JoJo's Statement

DECLARATION OF DUNG ANH “JO JO” TRAN
  1. My name is Dung Anh Tran. I am known by the nickname Jo Jo Tran. I live at (address omitted for safety concerns). I was born in Vietnam on April 12, 1957. I am 47 years old.
  2. I came to the United States on March 19, 1996. I initially applied for asylum on September 30, 1997. I applied for asylum because of the persecution I experienced in Vietnam on account of my association with American military veterans, specifically ex-Navy SEALS and intelligence officers who were active during the Vietnam War. I also fear that, as a practicing Catholic, I will be targeted by the government because of my beliefs.
  3. My family was active in the military and government of South Vietnam and assisted American troops before the fall of the government to the Communist forces in 1975. My brother Kiem Dinh Tran served in the 1st Division Army Forces of the Republic of South Vietnam. He lost both of his legs to the war. My sister Chau Ngoc Tran served at the headquarters of the Navy of South Vietnam in Saigon, and my brother Bao Dinh Tran served in the Air Force of the Republic of South Vietnam.
  4. My other brother An Dinh Tran served as a Lieutenant in the Navy on the Mekong Delta. He worked with the American military supplying and maintaining American warships. After the Communists took power at the end of the war, he was forced into a re-education camp as punishment for being a South Vietnamese military officer who helped the Americans. An was educated as an engineer before the war, but was put to work at hard labor in the fields in the re-education camp. They made him work 18 hours a day and he as not allowed contact with our family for over three years. He was sent over 250 kilometers from our home in Saigon. He became extremely ill and almost died on several occasions. To this day he has serious mental and physical health problems as a result of this torture because of his association with American forces. The police continue to monitor his movement and he is required to report his whereabouts on a regular basis.
  5. My father and mother worked in Western industries and closely associated themselves with Americans their entire lives. Our family is and was well known for our Western associations. My father was a Senior Banker and Commissionair with the Banque Fracaise d’Asie, a major Western bank in Vietnam, until his death in 1977. My mother worked at the Tan-Son-Nhat Airbase in the 1970s, a major base for U.S. warplanes flying missions during the war. She was in charge of providing services to American pilots, officers and engineers who were preparing for their missions.
  6. My mother has been a practicing Roman Catholic her entire life, and taught us the word of God from a small age. I consider myself Catholic, and am deeply spiritual. I work with ROOTS, a religious organization that promotes the word of God through homeless teenagers in the University District in Seattle. When I was growing up, before the Communists took power in Vietnam, we were allowed to practice our religion freely. My mother still lives in Saigon in Vietnam. She actively practices her faith, but does so within her own home because she fears leaving the house and the government targeting her as Catholic. My uncle, Khai Pham, is also a practicing Catholic, and he lives outside of Saigon. When my uncle organizes prayer groups in his house, he has to ask permission of the government first, or he risks arrest and detention. Government agents go to church to watch priests give homily to make sure it is not anti-government or political in nature, and to see who attends church. Since the Communists took control of the government in Vietnam, the Catholic church has been tightly controlled by the government, and people who practice the Catholic faith are often targeted because of their religion.
  7. My parents emphasized the importance of an education at an early age, and I started to speak English in school when I was nine years old. After graduating from Saigon University in 1993, I started to look for a job, but it was difficult to find work because the Communist government controlled nearly all employment. My family was blacklisted because of our association with the government of South Vietnam during the war. Through word of mouth, I heard that there was a job opening with a company named Samifina Indochina, a privately owned British company that catered to mainly European and American tourists. I interviewed with the owner of the company, Oliver Wheatcroft, and got the job because of my knowledge of the country and English language skills.
  8. I knew that it was risky to closely associate myself with Americans and other Westerners at work, but I desperately needed the money. At the time, I was completely financially supporting my mother, with whom I lived, and assisting my uncle, was not able to work. Well-paid jobs were difficult to find. The job market was extremely competitive at the time—many people interviewed for my position, but I was the only one hired. I enjoyed the work because I like to meet people from other cultures and show them my country.
