(WAN/IFEX) – The Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, has personally taken up the case of imprisoned Vietnamese journalist Doan Viet Hoat. **For background to case, see IFEX alerts of 29 June 1998; 4 November and 29 January 1997; 4 March 1996; and others** The UN has informed the World Association of […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan,
has personally taken up the case of imprisoned Vietnamese journalist Doan
Viet Hoat.
**For background to case, see IFEX alerts of 29 June 1998; 4 November and 29
January 1997; 4 March 1996; and others**
The UN has informed the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) that Mr. Annan
has discussed Professor Hoat’s case with the High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Mary Robinson.
A spokesman told WAN that Mr. Annan “has taken careful note of your comments
on the circumstances of Professor Hoat’s trial and imprisonment and shares
your concern that his health has deteriorated and that he is being denied
visitors.
“The Secretary General (…) would like me to inform you that two mechanisms
of the Commission on Human Rights have already been put in motion on
Professor Doan’s behalf. His situation is being looked into by both the
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom
of Expression.
“As yet, neither have issued reports but the Office of the High Commissioner
of Human Rights will advise you of the outcome of their investigations as
soon as possible. In the meantime, we hope that your representations to the
Government of Vietnam will yield some positive results.”
Professor Hoat is currently serving a 15-year jail sentence for his work
with the pro-democracy newsletter “Dien Dan Tu Do” (Freedom Forum) and has
spent much of the past three decades in prison.
He is reportedly in poor health and suffers from kidney stones. His three
brothers tried to visit him in February 1998 but were not allowed to see
him. No independent source or family member has seen him since 1996.
Professor Hoat has been married for 32 years yet has lived with his wife for
only nine and a half years and is a stranger to his three children.
The Vietnamese government has denied that Professor Hoat is in poor health
and cannot receive visitors and says he is “re-educating” in a prison camp.
Professor Hoat was recently awarded WAN’s Golden Pen of Freedom, leading
Hanoi to call him “a delinquent.”
WAN, the global association of the newspaper industry which represents
15,000 newspapers world-wide, has appealed to Vietnam to release Professor
Hoat.
“The Vietnamese government has to understand that it has nothing to gain by
continuing to detain him and everything to gain by releasing him
immediately,” said the WAN Director General, Timothy Balding. “We await a
serious response to our appeal for his release.”
