Menschenrechte / Human Rights (2020)

Vietnam Arrests Woman on Same Anti-State Charges Used to Jail Her Brother

22.12.2020 (RFA) - Vietnamese authorities arrested the sister of a former prisoner of conscience Tuesday, detaining her on the same charges that got him a two-year jail sentence for social media posts he wrote that criticized the government, members of the family told RFA.

Police in the southern city of Can Tho detained Le Thi Binh, sister of Le Minh The. RFA reported that he was released in October after his two-year stint, for “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the state, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals.” [read more]

Vietnam: Journalist arrested over infrastructure criticism

22.12.2020 (International Federation of Journalists) - Truong Chau Huu Danh, a former state media reporter and a founder of the Facebook news page Bao Sach or ‘Clean Newspaper’, was arrested on December 17 after criticising a contentious infrastructure program in the country. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns Truong’s arrest and demands his immediate release. Truong was detained after posting his criticism of the country's build-operate-transfer (BOT) highways to his Bao Sach page. [read more]

Vietnam Sentences Three for Running Facebook Discussion Group

21.12.2020 (RFA) - Authorities in Vietnam on Monday sentenced three administrators of a Facebook online political discussion group to lengthy prison sentences in yet another example of Hanoi’s disregard for freedom of expression, their defense lawyers told RFA.

The court in Ho Chi Minh City convicted the three administrators of “abusing democratic freedom rights to infringe upon the benefits of other individuals and/or organizations,” under Article 331 of the Vietnam 2015 Penal Code, a vaguely worded law often used to lock up bloggers and other peaceful critics of the Vietnamese government. [read more]

Journalist Truong Chau Huu Danh arrested in Vietnam

21.12.2020 (CPJ) - Bangkok – Vietnamese authorities should immediately release journalist Truong Chau Huu Danh and drop any pending charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On December 17, police in the southern city of Can Tho arrested Danh, a former state media reporter who co-founded and contributes to Bao Sach (Clean Newspaper), a Facebook-based news outlet, for allegedly “abusing democratic rights and freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State,” a violation of Article 331 of the country’s penal code, news reports said. [read more]

Vietnam arrests popular Facebook user for "anti-state" posts

17.12.2020 (Reuters) HANOI - Police in Vietnam have arrested a well-known Facebook user over allegations of abusing democratic freedom and publishing posts against the state, state media reported on Thursday.

Truong Chau Huu Danh, 38, a former journalist, will be detained for three months for posts that the police said were abuses of freedom of speech and infringements on state interests, the Ho Chi Minh City police newspaper reported. [read more]

Tran Duc Thach verurteilt - Vietnam schickt Dichter ins Gefängnis

16.12.2020 (Börsenblatt) - Ein vietnamesisches Gericht hat den Dichter Tran Duc Thach (69) zu zwölf Jahren Haft verurteilt. Grund: „Staatszersetzung“.

Die Anhörung habe lediglich drei Stunden gedauert, erklärte die Organisation "Defend the Defenders" unter Berufung auf Thachs Verteidiger, wie „Deutsche Welle“ mit Berufung auf Agenturangaben meldet. Thach wolle in Berufung gehen.

In den sozialen Netzwerken hatte sich der 69-jährige Ex-Offizier der vietnamesischen "Volksbefreiungsarmee" immer wieder kritisch über die kommunistische Führung geäußert. Im April wurde festgenommen – nicht zum ersten Mal: Der Menschenrechtsorganisation Human Rights Watch zufolge wurde Thach seit 1978 schon mindestens zehnmal verhaftet und seit Jahrzehnten schikaniert. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnam verurteilt Regierungskritiker zu zwölf Jahren Haft

15.12.2020 (Online Netzwerk oe24) - Ein vietnamesisches Gericht hat einen regierungskritischen Schriftsteller zu zwölf Jahren Gefängnis verurteilt. Der 69-jährige Tran Duc Thach habe "wirtschaftliche und gesellschaftspolitische Ereignisse verzerrt und führende Persönlichkeiten von Partei und Staat angeschwärzt und gedemütigt", berichteten staatliche Medien am Dienstag. Thachs Arbeiten handeln vom Leben ohne Freiheit und Gerechtigkeit. In seinen Romanen spielen Menschenrechtsverletzungen und das Rechtssystem Vietnams eine große Rolle. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnam writer jailed for 12 years over articles critical of government

15.12.2020 (DailyMail) - A Vietnamese activist was jailed for 12 years Tuesday after writing articles critical of the government and posting them on his Facebook page, nearly a decade since being released from prison for a similar offence.

Writer and poet Tran Duc Thach, who was convicted on charges of attempting to overthrow the government, was also sentenced to three years of house arrest. The 69-year-old was jailed for three years in 2009 for creating "propaganda against the state", but was among more than 10,000 prisoners granted amnesty in 2011 to mark the country's National Day. [read more]

Journalists jailed for social media “terrorism” highlight content moderation challenges

14.12.2020 (CPJ) - A journalist in China uploaded a video to YouTube criticizing the Chinese government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan. Another, in Vietnam, left a state-owned newspaper but continued posting stories they wouldn’t let her cover on Facebook. On December 1, they were all behind bars, according to CPJ’s 2020 annual census of journalists imprisoned for their work. [read more]

RSF lance une campagne pour obtenir la libération de la journaliste vietnamienne Pham Doan Trang

14.12.2020 (Ifex) - Accusée de “propagande contre l’Etat”, Pham Doan Trang risque vingt ans de prison. Deux mois après son arrestation, RSF diffuse une vidéo dans laquelle journalistes, blogueurs et amis de Pham Doan Trang expriment leur solidarité avec elle.

Deux mois après son arrestation, Reporters sans frontières (RSF) lance la campagne #FreePhamDoanTrang, en organisant la mobilisation de la diaspora vietnamienne en faveur de la journaliste, et en lançant une pétition pour exiger sa libération. [en savoir plus]

RSF : près de 400 journalistes détenus en 2020

14.12.2020 (Times of Israel) - La Chine reste en tête avec 117 journalistes détenus, devant l'Egypte (30), l'Arabie saoudite (34), le Vietnam (28) et la Syrie (27)

Le nombre de journalistes détenus dans le monde s’élevait à 387 fin 2020, un chiffre quasi stable sur un an, malgré une hausse des arrestations arbitraires en lien avec la crise sanitaire, selon le bilan annuel de RSF publié lundi.

« Le nombre de journalistes détenus à travers le monde reste à un niveau historiquement haut », souligne l’ONG. [en savoir plus]

Pressefreiheit: Weltweit sitzen 387 Journalisten im Gefängnis

14.12.2020 (Die Zeit) - Ein Großteil der Inhaftierten befindet sich in China, Saudi-Arabien, Ägypten, Vietnam und Syrien. Einige wurden wegen ihrer Berichte über das Coronavirus festgenommen.

Weltweit sitzen einer Erhebung zufolge mindestens 387 Journalisten im Gefängnis. Das geht aus der Jahresbilanz der Pressefreiheit hervor, die die Organisation Reporter ohne Grenzen (RSF) veröffentlicht hat. Mehr als die Hälfte dieser Inhaftierten verteilt sich demnach auf nur fünf Länder: China, Saudi-Arabien, Ägypten, Vietnam und Syrien. [Weiterlesen]

#FreeThemAll: Pham Doan Trang

14.12.2020 (Reporter ohne Grenzen) - Die Organisation Reporter ohne Grenzen hat eine Kampagne zur Freilassung der Journalistin und Aktivistin Pham Doan Trang gestartet, die sich in Vietnam seit mittlerweile mehr als zwei Monaten in Haft befindet. In einer Petition und in einem Videostatement solidarisierten sich dabei auch mehrere vietnamesische Exiljournalisten mit der Reporterin und riefen zu ihrer Freilassung auf. [Weiterlesen]

Solidarität mit Pham Doan Trang

10.12.2020 (Reporter ohne Grenzen) - Zwei Monate nach der Festnahme von Pham Doan Trang erinnert Reporter ohne Grenzen (RSF) an das Schicksal der vietnamesischen Journalistin und fordert ihre sofortige Freilassung. Unterstützung erhält die Organisation von weiteren vietnamesischen Medienschaffenden sowie Freundinnen und Freunden Trangs im Exil.

Trang wurde am 6. Oktober in ihrer Wohnung in Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt festgenommen. Wegen angeblicher „Propaganda gegen den Staat“ drohen ihr 20 Jahre Haft. RSF hat Trang 2019 in den Kammerspielen des Deutschen Theaters in Berlin mit dem Press Freedom Award für besonders wirkungsvollen Journalismus ausgezeichnet. [Weiterlesen]

Hanoi doubles down on human rights abuses and violations during pandemic

10.12.2020 (AsiaNews) - The Vietnamese government has stepped up its campaign of arrests and repression of activists, independent journalists, bloggers and citizens. Today there are at least 150 people sentenced for freedom of expression, another 15 in pre-trial detention. Vietnam is one of the four "closed" nations of Asia along with China, Laos and North Korea.

According to Amnesty International, there were 118 prisoners of conscience as of May 2019. A figure that grew in 2020, as confirmed by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report which speaks of "at least 150 people convicted of exercising the right to freedom of expression or association, and who are currently in prison". Another 15 are held in pre-trial detention awaiting trial. [read more]

Trinh Ba Phuong: A Video Portrait of a Vietnamese Land Rights Activist

09.12.2020 (Good Men Project) - This interview with land rights activist Trinh Ba Phuong was conducted shortly before his June 2020 arrest. This intimate video covers a variety of topics, ranging from his background to his relationship with his wife – “She’s very caring. And she doesn’t know how to lie,” he jokes – to his dreams and aspirations for Vietnam.

In recent years, Phuong has been harassed and surveilled by public security agents, especially so after he tried to publicly share news about the early-morning police raid in Dong Tam Commune in January 2020. [read more]

Vietnam Moves Blogger From Prison to Psychiatric Hospital

08.12.2020 By An Hai (VOA) - WASHINGTON - A Vietnamese blogger detained in May on accusations of producing anti-state propaganda has been transferred from prison to a psychiatric hospital in Hanoi.

Pham Chi Thanh, commonly known as Pham Thanh, covered politics and social issues on his blog Ba Dam Xoe and used to work for the state-owned Voice of Vietnam radio station. [read more]

EU approves its 'Magnitsky Act' to target human rights abuses

07.12.2020 (DW) - Under a new system similar to the US Magnitsky Act, the EU now has more powers to punish individuals involved in human rights violations. The new rules will make it easier to ban them from entering the bloc.

EU foreign ministers on Monday approved a new mechanism that would allow the bloc to impose sanctions on individuals and organizations responsible for human rights abuses anywhere in the world. [read more]

#FreePhamDoanTrang – RSF launches campaign for Vietnamese journalist’s release

07.12.2020 (RSF) - Two months after her arrest, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is launching a campaign for the release of Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang with a petition and a video in which Vietnamese diaspora colleagues voice strong support for this symbol of the fight for the freedom to inform in Vietnam.

In the #FreePhamDoanTrang campaign video released by RSF, Vietnamese journalists, bloggers and friends now based in France, Germany, Taiwan and the United States take advantage of their exile to say what their compatriots still in Vietnam cannot say without risking long prison sentences. [read more]

Censure : Facebook, Google et Le Gouvernement Vietnamien accusés de complicité par Amnesty International

04.12.2020 Holy (FZN) - Amnesty International a fait une découverte sur Facebook, Google et le Vietnam. L’organisation de défense des droits de l’homme a notamment révélé que les deux géants américains de la technologie « ont aidé le gouvernement vietnamien à censurer les critiques et à réprimer la dissidence ».

Facebook et Google auraient bloqué des contenus susceptibles de porter atteinte au régime actuel. [en savoir plus]

Renate Künast unterstützt vietnamesischen Journalisten Phạm Chí Dũng

01.12.2020 Renate Künast (Bundestag/Renate Künast) - Wenn in einem Land wie Vietnam, mit dem Deutschland umfassende, freundschaftliche Beziehungen pflegt, Grundrechte unter Druck geraten, verstehe sie es als ihre Pflicht, sich einzumischen, so die Bundestagsabgeordnete Renate Künast (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen). Als Vorsitzende der Parlamentariergruppe ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations, Zusammenschluss ostasiatischer Länder) im Deutschen Bundestag verfolge sie die politische und gesellschaftliche Entwicklung die Länder der Region, insbesondere den Grad der Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit in Vietnam. Seit August 2020 setzt sich Künast für den in Vietnam inhaftierten Journalisten und Menschenrechtsaktivisten Dr. Phạm Chí Dũng ein. [Weiterlesen]

Viet Nam: Tech giants complicit in industrial-scale repression

01.12.2020 (Amnesty International) - Tech giants Facebook and YouTube are allowing themselves to become tools of the Vietnamese authorities’ censorship and harassment of its population, in an alarming sign of how these companies could increasingly operate in repressive countries, a new report by Amnesty International reveals today.

The 78-page report, "Let us Breathe!”: Censorship and criminalization of online expression in Viet Nam”, documents the systematic repression of peaceful online expression in Viet Nam, including the widespread “geo-blocking” of content deemed critical of the authorities, all while groups affiliated to the government deploy sophisticated campaigns on these platforms to harass everyday users into silence and fear. [read more]

Microsoft links Vietnamese hackers to cryptomining malware campaign

01.12.2020 IANS New Delhi (Business Standard) - Microsoft has revealed that Vietnamese government-backed hackers are deploying cryptocurrency-mining malware alongside their regular cyber-espionage toolkits.

The report highlights a growing trend in the cyber-security industry where an increasing number of state-backed hacking groups are also dipping their toes into regular cybercrime operations, making it harder to distinguish financially-motivated crime from intelligence gathering operations. [read more]

Tech Giants Accused of ‘Industrial Scale’ Censorship in Vietnam

01.12.2020 By Sebastian Strangio (The Diplomat) - Facebook and YouTube are complicit in “censorship and repression on an industrial scale” in Vietnam – that’s the claim advanced in a new report by the rights group Amnesty International, which confirms and fleshes out previous reports about Vietnam’s increasingly assiduous attempts to extend its control over key social media networks.

The 78-page report, which was published on December 1, tracks a steep rise in the number of instances in which the two firms have acceded to government requests to censor “anti-state” content on their platforms. [read more]

Amnesty: Google und Facebook helfen Meinungsfreiheit in Vietnam zu beschneiden

01.12.2020 Von Andreas Wilkens (Heise) - Google und Facebook sind nach Meinung von Amnesty International Mitschuld an den staatlichen Einschränkungen der Informations- und Meinungsfreiheit in Vietnam. "Facebook und YouTube zensieren in Vietnam legitime freie Meinungsäußerungen, die den vietnamesischen Behörden nicht gefällt", sagte Markus N. Beeko, Amnesty-Generalsekretär in Deutschland. Sie machten sich "zu Handlangern der massiven Einschränkung der Meinungs- und Informationsfreiheit". Neben direkter Zensur versuchten auch regierungsnahe Gruppierungen die Nutzer:innen dieser Social-Media-Plattformen einzuschüchtern und zum Schweigen zu bringen. [Weiterlesen]

Facebook Complicit in Censoring Posts in Vietnam, According to Amnesty International

01.12.2020 By Frankie Lantican (Vice) - Facebook is complicit in a dramatic increase in censorship on the platform in Vietnam, Amnesty International said Tuesday, in a new report detailing a surge in people jailed for their social media post.

In the 78-page report, Amnesty compiled information from Facebook and Google as well as interviews with human rights activists. The organization found that Vietnam is currently holding 170 prisoners of conscience — the highest they’ve ever recorded. [read more]

Neuer macOS-Trojaner: Spuren führen nach Vietnam

30.11.2020 (t3n) - Sicherheitsforscher haben einen neuen macOS-Trojaner entdeckt. Dahinter könnte eine bekannte Cyber-Spionagegruppe stecken, die unter anderem vietnamesische Dissidenten in Deutschland und BMW ausspioniert hat.

Der Antiviren-Hersteller Trend Micro * hat einen bislang unbekannten macOS-Trojaner entdeckt. Aufgrund von Ähnlichkeiten im Code und Verhalten der Schadsoftware gehen die Sicherheitsforscher des Unternehmens davon aus, dass der Trojaner von einer Cyber-Spionagegruppe entwickelt wurde, die in Sicherheitskreisen als Ocean Lotus, APT-32 oder APC-C-00 bezeichnet wird. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnamese Dissident Writer Held in Mental Hospital

30.11.2020 (RFA) - Police in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi have transferred dissident writer and blogger Pham Thanh from the detention center where he has been held since May to a mental hospital in the town of Van Dien in Hanoi’s Than Tri district, according to his wife.

