Activists defiant as Vietnam court upholds conviction

Tue Nov 27, 2007

HANOI (Reuters) - Two jailed political activists defiantly called for multi-party democracy and more freedom of speech in one-party ruled Vietnam on Tuesday as an appeals court upheld their conviction, with slightly reduced prison terms.

Lawyers for Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, whose release has been called for by the European Union and the United States, argued before Superior Court judges in the communist-run country that their clients were peaceful and should be set free.

But the panel of judges ruled that Dai should serve four years imprisonment and four years under "administrative surveillance", or house arrest -- one year less for both parts of the sentence handed down by the Hanoi People's Court in May.

"I demand democracy, freedom and a multiparty system so that the Vietnamese people can exercise their right to freely choose the party to lead the whole country," Dai, 38, said in his statement to the court before the verdict.

There are about three million party members in the underdeveloped Southeast Asian country's population of 85 million.

The government says the two activists, both lawyers, broke the law and were not convicted for their political views.

Nhan's jail sentence was also reduced by one year to three years from four years. Her term under surveillance was reduced to three years from four years.

Bespectacled Nhan, who was wearing a red sweater over a light blue shirt, told the judges: "I believe in freedom of speech. Even now I raise my voice for freedom of speech as it is a basic freedom."

Foreign journalists and diplomats observed the five hours of proceedings in a separate room with their interpreters.

The court affirmed the lower court opinion that the two defendants had been in possession of documents or distributed documents that defamed the Communist Party and its leaders.

They were charged and convicted in May of "spreading propaganda against the state" and defaming the ruling party.

Many of Vietnam's Western trade partners and allies decried the sentences as too harsh.

In Tuesday's hearing one defence lawyer, Dang Trung Dung said, "Vietnam is a member of the World Trade Organisation and it is time it should abide by international conventions".

He said his clients "have the right to argue, to write articles".

Vietnam joined the WTO in January, part of Hanoi's policy to open the economy. However, the government is intolerant of advocates of a multiparty system and has rounded up about 30 activists this year.

Dai and Nhan are both Protestants. They advocated a multiparty system and gave legal advice to people who said authorities prevented them from practicing religion.

Viet Tan Members Arrested in Vietnam

With members inside Vietnam and around the world, Viet Tan aims to establish democracy and reform the country through peaceful means.

Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party)
www.viettan. org


November 19, 2007

Contact:
Duy Hoang +1 (202) 470-1678
Chi Dang +1 (408) 228-4892

On November 17, 2007, Vietnamese security police detained members and supporters of Viet Tan in Saigon. Those arrested and taken away included:


Viet Tan members

- Dr. Nguyen, Quoc Quan, American citizen

- Ms. Nguyen, Thi Thanh Van, French citizen

- Mr. Truong, Leon (Van Ba), American citizen


Other individuals

- Mr. Nguyen, The Vu, Vietnamese citizen

- Mr. Nguyen, The Khiem, Vietnamese citizen

- Mr. Khunmi, Somsak, Thai citizen

With the exception of Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan whose place of detention is currently unknown, all the individuals were arrested at a residence on Ton That Hiep street, ward 13, district 11, Saigon. They were taken initially to the public security office in district 10 and then reportedly to the main detention center in Saigon.

Before their arrest, they participated in discussions with other democracy activists on promoting peaceful democratic change. Specifically, they aspired to publicize information on successful nonviolent struggles from around the world and to use these lessons to help empower the Vietnamese people.

While it has been over 48 hours since the arrests, the families of the local residents and the embassies of the non-Vietnamese citizens have yet to be notified. Viet Tan expresses our deep concern for the safety of these six individuals. Clearly, communist Vietnam lacks the most basic judicial system and opportunity for a fair and open trial.

Information on the arrested

- Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan , born 1953, was a high-school teacher in Kien Giang province, Vietnam. He emigrated to the United States in 1981 and graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1987 with a Ph.D. in Mathematics. He specialized in research on Machine Translation from English to Vietnamese. A co-founder of the Vietnamese Professionals Society, he is married with two children and a resident of Sacramento, California.

- Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van , born 1956, was a university student in France and settled there after the communist takeover of Vietnam in 1975. She is active in the overseas Vietnamese-language media, having served on the editorial staff of the monthly Viet Nam Dan Chu (Vietnam Democracy). Under the pen name Thanh Thao, she is a key correspondent for Radio Chan Troi Moi, Viet Tan's nightly broadcast inside Vietnam. She is married and a resident of Paris, France.

- Mr. Truong Van Ba, born 1953, emigrated to the United States in 1979. He operated a food catering truck while devoting most of his time as a community activist. He has two children living in the United States and two grown children in Vietnam. He is a resident of Honolulu, Hawaii.

- Mr. Nguyen The Vu, born 1977, is a citizen of Vietnam and employed as a sales executive. The arrest on November 17, 2007 occurred at his home in district 11, Saigon. He is married.