  9. The first year, I was assigned short tour groups, usually for one or two weeks at a time. Most of the tour groups were from America or Europe. The tour members paid a high fee to Samifana for the tours, and they were tailored to the interests of the group in advance. Oliver would provide me with an itinerary before the group arrived that would include activities for each date along with suggestions on where to eat. Samifana provided vans with drivers for transportation and arranged for all hotels. After one year, I build a good reputation, and travel agencies from the United States started to request me by name. Most of my tour groups were happy following the pre-set itineraries, but sometimes they asked to go off itinerary. Samifana’s reputation was built around tailoring tours around the needs of our guests, so I accommodated guests whenever I could. I never thought that assisting guests with last-minute meetings and plans would repeatedly attract the interest of government intelligence agents, but it did. I increasingly found myself in precarious positions or arrested because of my association with American tourists who were perceived to be intelligence agents or threats to the Vietnamese state.
  10. Sometimes, I had only close calls with the authorities, and was not arrested. I was the tour guide fro a group of American women who served during the Vietnam War. We visited Hue, the capital of central Vietnam. They wanted to meet a Vietnamese military veteran, and my brother, Kiem, who fought for the South Vietnamese military, lived nearby. Kiem lost both of his legs in the war. I arranged for a meeting between Kiem and my tour group at the bar across the street from our hotel. In the middle of the meeting, while Kiem was telling his story, the owner told us to leave immediately because intelligence agents were coming. The women in the group were shaken up, but still wanted to hear Kiem’s story, so we arranged for him to come to the hotel another night. When he came, he was turned back at the hotel gate. He told me later that there were intelligence agents surrounding the hotel another night. The government did not want a group of American veterans talking to a Vietnamese veteran about his experiences after the war under Communism.
  11. On another occasion, I was assigned a group of professional Americans on a two-week tour through Vietnam. One of the leaders of the tour, Richard, asked for a last-minute change in the itinerary. He asked that we wait until sunset to go to the Vietnamese Minister of Health’s house, which is 200 kilometers outside of Saigon. This area is normally prohibited for foreigners and Vietnamese citizens to visit, so I called my office and spoke to the owner, Oliver Wheatcroft, to get his opinion about what I should do. Oliver assured me that the group had received special permission to visit the area. I was still nervous about going, but since Oliver assured me that we had special permission, we proceeded and experienced no difficulties during the trip to and from the Health Minister’s house.
  12. (How did you go 200 kilometers there and back and to the CIA head’s house in one night?) Richard told me after that, the group wanted to go to another location, near the old American Embassy in Saigon, and showed me a map. He gave very specific instructions about where we should park at the location, how we should approach the building, and how we should get out of the car. Once we were in the vans, some other people in the group told me that the head of the CIA in Vietnam lived in the building we were going to visit. When we arrived, the group invited me into the building, but I was scared and waited in the van. I knew that I was going to be questioned and likely arrested by the government for helping foreigners visit CIA agents in Vietnam. I did not want to go inside and hear anything I would have to tell agents when they questioned me. The group was inside the building for one or two hours, and when they came out, we returned to the hotel.
  13. The next morning at the hotel, the receptionist gave me the message that I was required to report to the Intelligence Agency immediately. Although I knew that I would be arrested because I assisted the Americans, I also knew that if I did not give myself up, they would find me and arrest me, and that could be worse. I was worried that they might come after my family if I did not give myself up right away. I went that morning and was immediately arrested. The agents asked me how many people were in the group, where we went, and why we went to the area where the Health Minister lived. They yelled at me and told me I that we were prohibited from going to that area. I told them that I was told we had permission to travel there, but they would not listen. They asked me other details about the people in the group, where they were from, what kind of work they did. I tried to answer their questions, but I was terrified. It was the first time I had ever been detained.