Pham Chi Thanh, also called Pham Thanh, was taken to the hospital on Nov. 24 after already seeing his stay in the detention camp extended by three months while awaiting trial, Thanh’s wife Nguyen Thi Nghiem told RFA on Monday. [read more]

Patenschaft für den Buddhisten Bui Van Tham aus Vietnam

26.11.2020 (Martin Patzelt) - Wegen der Verfolgung Andersgläubiger in Vietnam habe ich die Patenschaft für den buddhistischen  Hoa-Hao-Laienpriester Bui Van Tham, geb. 1987, im Patenschaftsprogramm des Deutschen Bundestages  „Parlamentarier schützen Parlamentarier (PsP )“ übernommen. Bui Van Tham verbüßt eine ungerechtfertigte Strafe im Xuyen Moc-Gefängnis. Seit 2005 hatten Bui Van Tham und sein Vater Bui Van Trung die Leitung der buddhistischen "Ut Trung Prayer Hall" in Hoa Hao inne. Das ist eine Hauskirche zum Lernen, Beten und Predigen über die  Hoa Hao-Schriften. Diese buddhistische  Gemeinschaft wird von der vietnamesischen Regierung als illegal betrachtet, da sie nicht offiziell bei den Behörden als Religionsgemeinschaft registriert ist. [Weiterlesen]

Jailed Vietnamese Activist is Denied Family Visits For Refusing to Wear Prison Garb

25.11.2020 (RFA) - Jailed Vietnamese activist Hoang Duc Binh is being refused family visits by prison authorities angered by his insistence on his innocence and refusal to wear prison uniform, Binh’s brother told RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Wednesday.

Binh’s brother Hoang Nguyen went on Tuesday to visit Binh at the An Diem Prison in in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam province, where he is serving a 14-year sentence on charges connected with environmental protests four years ago, Nguyen said. [read more]

Vietnam Tells Facebook: Yield to Censors or We'll Shut You Down, Source Says

20.11.2020 (VOA) - HANOI, VIETNAM - Vietnam has threatened to shut down Facebook in the country if it does not bow to government pressure to censor more local political content on its platform, a senior official at the U.S. social media giant told Reuters.

Facebook complied with a government request in April to significantly increase its censorship of "anti-state" posts for local users, but Vietnam asked the company again in August to step up its restrictions of critical posts, the official said. [read more]

Vietnam threatens to shut down Facebook over censorship requests–source

19.11.2020 (inquirer.net) - HANOI—Vietnam has threatened to shut down Facebook in the country if it does not bow to government pressure to censor more local political content on its platform, a senior official at the U.S. social media giant told Reuters.

Facebook complied with a government request in April to significantly increase its censorship of “anti-state” posts for local users, but Vietnam asked the company again in August to step up its restrictions of critical posts, the official said. [read more]

The religious persecution of governments is growing worldwide. China in first place

13.11.2020 (AsiaNews) - Washington – The persecution of religions is growing worldwide and, above all, persecution imposed by governments through various restrictions. Out of 198 governments surveyed, China ranks first, followed by Iran, Malaysia, Tajikistan and 21 other Asian nations.

These are the results that emerge from a study published on November 10 by the Pew Research Centre. Through 20 indicators, each country is assigned a score regarding the restrictions imposed by governments, the restrictions imposed by society, and finally a median score is obtained. [read more]

HCM City Authorities Prosecute Three Members of Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, Lengthy Imprisonments Expected

11.11.2020 (Defend The Defenders) - The People’s Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City has decided to prosecute three members of the unregistered professional group Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) named President Dr. Pham Chi Dung, Vice President Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and Mr. Le Huu Anh Tuan on the charge of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code.

According to their lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng, the trio will be tried per Clause 2 of the article with potential imprisonment of between ten years and 20 years if they are convicted. [read more]

One More Vietnamese Facebooker Arrested on Allegation of “Conducting Anti-state Propaganda”

10.11.2020 (Defend The Defenders) - Vietnam’s communist regime has arrested another Facebooker and accused him of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for his posts on the social network.

According to state-controlled media, police in the central province of Nghe An on November 6 arrested Mr. Nguyen Van Lam for his posts on his Facebook page named “Lâm Thời” with the content considered harmful for the regime. [read more]

Torture of Political Prisoners Continues in Vietnam

08.11.2020 (Asia Sentinel) - Despite signing onto UN protocols prohibiting it, Vietnam persists in persecution. The 88 Project, a US-based non-profit organization that monitors the Hanoi regime's efforts to repress free speech, presently counts some 249 political prisoners in Vietnam's jails. In a ground-breaking report issued on November 5, 88 Project staff provide details on torture treatment meted out to 19 prisoners during 2018-19 in flagrant violation of Vietnam's UNCAT commitments and the nation's own constitution. [read more]

Facebook slammed for blocking government-critical posts in Vietnam

01.11.2020 (The Star) - HANOI - (dpa): Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders on Friday night (Oct 31) accused Facebook of blocking posts in Vietnam containing links to German media articles critical of the government.

Vietnamese journalist Trung Khoa Le, who lives in Germany, contacted the group after four of his posts were blocked in Vietnam "due to local legal restrictions" in mid-October, according to a statement. [read more]

Auf Druck von Vietnam: Facebook sperrt Kritik an Regierung

25.10.2020 (BR) - Facebook betont immer wieder den Wert der Meinungsfreiheit. Doch das Beispiel eines vietnamesischen Bloggers zeigt: Das Unternehmen blockiert kritische Berichterstattung in Vietnam. Davon betroffen sind auch Recherchen des Bayerischen Rundfunks. [Weiterlesen]

#FreeThemAll: Pham Doan Trang

23.10.2020 (RSF) - Die Organisation Reporter ohne Grenzen hat die Behörden in Vietnam dazu aufgerufen, die Journalistin und Menschenrechtlerin Pham Doan Trang umgehend freizulassen. Trang, die als Gründerin des Online-Magazins Luât Khoa bekannt ist und als Redakteurin für die Webseite thevietnamese.org arbeitet, war am 6. Oktober in Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt festgenommen und in Untersuchungshaft gebracht worden. Kurz darauf wurde sie wegen „staatsfeindlicher Propaganda“ angezeigt. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnamese Facebooker Arrested, Accused of Disclosing State Secret Information

22.10.2020 (Defend the Defenders) - Authorities in Vietnam’s southern province of Dong Nai have arrested local resident Nguyen Quang Khai on the allegation of “Deliberate disclosure of classified information; appropriation, trading, destruction of classified documents” under Article 337 of the Criminal Code with potential imprisonment of between two and ten years.

According to the notice sent to his family dated October 21, the Security Investigation Agency of the Dong Nai province’s Police Department detained Mr. Khai in an urgent case for the act of copying and disseminating state secrets on his Facebook account Khai Nguyen. [read more]

Singer-Activist Nguyen Tin Forced to Move out of His Apartment under Pressure of Ho Chi Minh City Police

19.10.2020 (Defend the Defenders) - Activist Nguyen Tin who is a singer of patriotic songs has complained that the renting firm asks him to move out of his apartment under the request of Ho Chi Minh City’s police.

Tin said on October 15, his wife received a call from Quang Ninh province-based LHQ International Investment JSC which operates BEEHOME Building located in Tan Binh district, HCM City where Mr. Tin’s family is residing. A firm’s representative informed her that their family has to move out of their apartment within a week as the company was forced by the city’s authorities to cancel the three-month renting contract which was signed by the two sides less than a month ago due to security reasons stated by the local police. [read more]

“Law of the Jungle” for Pham Doan Trang

16.10.2020 Tuan Khanh, translated by Y Chan (The Vietnamese) - While combing through my notes about Pham Doan Trang, I recalled many details which only now have been connected together, which could make up a symbolic book depicting the journey of a young person, from growing up under the socialist educational system to breaking out of the barbed wire of propaganda. She raised her voice to become a symbol of Vietnamese youth born after 1975, who committed themselves to an ideology to help their country rise up.

Pham Doan Trang has always opted to fight for democracy in a peaceful manner through her writings. But the “law” that surrounds her is completely the opposite. [read more]

The Jailed Activist Left a Letter Behind. The Message: Keep Fighting

14.10.2020 By Richard C. Paddock (NYT) - BANGKOK — Pham Doan Trang was harassed for years by the Vietnamese police, and beaten. In a letter, she foretold her arrest and called for an end to one-party rule. The outspoken Vietnamese journalist and activist Pham Doan Trang knew it was only a matter of time before the police came for her.

She wrote a letter last year and gave it to an American friend with instructions to release it upon her arrest. In the letter, she asked that her friends not just campaign for her freedom but use her incarceration to fight for free elections and an end to single-party rule in Vietnam. [read more]

Vietnamese activist and journalist Pham Doan Trang arrested for ‘anti-state propaganda’

13.10.2020 (Global Voices) - Prominent Vietnamese activist and journalist Pham Doan Trang was arrested by the police on October 6 for charges related to “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code, and “making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code. She faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted.

Doan Trang authored the following books: Politics for the Common People, A Handbook for Families of Prisoners, On Non-Violent Resistance Techniques, Politics of a Police State and Citizen Journalism. [read more]

Le syndrome totalitaire vietnamien : pire que le virus Covid-19 de Wu Han

09.10.2020 (ActuaLitté) - La brave écrivaine, journaliste et éditrice indépendante Pham Doan Trang a été arrêtée au Viêt Nam, la veille de la clôture de la 45e session du Conseil des Droits de l'Homme des Nations Unies à Genève.

Aujourd’hui, brutalement mise en prison, Pham Doan Trang sera inculpée en vertu de l'article 117 du Code pénal pour « propagande contre l'État socialiste ». Si elle est reconnue coupable, elle encourt une peine maximale de 20 ans de prison. Pham Doan Trang était co-fondatrice et la rédactrice de la Revue dissidente Luât Khoa Tap Chi (Journal du Droit) et du site d’information indépendante The Vietnamese. Elle était également connue comme l’auteure et co-éditrice de la Maison d’Édition Libérale bannie par les autorités communistes. [en savoir plus]

Vietnam’s Arrest of a ‘Modern Legend’ - Longtime dissident tracked down in advance of party congress

09.10.2020 (Asia Sentinel) - To the many Vietnamese who don't subscribe unthinkingly to the version of truth uttered incessantly by their nation's state-supervised media, Pham Doan Trang, who was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on October 7 and accused of carrying out anti-state activities, is a modern legend.

She is a will of the wisp, a slight, soft-spoken woman with a guitar and a mission, who travels the length of Vietnam to talk about democracy and political decency. Politics for the People, a book Trang wrote a few years back to explain basic concepts of participatory democracy, is hugely popular among young Vietnamese; they photocopy it and pass it from friend to friend. The book doesn't preach revolution, exactly. With examples immediately relevant to Vietnamese readers, it explains how to exercise the rights that their nation's constitution accords them. [read more]

Vietnam arrests blogger after US talks

08.10.2020 (Taipei Times) - ‘SEEMED NERVOUS’: Pham Doan Trang anticipated problems with authorities before her arrest and shared a letter outlining the democratic goals she strives to accomplish.

Vietnam has arrested a prominent blogger and dissident for “anti-state activities” hours after its government held annual talks on human rights with the US, sources and international human rights groups said yesterday.

Pham Doan Trang, a writer who has published widely on human rights and alleged police brutality, was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City, charged with “making, storing, disseminating or propagandizing information, materials and products that aim to oppose the state of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” Human Rights Watch said. [read more]

‘Scorched Earth’: Vietnam Arrests Leading Dissident Activist and Blogger

08.10.2020 Sebastian Strangio (The Diplomat) - The late night arrest of the activist and writer Pham Doan Trang followed an annual human rights dialogue with U.S. officials.

Vietnam has arrested a prominent dissident journalist and human rights activist, just hours after holding its annual human rights dialogue with the United States.

According to reports, Pham Doan Trang was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City at 11.30pm on October 6, and has since been charged under Article 117 of the penal code for conducting “propaganda against the State.” If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The co-founder of the dissident blog Luat Khoa Tap Chi (Journal of Law), the 42-year-old has long been outspoken on a range of issues relating to human rights and democratic principles. [read more]

IWPR Condemns Arrest of Prominent Vietnamese Journalist - Pham Doan Trang detained hours after the annual US-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue

07.10.2020 By Anthony Borden (IWPR) - The timing was intended as a clear slap in the face for the human rights community. Just hours after the annual US-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue concluded on October 6, leading Vietnamese journalist and civil society activist Pham Doan Trang was detained by the authorities in Ho Chi Minh City.

Following her midnight arrest, she was swiftly charged under Article 117 with “making, storing, disseminating or propagandising information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”. Trang now faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years. [read more]

Prominent Vietnam dissident arrested on anti-state charges

07.10.2020 (Greenwich Time) - HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnamese authorities arrested a prominent dissident and blogger on Wednesday, hours after Vietnam and the United States finished an annual human rights dialogue.

State media said Pham Doan Trang was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City and accused of “producing, possessing and spreading documents and materials to oppose the state of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” [read more]

Vietnam detains activist hours after human rights meeting with US

07.10.2020 (Bangkok Post) - HANOI: Vietnam has arrested a prominent blogger and dissident for "anti-state activities" hours after its government held annual talks on human rights with the United States, sources and international human rights groups said on Wednesday.

Pham Doan Trang, a writer who has published widely on human rights and alleged police brutality, was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), charged with "making, storing, disseminating or propagandising information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam". [read more]

Prix Voltaire winner Pham Doan Trang arrested in Vietnam

07.10.2020 by Mark Chandler (The Bookseller) - Pham Doan Trang, a Vietnamese pro-democracy campaigner and co-founder of Liberal Publishing House, which won this year's Prix Voltaire, has been arrested for “anti-state propaganda”.

The publisher was detained in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday and charged with “making, storing, disseminating or propagandising information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam".  [read more]

RSF-Preisträgerin festgenommen

07.10.2020 (RSF) - Reporter ohne Grenzen (RSF) fordert die sofortige und bedingungslose Freilassung von Pham Doan Trang. Die vietnamesische Journalistin wurde am Dienstagabend wegen angeblicher „Propaganda gegen den Staat“ festgenommen. RSF hat Trang 2019 mit dem Press Freedom Award für besonders wirkungsvollen Journalismus ausgezeichnet.

„Die Festnahme von Pham Doan Trang ist das jüngste Beispiel für die Verfolgung kritischer Stimmen in Vietnam“, sagte RSF-Geschäftsführer Christian Mihr. [Weiterlesen]

Journalist Pham Doan Trang arrested on anti-state charges in Vietnam

07.10.2020 (CPJ) - Bangkok – Vietnamese authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Pham Doan Trang and drop anti-state charges against her, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Trang, a prominent journalist who contributes regularly to several independent news sites, was arrested just before midnight yesterday in Ho Chi Minh City, according to news reports. [read more]

RSF condemns Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang’s arrest

07.10.2020 (RSF) - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Pham Doan Trang, a Vietnamese journalist who was awarded the RSF Prize for Impact a year ago and who was arrested last night in Ho Chi Minh City.

"I don't want freedom just for myself, that's too easy. No, I want something greater – freedom for Vietnam,” Pham Doan Trang wrote in a letter in May 2019 with the intention that it should be made public in the event of her arrest. [read more]

Vietnam detains activist hours after human rights meeting with U.S

07.10.2020 by Reuters Staff (Reuters) - HANOI  - Vietnam has arrested a prominent blogger and dissident for “anti-state activities” hours after its government held annual talks on human rights with the United States, sources and international human rights groups said on Wednesday.

Pham Doan Trang, a writer who has published widely on human rights and alleged police brutality, was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City, according to Human Rights Watch, charged with “making, storing, disseminating or propagandising information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”. [read more]

Vietnam : arrestation d'une écrivaine et militante des droits de l'Homme

07.10.2020 (Le Figaro) - La militante est accusée de «fabriquer, rassembler et diffuser des informations (...) contre la république socialiste du Vietnam», selon le ministère de la Sécurité publique.

Les autorités vietnamiennes ont annoncé mercredi 7 octobre avoir arrêté une écrivaine de renom, militante pour la liberté de la presse et les droits civils, quelques heures après la tenue d'un dialogue annuel entre les États-Unis et le Vietnam sur les droits de l'Homme. [en savoir plus]

Vietnam Detains Activist Trang for Anti-Government Materials

07.10.2020 By Mai Ngoc Chau (Bloomberg) - Vietnamese blogger and democracy activist Pham Thi Doan Trang, 42, was detained on charges of creating, storing and spreading anti-government documents, the Ministry of Public Security said on its website.

The arrest came a few hours after the annual human rights dialog between the United States and Vietnam, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, said in an email statement. [read more]

Viet Nam: Human rights champion arrested, at grave risk of torture

07.10.2020 (Amnesty International) - Responding to the arrest of Pham Doan Trang, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns, Ming Yu Hah, said: “The arrest of Pham Doan Trang is reprehensible. She is a leading figure in the struggle for human rights in Viet Nam. She has inspired countless young activists to speak up for a more just, inclusive, and free Viet Nam. “Pham Doan Trang faces an imminent risk of torture and other-ill treatment at the hands of the Vietnamese authorities. She must be immediately and unconditionally released. [read more]

Prominente vietnamesische Bloggerin und Aktivistin festgenommen

07.10.2020 (DW) - Pham Doan Trang, unabhängige Journalistin und eine der bekanntesten Aktivistinnen Vietnams, wurde verhaftet, weil sie angeblich "gegen den Staat propagiert" hat. Menschenrechtsorganisationen verurteilen den Schritt.

