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Magnitsky can not be enforced on Vietnam

3/6/17

 Magnitsky Act, a U.S. controversial bill which has drawn many criticisms for ruining relations between the U.S. and other countries. But it seems to have inspired anti-Vietnam elements and hostile forces in pressing Vietnam for human rights and democracy. What on earth is this bill? And, why does an American bill of law affect Vietnam in that way? Let find out in this article.
 First, the Magnitsky Act, formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and President Obama in November–December 2012, intending to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009.
 So, the bill was primitively not targeted at Vietnam, but is it an impartial one?
 Sergei Magnitsky was an auditor at a Moscow law firm when he was detained in 2008 on suspicion of aiding tax evasion and then found guilty of tax fraud by a Moscow court on 11 July 2013, as was his former boss, US-born investment fund manager Bill Browder. Unfortunately, he died in custody on 16 November 2009 at the age of 37. This sparked criticism from the U.S. and EU countries in alleging Russia of torturing and beating him to death. It is unclear that he was innocent or not, but his case became a symbol of the fight against corruption in Russia.
 In June 2012, the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs reported to the House a bill called the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 (H.R. 4405). The main intention of the law was to punish Russian officials who were thought to be responsible for the death of Sergei Magnitsky by prohibiting their entrance to the United States and their use of its banking system. The legislation was taken up by a Senate panel the next week, sponsored by Senator Ben Cardin, and cited in a broader review of the mounting tensions in the international relationship.
 It enables the US to withhold visas and freeze financial assets of Russian officials thought to have been involved with human rights violations.
But why are reactionary elements and hostile forces so eager for this legislation? Because they and many U.S. law-makers would want to expend the bill to global scale. According to them, the Global Magnitsky Act would allow the U.S. government to freeze assets of and ban visas for (non-U.S.) individuals worldwide who grossly violate human rights.
Under the expanded Magnitsky law, foreign individuals can be sanctioned if they engage in extrajudicial killings, torture or other human rights violations committed against people seeking to expose illegal government activity or defend human rights and freedoms. It also applies to government officials or senior associates of government officials engaged in significant corruption or people who provide material assistance to those involved in significant government corruption. Individuals found in violation of the law can have their U.S. visas revoked, can be prevented from entering the U.S.; face having their U.S. assets frozen and will be prevented from entering into transactions under U.S. jurisdiction.
While the Magnitsky law now applies to countries outside of Russia, and could become another tool that the U.S. could use to force other countries to respect human rights, many anti-Vietnamese government individuals at home and abroad have also cited it out as a tool to propagandize against the Party and State of Vietnam. Along big mouths are Nguyễn Đình Thắng - president of so-called the Boat people SOS (BPSOS), a man who has showed many times his nature of an opportunist in taking advantages of naïve people. Thang even called for a day for Vietnam movement in occasion of this bill.
 People should realize that this is not Vietnamese law, nor international law so it can not be enforced to others outside America. And this legislation tends to political aspect than a legal one to protect and promote human rights. The World Socialist Web Site condemned the United States for only invoking human rights as a cover for real political purposes. America itself should consider before issue any bill of law like that. Those laws could cause bad impacts to its relations to other countries and prove its hegemony and arrogance in imposing its values of human rights and democracy./.

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All comments [ 3 ]


Gentle Moon 3/6/17 22:37

In response to adoption of the Magnitsky Act, the Russian government denied Americans adoption of Russian children, issued a list of US officials prohibited from entering Russia, and posthumously convicted Magnitsky as guilty.

For A Peace World 4/6/17 17:32

Many countries have condemned the United States for only invoking human rights as a cover for realpolitik, stating that Washington had supported "far greater crimes.

John Smith 4/6/17 17:36

This is just an American bill, not Vietnam!

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