  14. I was detained at the Intelligence Agency headquarters until the tour group left Vietnam. I think it was about tow days, but I cannot remember exactly. I was not allowed to call anyone and my family did not know where I was. I was isolated from other prisoners. I was not allowed to shower. The agents came in and questioned me constantly, asking me the same questions repeatedly, as if they were trying to get a different answer from me.
  15. Another time, I was assigned a tour group of about 50 American or Canadian students and 2 or 3 professors. We were all staying at a hotel in Saigon. One night, the students and professors lit candles and surrounded the hotel and started a candlelight vigil protest, chanting things like “Down with Communism.” I was in the hotel sleeping and did not participate in the protest. I did not know that they planned on doing it. In the morning, the receptionist told me what had happened, and that the police were outside the hotel looking for me because I was the leader of the tour group. I went outside to answer their questions, and the officers arrested me. They forced me to go to the Intelligence Agency headquarters to answer questions about the group.
  16. When I arrived at the Intelligence Agency headquarters, the officers put me into a cell and told me to wait for agents to come in. I waited for one or two hours. When the agents came in, they asked me what the activities of the group had been during the tour, and why they had started the protest. I told them about the tour, and said that I did not know anything about the protest and was not present at the protest. They questioned me for almost the entire day about what I knew about the group, and then let me go.
  17. I was detained again after I arranged an early morning meeting for one of my tour groups of American economic officials. They wanted to meet with an American official at the Saigon Floating Hotel. That was not on the original itinerary. They said it was important, and in accordance with Samifana’s policy of catering to guests, I arranged for the meeting. When I arrived with the group back at the hotel after the meeting, the receptionist told me that the Intelligence Agency had ordered me to be present at headquarters for interrogation. I immediately presented myself, knowing if I did not, they would hunt me down, and perhaps look for me at home and harm my family. When I arrived at the Intelligence Agency, I was detained. The agents asked me about the activities of the Americans, my interactions with them, who the U.S. official was that they met with, and other details about the group and the meeting.
  18. It was becoming clear to me that my job was placing me in grave danger and that I was being monitored closely by the authorities. I knew that my tour groups were of interest to the government because they were mainly Americans and Europeans. I often took my tour groups to the Q Bar in Saigon in the evenings. One night, the owners, Anh and Dave, told me that I should watch out, that the government was targeting me because of my association with all of the foreigners, and especially the American tourists. I though about leaving my job, but after I got married in 1994 and we had a son in 1995, I had even more people financially depending on me, and I desperately needed the money.
  19. My life changed forever and I was put in grave danger when I picked up my assigned tour group on January 30, 1996. That day, I met a group of 20 Americans at the Saigon airport for a two-week tour through Vietnam. I did not know at the time what their association with each other was, but I later found out that most of them had served as Navy SEALS together during the Vietnam War. I was also told by some members of the group that some of them were CIA agents during the war. At the time I picked them up from the airport, however, I only knew from my company and their introductions that they were American tourists.
  20. The first activity on our itinerary was a boat trip along the Mekong Delta. Our two van drivers took us directly from the Saigon airport to the boat dock. The tour director had arranged for the group to go on a boat ride up the river. Not all or the islands were approved for tourists and Vietnamese citizens to stop on. The government prohibits access to some because they were sites of battlefields during the war, or for other reasons. Our company had prearranged a boat tour that stopped at one of the approved islands
  21. One of the tourists, Jim Watson, wanted to go to a prohibited island, My Tho, instead of the approved island that we had planned on visiting. I told him that it was not allowed, but he and some other members of the group kept demanding that we go to the prohibited island. There were more of them than there were of me and I was outnumbered. They basically ordered the boat driver and I to go there. I could tell they were used to getting their way through demands, and suspected at that point they were military people. The prohibited island was further away, so we needed more gas to get there. The boat driver bought extra gas from another boat, so that we would not draw attention to ourselves, and we started on the trip as if we were going on the normal route.