Berichten zufolge wurde Pham Doan Trang  in der Nacht zum Mittwoch (Ortszeit) in Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt, dem wirtschaftlichen Zentrum Vietnams, festgenommen.  Die Festnahme erfolgte an demselben Tag, an dem Vietnam und die USA ihren 24. Jährlichen Menschenrechtsdialog abhielten, bei dem es auch um die Meinungsfreiheit geht. [Weiterlesen]

RSF condamne l’arrestation de la journaliste vietnamienne Pham Doan Trang

07.10.2020 (RSF) - Honorée il y a un an du prix RSF de l’impact, Pham Doan Trang a été arrêtée hier soir à Hô-Chi-Minh-Ville. Reporters sans frontières (RSF) exige sa libération immédiate et inconditionnelle.

“Je ne veux pas de liberté pour moi-même, ce serait trop facile. Non, je veux quelque chose de plus grand : la liberté pour le Vietnam.” C’est l’un des messages que la journaliste Pham Doan Trang a inscrit dans une lettre qu’elle a écrite en mai 2019, et qui avait vocation à être rendue publique au cas où elle fut arrêtée. [en savoir plus]

Pressemitteilung zur Übernahme der Patenschaft für Dr. Phạm Chí Dũng im Rahmen des PsP-Programms durch Renate Künast

07.10.2020 Renate Künast (FB renate.kuenast) - Dr. Phạm Chí Dũng ist Vorsitzender der Vereinigung der Unabhängigen Journalisten in Vietnam (IJAVN) und schreibt als freier Journalist für Medien in Vietnam und außerhalb. Trotz zahlreicher Verhaftungs- und Einschüchterungsversuche hat er sich unerschütterlich für die Menschenrechte eingesetzt.

Zuletzt hatte Dr. Dũng das Europäische Parlament mehrmals und nachdrücklich dazu aufgerufen, das EU-Vietnam Freihandelsabkommen nicht ohne Freilassung von politischen Gefangenen und konkrete Verbesserung der Menschenrechtslage in Vietnam zuzustimmen. [Weiterlesen]

Trinh Ba Phuong: A video portrait of a Vietnamese land rights activist

05.10.2020 (Global Voices) - Trinh Ba Phuong shared his story in his own words, shortly before he was arrested

This interview with land rights activist Trinh Ba Phuong was conducted shortly before his June 2020 arrest. This intimate video covers a variety of topics, ranging from his background to his relationship with his wife – “She’s very caring. And she doesn’t know how to lie,” he jokes – to his dreams and aspirations for Vietnam. [read more]

Droits humains au Vietnam : la situation fait froid dans le dos

25.09.2020 Saskia Bricmont (saskiabricmont.eu) - Vous vous souviendrez peut-être que le premier gros dossier qui m’a été confié dans la commission du commerce international fut l’accord de libre-échange entre l’UE et le Vietnam ? Mes critiques de l’accord se fondaient essentiellement sur la situation sur le plan des droits humains : entre la non-exécution par la Commission d’une analyse des impacts potentiels sur les libertés syndicales, la liberté de la presse, le respect des croyances et religions (alors que le Parlement européen avait adopté une résolution forte sur la question des prisonniers politiques et de conscience !), et l’arrestations de bloggers et du président de l’Association de Journalistes indépendants durant la dernière ligne droite des négociations… Les « ratés » se sont accumulés. [en savoir plus]

Pastor und Kämpfer für Glaubensfreiheit freigelassen

25.09.2020 (idea) - Hanoi/Washington – Der vietnamesische Pastor A Dao ist am 18. September vorzeitig aus der Haft entlassen worden. Das bestätigte die US-Kommission für Internationale Religionsfreiheit (Washington).

Der evangelische Christ setzt sich für Religionsfreiheit in seinem Heimatland ein. Dao gehört der ethnischen Minderheit der Montagnards in den Bergregionen Zentralvietnams an. Der 39-Jährige leitet die „Montagnard Evangelikale Kirche Christi“. Im August 2016 kehrte der Gemeindeleiter aus Timor Leste (Osttimor) von einer Konferenz über Religionsfreiheit zurück und wurde kurz darauf verhaftet. Die Behörden warfen ihm offiziell illegale Fluchthilfe ins Ausland vor, was Dao zurückwies. Am 27. April 2017 verurteilte ein Gericht den Pastor zu fünf Jahren Gefängnis. [Weiterlesen]

US Lawmaker ‘Adopts’ Jailed Vietnamese Journalist as Prisoner of Conscience

25.09.2020 (RFA) - U.S. Congressman Alan Lowenthal announced on Friday that he has officially adopted Vietnamese journalist Nguyen Van Hoa, an RFA contributor jailed for seven years in Vietnam, as a prisoner of conscience under the Defending Freedoms Project, a project of the congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.

“I am proud to adopt Nguyen Van Hoa as a prisoner of conscience,” Lowenthal said in a Sept. 25 statement released by the California representative’s office". [read more]

Vietnamese Political Prisoners Stage Hunger Strike

24.09.2020 (RFA) - Three detained activists in Vietnam are said to have recently begun a hunger strike to protest conditions in prison, sources in the country told RFA.

According to the wife of one of the activists, the three prisoners in the Xuan Loc detention camp in Vietnam’s southeastern Dong Nai province began their strike Sept. 5 to call attention to human rights violations there. [read more]

Vietnamese pastor released from prison after more than 4 years behind bars

22.09.2020 by Kelly Valencia (Premier Christian News) - Pastor A Dao was arrested in 2016 while on his way to visit some members of his church, having just attended a religious freedom conference, according to persecution watchdog Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).  His family was not informed of his arrest and heard nothing from him for five days. Pastor A Dao was then sentenced to five years in prison for illegally smuggling people to Thailand, a charge he has denied. His release comes as a surprise as he was not expected to be given freedom until August 2021. Meanwhile, Pastor A Dao’s church has experienced ongoing harassment from the authorities. [read more]

Vietnam: la force dans la persécution

19.09.2020 (Portes Ouvertes) - Comment la persécution a renforcé l’Église au Vietnam? Le pasteur Ngoc répond.

Ngoc (pseudonyme) est un chrétien courageux qui a lui-même vécu une intense persécution de la part du gouvernement. Il dirige aujourd’hui une église florissante.

Ngoc revient sur l’histoire récente du christianisme au Vietnam: «Dans les années 70, après la guerre, le gouvernement ne voulait pas que l'Église se développe, notamment parce que les Occidentaux avaient introduit le christianisme dans le pays. De peur de perdre le contrôle de la situation, les autorités ont emprisonné des pasteurs et des responsables chrétiens pendant au moins deux ans. D'autres, comme moi, ont été envoyés à plusieurs reprises dans des camps de rééducation. [en savoir plus]

Vietnamese Police Detain Man for Facebook Criticism of Government in Land Rights Case

18.09.2020 (RFA) - Authorities in Vietnam have arrested a Facebook user for sharing his grievances about how the local government has handled a dispute over his family’s land, RFA has learned.

Le Van Hai, from Binh Dinh province in the country’s South Central Coast region was charged with “abusing freedom and democratic rights to infringe upon the interests of the state” under Article 33 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code. [read more]

Vietnam: Statement by the Spokesperson on two death sentences

18.09.2020 (EEAS) - On 14 September 2020, the Hanoi People’s Court handed down death sentences to defendants Le Dinh Cong and Le Dinh Chuc over their involvement in the tragic confrontation between civilians and security forces at Dong Tam commune on 9 January 2020.

The European Union is opposed to the use of capital punishment in all forms and under all circumstances, and consistently calls for its universal abolition. Reports about the conditions and proceedings of the trial also raise serious concerns. [read more]

Conflit foncier. Au Vietnam, la peine de mort prononcée contre deux villageois

15.09.2020 (Yahoo Actualités) - Deux frères habitants de Dong Tam ont été reconnus coupables dans le meurtre de trois policiers en janvier. Leur père avait été tué peu avant par les forces de l’ordre dans un affrontement lié à un ancien conflit foncier.

Deux habitants du village de Dong Tam ont été condamnés à la peine de mort le lundi 14 septembre par un tribunal de Hanoï suite à leur implication dans la mort de trois policiers, en janvier dernier, durant un affrontement entre villageois et forces de l’ordre dans le cadre d’un conflit foncier, annonce l’agence officielle vietnamienne Vietnamnews agency. [en savoir plus]

Justiz in Vietnam : Todesurteile bei Landkonflikt

15.09.2020 Marina Mai (taz) - BERLIN - In Hanoi hat ein Volksgericht am Montag zwei Brüder zum Tode und 27 weitere Angeklagte zu langen Haft- und Bewährungsstrafen verurteilt. Alle sind Bauern des Dorfes Dong Tam im Speckgürtel der vietnamesischen Hauptstadt.

Die Verurteilten hatten sich im Januar den Behörden widersetzt. Als eine Sondereinheit der Polizei nachts mit mehreren tausend Mann in das Dorf einrückte, um die Bewohner zu vertreiben, starben drei Polizisten und der Dorfvorsteher.

Die Bauern sollen auch die Leichen verbrannt haben. Doch ein wissenschaftliches Gutachten, das ein Absolvent einer technischen DDR-Hochschule aus eigenem Antrieb fertigte, kam zu dem Ergebnis, dass es unmöglich war, durch ein temporäres kleines Feuer drei Leichen so zu verbrennen, dass nur noch Asche übrig blieb. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnam’s Dong Tam Incident: the Curtain Falls

14.09.2020 By David Brown (Asia Sentinel) - The verdicts have been handed down in the Dong Tam Incident, a brief but bloody clash between police and a persistently oppositional band of Vietnamese farmers. After a week of testimony, cross-examination, apologies, and pleas for clemency, on September 14 the Hanoi City People's Court found all 29 defendants guilty in various ways of resisting state authority. Two have been sentenced to death, another to life imprisonment, and the rest to lesser terms.

The guilty verdict was no surprise. This was a show trial ordained and orchestrated by the institutions of the Vietnamese state. [read more]

Dong Tam case: Two sentenced to death in Vietnam over police killings

14.09.2020 (BBC) - A court in Vietnam has sentenced two brothers to death for their role in the killing of three policemen in a notorious land dispute in January.

The other 27 people on trial were given sentences ranging from life imprisonment to 15 months suspended.

Le Dinh Cong and his younger brother Le Dinh Chuc helped mastermind resistance against the police, the court ruled. [read more]

Vietnamese Police Detain Man for Facebook Criticism of Government in Land Rights Case

14.09.2020 (RFA) - Authorities in Vietnam have arrested a Facebook user for sharing his grievances about how the local government has handled a dispute over his family’s land, RFA has learned.

Le Van Hai, from Binh Dinh province in the country’s South Central Coast region was charged with “abusing freedom and democratic rights to infringe upon the interests of the state” under Article 33 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code. [read more]

MENSCHENRECHTE - Vietnam: Drakonische Strafen nach Protesten von Dorfbewohnern

14.09.2020 (evangelisch.de) - Frankfurt a.M., Hanoi (epd). Ein vietnamesisches Gericht hat mehrere Bewohner eines Dorfes wegen des Mordes an Polizisten zu drakonischen Strafen verurteilt. Zwei der insgesamt 29 Angeklagten erhielten die Todesstrafe, wie Human Rights Watch mitteilte. Weitere vier Bewohner der nordvietnamesischen Ortschaft Dong Tam müssen zwischen zwölf Jahren und lebenslänglich ins Gefängnis.

Human Rights Watch kritisierte die Urteile scharf: "Wie alle Gerichte in Vietnam ist dieses Tribunal in Hanoi alles andere als unabhängig, da es von der regierenden kommunistischen Partei vorab festgelegte Urteile fällen muss", erklärte der Vize-Asienchef der Organisation, Phil Robertson. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnam begins trial of 29 villagers in deadly land dispute

07.09.2020 (Daily Mail) - HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - A Vietnamese court on Monday began the trial of 29 villagers accused of involvement in a deadly clash with police over a land dispute, state media reported.

State broadcaster VTV said 25 of the defendants are accused of murdering three policemen using grenades, firebombs and spears as the authorities advanced on Dong Tam village in the suburbs of Hanoi in January, and could face the death penalty.

The police were trying to stop the villagers from blocking the building of a wall around a military airport on land they said belonged to the village. [read more]

Vietnam cracks down on minorities amid pandemic

04.09.2020 Kasthuri Patto (The Jakarta Post) - Vietnam’s actions during the first wave were globally praised from a public health perspective. But Vietnam used other countries’ preoccupation with the pandemic to deepen its own rights crackdown, using its strong system of surveillance.

In one instance, in March, at the height of concern about the COVID -19 pandemic, Vietnamese authorities arrested three leaders of the unregistered religious group named Ha Mon in the Jo Mong mountain region in Gai Lai province. Forced to live in the forest for the last eight years, they now face lengthy imprisonment for the allegation of ‘’sabotaging implementation of solidarity policies’’ under Article 116 of the Penal Code. [read more]

NGOs Call on UN to Press Vietnam for a Fair Trial in Dong Tam Case

04.09.2020 (RFA) - Eleven civil society organizations called on the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council in an open letter on Friday to condemn next week’s trial in Vietnam of 29 villagers detained after a deadly land clash near Hanoi, saying the group had only tried to defend their property against a government land grab.

During the past nine months following the arrest of the Dong Tam villagers, none of them have been allowed to see their families, said the letter addressed to U.N. Ambassador Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger, president of the Council, and signed by Reporters Without Borders, Brotherhood for Democracy, Viet Tan, and other human rights and democracy advocacy groups. [read more]

Dong Tam, 29 Vietnamese who had their lands expropriated on trial

27.08.2020 (Asia News) - Hanoi- The village lands were seized for military, industrial and real estate speculation purposes. The village elder in clashes with the police. But his death is attributed to relatives, who participated in the revolt against the police.

A group of 29 people from the village of Dong Tam (less than 40 km south of Hanoi) will be tried on 7 September for an incident linked to the expropriation of their lands. [read more]

Father of Vietnamese Hunger Striker Turned Away, Threatened by Police

27.08.2020 (RFA) - The father of a Vietnamese prisoner awaiting trial for his role in a deadly clash over land rights outside Hanoi was turned away by camp police after asking about the condition of his son, who has been on hunger strike for over 20 days, sources said on Wednesday.

Trinh Ba Khiem, father of detained activist Trinh Ba Tu, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Aug. 26 that he had only recently learned that his son had stopped eating. [read more]

Hopes and fears for religious freedom in Vietnam

20.08.2020 by James W. Carr and Rep. Glenn Grothman (The Hill) - ... Religious leaders provide spiritual nourishment and guidance to believers. They are also often called to speak out on issues that impact their community. One such leader is A Dao, a member of the Montagnard ethnic group and pastor of the Evangelical Church of Christ (ECC) in Gia Xieng village, Kontum Province of Vietnam. on Aug. 18, 2016, Pastor A Dao was arrested and, on April 28, 2017, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for allegedly “helping individuals to escape abroad illegally.” [read more]

Vietnamese blogger Truong Duy Nhat’s 10-year jail sentence upheld on appeal

17.08.2020 (CPJ) - Bangkok, August 17, 2020 –  A court in Hanoi upheld Vietnamese blogger Truong Duy Nhat’s 10-year prison sentence in a one-day hearing on August 14, according to news reports and CPJ’s communication with the journalist’s family.

“Vietnamese authorities should halt all legal action against Truong Duy Nhat and release him from prison immediately,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “As long as Vietnam jails journalists on spurious charges, the international community will not view the communist regime as a credible actor and partner.” [read more]

Thiên An Huế monks threatened and humiliated by People's Committee, Cross Hill seized

17.08.2020 by Tran Hung (AsiaNews) - At least 50 gangsters, thugs and local officials have seized some of the monastery's land. Some went inside the cloister, disturbing the monks' prayers and life. "Red capitalists" use violence, abductions and communist ideology to make life for the monks impossible in order to force them out. The latter have appealed to the authorities, foreign embassies, and human rights organisations. [read more]

Vietnam Appeals Court Upholds 10-Year Sentence for RFA Blogger

14.08.2020 (RFA) - A court in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi on Friday upheld the 10-year sentence imposed earlier this year on an RFA blogger in what he has called a case of political persecution against him, rejecting his appeal and sending him back to prison to serve his full term, his lawyer told RFA.

Truong Duy Nhat, who had been a weekly contributor to RFA’s Vietnamese Service before his abduction in Thailand by police in January 2019, spoke during Friday’ hearing and disclosed new details of his arrest and how he was spirited from Thailand to Vietnam through Laos, the lawyer said. [read more]

Open Letter – Vietnam: Immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Nguyễn Bắc Truyển

13.08.2020 (APHR) - We, the undersigned parliamentarians from around the world, have the honour to write to Your Excellency to request that Your Excellency take all the necessary measures to secure the immediate and unconditional release of religious freedom advocate, Mr. Nguyễn Bắc Truyển, and to allow all independent religious organisations in Viet Nam to freely conduct religious activities without fear of persecution, harassment and imprisonment....

