Human Rights Watch condemns Vietnam "crackdown" on dissent
HANOI - A US-based human rights group on Friday accused Vietnam of launching "one of the worst crackdowns on peaceful dissidents in 20 years" following the detentions of two lawyers and a Catholic priest.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) charged that Vietnam "felt emboldened by international recognition" after joining the
World Trade Organization in January and hosting an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November.
The rights group condemned the recent arrest of two Hanoi-based human rights lawyers, Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, and of a dissident Catholic priest, Father Nguyen Van Ly from the central city of Hue.
They have been accused of breaching article 88 of the criminal code, which bans "defaming" the government and carries a maximum 20-year jail term.
Activists say all three have started hunger strikes.
HRW also pointed to recent police moves against other free speech activists, members of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, independent Protestant churches and the United Workers-Farmers Organization of Vietnam.
"Vietnam has now taken its place on the world economic stage, but its human rights record lags far behind," Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
"The government's ongoing criminalization of peaceful political dissent and violations of basic human rights threatens to undermine its economic achievements."
Police on Tuesday arrested the two Hanoi lawyers -- Dai, who last year founded the Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam, and Nhan, a spokeswoman for the illegal Dang Thang Tien Vietnam Party (Vietnam Progression Party).
On February 18, police raided the parish home of Father Ly -- who has spent over 14 years in jail for his political activities -- seized computers, mobile phone cards and documents and moved him to another location, where he is under house arrest.
Ly is set to face trial later this month, according to the state-controlled Gia Dinh va Xa Hoi (Family and Society) newspaper in a report which could not be immediately confirmed with judicial or government officials.
"These are all peaceful dissidents," said Richardson. "They have simply advocated for rights guaranteed both by Vietnam's constitution and its international obligations under human rights treaties."
The US State Department in its annual human rights report this week rated Vietnam's record as "unsatisfactory," a charge the communist country denied.
"In Vietnam, no arrest has been made on a political viewpoint or for religious reasons," said foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung. "Only law violators have been arrested and treated in compliance with the law."
Agence France Presse - March 9, 2007.
Vietnam police arrest two dissident lawyers in Hanoi
HANOI - Police in communist Vietnam on Tuesday arrested two pro-democracy lawyers accused of issuing propaganda against the state in what activists have called an increased crackdown on human rights.
Hanoi-based lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan were detained in the capital in the morning, according to state media, a relative and overseas-based members of the banned People's Democratic Party.
A newsreader on state-run VTV said that "investigative police today searched the house and the office of Nguyen Van Dai and searched the house of Le Thi Cong Nhan. The two were arrested.
"Police confiscated many documents with the content of propaganda against the state of Vietnam and many religious documents that were about to be provided to foreign sources."
Both were accused of breaching article 88 of the criminal code, which bans "propagating against" and "defaming" the government and carries 3-12 years' jail, with 20-year sentences for "particularly serious crimes."
Dai, who defends imprisoned cyber-dissidents and regularly posts pro-democracy essays online, was previously detained and questioned by police in early February, along with other activists.
Several new pro-democracy groups -- and a larger coalition known as "Bloc 8406" -- have emerged over the past year in Vietnam, which tolerates no rival political groups and controls the media and Internet.
Dissidents say Vietnam -- having hosted an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (
APEC) summit late last year and having achieved other diplomatic milestones -- is now increasing its oppression of those who challenge the regime.
"We anticipated this crackdown on dissent after the APEC summit once Vietnam had obtained all it wanted from the international community," including World Trade Organisation membership, said Vo Van Ai of the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights.
"We did not have to wait long. Today, Vietnam has resorted to its old repressive habits, crushing all peaceful voices of dissent."
Late last month, police in the central city of Hue raided the house of dissident Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, 59, accused him of breaching article 88 and moved him to a new location under house arrest.
Media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders protested the arrests.
"We are very worried for Nguyen Van Dai, his colleague Le Thi Cong Nhan but also Father Ly, who have all been accused of the same thing," said Julien Pain, in charge of Internet and freedom issues at the Paris-based group.
Vu Minh Khanh, the wife of the 37-year-old Hanoi lawyer Dai, recounted on Tuesday how uniformed and plain-clothed police had started following the couple at 8am that morning before detaining her husband.
"Around 11:00 am another group of five to six policemen, half of them not in uniform, forced my husband to get into a car and took him to our home," she told AFP.
"At 11:30 am, they read the order to arrest my husband with a temporary detainment period of four months. The reason they gave was propagating against the government according to article 88 of the criminal code.
"At 11:50 am, they took my husband to Hanoi police prison No.1 in Cau Dien town, Tu Liem district. Since then I have not been able to contact my husband."
Agence France Presse - March 9, 2007.
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