FARNHAM Amnesty International members were delighted to find themselves joined by additional enthusiastic, young, Vietnamese people from across the UK for their annual ‘Polite Protest’ outside the Vietnamese Embassy.

The local members continue to highlight the injustice of Vietnam’s Prisoners of Conscience.

Many of these prisoners have been given long prison sentences for expressing their political or economic views, or for circulating information about democracy on the internet.

The protesters distributed leaflets to Londoners on May 20, as well as submitting a petition to the embassy to raise the profile of these cases.

Clive Lindsay, who has organised the protests for more than a decade, said: “Having the enthusiastic support of so many young Vietnamese is truly inspiring.

“They desperately want these prisoners to be released and for the people of Vietnam to enjoy the freedoms we, in the UK, take for granted.”

To find out more about the amnesty’s work on Vietnam, email Chris Peel at [email protected].

Amnesty International’s latest report can be viewed online by searching “Crackdown on Dissent Intensifies” at www.amnesty.org.

The group, which has been active in Farnham for more than 40 years, has also now joined with the Guildford group. They meet at 7.30pm in St Nicholas’ Church Hall, Guildford, on the second Monday of every month.