  22. When we went on the water, Jim Watson, showed the driver the map of the prohibited island he wanted to visit. Another tour member, Tim Kast, told me that the reason the group wanted to visit this island was that it was the site of a huge victory during the Vietnam War for Jim Watson, who was a famous Navy SEAL. He had killed the highest-ranking member of the Communist Party of Vietnam while hunting for Ho Chi Minh on the island and wanted to revisit the battleground thirty years later. This was the fist time that I learned the group I was with was former Navy SEALS. They were returning to the Mekong Delta where they had fought during the war. Tim Kast was not a former Navy SEAL, he was a military historian documenting the trip for an article he was writing. He showed me a book with pictures of many of the tour members when they fought in the Vietnam War as Navy SEALS.
  23. We arrived at the island, and everyone got off the boat and started to take pictures. They also talked to the native Vietnamese people who lived on the island. The people were upset. Many of them remembered what the Americans had done to their island years before and did not understand why they were back. Jim Watson gathered the group together and told the story of the battle.
  24. After a few hours on the island, we headed back to the boat dock. When we arrived, the director of the boat tour was very angry. He knew that we had not gone to the tourist island because we had returned much later than planned. He called the Vietnamese government authorities. So had the villagers, who were upset that Americans had come to their island. The authorities had not arrived, however, so I hurried the group onto the buses and we quickly left the dock and drove to our hotel in Can Tho, on the South Mekong Delta.
  25. When the bus finally arrived at the South Mekong Hotel, I went inside to check the group in. Our company had made reservations at the hotel in advance. After about half the group was checked in, one of the guests came downstairs and told us that the entire group had to check out and leave the hotel immediately. They said some of the rooms were bugged and we were being watched. Some other group members notice two government agents outside near our vans. I put everyone back on the buses and we started on the long road back to Saigon.
  26. On the bus to Saigon, Richard Marcinko and Jim Watson saw what looked like a park as we were driving and asked the driver to stop so that they could take some pictures and videotape of it. I told them it was not interesting and that the pictures would not be very good since there was a fence surrounding it that would partially block the pictures. They wanted the pictures anyway, so the driver stopped the van that I was riding in. The other van stopped behind us. Everyone got out and lined up to take pictures. Suddenly, an army official ran up to us and started to yell at us to stop taking pictures. Five other army officials ran after him with their guns drawn. I ordered everyone to go back to the bus, and the whole group hurried back to the bus. What we had been taking pictures of was not a park but an active military base. There were not signs anywhere, so I could not tell. If I had known it was an active military base, I would have never allowed the group to take pictures, because I know it is illegal to do so. I was horrified because I knew that they could arrest our entire group and put us all in prison a long time because of this mistake.
  27. One of our group leaders, Bob Gibson, was a larger man who moved slower than the rest of the group, and he did not get back to the bus quickly enough. He had been using a camcorder to take videotape of the base. One of the army officers arrested him. The army officers wanted to detain the buses and everyone on them, but I negotiated with them. I told them that the group had just arrived in Vietnam and did not know any better, and that I had made a mistake by bringing them to the area. The officers eventually released Bob Gibson and did not detain the buses or anyone else on them. They kept Bob Gibson’s camcorder and the film in it. One of the officials boarded the buses and asked everyone for their cameras, but people just sat there and did not say anything. I had told them before the official got on the bus to not respond to anything he said and to hide their cameras, which they did. The official left the bus and did not arrest anyone or take their cameras.
  28. After the incident at the army base, everyone was shaken up badly. When we arrived at the Saigon New World Hotel, the receptionist told me that Secret Police had surrounded the hotel to monitor our group. Richard Marcinko, one of the leaders of the group, told everyone that he was sure we were being watched by the Secret Police after the events of the day. Everyone believed things that Macinko said because he is a famous former Navy SEAL, so they all started to seriously worry about the situation at that point.