As the current Chair of ASEAN, we urge Your Excellency to show exemplary leadership in the region by guaranteeing the fundamental freedoms of its people and ensuring that its laws and policies are coherent with its international human rights obligations and the spirit of a people-centered, people-oriented ASEAN. [read more]

The Conviction of Eight Members of the Hien Phap Group in Vietnam

13.08.2020 (US Department of State) - The U.S. government is deeply concerned about the Vietnam’s conviction and sentencing of eight members of the Hien Phap civil society organization in Vietnam to more than 40 years in prison.

Although we have seen the Government of Vietnam take some positive steps on human rights in certain areas in Vietnam over the past few years, we are troubled about the growing trend of arrests of and harsh sentences for peaceful activists since early 2016.  The United States calls on Vietnam to release all those who have been unjustly detained and to allow all individuals in Vietnam to express their views freely, without fear of retaliation. [read more]

Vietnam: Benediktinermönche bedroht

13.08.2020 (Vatican News) - Benediktinermönche der Abtei Thien An sind am vergangenen Montag und Dienstag tätlich angegriffen worden.

Eine Gruppe Menschen warf Steine auf die Ordensleute und verlangte die Rückgabe des Landes. Hintergrund sind Streitigkeiten um den Landbesitz der Abtei. Das Gebiet war vor Jahrzehnten vom Staat zwangsenteignet worden. Das Grundstück, auf dem die Abtei und etwas Wald stehen, wurde aber restituiert. [Weiterlesen]

Dozens Gather at Catholic Monastery in Vietnam to Demand Church ‘Return’ Commune Land

12.08.2020 (RFA) - Protesters including police in plain clothes gathered in large numbers this week at a Catholic monastery in north-central Vietnam’s Thua Thien Hue province to demand the “return” of land from the parish church, where another mob had torn down a large cross three years ago, sources said.

Describing themselves as “spontaneous” groups, the protesters crowded the monastery’s Cross Hill on Aug. 10 and 11, demanding land used for decades by the monastery, though a local priest said the move may have been sparked instead by the recent placement of a memorial to the cross that was destroyed. [read more]

#FreeThemAll: Ngo Van Dung

12.08.2020 (ROG) - Die Organisation Reporter ohne Grenzen hat die vietnamesischen Behörden dazu aufgefordert, die Freilassung des Journalisten Ngo Van Dung zu veranlassen. Nach fast zwei Jahren in „Untersuchungshaft“ war Ngo Van Dung Ende Juli dieses Jahres wegen der angeblichen „Planung von Protesten“ zu einer fünfjährigen Haftstrafe verurteilt worden. Das zuständige Gericht in Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt sprach darüber hinaus eine anschließende zweijährige Haftstrafe auf Bewährung wegen „Unruhestiftung“ gegen den Journalisten aus. [read more]

Au Vietnam, la liberté d'expression mise en péril

05.08.2020 Antoine Oury (ActuaLitté) - Plusieurs organisations internationales, dont Amnesty, PEN America ou encore l'Union internationale des éditeurs, dénoncent l'attitude des autorités vietnamiennes face à la liberté d'expression. Après les menaces adressées à l'autrice Pham Doan Trang et les arrestations de plusieurs activistes, elles appellent l'État à respecter les engagements qu'il a pris dans les traités internationaux.

Un collectif d'organisations somme les autorités vietnamiennes de mettre un terme aux « attaques contre les médias indépendants et les dissidents », pour plutôt « protéger et appliquer les droits en matière d'expression, d'opinion et d'information ». Parmi ces organisations internationales, PEN America, qui lutte pour la liberté d'expression dans le monde, Amnesty International et l'Union internationale des éditeurs (IPA). [en savoir plus]

Vietnamese journalist Ngo Van Dung gets five years in prison

03.08.2020 (Reporters sans frontières) - In view of the flimsiness of the prosecution case against him, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of Ngo Van Dung, a journalist and member of a Vietnamese press freedom collective who has just been given a long jail term for alledgedly planning protests.

After nearly two years in pre-trial detention, Ngo Van Dung was finally tried and sentenced by a court in Ho Chi Minh City on 31 July to five years in prison followed by two years on probation on a charge of “disturbing security” under article 118 of Vietnam’s 2015 penal code. He has been held ever since his arrest on 4 September 2018. [read more]

Le reporter vietnamien Ngô Van Dung condamné à cinq ans de prison

03.08.2020 (Reporters sans frontières) - Journaliste et membre d’un collectif de défense de la liberté de la presse, Ngô Van Dung est accusé d’avoir voulu fomenter un mouvement de protestation. Compte tenu de l'inconsistance des actes d’accusation, Reporters sans frontières (RSF) demande sa libération immédiate.

Il aura passé près de deux ans en détention provisoire, avant qu’une peine lui soit finalement infligée. Le journaliste Ngô Van Dung a été condamné, le 31 juillet, à cinq ans de prison et deux ans de mise à l’épreuve par un tribunal de Hô-Chi-Minh-Ville pour “atteinte à la sécurité”, au motif de l'article 118 du Code pénal de 2015. Il avait été arrêté par la police le 4 septembre 2018. [en savoir plus]

Vietnamesische Behörden verhaften vier Aktivisten für Landrechte

02.08.2020 Geschrieben von Loa, Übersetzt von Hans H. Knauf (Global Voices) - Vietnams Vorgehen gegen Aktivisten bringt vier weitere Stimmen zum Schweigen.

Am frühen Morgen des 24. Juni kündigte der Landrechtsaktivist Trịnh Bá Phương in einem auf Facebook veröffentlichten Video seine bevorstehende Verhaftung an.

Die Sicherheitspolizei brach gewaltsam in das Eigentum von Phương ein und verhaftete ihn kurz darauf. Am selben Tag verhafteten die Behörden seine Mutter, Cấn Thị Thêu, seinen Bruder, Trịnh Bá Tư, und einen weiteren Aktivisten, Nguyễn Thị Tâm. Alle vier Aktivisten äußerten sich offen über die Ausschreitungen in Đồng Tâm im Januar, als die Sicherheitspolizei in das Haus eines älteren Dorfoberhauptes eindrang und ihn tötete. [Weiterlesen]

Autoridades vietnamitas arrestan a cuatro activistas de derechos de tierras

20.07.2020 Escrito por Loa, Traducido por Gabriela Garcia Calderon Orbe (Global Voices) - La represión de Vietnam contra los activistas ha callado otras cuatro voces.

En las primeras horas de la mañana del 24 de junio, el activista de derechos de tierras Trịnh Bá Phương narró su inminente arresto en un video publicado en Facebook.

Policías de seguridad irrumpieron en la propiedad de Phương y lo arrestaron poco después. Ese mismo día, las autoridades arrestaron a su madre, Cấn Thị Thêu, su hermano, Trịnh Bá Tư, y otro activista, Nguyễn Thị Tâm. [seguir leyendo]

Detained Vietnamese Blogger Beaten, Forcibly Injected

16.07.2020 (RFA) - A Vietnamese blogger held in a psychiatric hospital while awaiting trial for criticizing Vietnam’s one-party communist state in postings online has been beaten, tied to his bed, and forcibly injected for refusing to take medication for his supposed mental illness, Vietnamese sources say.

Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent has deteriorated sharply this year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists and Facebook personalities, and activists say things are likely to get worse in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party congress in January. [read more]

De la prisión al exilio: Entrevista con la activista vietnamita Tran Thi Nga

14.07.2020 Escrito por The 88 Project, Traducido por Marta Capua (Global Voices) - The 88 Project tuvo la oportunidad de entrevistar a la exprisionera política Tran Thi Nga sobre su experiencia y las condiciones para mujeres y niños en prisión.

Tran Thi Nga fue liberada en enero e inmediatamente fue enviada al exilio en Estados Unidos. Pasó en la cárcel casi tres años de los nueve a los que fue condenada por su activismo en derechos laborales y de la tierra. [seguir leyendo]

Acclaimed Vietnam Journalist Pham Doan Trang Quits Publishing House After Harassment

10.07.2020 (RFA) - Outspoken Vietnamese journalist and author Pham Doan Trang has withdrawn from an independent publisher of books on politics because of intense harassment by police over her work and the abduction and abuse of colleagues, she told RFA on Friday.

The Liberal Publishing House was founded in Ho Chi Minh City in February 2019 by a group of dissidents who wanted to challenge the authoritarian, one-party government’s control of the publishing industry. Later that year, the government launched a targeted campaign aimed at shutting down the publisher and intimidating its writers and associates. [read more]

Vom Gefängnis ins Exil: Ein Interview mit der vietnamesischen Aktivistin Tran Thi Nga

10.07.2020 Geschrieben von The 88 Project, Übersetzt von Hans H. Knauf (Global Voices) - Sie haben ihr bei einem Angriff die Knochen gebrochen, aber nie ihren Geist.

Das Project 88 (Projekt 88) hatte die Gelegenheit, die ehemalige politische Gefangene Tran Thi Nga über ihre Erfahrungen im Gefängnis und die Haftbedingungen für Frauen und Kinder zu interviewen.

Tran Thi Nga wurde im Januar aus dem Gefängnis entlassen und sofort ins Exil in die Vereinigten Staaten geschickt. Zum Zeitpunkt ihrer Freilassung hatte sie drei Jahre der neunjährigen Gefängnisstrafe wegen ihres Aktivismus für Land- und Arbeitsrechte abgesessen. [Weiterlesen]

Sozialismus "verunglimpft": Vietnamese zu acht Jahren Haft verurteilt

07.07.2020 (Kurier) - Das Gericht hat die pro-demokratischen Facebook-Postings des Mannes als Gefahr für die Gesellschaft eingestuft.

So geht Sozialismus: In Vietnam ist ein Facebook-Nutzer wegen pro-demokratischer Äußerungen am Dienstag zu acht Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Nguyen Quoc Duc Vuong habe die Kommunistische Partei und den Sozialismus als solches in seinen Videos und rund 366 geteilten Artikeln "verunglimpft", meldete die staatliche Nachrichtenagentur Vietnams VNA.

Das Gericht in der zentralvietnamesischen Provinz Lam Dong habe sein Verhalten als Gefahr für die Gesellschaft eingestuft. Vuong selbst erklärte sich in dem Schnellverfahren für unschuldig. Er habe keine anti-staatliche Propaganda verbreitet, sondern lediglich seine Meinung geäußert. [Weiterlesen]

Facebook-Nutzer in Vietnam zu acht Jahren Haft verurteilt

07.07.2020 (DerStandard) - Urteil wegen angeblicher Verleumdung führender Politiker.

In Vietnam ist ein Facebook-Nutzer wegen pro-demokratischer Äußerungen am Dienstag zu acht Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Nguyen Quoc Duc Vuong habe die Kommunistische Partei und den Sozialismus als solches in seinen Videos und rund 366 geteilten Artikeln "verunglimpft", meldete die staatliche Nachrichtenagentur Vietnams VNA.

Das Gericht in der zentralvietnamesischen Provinz Lam Dong habe sein Verhalten als Gefahr für die Gesellschaft eingestuft. Vuong selbst erklärte sich in dem Schnellverfahren für unschuldig. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnam jails Facebook user for 8 years over 'anti-state' posts

07.07.2020 (Bangkok Post) - HANOI: A court in Vietnam on Tuesday sentenced a man to eight years in prison after finding him guilty of uploading anti-state posts on his Facebook account, the security ministry said.

Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and tolerates little criticism.

Nguyen Quoc Duc Vuong, 29, was charged with "making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the state" at a one-day trial in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, the Ministry of Public Security said in a news release. [read more]

Vietnam.- Condenados a prisión en Vietnam cuatro activistas políticos

07.07.2020 (notimérica) - HANÓI - Los tribunales de Vietnam han condenado a distintas penas de prisión a tres activistas políticos por un supuesto intento de derrocar al Gobierno y a otro activista defensor de la democracia por difundir propaganda contraria a las instituciones del Estado, según han informado grupos de defensa de los Derechos Humanos y la prensa estatal. Nguyen Quoc Duc Vuong ha sido sentenciado a ocho años de prisión este martes tras haber expresado su apoyo a la llegada de la democracia a Vietnam y después de haber criticado al Gobierno vietnamita por la corrupción. [seguir leyendo]

Vietnam : un jeune internaute condamné à huit ans de prison pour ses opinions démocrates

07.07.2020 (RTBF) - Un jeune Vietnamien accusé d'avoir "diffamé" les dirigeants de son pays en faisant état de ses opinions pro-démocratie sur Facebook a été condamné à huit ans de prison mardi, après un procès-éclair dénoncé par des militants des droits de l'homme.

Nguyen Quoc Duc Vuong, âgé de 29 ans, a été arrêté en septembre dernier après avoir exprimé son soutien à la démocratie au Vietnam et partagé des informations sur les manifestations pro-démocratie de Hong Kong, selon Human Rights Watch. [en savoir plus]

Vietnam condena a tres activistas a 19 años de prisión por intentar "derrocar" al Gobierno

07.07.2020 (infobae) - Vietnam.- Tres activistas vietnamitas miembros de un grupo político subversivo calificado de organización terrorista en Hanói han sido condenados este martes a 19 años de prisión entre todos por participar en actividades destinadas a "derrocar" al Gobierno de Vietnam, según ha informado la prensa del país.

Según la sentencia, los tres condenados hicieron circular y "popularizaron" información que distorsiona la historia del país, niega el papel del Partido Comunista, difama a los líderes vietnamitas e insta a unirse a organizaciones subversivas. [seguir leyendo]

Vietnamese authorities arrest four land rights activists

07.07.2020 (Global Voices) - Vietnam's crackdown on activists has silenced four more voices.

In the early morning of June 24, land rights activist Trịnh Bá Phương narrated his impending arrest in a video posted to Facebook.

Both uniformed and plainclothes police are surrounding my house. It is 5:30 am. I think they are going to arrest me today. [read more]

Vietnam Sentences Three Members of Exile Group to 19 Years Total for Spreading ‘Propaganda’

06.07.2020 (RFA) - A Vietnamese court on Monday sentenced three members of an exile group Hanoi calls a terrorist organization to a total of 19 years in jail for sharing information critical of the government.

Dang Toan Trung, 68, of Bac Lieu province was handed a seven-year prison term, while Tran Thi Anh Hoa, 57, of Da Nang and Dang Quang Khanh, 56, of Ho Chi Minh City were sentenced to six years each by the Lam Dong provincial People’s Court. [read more]

Defend the Defenders’ Latest Statistics: Vietnam Holds 276 Prisoners of Conscience

03.07.2020 (Defend the Defenders) - According to Defend the Defenders’ statistics, as of June 30, 2020, Vietnam’s communist regime is holding at least 276 prisoners of conscience in prisons or other forms of detention. The number does not include Mr. Ngo Hao (m) who is in sentence suspension for medical treatment and Nguyen Trung Linh (m) and Le Anh Hung (m) who are forcibly committed in mental hospitals without judicial process. The list includes female activist Huynh Thuc Vy who is convicted and sentenced but under house arrest in maternal period, American citizen Michael Minh Phuong Nguyen (m) convicted of conducting “attempts to overthrow the government” under Article 109 of the country’s 2015 Criminal Code, and Australian citizen Chau Van Kham (m) found guilty of terrorism under Article 113 of the code. [read more]

Vietnam geht verstärkt gegen Kritiker vor

02.07.2020 Rodion Ebbighausen (DW) - Im Vorfeld des Kongress der regierenden KP in Vietnam verhaften und drangsalieren Sicherheitsorgane Kritiker und Dissidenten. Deutschland und die EU haben mit dem Freihandelsabkommen die Möglichkeit Druck auszuüben.

Einen ganzen Tag und eine ganze Nacht war Bui Thi Kim Phuong im Bus unterwegs, um ihren Mann wenigstens eine knappe Stunde im Gefängnis von An Diem in der zentralvietnamesischen Provinz Quang Nam besuchen zu dürfen. "Wir saßen einen Meter voneinander entfernt, getrennt durch eine vergitterte Glasscheibe. Wir durften uns nicht berühren, wurden von acht Polizisten und einer Kamera überwacht. Das Gespräch führten wir über eine Sprechanlage." [Weiterlesen]

De la prison à l'exil : entretien avec l'activiste vietnamienne Tran Thi Nga

01.07.2020 Ecrit par The 88 Project, Traduit par Jade Dussart (Global Voices) - The 88 Project a eu l'opportunité d'interviewer l'ancienne prisonnière politique Tran Thi Nga, qui revient pour eux sur son expérience carcérale et sur les conséquences que peut avoir la prison sur les femmes et leurs enfants.

Tran Thi Nga a été libérée de prison en janvier 2020 et immédiatement forcée de s'exiler aux États-Unis. Elle avait alors purgé environ un tiers de la peine de neuf ans qui avait été prononcée à son encontre en raison de son activisme en faveur des droits fonciers et des travailleurs. [en savoir plus]

From prison to exile: An interview with Vietnamese activist Tran Thi Nga

26.06.2020 Written by The 88 Project (Global Voices) - They broke her bones in one attack, but never her spirit.

The 88 Project had the opportunity to interview former political prisoner Tran Thi Nga about her experience in prison and conditions in prison for women and children.

