VIETNAM

February-March 2007

In the final months of 2006, the security police in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam chose to lie low but kept a vigilant eye on the democracy activists throughout the land. For instance, during the whole time of the APEC summit in late November 2006, they deployed hundreds of officers, both plainclothesmen and uniformed officers, throughout the main cities of Saigon, Hue, Hanoi, etc. to isolate the activists, making it impossible for the foreign press to get near them, shipping hundreds of protesters to the countryside, thus giving the impression that nothing was amiss in Vietnam. But soon after Hanoi gained access to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in mid-January, the repression started and became so virulent that Human Rights Watch, on March 9, 2007, had to qualify it as “one of the worst crackdowns on peaceful dissidents in 20 years.”

Following is a still incomplete chronology of some of the major acts of repression since the Vietnamese New Year (which officially fell on February 17, 2007):

February 16, 2007 (Eve of Tet): Engineer Nguyen Phong, head of the Vietnam Progression Party (VPP), was arrested in Hue and later forced to recant his affiliation with the VPP. One day later, Mr. Nguyen Binh Thanh, his deputy, and Ms. Hoang Thi Anh Dao, member, VPP, were also taken into custody.

February 18 (Tet, a sacred day to all Vietnamese): The living quarters of Father Nguyen Van Ly, 60, within the Archbishopric Rectory of Hue were ransacked. One week later, he was forcefully removed to an alien parish at Ben Cui.

March 5: Police in Saigon told Mrs. Bui Ngoc Yen that they had an arrest warrant for her husband, Prof. Nguyen Chinh Ket, a leading member of the Alliance for Human Rights and Democracy in Vietnam, who is currently traveling in Europe.

March 8: Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh and his wife were brutally beaten up by the police in their home in Gia Rai, Central Highlands, before he was taken to the local police station.

March 8: Two famous human rights activists, Attorneys Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan (in her case on International Women’s Day, March 8), were arrested in Hanoi and told that they would be detained at least four months “for investigation.” Nguyen Van Dai is the founder of the Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam.

March 9: Mr. Tran Van Hoa, a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was told by police in Quang Ninh Province that he should desist from his political activities “or else.” On March 13, he was detained for interrogation for 12 hours and told he would have to come up for more investigation.

March 9: Mr. Pham Van Troi, member of the Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam, was summoned by the Ha Tay police and told him he must denounce his human rights activities or face very unpleasant consequences.

March 10: Mr. Do Nam Hai (pen name: Phuong Nam), a prominent dissident and leading member of the Alliance for Human Rights and Democracy in Vietnam, was told by the Saigon police to expect “serious charges” to be pressed against him at any time.

March 10: Mr. Cao Van Nham, a regional representative of the United Workers-Farmers Organization of Vietnam (UWFO), was pressured by Hai Phong police to give up his UWFO membership and human rights advocacy.

March 10: At 1:30 pm, writer Tran Khai Thanh Thuy’s place was once more raided by Hanoi police who took away two of her computers, two cell phones and hundreds of written complaints that she helped farmers draft to present their cases.

March 12: Attorney Le Quoc Quan, a civil society expert, fresh from a six-month internship with the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, DC, was arrested in his home province of Nghe An—a little more than one week after he came back from the U.S.

All of this despite the fact that many others are still in jail, including journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, who is undergoing a five-year sentence and is very sick; journalist Huynh Nguyen Dao; cyber-dissident Truong Quoc Huy; Messrs. Huynh Viet Lang, Nguyen Hoang Long, Nguyen Bac Truyen and Le Trung Hieu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); Mr. Hong Trung of the Populist Party; Mr. Nguyen Tan Hoanh, 22, founding member and leader of the United Workers-Peasants Organization of Vietnam (UWFO), Mrs. Tran Thi Le Hang, aka Le Hong, 47, Doan (aka Hoang) Huy Chuong, 21, Doan Van Dien, 52, Le Ba Triet and Nguyen Tuan, both Saigon residents, all members or suspected members of UWFO, arrested in November 2006; Mr. Tran Quoc Hien, a UWFO spokesman arrested on January 12 this year; monks Thich Thien Tam and Thich Hue Lam of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) in Binh Thuan Province, nine or more members of the Cao Dai religion, 10 Hoa Hao Buddhists, and more than 350 ethnic minority Christian “Montagnards” from the Central Highlands.

No wonder that the freshly released Human Rights Report of the U.S. State Department (March 10, 2007) describes Vietnam as an arbitrary, one-party state with unfree and unfair elections, severe restrictions on freedom of opinion, of the press, of association and on Internet freedom, characterized by arbitrary detention and arrest of dissidents and no guarantee of speedy and fair trials.

Prepared for

The Vietnamese American Coalition for Religious Freedom, Free Speech

and Workers Rights

March 14, 2007