  29. I knew what being monitored by the Secret Police could lead to, and it terrified me. I had previously shown many tourists around the Museum of American War Crimes, which was a kind of constant warning to people in Vietnam not to collect intelligence and information against the State. There were graphic pictures in the Museum showing Vietnamese people being executed for cooperating with the CIA and Navy SEALS. The Navy SEALS had fought against the Communist forces intensely during the war, especially in the Mekong Delta, and were considered a particularly strong enemy of the state. I knew that I was being watched closely by the government because I had been detained on three separate occasions, and I was afraid that my association with the Navy SEALS would make me a target.
  30. I tried to call my office to ask them for help, but the housekeeper, Van, was the only person left at the office. She told me everyone else had left because they were scared at what was happening. They had received a tip that intelligence agents had been following our group around after the incident on the island and at the army base. That morning, Oliver Wheatcroft, my boss at Samifana, had new business cards delivered to me at the hotel that had a different company name on them, “Dien Bien Phu.” He had told the receptionist to pass me the message that I should say I worked there instead of Samifana if I was ever asked by the government. Dien Bien Phu was a company that had connections to the Vietnamese government, and Oliver had paid to have me connected to the company for my protection in case an emergency arose. He thought that if I was associated with a tour company that had connections to the government, I might be treated more favorably than if I was associated with Samifana, which was a European company.
  31. The next day I went to the address listed on the business card of the new company because I really did need help. I knew that I was being watched and felt like the government suspected I was some sort of spy because I was giving a tour to a group of former Navy SEALS. I was scared and did not know what to do. I got to the office, and immediately an intelligence agent sped up on a motorbike and squealed to a stop directly in front of me. He asked if I was Jo JoTran, and I responded that I was. He then placed me under arrest and took me into the back room of the office building.
  32. The agent was a large man in plain clothes. He showed me his gun. Looking at the gun scared me a great deal, because were in a small room at the back of the office and no one else was there. I knew that they thought I had done something wrong by being the tour guide for the Navy SEALS, and I knew that any association with the Navy SEALS made me eligible for indefinite detention or even execution. The agent asked me where I worked. I told him that I worked for Dein Bien Phu, the Vietnamese tour company. The agent asked me if I knew any Navy SEALS or CIA agents. I was scared, so I lied and said that I did not. I was truthful when I said that I did not know of any CIA agents, because although I suspected that some of the people in my tour group were involved in intelligence work, I did not know that for certain. He asked me where my group had been in the last day and what we did. I told him the truth. He talked very close to my face and kept repeating the questions. He told me that he had more questions for me and that I had to report to the Intelligence Agency headquarters at the Ministry of the Interior the next morning. The interrogation lasted a couple of hours.
  33. When I went back to the hotel, I told some of the members of the group what happened to me. They insisted that I not go home that night and instead stay with them for my own protection. I stayed with them that night. I was worried that the intelligence agents would visit my family, but I thought that I would be safer at the hotel. I also thought there was a chance I could place my family in danger if I returned home to stay with them. I thought if I stayed at the hotel, the agents might focus more on watching me, and might leave my family alone.
  34. While I had been detained that afternoon, the tour group was notified at the hotel that the Vietnamese International Affairs Office had ordered them to leave the country early. They were told this was because they took pictures at the active military base. Most members of the group were very upset, and some tried to argue that they wanted to stay. Others wanted to return home immediately, because they were scared that they would be arrested and questioned like I was. They contacted Senators in the United States and the U.S. Consular Office in Vietnam to assist them. Some members of the group became so distraught that they started drinking heavily and take medication. They shouted and yelled, and sometimes directed their anger at me. It was a very tense time.
  35. The next morning, I reported to the Intelligence Agency in downtown Saigon, as I was instructed to do. Although I was terrified of what they might do to me, I knew they would hunt me down if I did not present myself as I was ordered to do. The Intelligence Agency in Vietnam had power beyond the military and the police, and I knew they could find me anywhere. Five agents interrogated me from early in the morning until around noon. They showed me their guns and tried to intimidate me into telling them things that were not true. They asked me what company I worked for and I told them the name of the Vietnamese tour company on my business cards, Dien Bien Phu.
