless we get more
proactive in our communities, looking for signs of someone who is a
victim, most of these trafficking cases will never be caught. People
need to look and say to themselves, 'Geez, that woman doesn't seem to
have any freedom of movement at all. She seems locked up in her
house.' If that's so, call the hotline, and they will investigate."
The congresswoman's attention to the issue won admiration in the crowd.
"Loretta Sanchez has been a great advocate for us," said Tammy Tran,
president of the grassroots Vietnamese Alliance to Combat Human Trafficking.
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