(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Vietnam’s minister of public security, Lieutenant General Le Minh Huong, RSF protested the rounding up of journalist and dissident Bui Minh Quoc and his placement under house arrest. RSF considers the measure to be equivalent to imprisonment since it deprives the dissident of his freedom and right to express […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Vietnam’s minister of public security, Lieutenant General Le Minh Huong, RSF protested the rounding up of journalist and dissident Bui Minh Quoc and his placement under house arrest. RSF considers the measure to be equivalent to imprisonment since it deprives the dissident of his freedom and right to express himself. “The Vietnamese government is once again violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it ratified in September 1982. Article 19 of the pact guarantees freedom of expression,” recalled Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. RSF is demanding that Bui Minh Quoc and his colleague Ha Sy Phu be released from house arrest. Ha Sy Phu has been under house arrest since March 2001 (see IFEX alerts of 17 January 2002, 9 March 2001, 29 and 1 June 2000). The organisation is also calling for journalist Nguyen Dinh Huy’s immediate release. He has been imprisoned since 1993 (see IFEX alert of 10 May 2000).
According to information collected by RSF, journalist and dissident Bui Minh Quoc was placed under house arrest in Dalat (southern Vietnam) on 12 January 2002. The measure follows his detention at the Thanh Tri (a Hanoi suburb) train station on 8 January. He was questioned by the police for three days. They also confiscated more than 300 of his documents, deemed “reactionary” by the authorities. A day ealier, Bui Minh Quoc had met with a group of dissidents from Hanoi.
However, according to a Vietnamese journalist who has refugee status and currently resides in France, Bui Minh Quoc’s detention and placement under house arrest is connected to a recent investigation he led concerning the situation in the regions which border China. The journalist led his investigation for over one month in the country’s northern region. Dissidents regularly denounce the concessions, notably territorial concessions, granted to the Beijing authorities by the Hanoi government. Bui Minh Quoc had gone to these provinces on motorcycle to collect testimonies on the situation. The police seized several of his notebooks and his film, among other items.
Bui Minh Quoc, who is also a member of the Dalat dissident group, was previously placed under house arrest from April 1997 until the end of 1999 because he campaigned for greater press freedom. Under the terms of his house arrest, he is forbidden from leaving his neighbourhood and cannot meet with anyone without official authorisation. His telephone line has been cut off, his home is guarded by policemen and his family members are also under surveillance.
