Hanoi expels Vietnamese-French activist reporter
HANOI - Vietnam deported a Vietnamese-French activist journalist more than three weeks after her arrest, the official Vietnam News Agency reported on Thursday, the fourth foreign national to be expelled this week.
VNA said French citizen Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, 51, was deported late on Wednesday night at the Ho Chi Minh City airport in the presence of French consular officials.
She was one of six members of the U.S.-based Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party) who was arrested on November 17. The group is opposed to one-party Communist rule and counts among its members Vietnamese whose families left or did not return after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
Police confiscated about 7,000 leaflets that the group said promoted peaceful political change in Vietnam, which does not tolerate opposition or advocates of a multi-party system.
Van is a reporter of the "Democratic Viet Nam" newspaper and the radio "New Horizon," run by Viet Tan, an outlawed group in Vietnam.
The official news agency described her as a "reactionary" and state media reports last month said she and others held were engaged in "terrorism crimes" but these accusations were never substantiated.
Another Viet Tan member, U.S. citizen Truong Leon, was deported on Tuesday.
Two other U.S. citizens left the country on Wednesday. They were arrested on November 23 for smuggling in arms and have been linked by state media to the six.
Viet Tan rejects any connection, saying it does not support the use of violence.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman said on Thursday that another U.S. citizen, Nguyen Quoc Quan, had been detained since November 17 without American officials being formally notified of any charges. The other detainees are a Thai and two Vietnamese.
Reuters - December 13, 2007.
Vietnam Frees 3 U.S. Citizens
HANOI — Vietnam released three of four detained American citizens shortly after the U.S. ambassador demanded to see evidence of terrorism or other charges to justify their detention, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.
No formal charges had been brought against the four, who were arrested in recent weeks, but the Vietnamese media have said that two of them were being investigated for terrorism. Two others were detained after they allegedly arrived at the Ho Chi Minh City airport with a weapon in their luggage.
Ambassador Michael Michalak told reporters Tuesday that he had seen no evidence to justify the detentions.
Hours later, Vietnam released Truong Van Ba, Nguyen Thi Thinh and Le Van Phan.
A fourth citizen, Nguyen Quoc Quan, remains in custody. Vietnamese authorities say he entered the country on a forged Cambodian passport.
Ba and Quan were arrested at a house in Ho Chi Minh City on Nov. 17 when authorities found them preparing to circulate pamphlets on behalf of Viet Tan, a California-based pro-democracy group that Vietnam considers a terrorist organization.
Viet Tan says it promotes non-violent political change in Vietnam, and Michalak said Tuesday that he has seen no evidence that the group is engaged in terrorism.
Ba, whose Americanized name is Leon Truong, left for his home in Hawaii on Tuesday evening, Warren said.
Thinh and Phan were arrested Nov. 23 at the Ho Chi Minh City airport, allegedly for carrying a weapon in their luggage.
Phan and Thinh, whose Americanized name is Helen Le, were expected to return to the United States as soon as Wednesday.
"One American is already en route back to the United States, and two others have been released and plan to return to the United States in the coming days," Warren said. "We welcome this news.
The Viet Tan group has said that Thinh and Phan are not members and that it knows nothing about them, and Michalak said he believed the two sets of arrests were unrelated.
On Tuesday, Michalak told reporters he had seen no evidence linking any of the detainees to terrorism and called on the Vietnamese government to explain their arrests.
"If there is evidence that this group is engaged in terrorist activities, I would like to see it," he said of Viet Tan. "The United States will protest any actions taken to silence those engaged in the peaceful expression of political views."
Vietnamese government officials could not be reached for comment on the cases.
Duy Hoang, a U.S.-based leader of Viet Tan, said Ba's release showed that the detainees had been held without justification.
"There has been absolutely no merit to these charges of terror," Hoang said. "These individuals were only in Vietnam to express their views peacefully. Everything that the Vietnamese government said about Viet Tan and its activities was untrue."
By Ben Stocking - Reuters - December 13, 2007.
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