(HRW/IFEX) – The following is a Human Rights Watch press release: Vietnam: New Threats to Free Expression (New York, October 9, 2002) – A new round of arrests and harassment of prominent dissidents in Vietnam threatens the right of free expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Vietnam should cease the persecution of government critics and […]
(HRW/IFEX) – The following is a Human Rights Watch press release:
Vietnam: New Threats to Free Expression
(New York, October 9, 2002) – A new round of arrests and harassment of prominent dissidents in Vietnam threatens the right of free expression, Human Rights Watch said today. Vietnam should cease the persecution of government critics and release all those who are in custody or under
house arrest for non-violent expression of their beliefs.
“Despite Vietnam’s promises to speed up the process of reform, the government is still stifling free expression,” said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. “It’s very important that international donors raise these issues with the Vietnamese government.”
Human Rights Watch urged Vietnam’s donors to refer specifically to several recent incidents of government critics being detained or harassed.
On September 20, 2002, public security officials raided the Ho Chi Minh City home of Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, a leading peaceful advocate of human rights and democratic reform. They ransacked his home, examined his writings and papers, and pressured him for more than four hours to leave
with the police for further questioning. Dr. Que refused to leave when the police could not produce a court order for his arrest. Ten security officials were subsequently stationed outside his home.
In Hanoi on September 25, police arrested former journalist and writer Nguyen Vu Binh after searching his home. The fact that Nguyen’s arrest warrant was issued by the prosecutor means that under Vietnamese law he likely will be tried within a matter of weeks, if not days. His whereabouts, and the charges against him, are unknown. Nguyen Vu Binh has written articles calling for political reform and criticizing government policy.
Binh was earlier detained on July 20, 2002, when he was brought in for several days of questioning by the Public Security Ministry, after he signed a group petition to the government and sent written testimony about human rights violations in Vietnam to a briefing sponsored by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington, D.C.
Police officials have also sent the dossiers of three other dissidents arrested this year–Le Chi Quang, Pham Hong Son and Nguyen Khac Toan–to the prosecutor, which means they could be brought to trial soon. Meanwhile, outspoken government critic Pham Que Duong has come under
continuous harassment for the last two weeks, including videotaped interrogation sessions by the police.
“We fear that these dissidents could be brought to trial any day now,” said Jendrzejczyk, who noted that trials in Vietnam often fall short of international standards for fairness.
On July 6, 17 prominent dissidents–including Nguyen Vu Binh and Pham Que Duong–sent a public petition to the government calling for democratic reforms, establishment of an anti-corruption body, and publication of Vietnam’s border treaties with China. Many of the same
dissidents had been detained for questioning in September 2001 after submitting a written application to the government for the creation of an anti-corruption association.
Several dissidents have been arrested, harassed or placed under house arrest this year after issuing public critiques of the government, some of which were circulated on the Internet. They include:
– On January 8, former army officer Nguyen Khac Toan, 46, was arrested, a day after meeting prominent dissident Nguyen Thanh Giang.
– On February 21, Le Chi Quang, 32, a young lawyer whose essay “Beware of Imperialist China” was distributed on the Internet, was arrested at an Internet café in Hanoi. His house was searched and documents confiscated.
– On March 8, police searched the home of scholar and anti-corruption activist Tran Van Khue, 66, confiscating his computer and some documents, after he published a critical letter to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, which was circulated on the Internet before Jiang’s visit to Vietnam. On March 10, Tran Van Khue was arrested and placed under two years’ administrative detention without trial under Directive 31/CP.
– On March 27, police arrested Pham Hong Son, 34, after he translated an article from the website of the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, titled “What is Democracy,” and sent it to his friends and senior Vietnamese officials. In addition, he had written an open letter, which was published on the Internet, protesting the fact that his house had been searched and his computer and documents confiscated.
Please see http://hrw.org/press/2002/10/vietltr-1004.htm to view a Human Rights Watch letter to Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luo regarding the cases of Mr. Nguyen Vu Binh and Dr. Nguyen Dan Que.