- Mr. Nguyen The Khiem, born 1989, is a citizen of Vietnam and college student. He is the younger brother of Nguyen The Vu and was arrested for sharing the same residence in Saigon.

- Mr. Somsak Khunmi, born 1949, is a Thai citizen residing in Ubon, Thailand.

While these individuals may have different backgrounds and reside in different countries, they are Vietnamese patriots who share a common dream to establish democracy and reform the country. Their activities and those of all Viet Tan members center on principles of nonviolent struggle to mobilize the power of the people against a dictatorship that uses violence as a means of suppression.

In the face of these arrests, Viet Tan calls on:

- Vietnamese inside and outside the country, in the spirit of unity and shared goal, to pressure the communist government to cease the acts of repression, terror, and imprisonment against peaceful democracy activists from inside and outside the country.

- The Vietnamese communist government to honor international covenants and immediately provide to the embassies and families of the arrested their exact whereabouts and condition.

- The Vietnamese communist government to respect the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially freedom of speech, and immediately release all the above individuals as their only activity was to peacefully express their support for freedom and democracy.

- The American, French and Thai embassies to request the Vietnamese authorities to provide information on the whereabouts and personal safety of the respective nationals of these countries, and to visit these nationals while they are in jail to ensure their safety and well-being.

For the last two decades, Viet Tan has faced countless challenges. Committed to establishing democracy and reforming the country, our members are resolute before this most recent challenge. Viet Tan will continue to be an active participant in Vietnam's democracy movement and to work for the freedom of all political prisoners in Vietnam.

Vietnam's Human Rights Record Subject of Congressional Hearing

By Dan Robinson
AP
07 November 2007

Human rights in Vietnam was the subject of a congressional hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill. U.S.-based Vietnamese democracy groups and human rights organizations urged Congress and the Bush administration to take stronger steps to pressure Hanoi to release political prisoners and end suppression of religious freedoms. A report from VOA congressional correspondent Dan Robinson.

The hearing in the House foreign affairs human rights subcommittee was the latest effort by lawmakers to focus attention on the human rights situation in Vietnam.

William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat and the panel chairman, noted that despite having won Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the United States, which is now Vietnam's largest export market, and Vietnam's admission to the World Trade Organization, repression there continues.

Two Democrats representing substantial numbers of Vietnamese-Americans, and a Republican who has become the sharpest critic of Hanoi's human rights policies, appeared as witnesses.

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California is sponsoring proposed legislation to withdraw Vietnam's favorable trade status with the U.S. unless Hanoi releases all political and religious prisoners and takes significant steps to reform its human rights policies:

"We have seen the consequences of these disastrous actions," said Zoe Lofgren. "We lost our leverage on human rights reform in Vietnam."

Chris Smith, a Republican and author of the Vietnam Human Rights Act approved by the House earlier this year by a vote of 414 to 3, says hopes for progress in Vietnam were dashed by the Hanoi government's crackdown.

"Much of that hope and expectation however came crashing down earlier this year as Hanoi instituted a new sweeping barbaric wave of arrests, beating, bogus trials and incarcerations," said Chris Smith.

Representing the State Department, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scott Marciel said human rights remains a high priority for the United States in contacts with Vietnam, as Washington continues to raise specific cases of political or religious prisoners with the Hanoi government.

While describing the Vietnamese government crackdown on dissidents this year as appalling, Marciel defends the State Department's decision to remove Vietnam last year from a list of countries not making progress on religious freedom:

"There was no way of defending that, it is unacceptable," said Scott Marciel. "It was not a crackdown on religious freedom. Still horrible, still a human rights problem absolutely. But on religious freedom itself we are not seeing steps backward we are seeing further steps forward, that is the argument."

Among other witnesses were democracy activists in the United States and representatives of two human rights organizations.

Sophie Richardson, Deputy Director of the Asia Program of Human Rights Watch says that despite the government's repeal of one former law, another was put in its place supporting detention without trial:

"While administrative detention decree 31CP was indeed repealed as we heard earlier in 2007, a more repressive law, Ordinance 44, authorizes placing people suspected of threatening national security under house arrest or in detention without trial in social protection centers, rehabilitation camps or mental hospitals," said Sophie Richardson.

Other witnesses included Cong Thanh Do, who was detained for 38 days by Vietnamese authorities who cited his pro-democracy articles on the Internet written from his home in California.

Duy (Dan) Hoang, of the Viet Tan Party, launched by overseas Vietnamese to promote peaceful democratic political reform, says Vietnamese government controls over the media pose a major obstacle to reforms:

"The Vietnamese government exercises a monopoly over the media to control information, to restrict the free exchange of ideas, and to cover up its own corruption and misdeeds," said Hoang. "And to censor the Internet the government employs firewalls, spies in Internet cafes, and threatens bloggers. So it is really critical that Congress support independent sources of information such as Radio Free Asia."

In Tuesday's hearing, Congressman Chris Smith said he hopes his Vietnam Human Rights Act, which has been blocked in the U.S. Senate, can move forward to eventual approval by Congress.