Tổng Thống B. Obama

Ai cũng đều biết chính quyền Việt Nam đã quyết định tiến hành dự án xây dựng lò diện hạt nhân đầu tiên trên một vùng đất không an toàn tại tỉnh Ninh Thuận và chỉ cách xa khu vực định cư người Chăm 2 cây số, một dự án đã làm cho đồng bào Chăm trong nước cũng như ở hải ngoại lo lắng quan tâm đến sự sống còn của họ trong thế kỷ 21 này.

Mặc dù đã có nhiều cuộc tranh luận từ mọi giới kể cả các nhà khoa học Việt Nam đã không đồng thuận với dự án hạt nhân Ninh Thuận và cho rằng đây là một chương trình quá nguy hiểm, nhưng lại đặt trên một vùng đất không an toàn, vì nơi đây có dấu hiệu động đất, nếu có sự cố xảy ra sẽ để lại bao tan thương khốn khổ cho sức khoẻ của những người dân sống lân cận.

Toàn thể dân tộc Chăm hiện đang sinh sống tại Việt Nam cũng như ở hải ngoại đặt tin tưởng vào cơ quan chức năng của Liên Hiệp Quốc đặt trách vấn đề hạt nhân không nên cho phép chính quyền Việt Nam thực hiện dự án này, thay vào đó nên khuyến khích họ nên chọn một dự án điện lực khác an toàn hơn. Sự cố xảy ra tại Tohoku nhật bản là minh chứng xác định tai hoạ khi nạn tsunami động biển 9.0 xảy ra vào năm 2011 tại lò điện hạt nhân ở Fukushima Daiichi. Nhìn những thảm hoạ ấy gây ra, dân tộc Chăm cảm thấy lo sợ cho một dự án mà chính quyền Việt Nam vẫn hững hờ cho tiếp tục chương trình xây dựng.

Dân tộc Chăm hiện đang phải sống trong một hoàn cảnh bất ổn lo âu cho số phận hẩm hiu của mình đã một thời bị vua chúa Việt Nam tàn sát từ một con số có cả triệu dân nay chỉ còn 130.000 dân, và lo lắng cho số phận của mình mai đây sẽ đi về đâu.

Chúng tôi biết rằng trong dự án xây dựng lò hạt nhân này có sự nhúng tay của chính quyền Obama đã có gửi một phái bộ chuyên môn đến Hà Nội trong tháng 5 năm 2013 để thương thuyết trong việc mua bán trao đổi với chính quyền Việt Nam đặt mua chất phóng xạ hạt nhân của công ty Westinghouse. Vấn đế này giải thích cho rằng chính quyền Mỹ đã linh động hợp tác với chính quyền Việt Nam trong vấn đề mua bán để xây dựng lò điện này.

Vì chúng tôi là người Chăm thuộc quốc tịch Hoa Kỳ nên có bổn phận lên tiếng về sự quan tâm của mình để yêu cầu chính quyền Obama nên từ bỏ sự hợp tác trong vấn đề quá nguy hại này.

Musa Porome

Chủ tịch IOC-Champa

Phó Chủ Tịch Hội Đồng Bản Địa Việt Nam

Lò điện hạt nhân Ninh Thuận

Kiến nghị bằng tiếng Anh của tổ chức IOC-Champa

November 1rst, 2013

Honorable President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.

Washington DC. 20500

Dear Mr. President

We are the International Office Of Champa, a California-based group of diasporas Chăm people who maintain strong ties to the Chăm ethnic minority in Vietnam. Our organization in existence for over 25 years, is largely dedicated to the preservation of the history and culture of our people. As our organization sends frequent delegates to the United Nations in Geneva, where we address the Human Rights Council in its annual forum on minority issues, we have seen to what extent international representation can help draw attention to the situation of Chăm in Vietnam, who life without the same protections and rights enjoyed by the ethnic majority in Vietnam, the Kinh people. However, since we are also citizens and residents of The United States, we believe that we must appeal to your administration to alter its cooperation with the building of nuclear power plants by drawing attention to the possible risks of its first planned nuclear power plant.

We have learned that the Obama administration sent a U.S. nuclear-expert delegation to Hanoi in May 2013 to persuade Vietnam to buy Westinghouse nuclear reactors, indicating that you are actively cooperating with Vietnam in its development of nuclear power. We would like to raise the concern that the first nuclear power plants planned by Vietnam are within close proximity to the highest concentration of Chăm people still left in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government plans to built these nuclear power plants on seismically unstable land, a decision that leaves the Chăm community particularly vulnerable. The Chăm in Vietnam and their families abroad have grown concerned about the survival of the Chăm in Vietnam. We would like to ask you to reconsider your support for the building of nuclear power in Vietnam, especially those within mere kilometers of currently occupied Chăm villages.