Tran Thi Nga was released from prison in January and was immediately sent into exile in the United States. She was about three years into a nine-year prison sentence for her activism on land and labor rights when she was released. [read more]

Vietnam Indicts 25 Dong Tam Protesters on Murder-Related Charges

26.06.2020 (RFA) - Authorities in Vietnam indicted 25 people on murder-related charges for their involvement in a deadly clash over land rights that left three police officers and a protest leader dead, in January at the Dong Tam commune outside Hanoi.

Dong Tam village elder Le Dinh Kinh, 84, was shot and killed by police during the Jan. 9 raid on the village by 3,000 security officers intervening in a long-running dispute over a military airport construction site about 25 miles south of the capital. [read more]

Vietnamese family held after speading news of deadly land dispute

25.06.2020 (CNA) - HANOI: Four members of a Vietnamese family who spread news online about a deadly land dispute have been arrested, authorities said Thursday (Jun 25), as the communist government cracks down on dissent ahead of its party congress.

Vietnam's authoritarian rulers typically move swiftly to muzzle critics and dissidents posting online, and the run-up to a leadership transition in January poses an especially tense period for the paranoid state.

A hardline government that took power during the last such meeting has moved swiftly to stamp out dissent and arrest critics, and a number of high-profile journalists and other activists have been arrested in recent months. [read more]

Estrategias de censura opacan la exitosa respuesta de Vietnam contra el COVID-19

23.06.2020 Escrito por The 88 Project, Traducido por Romina Navarro (Global Voices) - La pandemia dio una oportunidad única al estado policial para endurecer controles.

Vietnam se reveló como una historia de éxito en cuanto al manejo de la crisis de COVID-19 mientras la pandemia arrasaba al resto del planeta. Con unas estadísticas oficiales que cuentan solo 300 casos confirmados y ninguna muerte, no quedan dudas de que las autoridades han logrado resultados notables conteniendo la propagación de la enfermedad que se llevó más de 400 000 vidas en todo el mundo.

Sin embargo, este gran logro no debe eclipsar las tácticas represivas empleadas por el Gobierno vietnamita para censurar la información relacionada con la pandemia. [seguir leyendo]

Vietnam Indicts Facebook User For Anti-State Documents

22.06.2020 By Miriam Jackson (The Union Journal) - Authorities in Vietnam indicted detained businessman Nguyen Duc Quoc Vuong for allegedly spreading information against the state and slandering its leaders on Facebook, Nguyen’s lawyer told RFA Monday.

Nguyen, who posted on Facebook as Vuong Nguyen, was arrested in Lam Dong province on Sept. 23 on charges of “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” Since his detention, his family is not allowed to visit him, and that he was unable to meet his lawyer prior to the indictment. [read more]

Vietnam : Durcissement de la répression de la dissidence pacifique

19.06.2020 (Human Rights Watch) - La nouvelle vague d'arrestations survient durant la période précédant la tenue du 13ème congrès du Parti communiste

Le gouvernement vietnamien est en train d’intensifier sa répression contre les activistes des droits humains et les dissidents avant le 13ème  congrès du Parti communiste qui doit se tenir en janvier 2021, a déclaré aujourd'hui Human Rights Watch. Les autorités ont arrêté et condamné de nombreuses personnes pour crimes politiques entre fin 2019 et juin 2020. [en savoir plus]

Vietnam: Crackdown on Peaceful Dissent Intensifies - New Wave of Arrests Ahead of the 13th Party Congress

19.06.2020 (Human Rights Watch) - The Vietnamese government is intensifying a crackdown on human rights activists and dissidents ahead of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s 13th party congress scheduled for January 2021, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities have arrested and convicted numerous people for political crimes between late 2019 and June 2020.

Authorities across the country have detained and charged members of the Independent Journalists Association, a member of the human rights group Brotherhood for Democracy, and several other independent writers and activists. [read more]

Cao Dai Church in Vietnam Resists Takeover Bid by Followers of State-Controlled Branch

18.06.2020 (RFA) - Followers of Vietnam’s Cao Dai religion confronted supporters of a state-sanctioned branch of the church who came to take over their facilities on Thursday, with church members barring the door against the intruders amid heated arguments with local authorities, sources told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.

The attempted takeover of the Hieu Xuong, also called Phu Lam, temple in Phu Yen province’s Tuy Hoa city was launched in the early morning by about 60 members of the state-approved Cao Dai church together with local police, a leader of the other group said. [read more]

Arrests, Suspension of Vietnam Media Signal Crackdown

18.06.2020 By An Hai (VOA) - WASHINGTON - A wave of arrests and a one-month publishing ban on a news site over its investigations into environmental damage signal that Vietnam is suppressing criticism ahead of the country’s Party Congress, press freedom groups said.

John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, said the arrests and suspension could be a sign that authorities are preparing for the 13th National Party Congress due to take place next year. [read more]

Vietnamese Police Arrest Two Facebook Users Linked to Popular Discussion Group

17.06.2020 (RFA) - Police in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City last week arrested two Facebook users connected to an online discussion group, charging them with “abusing democratic freedoms” under a vaguely worded law often used to lock up bloggers and other peaceful critics of the country’s one-party communist government.

Huynh Anh Khoa, 38, and a friend, Nguyen Dang Thuong, were taken into custody on June 13, the rights group Defend the Defenders said in a June 16 statement, adding that the two men were then taken by police to a detention center in the city’s District 8. [read more]

Zensur überschattet Vietnams erfolgreiches Vorgehen gegen COVID-19-Pandemie

16.06.2020 Geschrieben von The 88 Project, übersetzt von Hans H. Knauf (Global Voices) - Während die Pandemie weiterhin den Planeten verwüstet, erzielte Vietnam im Umgang mit COVID-19 große Erfolge. Aufgrund der offiziellen Statistiken, die nur 300 bestätigte Fälle und keine Todesfälle aufweisen, besteht kaum ein Zweifel daran, dass die Behörden bemerkenswerte Ergebnisse bei der Eindämmung der Ausbreitung dieser Krankheit erzielt haben, die weltweit mehr als 400.000 Menschenleben gefordert hat.

Diese Errungenschaft darf jedoch nicht die repressive Taktik der vietnamesischen Regierung bei der Zensur von Informationen im Zusammenhang mit der Pandemie verheimlichen. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnam Assembly Committee Seeks Review of Appeal in Death Row Case

16.06.2020 (RFA) - The judicial committee of Vietnam’s National Assembly on Tuesday agreed to seek a review of a court rejection last month the appeal of a death row prisoner,in a rare case of public disagreement between branches of the one-party communist state.

Observers have pointed to several procedural errors in Ho’s case, including that it was largely based on a confession that he later recanted, saying he had been forced to do so by police during his detention. [read more]

Journalist Le Huu Minh Tuan arrested on anti-state charge in Vietnam

15.06.2020 (CPJ) - Bangkok, June 15, 2020 – Vietnamese authorities should immediately release journalist Le Huu Minh Tuan and drop the charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalist said today.

On June 12, Ho Chi Minh City authorities arrested Tuan and charged him under Article 117 of the country’s criminal code, a provision that criminalizes “opposing the state,” according to news reports and a statement issued by the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, a local unsanctioned independent press group, which CPJ reviewed. [read more]

Another independent journalist arrested in Vietnam

15.06.2020 (Reporters Without Borders) - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the arrest of Le Huu Minh Tuan, the fourth member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) to be detained since last November in what seems to be a sign of nervousness within Vietnam’s ruling elite.

A young independent journalist writing under the name of Le Tuan, he was arrested by the police in Ho Chi Minh City on 12 June after receiving threatening and intimidatory messages for months from the public security bureau, Vietnam’s domestic intelligence agency. [read more]

Vietnam : RSF condamne l’arrestation du reporter indépendant Le Tuan

15.06.2020  (Reporters sans frontières) - De son vrai nom Le Huu Minh Tuan, il est le quatrième membre de l’Association des journalistes indépendants du Vietnam (IJAVN) à être placé en détention depuis novembre 2019. Reporters sans frontières (RSF) dénonce une politique de répression qui apparaît comme une fuite en avant de la caste actuellement au pouvoir à Hanoi.

Depuis plusieurs mois, il recevait des messages de menaces et d'intimidations de la part du bureau de la sécurité publique, le renseignement intérieur vietnamien [en savoir plus]

Vietnam Police Call For Murder Charges Against 25 Dong Tam Detainees

12.06.2020 (RFA) - Vietnamese authorities will now file murder charges against 25 villagers held since a deadly police raid in January on the Dong Tam commune outside Hanoi in which three police officers and a village leader died, sources said on Friday.

Another four meanwhile face charges of obstructing officers in the performance of their duty, sources said, citing recommendations contained in a 47-page report released by Hanoi police investigators and sent to lawyers on June 12. [read more]

Another young prisoner of conscience

12.06.2020 By Pham Doan Trang (Facebook Will Nguyen) - This morning (June 12th, 2020), the Ho Chi Minh City Security Bureau of Investigation arrested another member of the Independent Journalists’ Association: Le Huu Minh Tuan, usually known as Le Tuan.

Compared to the last two members of the association that were captured, Mr. Pham Chi Dung (b. 1966, arrested November 21st, 2019) and Mr. Nguyen Tuong Thuy (b. 1952, just arrested this past May 23rd), Le Tuan is quite young, just over 31 years of age (b. March 20th, 1989) and from Quang Nam province. [read more]

Vietnam: groups call for the release of arrested writers and bloggers

11.06.2020 (PEN International) - While the world focused on addressing the COVID-19 pandemic over the past few weeks, the Vietnamese government has increased suppression on freedom of information and speech by continuing to detain independent journalists and human rights defenders. After arresting independent journalist Pham Chi Dung in November 2019, Vietnamese authorities have arrested three more prominent bloggers within the past few months: Mr. Tran Duc Thach (April 23, 2020), Mr. Pham Chi Thanh (May 21, 2020), and Mr. Nguyen Tuong Thuy (May 23, 2020). [read more]

Censorship tactics overshadow Vietnam's successful COVID-19 response

10.06.2020 Written by The 88 Project (Global Voices) - The pandemic has offered an opportunity for the police state to flex its muscles.

Vietnam has emerged as a success story in dealing with COVID-19 as the pandemic continues to ravage the planet. With official statistics showing only 300 confirmed cases and no fatalities, there is little doubt that the authorities have delivered remarkable results containing the spread of a disease that has claimed more than 400,000 lives worldwide.

This achievement should not eclipse the repressive tactics employed by the Vietnamese government to censor information related to the pandemic, however. [read more]

Vietnam: Des chrétiens privés d’aide alimentaire et médicale en raison de leur foi

08.06.2020 (Évangéliques.info) - Dans le nord du Vietnam, des chrétiens en situation de précarité n’ont pas pu recevoir l’aide alimentaire et médicale de l’Etat, rapporte l’ONG Portes Ouvertes le 28 mai.

«Vous êtes chrétiens et votre Dieu prendra soin de votre famille. Le gouvernement n’est pas responsable de vos familles», ont déclaré les autorités locales, révèle un partenaire de l’association. [en savoir plus]

Jailed Australian democracy activist has 'disappeared' inside Vietnam's prison system

06.06.2020 Ben Doherty (The Guardian) - A 70-year-old Australian democracy activist has “disappeared” inside Vietnam’s prison system: no one from his family or the Australian government has been allowed to see or speak with him for nearly four months.

Human rights advocates, lawyers and Chau Van Kham’s family said the charges against him are baseless and politically motivated, his single-day multiple-defendant trial was grossly unfair, and his failing health means his 12-year prison sentence is “effectively a death sentence”. [read more]

Coronavirus: l'ONU critique le durcissement de la censure dans plusieurs pays d'Asie

03.06.2020 (Monaco-Matin) - La Haut-Commissaire de l'ONU aux droits de l'Homme, Michelle Bachelet, a estimé mercredi 3 juin que la Chine et d'autres pays d'Asie comme le Cambodge et les Philippines avaient durci leur "censure" depuis la pandémie de Covid-19.

Selon l'ONU, "des arrestations de personnes ayant exprimé leur mécontentement ou prétendument diffusé de fausses informations dans la presse et les médias sociaux ont été signalés au Bangladesh, au Cambodge, en Chine, en Inde, en Indonésie, en Malaisie, en Birmanie, au Népal, aux Philippines, au Sri Lanka, en Thaïlande et au Vietnam". [en savoir plus]

UNO kritisiert Zunahme von Zensur in China während Corona-Pandemie

03.06.2020 (Epoch Times) - UN-Menschenrechtskommissarin Michelle Bachelet hat China und anderen asiatischen Staaten vorgeworfen, in der Corona-Krise die Meinungsfreiheit zu beschneiden. Bachelet erklärte am Mittwoch (3. Juni) in Genf, in mehreren asiatischen Ländern habe sich die staatliche Zensur seit Beginn der Pandemie verschärft. Menschen seien willkürlich für Kritik an ihren Regierungen festgenommen worden oder schlicht, weil sie Informationen über die Pandemie verbreitet hätten.

In China etwa habe das UN-Menschenrechtsbüro Hinweise auf „mehr als ein Dutzend Fälle erhalten, in denen Mediziner, Wissenschaftler oder normale Bürger festgenommen oder angeklagt wurden, weil sie ihre Meinung oder Informationen zu Covid-19 öffentlich geäußert“ oder die Maßnahmen der Regierung kritisiert hatten. [Weiterlesen]

Liberal Publishing House, maison d'édition au Vietnam, reçoit le Prix Voltaire 2020

03.06.2020 (ActuaLitté) - La maison d'édition vietnamienne Liberal Publishing House, fondée en 2019 à Hô-Chi-Minh-Ville (Saïgon) par un groupe de dissidents pour tenir tête au contrôle politique de l'édition, a reçu le Prix Voltaire 2020, qui salue chaque année la liberté de publier exercée par un éditeur dans le monde. Le lauréat du prix reçoit une dotation de 10.000 francs suisses.

« Le travail d'édition de Liberal Publishing House au Vietnam, qui suit un modèle de guérilla en publiant des livres dans un climat d'intimidation et de menace pour leur propre sécurité, n'est rien de moins qu'un formidable exemple », a souligné Kristenn Einarsson, qui dirige le comité de l'Union internationale des éditeurs consacré à la liberté de publier. « La communauté internationale des éditeurs reconnaît leur bravoure et les soutiendra autant que possible. » [en savoir plus]

Vietnam's Liberal Publishing House Wins Prix Voltaire

03.06.2020 By Ed Nawotka (Publishers Weekly) - Vietnam's Liberal Publishing House has been awarded the 2020 Prix Voltaire from the International Publishers Association. The publishing house was founded in February 2019 in Ho Chi Minh City by a group of dissidents as a direct challenge to the Vietnamese government’s control of the publishing industry. Amnesty International has noted out that the police have questioned and at times detained nearly 100 people for either owning or reading books printed by Liberal Publishing House.

"The work of Liberal Publishing House in Vietnam as guerilla publishers, making books available in a climate of intimidation and risk for their own personal safety is nothing short of inspirational," said Kristenn Einarsson, chair of the IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee "The international publishing community recognizes their bravery and will support them however we can." [read more]

Prix Voltaire an Verlag aus Vietnam

03.06.2020 (Börsenblatt) - Das Liberal Publishing House aus Vietnam wird mit dem Prix Voltaire 2020 der International Publishers Association ausgezeichnet, wie die IPA heute bekannt gegeben hat. Mit dem Preis wird der Einsatz von Verlegern oder Verlagen für die Publikations- und Meinungsfreiheit geehrt.

Das Liberal Publishing House (auf Vietnamesisch: Nhà xuất bản Tự Do) erhält dafür ein Preisgeld in Höhe von 10.000 Schweizer Franken. Kristenn Einarsson, Vorsitzender des IPA-Ausschusses für Publikationsfreiheit, sagt in der IPA-Mitteilung: "Die Arbeit des Liberal Publishing House in Vietnam als Guerilla-Verleger, der Bücher in einem Klima der Einschüchterung und des Risikos für die eigene persönliche Sicherheit zur Verfügung stellt, ist geradezu inspirierend. Die internationale Verlegergemeinschaft erkennt ihre Tapferkeit an und wird sie unterstützen, wo immer wir können." [Weiterlesen]

Vietnamese publisher named as 2020 Prix Voltaire winner

03.06.2020 by Ruth Comerford (The Bookseller) - Vietnam's Liberal Publishing House has been announced as this year's International Publisher's Association's Prix Voltaire laureate, which celebrates presses that publish work despite pressure and intimidation from authority,.

The press was established last year by activists in Saigon, and is currently the only independent publisher in Vietnam. It is forced to operate clandestinely owing to the government’s crackdown on what it considers “anti-state” activity.

The IPA felt that "the individuals behind Liberal Publishing House have put themselves at great risk in order to enable others to exercise their right to freedom of expression". [read more]

Vietnam’s Liberal Publishing House awarded 2020 Prix Voltaire

03.06.2020 (IPA) - The International Publishers Association took to a virtual stage on June 3 to unveil the laureate of the 2020 Prix Voltaire which supports defenders of freedom to publish: Liberal Publishing House (Vietnam).

