Group urges release of Vietnam Internet dissident
PARIS - Vietnam has detained a third dissident
for publishing pro-democracy texts on the Internet, Reporters Sans
Frontiers (RSF) said on Thursday.
The Paris-based media rights group said Son Hong Pham had been detained since March 29,
apparently after translating and publishing on the Internet an article entitled "What is
Democracy", which had previously appeared on a U.S. embassy Web site.
It quoted family members as saying he was still being detained on April 15.
Vietnam's government did not respond to a request for comment.
RSF said Pham was the third Web dissident arrested in Vietnam in just over a month.
"This new arrest...is a callous confirmation of the Vietnamese authorities' intention to censure
freedom of expression on the Internet," RSF General Secretary Robert Menard said in the
statement.
RSF called for Pham's release along with fellow dissidents Le Chi Quang and Tran Khue.
Quang, a computer teacher, and literature professor Khue were detained in February and
March for publishing on the Internet criticism of border agreements with China.
The border accords have not been made public, but dissidents say they involved too many
concessions to Vietnam's giant northern neighbour, which, although a communist ally, is a
traditional rival.
In January, Vietnam placed journalist Bui Minh Quoc under house arrest after he investigated
the controversial border deal. Authorities confirmed his detention without giving a reason for
it, but denied the move was to silence such criticism.
Reuter - April 18, 2002.
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