Westminster Strives to Ease Flag Tension Before Tet Festivities

With Tet celebrations beginning this weekend, Westminster community leaders are staging a last-ditch effort to quell the controversy over a Communist flag before it can spoil the Vietnamese New Year holiday and scare away the crowds and tourist dollars.

The end of the conflict, however, may not be near. On Friday, Little Saigon video store owner Truong Van Tran repeated his vow to replace the Vietnamese flag and picture of Ho Chi Minh, which have drawn hundreds of protesters, and a key Vietnamese community leader said he will refuse to meet with Tran to discuss the conflict.

The controversy has local business owners worried that the tourists who normally flock to Little Saigon by the thousands for the lunar new year celebrations will be frightened away by news reports of fierce protests.

“I think we’re concerned about this controversy spilling out into the business community, because the Caucasians may think we are very hostile to each other,� said Dr. Co Pham, president of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce.

Community members are also hoping to calm tensions before the holiday because starting the new year on a sour note is a bad omen for many.

“Culturally, if something bad luck comes out [on Tet], we have a tendency to say that brings me bad luck the whole year,� said Tony Lam, a Westminster councilman and Little Saigon restaurant owner.

Hundreds of protesters have demonstrated at the Bolsa Avenue shopping center where the display hung in Tran’s Hi Tek TV and VCR store, saying his actions reopened old wounds from living under Communist rule in Vietnam.

This week, Tran won reversal of a temporary restraining order that had forced him to take down the display, but collapsed in a confrontation with protesters Wednesday before he could put them back up. Back home after being hospitalized overnight with chest and stomach pains, he said he intends to return to the store Monday--the day before Tet--to put the flag and photo back up.

Westminster police and the Orange County Human Relations Commission worked Friday to bring protesters and Tran to the table to resolve their differences before the holiday.

Peace by Tet, however, may be difficult to achieve.

“Some individuals may do it, but as a representative for the whole community, I cannot accept that suggestion� to meet with Tran, said Duc Trong Do, president of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California. “We would not be sitting down with him.�

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Do, whose organization is one of the largest Vietnamese groups in the region, said he would be willing to talk with local government leaders, the ACLU and the Human Relations Commission, but would not meet with Tran because he believes there is a larger Communist group or government working behind him.

Tran, however, dismissed that idea--which has spread through the Vietnamese community here--as untrue. As proof, he added that he had gotten a call recently from the Vietnamese consulate in San Francisco offering assistance, but he refused.

“I don’t want their help, because this is my idea,� he said.

Tran said he intends to return to his store Monday to hang up the flag and picture, which he said he obtained from a bookstore when he visited Hanoi in November. He added that he would be glad to meet with people at his store to discuss the situation, as long as they remain nonviolent and don’t block the parking lot.

“We can talk in peace [about] what they want, what they need,� Tran said. “I can talk to them during the day, during the night, person to person. That’s the way to communicate.