Of the four remarkable short-listed candidates, all brave publishers pushing for the the freedom to publish (from Turkey, Malaysia, Vietnam and Pakistan), the IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee felt Liberal Publishing House stood out as a publishing house which is dedicated to the cause of freedom to publish. The individuals behind Liberal Publishing House have put themselves at great risk in order to enable others to exercise their right to freedom of expression, as the videos submitted to IPA in the name of the laureate show. [read more]

Vietnamese Villagers Detained in Dong Tam Land Clash Are Still Denied Family Visits

02.06.2020 (RFA) - Villagers detained by authorities during a deadly police raid five months ago on the Dong Tam commune outside the Vietnamese capital Hanoi are being denied visits by family members, who are also restricted in what they can send their loved ones to support them in custody, sources say.

Dong Tam village elder Le Dinh Kinh, 84, was shot and killed by police during the Jan. 9 assault that involved about 3,000 security officers and was the latest flare-up of a long-running dispute over a military airport construction site about 25 miles south of Hanoi. [read more]

Vietnam’s Widely Praised COVID-19 Response Harms Religious Minorities

29.05.2020 By Kelsey Zorzi (RealClearReligion) - Attention to Vietnam’s handling of COVID-19 has increased in recent weeks, for good reason. With just over three-hundred cases and no deaths reported, Vietnam is on track to have one of the best pandemic response records in the world, despite the fact that the country borders China and has a population of over 97 million.

But there is another side to the story. Vietnam’s apparent success is built on an extensive system of surveillance and control that “few other countries have, or want to have.” Censorship in all its forms has reached unprecedented levels. [read more]

Two journalists detained on anti-state charges in Vietnam

26.05.2020 (CPJ) - Bangkok, May 26, 2020 -- Vietnam should immediately release journalists Nguyen Tuong Thuy and Pham Chi Thanh, and drop all charges against them, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

“Journalists Nguyen Tuong Thuy and Pham Chi Thanh should be immediately released and all pending charges against them dropped,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Vietnam must stop treating independent journalists as enemies of the state, and must allow the press to work freely and without fear of trumped-up charges and prison time.” [read more]

Vietnam arrests two leading members of independent journalists group

26.05.2020 (RSF) - Les deux arrestations sont intervenues à deux jours d'intervalle. Reporters sans frontières (RSF) exige la libération immédiate des deux journalistes interpellés et demande aux partenaires commerciaux de Hanoi, UE et Etats-Unis en tête, de faire pression pour que cesse cette nouvelle campagne de répression.

Nguyen Tuong Thuy, a 68-year-old blogger and IJAVN vice-president, was arrested on 23 May in Hanoi, where he lives, and was immediately transported 1,700 km south of the capital to Ho Chi Minh City, where he continues to be held.

Pham Chi Thanh, a journalist and prominent IJAVN member who uses the pseudonym of Pham Thanh, was arrested when police arrived at his Hanoi home at 8 a.m. on 21 May and immediately took him away. [read more]

La police vietnamienne arrête deux membres éminents de l’Association des journalistes indépendants

26.05.2020 (RSF) - Les deux arrestations sont intervenues à deux jours d'intervalle. Reporters sans frontières (RSF) exige la libération immédiate des deux journalistes interpellés et demande aux partenaires commerciaux de Hanoi, UE et Etats-Unis en tête, de faire pression pour que cesse cette nouvelle campagne de répression.

Le blogueur Nguyen Tuong Thuy a été arrêté, samedi 23 mai, par la police de Hanoi, la capitale, où il vit. Il a été transféré directement vers Hô-Chi-Minh-Ville, à plus de 1 700 kilomètres au sud, où il est maintenu en détention.

Deux jours plus tôt, le jeudi 21 mai, c’est le journaliste Pham Chi Thanh, qui signe sous le nom de Pham Thanh, qui a vu plusieurs officiers de police débarquer à son domicile de Hanoi à huit heures du matin, pour l’emmener sur-le-champ. Il est actuellement détenu dans une prison de la capitale au motif de l’article 117 du code pénal, qui punit “l’opposition à l’Etat de la République socialiste du Vietnam”. [en savoir plus]

Declaration of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam on the arrest of Mr. Thuy Tuong Nguyen by authority in Vietnam

26.05.2020 (IJAVN) - On May 23, the Investigation Security Agency of Ho Chi Minh City, announced the prosecution and arrested Mr. Thuy Tuong Nguyen, Vice President of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN). The Agency accused him of  “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and articles to be used against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, according to Article 117 of the Vietnam’s Penal Code.”

Previously, on November 21, 2019, the same Agency also arrested Mr. Dung Chi Pham, the president of the IJAVN on the same charges under Article 117 of the Vietnam’s Penal Code...

With the arrests of Misters Dung Chi Pham and Thuy Tuong Nguyen and at the same time, continuing harassment of multiple members of the IJAVN, the Vietnamese authorities have pursued and implemented the policy of completely shut down all moderate exchanges through peaceful views in the main popular press operated by the IJAVN. [read more]

Journalisten-Verbandschef in Vietnam festgenommen

23.05.2020 (DW) - Im kommunistischen Vietnam ist der amtierende Vorsitzende einer unabhängigen Journalistenvereinigung in Gewahrsam genommen worden. Nguyen Tuong Thuy wird staatsfeindliche Propaganda vorgeworfen.

Der Journalist Nguyen Tuong Thuy ist nach Angaben von Angehörigen und der Menschenrechtsorganisation "Defend the Defenders" in seinem Haus von der vietnamesischen Polizei überrascht worden. Sicherheitskräfte hätten sein Haus umstellt, allen Angehörigen die Mobiltelefone weggenommen und das Gebäude durchsucht. Dann hätten die Beamten Thuys Computer und andere persönliche Gegenstände beschlagnahmt. Anschließend sei er abgeführt worden. [Weiterlesen]

Una ONG denuncia el arresto en Vietnam del presidente de una organización de periodistas independientes

23.05.2020 (Europa Press) - La Policía vietnamita ha detenido este sábado al presidente en funciones de la Asociación de Periodistas Independientes de Vietnam (IJAVN), una organización no autorizada por el Gobierno vietnamita, seis meses después del arresto de su presidente, según ha anunciado un grupo pro Derechos Humanos y confirmado la familia del detenido.

Nguyen Tuong Thuy, de 68 años, fue arrestado este sábado por la mañana en su casa en Hanoi bajo el cargo de "realizar propaganda antiestatal", se acuerdo con un comunicado remitido por la ONG Defiende a los Defensores, que presta apoyo a activistas locales. [seguir leyendo]

Vietnamese Blogger Nguyen Tuong Thuy Arrested For Holding ‘Anti-State’ Documents

23.05.2020 (RFA) - Police in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi arrested RFA blogger Nguyen Tuong Thuy Saturday, accusing him of “making, storing, and disseminating documents and materials for anti-state purposes,” his wife told RFA.

Nguyen, 70, was vice chairman of the Vietnam Independent Journalists Association and is the third member of the group arrested in the past year. [read more]

Vietnam detains independent journalist on 'anti-state' charge

23.05.2020 (The Star) - HANOI: Vietnamese police on Saturday (May 22) detained the acting president of the unsanctioned Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) six months after the arrest of its president, a rights group and his family said.

Nguyen Tuong Thuy, 68, was arrested on Saturday morning at his house in Hanoi on the charge of "conducting anti-state propaganda," Defend the Defenders, a non-profit NGO working for the promotion of human rights and democracy as well as assisting local activists at risk in Vietnam, reported. [read more]

Vietnamese Dissidents Deprived of Fresh Air, Medicine in Prison

22.05.2020 (RFA) - Political prisoners held in northern Vietnam’s Nam Ha Prison are suffering in temperatures soaring in their cells to over 100 degrees (37 C), the wife of one prisoner said, adding that her husband has also not been allowed to receive medicine sent to him by his family. Fans set up in the prison in Ha Nam province are “hung in high places and seemed not to work well enough to cool,” Tran Thi An—wife of political prisoner Le Thanh Tung—told RFA on Friday, following a visit to the prison on May 11. [read more]

Hanoi police arrest the dissident writer and blogger Pham Chi Thanh

22.05.2020 (AsiaNews) - Hanoi  - Vietnamese police in Hanoi have arrested a famous dissident writer and blogger. He is being charged with having produced and distributed information criticizing the government in the context of an escalation in the communist authorities’ repression of critical voices.

He allegedly violated Article 117 of the Criminal Code, which punishes those who produce documents or writings "against the state". At present there is no official formalization of the charge. The agents broke into his home and confiscated computers and information materials. His wife in shock. [read more]

Vietnam: Libreros Independientes, Torturados Por La Policía

19.05.2020 (Amnistía Internacional) - Desde comienzos de octubre de 2019, la policía ha hostigado e intimidado a decenas de personas relacionadas con Nhà Xuất Bản Tự Do en lo que parece una campaña selectiva. El acoso ha tenido lugar en al menos tres grandes ciudades además de en dieversas provincias.

Dos miembros de Nhà Xuất Bản Tự Do (Editorial Liberal), una editorial vietnamita independiente que vende libros cuyo contenido el gobierno considera delicado, han sido detenidos y torturados por la policía en Ciudad Ho Chi Minh.

Actúen: Redacten su propio llamamiento o utilicen la siguiente carta modelo  [seguir leyendo]

Vietnam Publisher Recovering From Torture, Daughter Released-Writer

18.05.2020 (RFA) - A Vietnamese man arrested and beaten by police for delivering books from a publishing house targeted by authorities for putting out proscribed political books is recovering and his daughter has been released, a writer from the group told RFA on Monday.

Phung Thuy, also known as Thuy Tuat, was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on May 8 while he was delivering books for Liberal Publishing House. His case was the focus of an appeal by Amnesty International May 14 to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Journalist Pham Doan Trang, author of many books published by the Liberal Publishing House, told RFA that Thuy Tuat “was beaten on May 11, and three days later, his heath became worse -- and then got better and better.” [read more]

SETZT EUCH FÜR THỦY TUẤT UND SEINE TOCHTER EIN! - VERLEGER IN HAFT MISSHANDELT

14.05.2020 (Amnesty International) - Zwei Personen, die zu dem Verlagshaus Liberal Publishing House gehören, sind in Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt von der Polizei inhaftiert und misshandelt worden. Die Tochter des Einen wurde willkürlich festgenommen. Seit Anfang Oktober 2019 sind Dutzende dem Verlag nahestehende Personen im Rahmen einer augenscheinlich gezielten Kampagne ins Visier genommen worden. [Weiterlesen]

URGENT ACTION - VIET NAM: INDEPENDENT BOOK SELLERS TORTURED BY POLICE

14.05.2020 (Amnesty International) - Two members of the Liberal Publishing House - a local independent publisher that sells books considered sensitive by the government – have been detained and tortured by police in Ho Chi Minh City. Since early October 2019, police have harassed, and intimidated dozens of people connected to the Liberal Publishing House in what appears to be a targeted campaign. [read more]

ACTION URGENTE - VIÊT-NAM: DES LIBRAIRES INDÉPENDANTS TORTURÉS PAR LA POLICE

14.05.2020 (Amnesty International) - Deux membres de la Liberal Publishing House – maison d’édition locale indépendante qui vend des livres considérés comme sensibles par le gouvernement – ont été détenus et torturés par la police d’Ho Chi Minh-Ville. Depuis début octobre 2019, la police a harcelé et intimidé des dizaines de personnes liées à la Liberal Publishing House dans le cadre de ce qui s'apparente à une campagne ciblée. [en savoir plus]

Vietnamese Prisoners Beaten For Requesting More Hours of Outside Work

13.05.2020 (RFA) - Guards in Vietnam’s Xuan Loc Prison recently beat six political prisoners, later throwing them into isolation cells, for requesting outdoor working hours on weekends, RFA has learned.

The beatings at the prison in southeastern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province came to light on May 12 during a visit by the mother of Huynh Duc Thanh Binh, one of those attacked, the mother told RFA on Wednesday. [read more]

Vietnam’s Top Court Rejects Request to Reinvestigate Death-row Inmate’s Case

11.05.2020 (RFA) - Vietnam’s Supreme People’s Court has rejected a request by the country’s Supreme People’s Procuracy to reinvestigate the case of death-row inmate Ho Duy Hai, prompting his family members to petition lawmakers over the decision Monday.

Hai was arrested in March 2008 and convicted nine months later of plundering property and the murder of two female postal employees in Ho Chi Minh City. The People’s Court of Long An province sentenced him to five years for the theft, and gave him the death penalty for the murders. These sentences were combined, resulting in a death sentence. [read more]

Vietnam’s Government Is Using COVID-19 to Crack Down on Freedom of Expression

08.05.2020 By Anthony Nguyen (Slate) - In the wake of COVID-19’s spread across the world, countries are dealing with the rise of both intentional fake news and well-meaning misinformation about the virus. Some hard-hit countries have enacted new laws related to the spread of misinformation, while others are reckoning with constitutional limits on free speech.

In addition to proactive physical measures, Vietnam has been active in setting up online public health resources like websites and a mobile app in order to more efficiently disseminate accurate information as well as speed up testing. At the same time, the government has taken a hard-line stance on the spread of rumors and misinformation, instituting a hefty fine for the posting of fake news on social media. [read more]

CPJ, 73 media and rights groups urge Asian heads of state to release jailed journalists

27.04.2020 (CPJ) - We the 74 undersigned media, press freedom, and human rights organizations are writing to call on your respective governments to release all jailed journalists amid the sweeping COVID-19 pandemic.

On March 30, the Committee to Protect Journalists began a campaign called #FreeThePress, launching a petition and publishing an open letter to world leaders urging the immediate release of all journalists imprisoned for their work. Given that a staggering number of these imprisoned journalists are held in jails across the Asian continent, we are reiterating that call to your respective countries at this time of grave public health concern. [read more]

The rising cost of religious freedom in Vietnam

24.04.2020 by USCIRF Commissioner Anurima Bhargava and Rep. Harley Rouda (The Hill) - In March 2019, Ms. Bui Thi Kim Phuong, a Hoa Hao Buddhist from Vietnam, prepared to board a flight to the United States for a series of meetings on the deteriorating human rights and religious freedom conditions in Vietnam. Ms. Phuong was stopped by Vietnamese security authorities at Tan Son Nhat airport and forced to return home. Her offense: she is married to Nguyen Bac Truyen, a prominent prisoner of conscience and religious freedom advocate.

Nguyen Bac Truyen founded the Vietnamese Political & Religious Prisoners Friendship Association, an organization dedicated to assisting prisoners of conscience and their families. For many years, he served as a lawyer and advocate, primarily for his fellow Hoa Hao Buddhists. But in July 2017, he was kidnapped by Vietnamese authorities. Nine months later, he was tried for “activities attempting to overthrow the State.” The trial took less than a day. Truyen was sentenced to 11 years in prison. [read more]

Vietnamese Police Arrest Dissident Writer for Connection With Democracy Group

24.04.2020 (RFA) - Police in Vietnam have arrested dissident writer Tran Duc Thach, known for his writings that expose the corruption, injustice and human rights abuses of the Vietnamese government, his wife told RFA.

Tran was arrested Thursday and charged with engaging in activities to overthrow the People’s Government, in violation of Article 109 of the Vietnamese Criminal Code, likely for his involvement with the Brotherhood for Democracy organization. [read more]

Amnesty International wirft Facebook Beteiligung an Zensur vor

23.04.2020 (Spiegel-Online) - Mehr als die Hälfte der Vietnamesen hat Facebook-Accounts, das Netzwerk ist wichtig für Aktivisten. Menschenrechtler warnen Facebook nun davor, mit seiner Moderation der Regierung zu sehr entgegenzukommen.

Amnesty International hat Facebook vorgeworfen, sich Zensurforderungen der vietnamesischen Regierung gebeugt zu haben. "Facebook muss sich bei der Regulierung seiner Inhalte auf internationale Menschenrechtsstandards für die Meinungsfreiheit stützen und nicht auf die willkürlichen Launen einer Regierung, die das Recht missbraucht", sagte Amnesty-Experte William Nee laut einer Mitteilung der Organisation.

Facebook hatte zuvor eingeräumt, dass Vietnams Regierung das Unternehmen angewiesen habe, "den Zugang zu Inhalten einzuschränken, die sie als illegal erachtet". Dieser Vorgabe sei das Unternehmen "widerwillig" nachgekommen, heißt es in einem Bericht der Nachrichtenagentur Reuters. [Weiterlesen]

Au Vietnam, le gouvernement a ralenti l’accès à Facebook pour imposer de nouvelles règles de censure

23.04.2020 (Le Monde) - Des serveurs utilisés par Facebook au Vietnam ont été mis hors-ligne en début d’année, à la demande du gouvernement vietnamien, selon des sources internes au réseau social citées par l’agence Reuters. Entre mi-février et début avril, l’accès à Facebook, Messenger et Instagram (tous détenus par la firme Facebook) a été très fortement ralenti dans le pays, alors que le gouvernement demandait au réseau social d’appliquer des règles plus dures de censure de messages « anti-étatiques ».

