APRIL/MAY 2001
VIETNAMESE FREEDOM FIGHTER HELPS OPEN FSU CENTER
Doan Viet Hoat, an FSU alumnus who stayed in Vietnamese prisons 20 years because of his fight for human rights, is helping celebrate the opening of FSU's Cen-ter for the Advance-ment of Human Rights.
Hoat agreed to make the keynote speech in March at the opening of the center, which is across from the FSU law school on Jefferson Street.
Hoat, exiled for protesting the South Vietnamese government's suppression of Buddhists, re-turned to Vietnam after earning a Ph.D. in education and college administration at FSU in 1971. While vice president of Van Hanh University, Hoat was imprisoned in 1976 for speaking out against Vietnam's communist government. After 12 years of communist re-education and release from prison, Hoat stayed in Vietnam to publish the pro-democracy dissident journal "Freedom Forum."
Hoat and eight others were charged with trying to overthrow the government and sentenced to prison terms ranging from eight months to 20 years.
Undaunted, Hoat began smuggling his writings out of prison, and the journal was published sporadically.
In 1998, Hoat was finally released.
He left Vietnam to join his wife and three sons in the United States. He is currently scholar-in-residence at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
"Doan is a truly remarkable man," center Director
Terry Coonan said. "His insistence on democracy landed him
in jail. His suffering has given witness to the value of human
rights work in the world."
It is Hoat's type of personal commitment to human rights advocacy
that Coonan hopes to bring to FSU's center. "The center
has a dual mandate," Coonan said. "We want students
who are interested to be able to do human-rights work while they
are here at FSU and in their careers."
The second mandate, he said, is education and scholarship.
"Before you can do it, you need to be grounded in what human
rights work is, how it evolved."
Coonan is internationally known for his work with the Families of the Disappeared in Pinochet's Chile and as a leader in immigration and refugee law.
Nine of FSU's colleges and schools will participate in creating a core curriculum in the human rights field.
"They will develop shared values and shared languages and shared priorities about human rights," Coonan said. - Mark A. Riordan
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