Two Buddhist Activists Arrested

Nguyen Van Lia (photo) and Tran Hoai An have been sentenced to five years and three years respectively on criminal charges that involve “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state”.

The verdict was issued by People’s Court of Cho Moi District in the southern province of An Giang. Any questions for further comments on the charges and the verdict were declined. According to statements taken by family members, police surrounded the courthouse and banned family members from entering. The local police had raided their homes and confiscated 15 books, 64 CDs, and 36 documents and used them as evidence during the trial.

This is not the first time that Mr. Nguyen Van Lia has been sentenced to jail. He was incarcerated for 18 months in 2003 for commemorating the death of a founder of a Buddhist group that the Communist regime labels as a “sect”. Both men are members of the Hoa Hao Buddhist group.

Mr. Lia and his wife were arrested on April 24 on an orchestrated traffic violation. He has then been held incommunicado. When he and his family learned that he was charged with criminal article 258, he insistently maintained his innocence and refused to sign documents given by the police to incriminate him. They eventually acquired his fingerprint under duress for the documents.

Mr.Lia appeared on the Communist government’s radar soon after he met up with a number of representatives from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2009. Soon after the meeting, he was placed under constant surveillance and was chronically harassed by Cho Moi District Police. In December 2010, he and three other activists met with the representatives of the State Department at the US Consulate.

More information in Vietnamese and English on background of the Hoa Hao Buddhist Group can be found in this article on Human Rights Watch.

 

Nguyen Van Lia - Buddhist activist

Testimony of blogger and professor Pham Minh Hoang

Testimony at the Fifth Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders

Phan Kien Quoc

A conference hosted by Front Line Defenders (FLD), the Dublin Platform is a gathering of human rights defenders to share experiences and come up with new and more effective strategies to continue their work without the risk of harrassment, intimidation or arrest. FLD works to promote international and regional measures to protect those who bravely challenges apathy and social injustice.

Professor Pham Minh Hoang, under the pen-name Phan Kien Quoc, submitted this testimonial to the 5th Dublin Platform in February 2010.

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I come from a country that, contrary to what most people think, is now in great turmoil. Just like in any other country with a dictatorial regime, the Communist Party of Vietnam award itself all rights to control the people. This situation is precisely the cause for the backwardness and poverty of the country.

However, within the past few years, many individuals and many organisations have courageously stood up and denounced the lack of democracy, human rights violations and the extent of corruption that are forcing many Vietnamese into destitution while simultaneously widening the gap between the rich and the poor. The human rights defenders originate from every class of society: labourers demand safe work environments; farmers demand back their seized lands. Catholics, Baptists, and Buddhists have also unrelentingly prayed for religious freedom and for the return of properties usurped by the Government.

The struggle for human rights also originates from the hearts of thousands of people who have signed petitions to call for the protection of national territory and waters against Chinese expansion, and to denounce the spineless attitude of the Vietnamese. For example, just within six months of launching, the website Bauxitevietnam.info, which was set up by people opposing the Government’s plan to open a giant bauxite plant in the Vietnamese strategical sensitive Central Highlands, has attracted twenty million visitors which would have been unheard of a few years ago.

Yet, the Communist Party of Vietnam has suppressed these rightful, peaceful demands without mercy. They have beaten and jailed, coerced Christians, writers, weak and elderly farmers even those who have served the Communist Party in the past. They have destroyed the forum of the intellectuals and isolated those who have courageously stood up to demand their basic rights.

Christians who have protested against government policy or demanded a more democratic system have been subjected to constant surveillance, harassment and intimidation and in some cases sent to labour camps. One former camp inmate has described his experience to me. “In those 7 years I witnessed an indescribable amount of human suffering. “Re-education camps” are where health deteriorates, dignity dies, and life ends. In these hard labour camps prisoners were often forced to starve while having to work beyond their physical capacity. They were dehumanised, politically brainwashed, and indoctrinated with the state’s agenda. I have cried for many friends who have died in pain and agony from untreated illnesses as there was no medical care, and I have mourned the loss of friends who were secretly killed in the nigh because they were too stubborn. I can never forget those who were executed because they were caught escaping”.

I myself am not afraid of hardships. But the direst difficulty that I and countless other human rights defenders face is isolation. Through various methods, the Vietnamese Government is escalating its efforts to split, suppress and stomp out the community of human rights defenders. People like me are against the entire government propaganda apparatus. Nevertheless, we patiently and diligently continue because this is the only choice to democratise and build our country. Yet, our efforts will be undermined as long as we have to fight in isolation and operate in darkness; and the road to democracy for us will continue to be a lengthy one. Thank you for your attention and thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my story with you.