  36. The agents asked me about all or my activities with my current group of tourists. They asked if I knew any Navy SEALS or CIA agents. I again told them I did not, even though I knew that many members of my group were former Navy SEALS, and suspected some were involved with the CIA. I feared that if I told them the truth, I would disappear in jail or be executed. The agents demanded that I report all my activities to them in the future.
  37. I returned to the hotel and tried to keep my guests entertained while they hurriedly arranged their departure from Vietnam. I also tried to arrange the return of some of their camera equipment, which had been seized the day before. Many of them wanted to remain in the hotel, but some of them still wanted to see parts of the city and surrounding countryside. One day we were driving along the Saigon River, and Marcinko and Watson suddenly demanded that we stop the van. They wanted to film and take pictures of some buildings on the side of the road. I insisted that they not take photographs or film, and told them they would not turn out well anyway, since there was a tall wall around the buildings. There was also a very clear sign in English and Vietnamese with pictures that said something like “No photographs,” but they ignored it and went ahead taking pictures. I had nowhere to go and was trapped while they did this, even though I had explicitly told them to stop, and there was a clear sign saying it was illegal. No one came out to reprimand or arrest us while we were there.
  38. When we returned to the hotel that night, officials from the International Affairs Office were waiting for us, and wanted to question me about where we had been that day. The International Affairs Office is similar to the U.S. Department of State. It has jurisdiction over what kinds of materials and equipment are brought into the country, including filming and video equipment. The Office has the power to arrest and jail people, but they did not arrest me or put me in jail. The officials asked me about where our group had been, and if I was aware that we had violated the national defense of Vietnam. They took one of the group member’s professional camera equipment because they said it had been misused for illegal purposes. I spent the next few days attempting to get the camera back for him, and was eventually successful. The officials told me that I needed to come to their office daily until the group left and report to them the activities of the group.
  39. After the group left Vietnam on February 9, 1996 with the assistance of the U.S. government, I knew that I had to leave Vietnam as well. I was being constantly watched by authorities because of my association with the Navy SEALS. I was scared for my life after being detained so many times. I started to look for a way out of Vietnam. One of my friends, the Mayor of Asheville, Tennessee, helped me secure a tourist visa. While I was planning to leave, I spent a lot of time with my wife’s parents in a rural area of the South Mekong Delta, attempting to hide from the government agents. I spent time with my wife and baby son. I was heartbroken to leave them behind, but I had to leave for their own safety. I left Vietnam on March 19, 1996.
  40. After I left Vietnam, government agents and policemen continued to harass my family and inquire about my whereabouts, and they do up to this day. About once a week, around 9 or 10 p.m., they knock on the door and ask where I am and what I am doing. I worry constantly about my family, because I know they are not safe because of my association with these American Navy SEALS.
  41. I do knot know many of the details of how the government is targeting my family in Vietnam, because my family fears contacting me in the United States. What little contact I do have with my family is only through my wife, and is very brief. My wife, Saray, calls me from a phone booth once every month or three months to talk to me and tell me about our son. She is afraid to call me from our house because she thinks the phones are still bugged. She tells me the police still come to the house periodically and ask where I am. They know I am in the United States, but she does not tell them any other details.
  42. When I first came to the United States, I called my brothers and sisters because I missed them, but they would hang up the phone when I told them that it was me, because they were afraid that their phones were bugged. I have not talked to my mother in years because I am afraid that her phones are bugged and if I were to call her, the government would target her. I know that if I write them letters, they will be intercepted. I miss my family terribly, but I have no way of safely keeping in contact with them.
  43. I fear returning to Vietnam because people associated with pro-American causes and the American military are still actively persecuted by the government. The Communist government continues to target people that it feels are collaborating with the American intelligence community and covert military forces.
  44. I have nowhere else I can go. I ask the court to grant my asylum application based on my fear of future persecution and on the past persecution I suffered in Vietnam.
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States and the state of Washington that the foregoing statement is true and accurate to the best of my ability and knowledge. --------------------------- ----------------------------- Dung Anh Tran Date


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