Les médias d’Etat vietnamiens avaient expliqué les ralentissements par des problèmes techniques sur un câble sous-marin – une explication peu crédible, les autres services Internet n’ayant pas été affectés de la même manière par des

Vietnam: Facebook, Pressured, Censors Dissent

23.04.2020 (Human Rights Watch) - (New York) – Facebook has bowed to pressure by the government of Vietnam and agreed to restrict posts by dissidents, setting a bad precedent for both human rights and its global policies, Human Rights Watch said today. The decision increases the likelihood of other content restrictions in the future.

Human Rights Watch called on Facebook to reverse its decision. [read more]

Viet Nam: Facebook must cease complicity with government censorship

22.04.2020 (Amnesty International) - Facebook must immediately reverse its decision to censor posts deemed critical of the government in Viet Nam, said Amnesty International today.

On 21 April, Reuters reported that Facebook has begun to significantly step up its censorship of "anti-state" posts in the country. This follows pressure from the authorities, including what the company suspects were deliberate restrictions placed on its local servers by state-owned telecommunications companies that caused Facebook to become unusable for periods of time. [read more]

Facebook: Vietnam erzwingt Zensurverschärfung mit Serverblockade

22.04.2020 Von Martin Holland (heise online) - Nachdem staatliche Provider in Vietnam den Traffic zu Facebook wochenlang gedrosselt haben, hat sich das soziale Netzwerk bereit erklärt, die Zensur "staatsfeindlicher" Inhalte in dem Land deutlich zu verschärfen. Das berichtet Reuters unter Berufung auf zwei Quellen aus dem US-Konzern. Der Konzern hat die Zensurverschärfung gegenüber Reuters bestätigt. [Weiterlesen]

Zuck loves free speech so much Facebook will censor 'anti-state' content in Vietnam after telcos 'crippled' access

22.04.2020 By Katyanna Quach (The Register) Fine, fine, we'll ban whatever the government says is illegal, just give us back access, says US giant.

Facebook has given in to Vietnamese government demands, and agreed to remove any content considered “anti-state” after telcos in the nation reportedly cut off access to the social network's systems. [read more]

Au Vietnam, le gouvernement a ralenti l’accès à Facebook pour imposer de nouvelles règles de censure

22.04.2020 (Le Monde) - En pleine pandémie, l’accès à Facebook, Messenger et Instagram a été très fortement restreint, jusqu’à ce que le réseau social accepte de bloquer davantage de messages.

Des serveurs utilisés par Facebook au Vietnam ont été mis hors-ligne en début d’année, à la demande du gouvernement vietnamien, selon des sources internes au réseau social citées par l’agence Reuters. Entre mi-février et début avril, l’accès à Facebook, Messenger et Instagram (tous détenus par la firme Facebook) a été très fortement ralenti dans le pays, alors que le gouvernement demandait au réseau social d’appliquer des règles plus dures de censure de messages « anti-étatiques ». [en savoir plus]

Facebook agreed to censor posts after Vietnam slowed traffic, sources say

22.04.2020 (The Japan Times) - HANOI – Facebook’s local servers in Vietnam were taken offline early this year, slowing local traffic to a crawl until it agreed to significantly increase the censorship of “anti-state” posts for local users, two sources at the company said Tuesday.

In an emailed statement, Facebook confirmed it had reluctantly complied with the government’s request to “restrict access to content which it has deemed to be illegal.”

Commenting on the Reuters report, human rights group Amnesty International called on Facebook to immediately reverse its decision. [read more]

Vietnam Blogger Crackdown Continues with Harsh Supreme Court Ruling, More Arrests

22.04.2020 By An Hai (VOA) - WASHINGTON - An appeals court in Vietnam has upheld a lower court decision to sentence a music teacher to 11 years in prison for criticizing the government on Facebook.  

Nguyen Nang Tinh, 45, was found guilty of "making and spreading anti-state information and materials" in a one-day trial at the People's Court in the north central province of Nghe An in November. [read more]

Music teacher Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh, on a hunger strike because he was not allowed to see a priest, gets 11 years in prison

22.04.2020 by Joseph Trich (AsiaNnews) - The appeal trial took place amid the ongoing epidemic. Tĩnh’s wife was unable to be in the courtroom due to country-wide travel restrictions. Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh, 44, defended Vietnam against industrial pollution and China's abuses in the South China Sea. His patriotism has been branded “propaganda against the state”.

Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh, 44, taught music at a provincial arts and culture college in Nghe An. He went on a hunger strike during Lent until his appeal was heard because prison guards would not allow him to see a priest.[read more]

Kritik an China: "Zensur über Gesundheit gestellt"

21.04.2020 (Tagesschau) - Die Organisation Reporter ohne Grenzen (ROG) hat China in der Corona-Krise massive Verletzungen der Pressefreiheit mit fatalen Konsequenzen vorgeworfen.

"Die Auswirkungen der fast totalen chinesischen Nachrichtenkontrolle, die im Zweifelsfall die Durchsetzung von Zensuranordnungen über den Gesundheitsschutz stellt, hat in der Corona-Krise die ganze Welt zu spüren bekommen", teilte die Organisation in Berlin mit.

In Russland, Indien, den Philippinen und Vietnam setzen demnach Troll-Armeen im Dienste der Regierenden selbst auf Desinformation, um die öffentliche Meinung zu lenken und kritische Medienleute zu diskreditieren. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnam: IBAHRI and Geneva Bar condemn restrictive measures against human rights defender during Covid-19 quarantine

21.04.2020 (International Bar Association) - The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) and Geneva Bar Association condemn the reported abuse of Covid-19 quarantine measures against a human rights defender in the Quảng Bình Province of Vietnam. On returning to the country on 26 March 2020, Trương Thị Hà was quarantined alongside other travellers as part of the Vietnamese government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. During this isolation period, authorities reportedly confiscated her personal belongings, including her passport, citizenship ID card, driver’s license, ... A Vietnamese law student and active promoter of human rights, Ms Hà has previously faced disproportionate treatment by the authorities. In June 2018, she was detained following her involvement in peaceful protests by Vietnamese citizens against legislation intended to silence activists online. [read more]

Vietnam asked to release prisoners of conscience

19.04.2020 UCA News reporter, Hanoi (UCA News) - Relatives of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam have called on government leaders to free inmates who are highly vulnerable to Covid-19 infection.

They said they have not been allowed to visit their relatives in jails since the coronavirus pandemic hit the country in February.

“We are really worried about the prisoners who have poor health due to being kept in poor conditions,” they said in a petition. [read more]

Vietnam, Laos Arrest Facebookers on COVID-19-Related Charges

13.04.2020 (RFA) - Authorities in Vietnam and Laos have arrested several Facebook users on charges related to the coronavirus, with Hanoi punishing posts that challenge official reporting on the pandemic and Vientiane acting against a lockdown violation streamed live.

One of the Vietnamese Facebook posters was accused of abusing democratic rights to infringe on the interests of others, in violation of Article 331 of the 2015 Vietnamese Penal Code.

The People’s Procuracy in Can Tho province’s Ninh Kieu district detained Ma Phung Ngoc Phu, 28, because on Feb. 25, she posted a status update to Facebook under the username James Ng, that said, “We’ve just now received information about COVID-19 deaths in Vietnam. Why is state media not publishing this news?” [read more]

A Rural Vietnam Village Becomes a Symbol of Land Rights Conflict

28.03.2020 By: David Brown (Asia Sentinel) - Đông Tâm is an ancient village on the western edge of the Red River Delta, in the north of Vietnam. Administratively it has been absorbed into greater Hanoi, the national capital, now a city of eight million people. Over the past two years, the village has come to exemplify an untreated wound on Vietnam’s body politic, the conflict over land use rights.

Socially and culturally, Đông Tâm is a world away from the modern capital that has subsumed it, a village of farmers who have tilled the rich alluvial soil of the region for many hundreds of years until a sensational confrontation between villagers and police lifted it from rustic obscurity in April 2017 to national symbol. [read more]

Madre de bloguero detenido Le Anh Hung habla sobre abuso infligido en prisión vietnamita

23.03.2020 Escrito por The 88 Project, Traducido por Andrea González (GlobalVoices) - Presuntamente, los prisioneros políticos sufren maltrato psicológico.

Una forma de abuso psicológico que se comete en las prisiones vietnamitas es enviar a los prisioneros políticos a instituciones psiquiátricas en contra de su voluntad, a pesar de no tener ningún historial de enfermedades mentales. El caso de Le Anh Hung es un ejemplo. Hung, bloguero y reportero que escribía a menudo artículos en los que criticaba fuertemente al Gobierno vietnamita, fue recluido en un centro psiquiátrico en 2013 durante 10 días luego de que la Policía lo arrestara en su lugar de trabajo. [seguir leyendo]

Vietnam jails two Hmong men for life on charge of trying to overthrow state

18.03.2020 (Reuters) - HANOI  - A court in Vietnam jailed two men from the Hmong ethnic minority for life after finding them guilty on Wednesday of attempting to overthrow the state and set up a state of their own in a northern province, state media reported on Wednesday.

A Voice of Vietnam radio report said Sung A Sinh and Lau A Lenh had attempted to establish their own country in Dien Bien province’s Muong Nhe district in 2018 and 2019, with its own currency and army.

Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism. [read more]

La mère du blogueur détenu Lê Anh Hùng dénonce les abus dans les prisons au Vietnam

17.03.2020 Escrito por The 88 Project, Traduit par Abdoulaye Bah (GlobalVoices) - Une forme de violence psychologique dans les prisons vietnamiennes consiste à envoyer des prisonniers politiques dans des établissements psychiatriques contre leur volonté, même s'ils n'ont pas d'antécédents de maladie mentale. Le cas [fr] de M. Lê Anh Hùng en est un exemple. En 2013, ce blogueur et journaliste, qui a souvent écrit des articles critiquant sévèrement le gouvernement vietnamien, a été détenu pendant dix jours [vn] dans un établissement de santé mentale après avoir été arrêté par la police sur son lieu de travail. [en savoir plus]

#FreeThemAll: Truong Duy Nhat

16.03.2020 (Reporter ohne Grenzen) - In Vietnam ist der Bürgerjournalist und Blogger Truong Duy Nhat zu einer Haftstrafe von zehn Jahren verurteilt worden. Ein Gericht in Hanoi sprach Nhat schuldig, in seiner Zeit als Bürochef bei der Zeitschrift „Dai Doan Ket“ in einen Betrugsfall verwickelt gewesen zu sein.

Der Journalist war bereits 2014 wegen des „Missbrauchs demokratischer Freiheiten“ zu einer zweijährigen Haftstrafe verurteilt worden. [Weiterlesen]

US demands Vietnam free blogger handed 10-year term

16.03.2020 By AFP (Daily Mail) - The United States on Monday demanded that Vietnam immediately free a blogger who was sentenced to 10 years in prison after posts critical of the government.

The State Department said it was "dismayed" by the sentence handed last week to Truong Duy Nhat, a regular contributor to US-backed Radio Free Asia. [read more]

Hanoi Court Postpones Appeal of Imprisoned Human Rights Activist Nguyen Nang Tinh

14.03.2020 (Defend The Defenders) - The Higher People’s Court in Hanoi has postponed the appeal of jailed human rights activist and environmental campaigner Nguyen Nang Tinh scheduled on March 18 without giving an explanation.

Mr. Tinh, 44, arrested by Nghe An province’s security forces on May 29, 2019 and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Penal Code. In the first-instance hearing carried out by the People’s Court of Nghe An in November last year, he was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in jail and five years of probation. [read more]

Hanoi following Beijing in forcing dissidents to make televised confessions

13.03.2020 (AsiaNews) - Hanoi – A Spanish NGO released a report showing how victims are forced to frame the accusations against them as crimes against the state or the party. Once unsophisticated compare to China, Vietnam is now catching up.

Vietnam is adopting the techniques of another communist regime, China’s, when it comes to forcing human rights activists and other political prisoners to make televised confessions, a Spain-based rights NGO said on Wednesday.

In its report titled ‘Coerced on Camera: Televised Confessions in Vietnam,’ the NGO Safeguard Defenders, which is led by Vietnamese Nguyễn Quốc Ngữ, identified 21 people who, since 2007, have been forced by authorities to confess on TV. [read more]

Welttag gegen Internetzensur: Digitale Freiheitsbibliothek

12.03.2020 von Alice Kuropka (FAZ) - Zum Welttag gegen Internetzensur am 12. März hat Reporter ohne Grenzen eine Liste der zwanzig größten „Feinde des Internets“ veröffentlicht. Unter diesen finden sich neben staatlichen Stellen und Unternehmen auch informelle Netzwerke. Länder wie Russland, Iran, Indien, Venezuela, China und Ägypten betreiben online staatliche Zensur journalistischer Inhalte. [Weiterlesen]

Mit Minecraft gegen Internetzensur

12.03.2020 (DW) - Das Internet ist nicht überall ein Ort des freien Informationsaustauschs. Das merken wir bei der Deutschen Welle an jedem einzelnen Tag. Unsere Angebote sind in vielen Ländern blockiert, längst nicht nur in China oder im Iran. Deshalb stellt die Deutsche Welle auch Techniken zur Zensurumgehung bereit wie die Software Psiphon.

Einen anderen Zugang zu verbotenen Informationen eröffnet zum Tag gegen Internetzensur die Nichtregierungsorganisation Reporter ohne Grenzen. Versteckt in den Tiefen des Computerspiels Minecraft öffnet dort die "Uncensored Library" ihre Tore.

Das hat sich Reporter ohne Grenzen zu Nutze gemacht und genau dort einen freien Kanal für unerwünschte Informationen aufgebohrt. Gefüllt ist die unzensierte Bibliothek mit Artikeln, die  in ihren Herkunftsländern nicht zugänglich sind. Artikel von Journalisten aus Ägypten, Saudi-Arabien, Russland, Mexiko und Vietnam – für den Anfang. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnam Copies China Model of Forced Confessions on State TV-Report

11.03.2020 (RFA) - Vietnam is adopting the techniques of fellow Communist state China when it comes to televising forced confessions of human rights advocates and other political prisoners, a Spain-based rights NGO said in a report on Wednesday.

In the report “Coerced on Camera: Televised Confessions in Vietnam,” the NGO Safeguard Defenders identified 21 people since 2007 who had been forced by authorities to confess on TV, and found videos for 16 of them. [read more]

Vietnam: des ONG dénoncent la condamnation d'un blogueur

10.03.2020 (Le Figaro) - Des ONG ont dénoncé mardi «une nouvelle attaque à la liberté d'expression» au Vietnam, au lendemain de la condamnation à 10 ans de prison d'un blogueur de Radio Free Asia. Truong Duy Nhat, 56 ans, a été reconnu coupable dans une affaire de fraude en vue de l'achat d'un terrain, d'après les médias d'Etat.

Cette condamnation «est totalement inacceptable», a réagi dans un communiqué Daniel Bastard, responsable du bureau Asie-Pacifique de Reporters sans frontières. Ce journaliste paie «le prix de son professionnalisme dans la mesure où il détenait manifestement de précieuses informations», a-t-il ajouté, demandant «sa libération immédiate». [en savoir plus]

Pressefreiheit in Vietnam - Ein Ende aus Angst

10.03.2020 Marina Mai (taz) - Der Blogger Bui Thanh Hieu schreibt seit 2013 von Deutschland aus über Vietnams Politik. Doch um seine Familie zu schützen, beendet er nun sein Blog.

Es ist kein freiwilliges Ende. Der kritische vietnamesische Exilblogger Bui Thanh Hieu schreibt nicht mehr. Hieu, der seit 2013 in Deutschland lebt, übt offenbar Selbstzensur, weil nach seinen Angaben die Behörden in Vietnam seine Familie bedrohen und einschüchtern. „Ich bitte euch um Verständnis, dass ich mich für eine lange Zeit von euch verabschieden muss. Lebt wohl, meine Freunde“, teilte der 49-Jährige auf seiner Facebookseite seinen Lesern mit.

Zwischen den Zeilen lässt er durchblicken, dass seine 86-jährige Mutter im Krankenhaus liege und das mit Einschüchterungsversuchen seitens die Regierung zu tun habe. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnamese Montagnard Ends Prison Term, Goes Home in Failing Health

06.03.2020 (RFA) - A Vietnamese ethnic minority Montagnard jailed for almost 16 years for demanding land rights and religious freedom has completed his prison term and returned home in failing health, the Central Highlands resident said, speaking to RFA on Thursday.

Y Ngun Knul was sentenced in in 2004 in Vietnam’s Dak Lak province to an 18-year term, later reduced, for launching protests calling for a Protestant church shut down by authorities to be reopened and for the members of his community to be allowed to live according to their traditions. [read more]

Dong Tam Widow Petitions Vietnamese Officials Over Husband’s Death

04.03.2020 (RFA) - The wife of an elderly community leader killed by Vietnamese police during a land protest outside Hanoi in January has petitioned central government authorities to account for her husband’s death, asking also that they provide information on relatives now held in detention.