 

 

 

 

Human Rights Watch Report Highlights – 2009

Repression of Political Opposition

in May the government launched a wave of arrests, detaining 27 people for alleged links to the banned Democratic Party of Vietnam (DPV). At least five were prosecuted on national security charges, including prominent lawyer Le Cong Dinh; their trial is pending at this writing.

Freedom of Association and Assembly

The government bans independent trade unions and human rights organizations, as well as opposition political parties. Workers are prohibited from conducting strikes not authorized by the party-controlled labor confederation. Activists who promote workers’ rights and independent unions are harassed, arrested, or jailed.

Police crackdowns on protests-especially those in the countryside-often take place away from the public spotlight.

Freedom of Expression and Information

In 2009 the prime minister issued Decision 97, which prohibits publication of research that critiques or opposes the government or party, and limits research by private organizations to 317 government-approved topics. The Institute of Development Studies, one of Vietnam’s only independent think-tanks, closed in September, one day before Decision 97 went into effect.

While the government tolerated some public debate about its sensitive relations with China in 2009, it selectively took punitive measures against commentators who characterized Vietnam’s China policies as conciliatory, especially regarding China’s controversial claims to disputed offshore islands and its investment in Central Highlands bauxite mines. In April authorities suspended publication of Du Lich newspaper for its critical coverage of China’s territorial disputes with Vietnam, and in May the paper’s deputy editor was dismissed. In August and September police arrested and briefly detained two bloggers and an internet journalist on national security charges for articles criticizing China. Also in September the government fined the editor of the Communist Party’s website for publishing “unauthorized” information about China training its military in order to defend its maritime borders with Vietnam.

Criminal Justice System

Lawyers representing political or religious activists face intense harassment and even arrest, such as Le Cong Dinh. In February 2009 police raided the office of Le Tran Luat, a lawyer defending Catholics arrested during 2008 prayer vigils in Hanoi. Authorities confiscated his computer and documents, blocked him from meeting his clients, and detained and interrogated him to pressure him to drop the case.

Vietnamese law authorizes arbitrary “administrative detention” without trial. Under Ordinance 44, dissidents and others deemed national security threats can be involuntarily committed to mental institutions or detained in state-run “rehabilitation” centers.

Key International Actors

During the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of Vietnam’s rights record in 2009, Vietnam rejected 45 key recommendations from a broad range of member states, such as lifting its restrictions on the internet, authorizing independent media, taking steps to end the practices of torture, arbitrary detention, and capital punishment, and recognizing the rights of individuals to promote human rights, conduct peaceful public protests, and express their opinions.

 In March Japan resumed aid and loans to Vietnam after suspending assistance in 2008 over a corruption scandal in one of its projects.

Source: Human Rights Watch Report – Vietnam 2009

Liu Xiaobo’s translated writing seen for the first time

Before his coronation of his activities dedicated to human rights of China as a Nobel laureate, Liu Xiaobo is relatively unknown to the West, and not surprisingly, to the majority of Chinese themselves living within China. But not anymore.

Havard University has decided to the first English-language edition of a number of his poetry and essays and titled them No Enemies, No Haltred. The book is scheduled for publication by January of next year.

The book promises to provide an insider’s account into human rights situations and musings of Liu Xiaobo on contemporary China, and to me, most important of all, a range of comparative views between the Eastern and Western worlds.

To me this is particularly intriguing since Liu Xiabo has claimed on more than occasion that he believes Westernization is the right path for human rights struggles in China as it allows carefully reflections of undistorted accounts of history, unbiased reporting of facts, full freedom of speech and expression, and a multiparty system that affords the individuals to vote for a political representative entity that aligns with their goals, objectives, and values. Somali-born Dutch human rights/feminist activist Ayann Hirsi Ali came to similar conclusions during her years in the Netherlands.

religious and woman rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Western values of freedom and justice are universal. Europe has done far better than most areas of the world at providing justice, because it has guaranteed the freedom of thought and debate that are required for critical self-examination; and that communities cannot reform themselves unless “scrupulous investigation of every former and current doctrine is possible.

-Ayaan Hirsi Ali

(translated from a Dutch interview in De Standaard Deluxe)

 

 

 

 

In Vietnam on the other hand, after the massive takeover of South Vietnam by the Communist North, with the support of Communist China & Soviet Union, the government has slowly and systematically torn down relics of the former adminstration and brainwashed the masses. Considering that Vietnam has a very young population, the government is now effectively revisioning and rewriting history to fit with what it views as “appropriate”. To this end the Vietnam War was soon labeled as “the anti-American War” (loose translation from Vietnamese). Very few mentions of South Vietnam were made in the textbooks I grew up on; if they are, most of these passages paint them as obsiqueous puppets of the American government with the goal of tearing apart national unity. American troops and servicemen were viewed as monstrous colonizers that took advantage of Vietnamese for cheap unbridled labor and imposed Western imperialism upon “free” Vietnam.

