(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 13 March 2002 CPJ letter to President Tran Duc Luong: March 13, 2002 His Excellency Tran Duc Luong President, Socialist Republic of Vietnam c/o Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hanoi, Vietnam Via facsimile: 011-84-4-823-1872 Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned that writer Tran Khue has […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 13 March 2002 CPJ letter to President Tran Duc Luong:
March 13, 2002
His Excellency Tran Duc Luong
President, Socialist Republic of Vietnam
c/o Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Hanoi, Vietnam
Via facsimile: 011-84-4-823-1872
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned that writer Tran Khue has been detained following a police search of his home. Tran Khue is the third Vietnamese intellectual to face reprisals in the past few months for criticizing bilateral negotiations between China and Vietnam.
On March 8, seven police officers entered and searched Tran Khue’s home in Ho Chi Minh City. They confiscated his computer equipment and several documents, according to CPJ sources.
On March 10, Tran Khue sent a message via cell phone to a friend indicating that he was in danger. Since then, all means of communication with Tran Khue have been cut, and his friends and colleagues are concerned about his safety.
According to CPJ sources, police searched Tran Khue’s house for materials relating to an open letter that he sent to Chinese president Jiang Zemin during Jiang’s visit to Vietnam in late February. The letter, which was distributed over the Internet, protested recent border accords between the two countries.
(Because of your government’s extraordinarily tight control over news and information circulated within the country, CPJ classifies open letters, pamphlets, and other forms of political speech in Vietnam as journalism.)
In recent years, China and Vietnam have signed land and sea border agreements as part of a rapprochement following a 1979 war between the two countries. Several dissidents have criticized the government for agreeing to border concessions without consulting the Vietnamese people.
Tran Khue has been under tight surveillance since September 2001, when he and other dissidents tried to legally register the “National Association to Fight Corruption.”
CPJ also calls for the release of two other dissident writers who were detained for similar reasons around the time of President Jiang’s visit to Vietnam. On January 14, Bui Minh Quoc was put under house arrest in Dalat and charged with “possessing anti-government literature,” including his own writings. Prior to his arrest, he had conducted extensive research on Vietnamese territorial concessions to China, according to international news reports.
On February 21, Le Chi Quang was detained at an Internet café and is now being held incommunicado in B14 prison in Thanh Tri district outside Hanoi, according to CPJ sources. He has also been an outspoken critic of the border agreements. An essay he wrote, titled “Beware of Imperialist China,” was widely distributed on the Internet.
As a nonpartisan organization of journalists dedicated to the defense of our colleagues worldwide, CPJ condemns your administration’s efforts to silence individuals who criticize official policies. We respectfully remind Your Excellency that both the Vietnamese Constitution and the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Vietnam has signed, guarantee the right to freedom of expression.
We call for the immediate and unconditional release of Tran Khue, Bui Minh Quoc, and Le Chi Quang. In addition, we respectfully urge Your Excellency to ensure that all journalists in Vietnam are permitted to write and publish without fear of reprisal.
Thank you for your attention to these urgent matters. We await your response.
Sincerely,
Ann Cooper
Executive Director
CC:
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai
Pham Quang Nghi, Minister of Culture and Information
Nguyen Tam Chien, Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States
Raymond F. Burghardt, U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam
American Society of Newspaper Editors
Amnesty International
Article 19 (United Kingdom)
Artikel 19 (The Netherlands)
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Freedom Forum
Freedom House
Human Rights Watch
Index on Censorship
International Center for Journalists
International Federation of Journalists
International PEN
International Press Institute
Lorne W. Craner, United States Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human
Rights, and Labor
The Newspaper Guild
The North American Broadcasters Association
Overseas Press Club
Robert Porter, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy in Vietnam
Reporters Sans Frontières
Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Society of Professional Journalists
World Association of Newspapers
World Press Freedom Committee
Recommended Action
Similar appeals can be sent to:
His Excellency Tran Duc Luong
President, Socialist Republic of Vietnam
c/o Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Hanoi, Vietnam
Fax: +84 4 823 1872
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
