Vietnam announces amnesty for more than 8,000 prisoners
HANOI - Vietnam plans release 8,066 prisoners in an annual amnesty announced Tuesday by the office of President Nguyen Minh Triet. Among those to be released are 11 people jailed for violating national security laws, several of them in the troubled central highlands region, which saw mass anti-government protests over the past few years.
Five of the prisoners to be released are on the European Union's list of "prisoners of concern" for human rights issues and political persecution, according to a Western diplomat in Hanoi.
"I think that's positive" that the prisoners are to be freed, the diplomat said.
It was unclear Tuesday how many of the prisoners on the amnesty list had participated in the anti-government demonstrations of 2001 and 2002. Three of those on the list had been convicted of "illegally fleeing" to Cambodia.
Human rights groups have been saying for years that dozens of ethnic minorities in the central highlands have been quietly arrested and jailed by communist authorities in the wake of the protests.
Vietnam annually offers amnesty to prisoners with good behavior, having served at least one third of their sentences and having committed not to violate the laws again.
Most of the amnestied convicts are petty criminals or involved in economic crimes, officials said. Murderers and sex offenders are ineligible.
"The amnesty decision reaffirms the clemency policy of the party and the state and the humanitarian tradition of Vietnamese people," said Giang Son, deputy chief of the Office of the State President.
"Amnesty is a good chance for each prisoner to review his crimes and to have determination to become a useful citizen of the society," Son said.
The inmates to be released this year include 13 foreigners, including eight Chinese, two Singaporeans, one Laotian, one Malaysian and one Cambodian, according to Le The Tiem, deputy minister of public security.
Vietnam has offered amnesty to some 80,000 prisoners since 2000 and 4.2 per cent of them have violated the laws again, officials said Tuesday.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - October 23, 2007.
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