We would like to briefly introduce the Chăm to you so that you know what's at stake with this risky decision, since the Chăm are currently vulnerable not only to downwinding (nuclear contaminant poisoning) but also to possible nuclear reactor failure. The Chăm are an indigenous people in Vietnam whose earliest recorded history in the region dates to 142 A.D. Our indianized Kingdom of Champa was an important component of the political and cultural history of Southeast Asia and a major trading region on the sea route between China and India. We built the longest continuously occupied temple complex in the Southeast Asia, My Son, one of the foremost Hindu temple complexes in the region, now famous as an architectural and sculptural monument in central Vietnam. We also had the earliest written script of Southeast Asia from 400 A.D. Today hundreds of Chăm temples still stand throughout Vietnam, where in 1999 UNESCO recognized My Son as a World Heritage Site. Since 1999, tens of thousand of tourists have visited My Son temple complex, the Chăm Museum in Da Namg, Po Nagar's temple in Nha Trang, and the many other attractions that deepen visitors' understanding of the multiethnic history of Vietnam. This Champa Kingdom was an autonomous polity occupying a large portion of present-day Vietnam for over 1,000 years until our defeat by the Vietnamese, a process that lasted between 1471 and 1832. Today approximately 130,000 Chăm people remain in Vietnam, predominantly in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces (central Vietnam).

We would like to raise the concern that although the Chăm are recognized by scholars for our role in Southeast Asian history and culture, and recognized by UNESCO for having built temples that contribute to World Heritage, we are simultaneously under the threat of eradication, after five hundred year of settler colonialism by Vietnamese has already dramatically impacted our population. We've gone from having millions of people, to 130,000 people. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese government touts our importance to the heritage of Vietnam, in its substantial ethnic tourism to our temples and festivals, while choosing to build its very first nuclear reactor in Ninh Thuan province, within two kilometers of the closest Cham village of Phươc Lập. As with many communities around the world, we are well aware of the danger of downwinding (nuclear contaminant poisoning) and possible nuclear failure. Although Vietnam has no previous experience with nuclear power, and posses an underdeveloped nuclear regulatory commission, it claims to be handling this matter responsibly, while choosing to build its first nuclear power plant on seismically unstable land, within 2 kilometers of the nearest Chăm village. For a point of comparison, we look to Bac Tra My district, Quang Nam province, where the Song Tranh 2 hydroelectric power plant was built on seismically unstable land, and where repeated earthquakes continuous to threaten the safety of those near the plant/dam.

Yet there is an increased potential threat when a nuclear power plant has an accident, in comparison to hydroelectric. We remember Chernobyl, of course, but our eyes and ears have also been focused on the effects of the March 2011 catastrophe in Tohoku, Japan, when a 9.0 earthquake triggered a tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. since that fateful day, the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) have continuously lied to the international community about the situation being "under control." Ironically, the Japanese government has been advising the Vietnamese on developing the nuclear power program in Vietnam, even while there are ongoing questions of safety and containment at Fukushima Daiichi, especially since the radiation is 18 times higher than first thought. Watching these events unfold, we do not feel secure that Japanese government can advise Vietnam on its nuclear power program. At the very least, it adds some element of disingenuousness to the Vietnamese government telling those whose villages and towns are close to the first planned Vietnamese nuclear plant that the situation is also "under control." We also see that Japan has the most rapidly expanding alternative energy market in the world, as they are furiously investing in other forms of power, and we believe that Japan should advise Vietnam on the development of alternative power rather than nuclear power, which has indeed proved disastrous. Countries around the world are also improving their alternative energy programs after divesting from nuclear power, with an eye on Japan and continued nuclear fallout into the Pacific Ocean.

We know that there is a substantial debate in Vietnam about nuclear power development, with many scientists opposed. We are additionally concerned that the Vietnamese government is risking the Chăm and Vietnamese people in Ninh Thuan Province by building a poorly planned and executed power plant, and we are know that your administration's cooperation with the plan. We know that your administration might not have been aware of the possible risks to a distinct people, so we are drawing your attention to this matter. As for building of power plant in Ninh Thuan province, the earthquake risk is a concern, and yet the proximity to the largest remaining population of the Chăm compounds the risk of anything going wrong, including the customary and usual nuclear fallout which has horrendous impact on the health and well-being of any populating living in close vicinity to a nuclear power plant. We believe that the government should not encourage our people's probable decline in health and lifespan, or even our extinction as a people, in order to make our "ancient" and "unique" architecture and relics all the more valuable for ethnic tourism and archaeological mystique. We believe that the international community should know that the Chăm are facing this predicament at the same time that the international tourists continue to arrive to My Son World Heritage Site, the Chăm Museum in Da Nang, and Po Nagar's temple in Nha Trang to pay apparent respect to the Chăm presence within the history and culture of Vietnam. We do not want to become ghosts.

In sum, we and our Chăm families still in Vietnam are quite worried about the chance for the Chăm health and survival, if these nuclear power plant are built as planned, so we encourage you to bring this serious matter into your negotiations with the Vietnamese government. We would prefer that you actively discourage the government from building a nuclear plant within a close vicinity to the largest remaining Chăm population in Vietnam. Ideally, you would also encourage the Vietnamese government to divest in nuclear power and invest in alternative energy production. However, at the very last, encouraging the Vietnamese government not to put the Chăm people at risk could be very important first step in promoting the survival of our people in Vietnam. We implore you to consider what it means for a distinct and unique people to be under risk for not only nuclear contamination but also complete extermination, and we hope that you will be moved to include these matters as discussion points during your next nuclear delegation to Hanoi.

Thank you for your reflection and attention to this matter. We look forward to hearing a response.

Respectfully your

Musa Porome

President of International office of Champa (IOC-Champa)

Vice President of Council of The Indigenous people of Today's Vietnam (CIP-TVN)