New version of the history textbook

What I found to be most fascinating was that during my school years, there was always a very mysterious end to the textbooks. All human rights and struggles for freedom seem to end in the 1990s. One textbook I read indicates that even though Communism had fallen in the Soviet Union, it will always shine forth and help guide the “Party” to new heights of leadership for the country with the cooperation of the “People”.

Hillary stresses the importance of human rights progress in Vietnam

Ms. Clinton, who is the US Secretary of State, issues a statement to the Government of Vietnam ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum. Her comment concentrates exclusively on human rights:

 

We have made it clear to Vietnam that if we are to develop a strategic partnership, as both nations desire, Vietnam must do more to respect and protect its citizens’ rights

- Incumbent US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

On a different note, I just received news from friends that blogger Jane Hoang (real name is Huynh Thuc Vy) along with her brother and father have been arrested for disseminating materials that oppose to the Communist regime. All of them are from Quang Nam province. Local police conducted a raid at their home and confiscated a computer, several notebooks, and a USB stick. After being released from police custody, all of them remain under house arrest and are waiting for formal charges and a trial.

Dissident blogger Thuc Vy

 

Increased crackdown of dissident activities in Vietnam

Friends of Viet Tan today posted two significant articles written by Dustin Roasa, a Western journalist based in Southeast Asia whose focus is on human rights struggles for freedom within the region. In the latest development, he met up with two pro-democracy activists in Vietnam, Nguyen Ngoc Quang and Nguyen Thu Tram. Little did they know that a short meeting with a foreign journalist will then place their lives at risk from the Communist regime and caused them to be displaced from their homes.

Thu Tram is dissident writer hailing from the town of Thu Dau Mot, Binh Duong Province. After joining Bloc 8406 in 2007 and being an author of a host of writing accusing the Communist regime of corruption and illegal land seizure, she was quickly harassed by plainclothes police who orchestrated various deliberate “accidents” to cause bodily harm to her. On Feb 28th 2010, the Communist Police, on a case of mistaken identity, raided her home and arrested her sister and her uncle even though there was no evidence suggesting that they were engaged in any sort of illicit activities (they couldn’t find any dissident writing at Tram’s house). The charges for apprehension was “obstruction of justice” and then later “anti-government activities”. Any visitation rights were subsequently denied.

On March 5 2010, she left her temporary lodging. When she arrived home, she soon discovered that all of documentation at her home had been taken along with a laptop she owned. Her apartment had been raided by the authorities. Huynh Buu Hiep, working for the he local police station , Le Phu Van, head of the neighborhood association, and Le Hoang Canh, Thu Dau Mot’s chief police officer, were among those identified as breaking into her apartment. (Source: Blog Tu Do Ngon Luan – “Freedom of Speech”.)

To find out more about the events leading up to their final days in Vietnam, please follow this link to Guardian.

Ms. Nguyen Thu Tram

A friend’s take on Communism

Today one of my former classmates at university posted a very meaningful status update that I wish to share with you:

B. X. T

Some people compare “communism” in VN with a religion. I disagree. “Communism” in VN is worse than a religion. At least, you’re relatively free to choose what religion to worship – what church or pagoda to finance with your own voluntary money, while “communism” as an ideology is proactively forced on the whole nation: you just cannot stop financing its propaganda machine with your coerced taxes, and publicly disagreeing with the machine more or less brings you closer to prison.

To which I soon replied:

T.D

I agree with what was stated above but I also want to add that I believe the idea of Communism takes shape in Vietnam due to its very fixed hiearchry structure that already limits freedom and grants limitless power to the higher-ups. It’s the older generations, the grandparents, the parents, and then the teachers all abuse the ones younger than them. It’s a picking order fueled by Confucianisn and excessive deference to authority that stymies independent thinking and debates.

I didn’t know him very well during college but these days I often regret not trying better to get to know him before he departed for the US. All media outlets in Vietnam are controlled by the government, especially those ones that reported on political activities and update on international news.

Rampant censorship is one of the dominant weaknesses at best and at worst evils of the media landscape of Vietnam. Editors and producers are often called to meetings where they are lectured at length to maintain Marxism & Leninism and Ho Chi Minh ideals. Reporters who cross the line face jail time and dismissal from their positions.