Speaking to RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Wednesday, Du Thi Thanh—wife of slain Dong Tam village chief Le Dinh Kinh—said she is asking government officials to clear her husband of accusations of wrongdoing, adding she is worried about her son and nephews who were injured in the clash. [read more]

Dissident Vietnamese Priest Recovering From Heart Attack, Still Issuing Critiques of Government

03.03.2020 (RFA) - Vietnamese Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, a long-time critic of Vietnam’s one-party communist state, is recovering from a recent heart attack but remains in poor health at his home in Hue, according to his nephew, who lives in Florida.

Speaking to RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Monday, Ly’s nephew Nguyen Van Viet—also a Catholic priest—said that Ly suffered a heart attack on Feb. 26 in Hue, where he has lived since his 2016 release from prison in advance of a state visit to Vietnam by then U.S. President Barack Obama. [read more]

Retired Australian baker loses appeal in Vietnam on controversial 'financing terrorism' charges

03.03.2020 Ben Doherty (The Guardian) - A 70-year-old Australian man convicted in a controversial trial in Vietnam for anti-government terrorism offences has told a court he loves Vietnam and its people and was only ever a peaceful advocate for democratic reform.

“I want Vietnam to progress and the people to enjoy freedom,” he said.

But on Monday Chau Van Kham’s appeal was dismissed by a judge in Ho Chi Minh City who insisted his 12-year prison sentence be upheld. [read more]

Exilblogger in Deutschland eingeschüchtert

03.03.2020 (RSF) - Reporter ohne Grenzen (RSF) ist bestürzt, dass der in Deutschland lebende Exilblogger Bui Thanh Hieu Selbstzensur üben muss. Auch bekannt unter dem Namen Nguoi Buon Gio („Windhändler“), kündigte Hieu in einem Facebook-Beitrag an, das Bloggen einzustellen, weil die vietnamesischen Behörden seine noch in Vietnam lebenden Verwandten schikanieren. Unter ihnen ist auch seine 86-jährige Mutter, die derzeit im Krankenhaus liegt.

„Es ist abscheulich, dass der vietnamesische Sicherheitsapparat den schlechten Gesundheitszustand von Personen ausnutzt, um einen im Ausland lebenden Dissidenten zum Schweigen zu bringen“, sagte Christian Mihr, Geschäftsführer von Reporter ohne Grenzen. [Weiterlesen]

Dissident exile stops blogging because family in Vietnam is being hounded

02.03.2020 (RSF) - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is dismayed to learn that Bui Thanh Hieu, a well-known Vietnamese blogger living in exile in Germany, is having to censor himself because of his government’s disgraceful harassment of his family still in Vietnam.

Bui Thanh Hieu, who uses the blog name of Nguoi Buon Gio (Wind Trader), has announced in a moving Facebook post: “I beg your understanding for having to say farewell to you for a long time. Farewell, my friends.”

He explains in the post that he has decided to stop blogging because the Vietnamese authorities have been harassing his relatives still in Vietnam, including his 86-year-old mother who is currently hospitalized. [read more]

Le blogueur vietnamien “Marchand de vent” contraint à l’autocensure, malgré son exil en Allemagne

02.03.2020 (RSF) - Reporters sans frontières (RSF) condamne avec la plus grande fermeté les pressions abjectes exercées par les autorités vietnamiennes sur les membres de la famille du blogueur restés au pays.

Je sollicite votre compréhension, car  je dois vous dire adieu pour une longue période. Adieu, mes amis.” C’est le touchant message récemment adressé aux lecteurs de son compte Facebook par le célèbre blogueur vietnamien Bui Thanh Hieu, qui signe sous le pseudonyme Nguoi Buon Gio - littéralement “marchand de vent”. [en savoir plus]

Condolences on the Passing of the Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, Thích Quảng Độ

28.02.2020 Morgan Ortagus (U.S. State Department) - On behalf of Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and the American people, we express our sincere condolences on the passing of The Venerable Thích Quảng Độ , Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam.  Thích Quảng Độ was a tireless champion for religious freedom and other human rights, who remained committed to the non-violent pursuit of justice.  [read more]

RFA Blogger’s Trial Postponed Until March 9-Vietnam State Media

28.02.2020 (RFA) - A court in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi on Friday postponed a trial hearing of an RFA blogger held in jail for more than a year, after his lawyers declined to attend, Vietnam’s state media said.

Hanoi’s Judicial Council will reopen the trial on March 9, the report said.

Dang Dinh Manh—a lawyer representing blogger Truong Duy Nhat—told RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Thursday that he had formally asked the court to postpone the trial because the second member of his legal team, Ngo Anh Tuan, was never summoned to attend. [read more]

Vietnamese Woman Accused of Membership in US-based ‘Terror Group’

26.02.2020 (RFA) - Police in southern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province have launched an investigation of a woman living in Lam Dong province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, accusing her of membership in a U.S.-based opposition organization called a “terrorist group” by authorities in Hanoi.

Tran Thi Hoa, born in 1963 and a resident of Lam Dong province’s Da Lat city, is accused of activities aimed at overthrowing Vietnam’s one-party communist state under Article109 of the country’s penal code, the Dong Nai police website reported on Feb. 23, adding that police in Lam Dong have joined them in their investigation. [read more]

Vietnam dissident Buddhist monk Thich Quang Do dies at 91

25.02.2020 By Associated Press (Daily Mail) - HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Thich Quang Do, a Buddhist monk who became the public face of religious dissent in Vietnam while the Communist government kept him in prison or under house arrest for more than 20 years, has died at age 91.

Do, who died Saturday in Ho Chi Minh City, was the highest leader of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, which has constantly tangled with the government over issues of religious freedom and human rights.

He suffered for many years from diabetes, a heart condition and high blood pressure, said the International Buddhist Information Bureau in Paris, which speaks for the outlawed church and announced the death. [read more]

Ha muerto Thich Quang Do, monje disidente de la Iglesia Budista Unificada de Vietnam

25.02.2020 (AsiaNews) - Ciudad Ho Chi Minh - Thich Quang Do, jefe de la Iglesia Budista Unificada de Vietnam (Cbuv), prohibida por el gobierno, murió el pasado 22 de febrero en Ciudad Ho Chi Minh. El monje disidente, que siempre había luchado por la libertad religiosa en el país y sufrido arrestos y detenciones durante más de tres décadas, murió a la edad de 93 años.

Pasó al menos 30 años en prisión defendiendo la libertad religiosa. En 2018 fue expulsado de un monasterio donde era forzado a arresto domiciliario y bajo control. Para él la libertad en Vietnam "es como el dibujo de un pastel: se ve delicioso en el papel, pero no se puede comer". La prensa del régimen no informó ni una sola línea sobre su muerte. [seguir leyendo]

Freedom at a high cost for Vietnamese blogger Tran Thi Nga

24.02.2020 By Shawn W. Crispin (CPJ) - When Vietnamese blogger Tran Thi Nga was arrested by authorities on January 21, 2017, she did not know at the time it would likely be the last time she would ever be in her home in northern Ha Nam province.

Nga, who covered issues ranging from human rights abuses to police brutality to environmental conflicts on her blog “Thuy Nga” and two YouTube channels, was recently given early release after serving nearly three years of a nine-year sentence on anti-state charges related to her journalism.

The cruel catch: ruling Communist Party authorities required her to leave Vietnam immediately for a life in exile in the U.S., where she now lives with her husband and two children. [read more]

Thich Quang Do, Defiant Rights Champion in Vietnam, Dies at 91

24.02.2020 By Seth Mydans (NYT) - As the patriarch of a banned Buddhist church, he endured prison, house arrest and internal exile but refused to bend to the Communist authorities.

Thich Quang Do, the patriarch of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and a defiant champion of religious freedom, democracy and human rights in his country, died on Saturday. He was 91.

Thich Quang Do had for decades repeatedly challenged, and angered, the Communist government on issues of religious and political freedom and had effectively been under house arrest since 2003. [read more]

Thich Quang Do, champion des droits rebelles au Vietnam, décède à 91 ans

24.02.2020 (news-24) - Thich Quang Do, le patriarche de l'Église bouddhiste unifiée du Vietnam interdite et défenseur de la liberté de religion, de la démocratie et des droits de l'homme dans son pays, est décédé samedi. Il avait 91 ans.

Une porte-parole de l'organisation a déclaré que les autorités vietnamiennes l'avaient détenu au secret et qu'il avait été impossible pour les membres de son organisation d'entrer en contact avec lui. Il souffrait de diabète et d'une maladie cardiaque depuis de nombreuses années, a-t-elle ajouté.

Pendant des décennies, Thich Quang Do a contesté à maintes reprises et irrité le gouvernement communiste sur les questions de liberté religieuse et politique et était effectivement assigné à résidence depuis 2003. [en savoir plus]

Buddhistischer Mönch und Menschenrechtler Thich Quang Do in Vietnam gestorben

23.02.2020 (Epoch Times) - Der mehrfach für den Friedensnobelpreis nominierte buddhistische Mönch und Menschenrechtler Thich Quang Do ist am Samstag im Alter von 93 Jahren in Vietnam gestorben. Das teilte die von der Regierung verbotene Vereinigte Buddhistische Kirche von Vietnam (UBCV), die Do leitete, am Sonntag mit.

Do lebte seit 2003 de facto unter Hausarrest in einem Kloster in Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt im Süden Vietnams.

Do war der Führung Vietnams ein Dorn im Auge: Er setzte sich Zeit seines Lebens für Religionsfreiheit und Menschenrechte in dem kommunistisch regierten südostasiatischen Staat ein. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnamese dissident monk who was a Nobel Prize nominee dies at 93

23.02.2020 AFP-JIJI (The Japan Times) - HANOI – Thich Quang Do, a dissident Buddhist monk who has effectively been under house arrest since 2003 and was nominated multiple times for the Nobel Peace Prize, has died at age 93.

Head of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, the vocal patriarch was born in 1928 in Thai Binh province and spent most of his life advocating for religious freedom and human rights in communist-run Vietnam. [read more]

Top 10 des pays où Internet est le plus censuré

20.02.2020 Par Malo (Corpito) - Depuis janvier 2019, une nouvelle loi sur la cybercriminalité est appliquée au Vietnam qui oblige les plateformes web à stocker les informations et coordonnées personnelles de tous les utilisateurs et de supprimer sous 24H tout commentaire jugé comme une « menace à la sécurité nationale » ! [en savoir plus]

¿Qué ocurrió durante mortal enfrentamiento en disputa de tierras en Dong Tam, Vietnam?

18.02.2020 Escrito por Loa, Traducido por Gabriela Garcia Calderon Orbe (GlobalVoices) - El 9 de enero de 2020, las autoridades vietnamitas desplegaron miles de policías a la aldea de Đồng Tâm en las afueras de la capital, Hanoi, para resolver una disputa de tierras. Luego vino un enfrentamiento entre habitantes y autoridades, y tres agentes de policía y dos civiles resultaron muertos.

El Gobierno ha prohibido a todos los medios independientes que entren a la zona, lo que deja a los medios estatales y medios sociales como las principales fuentes de información. [seguir leyendo]

EU: Press Vietnam on Human Rights Reforms

17.02.2020 (HRW) - Bangkok – Upcoming Dialogue Should Focus on Commitments Made in Recent Trade Deals.

The European Union should press Vietnam to end its systemic repression of human rights and release political prisoners and detainees, Human Rights Watch said today. A human rights dialogue between the EU and Vietnam is scheduled for February 19, 2020 in Hanoi.

The meeting will be held only a week after the European Parliament approved an EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Investment Protection Agreement (IPA).  [read more]

EU puts riches over rights in Vietnam trade deal

13.02.2020 By David Hutt, Prague (Asia Times) - EVFTA aims to massively boost trade and investment but does nothing to improve Hanoi’s poor rights record.

The European Parliament voted on February 12 to accept a free trade agreement (FTA) with Vietnam, a monumental deal that will cut almost all tariffs on exports from one of Southeast Asia’s fastest growing economies.

The trade deal, eight years in the making, has simultaneously been criticized for rewarding a one-party state that is among Asia’s serial human rights abusers while making virtually no demands on Hanoi to improve its record. [read more]

Le Vietnam et l’UE signent un accord de libre-échange polémique

13.02.2020 (La Revue Internationale) - Suppression de la quasi-totalité des tarifs douaniers d’ici dix ans et protection des investissements entre les deux blocs, les deux accords de libre-échange entre l’UE et le Vietnam ont été ratifiés par le Parlement européen mercredi 12 Février.

Une situation « préoccupante » au Vietnam

Plus tôt dans la semaine, lundi 10 Février, près de 70 ONG s’étaient unies pour demander officiellement aux eurodéputés de ne pas ratifier le texte, arguant que « la situation des droits humains et du droit du travail continue d’être préoccupante ». [en savoir plus]

EU Should Not Ignore Human Rights Of Religious Minorities In Vietnam Trade Deal

12.02.2020 ADF International (Scoop Media) - This week, the European Parliament votes on the implementation of the EU-Vietnam trade agreements. Human rights experts have criticized the agreement and urged the Parliament to postpone the vote until Vietnam agrees to abide by its commitments under international law. These concerns come amid growing evidence of ongoing violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief in Vietnam and the government’s failure to protect Christians and other religious minorities.

In January 2018, Vietnam passed its first ever law on freedom of religion or belief. It requires religious groups to register to get permission to conduct a range of services and activities. [read more]

Handel, Wandel, Vietnam: EU-Interessen stoßen auf Menschenrechte

11.02.2020  Von Chris Humphrey und Roland Siegloff, dpa (Greenpeace Magazin) - Die EU hat ein weitreichendes Freihandelsabkommen mit Vietnam vereinbart. Es würde europäische Exporte in das aufstrebende Entwicklungsland erleichtern. Doch Menschenrechtler mahnen.Die Europäische Union hat mit Vietnam ein Freihandelsabkommen vereinbart - das Europaparlament debattierte am Dienstag in Straßburg kontrovers darüber. An diesem Mittwoch findet die Abstimmung statt. [Weiterlesen]

Freier Handel um jeden Preis? EU will mit Vietnam ins Geschäft kommen

11.02.2020 (ntv) - Die EU hat mit Vietnam ein ambitioniertes Freihandelsabkommen abgeschlossen. Das Ziel: europäische Exporte in das Entwicklungsland erleichtern. Doch Menschrechtler befürchten, dass wirtschaftliche Interessen über die Rechte der Arbeitnehmer gestellt werden.

Die Europäische Union hat mit Vietnam ein Freihandelsabkommen vereinbart - die Debatte dazu stand am Dienstag auf dem Programm des Europaparlaments in Straßburg. An diesem Mittwoch findet die Abstimmung statt.

Menschenrechtler erfüllt das mit Sorge. Die Organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) forderte die Abgeordneten auf, ihr Votum zu verschieben, bis Vietnams Regierung in "konkrete und überprüfbare Maßstäbe beim Schutz von Arbeitnehmerrechten und Menschenrechte" einwillige. 27 weitere Organisationen sehen das genauso. [Weiterlesen]

Vor Abstimmung: EU-Vietnam Abkommen ignorieren Klimaschutz und Arbeitnehmer*innenrechte - "Anders Handeln" fordert EU-Parlament auf Abkommen abzulehnen

10.02.2020 Wien (OTS) - Diesen Mittwoch, 12. Februar, wird das EU-Parlament über das Handelsabkommen und das Investitionsabkommen EU-Vietnam abstimmen. Die Debatte dazu beginnt bereits morgen Dienstag.

Die Plattform Anders Handeln (1) fordert alle österreichischen EU-Abgeordneten in einem Brief (2) auf, gegen die Abkommen zu stimmen. Die Abkommen enthalten zahnlose Kapitel zum Klima- und Arbeitnehmer*innenschutz.

Menschen- und Arbeitsrechte in Vietnam geben Anlass zur größten Sorge

Vietnam hat zwei der acht Kernübereinkommen der ILO, das Übereinkommen über die Vereinigungsfreiheit und das Übereinkommen über die Abschaffung der Zwangsarbeit noch immer nicht ratifiziert. Zusätzlich fehlen die notwendigen Standards und konkrete Verpflichtungen zum Schutz und zur Durchsetzung internationaler Klima-, Umwelt-, Arbeits- und Menschenrechtsverpflichtungen. [Weiterlesen]

Pas de report des votes sur l'accord UE-Vietnam au Parlement européen

10.02.2020 (DHnet) - Deux groupes politiques de gauche au Parlement européen - les Verts/ALE et la GUE - ont échoué lundi à faire reporter le vote attendu mercredi sur l'accord de commerce de l'UE avec le Vietnam.

Ecologistes et extrême gauche jugent que l'accord avec le pays communiste à parti unique ne rencontre pas les exigences de l'UE en matière environnementale, de protection sociale et de droits de l'homme.

Leurs demandes pour une suppression du vote de l'ordre du jour de la plénière ou pour un report ont été rejetées par 246 voix contre 110 pour l'une, 231 voix contre 121 pour l'autre. Dans la journée, plusieurs dizaines d'ONG avaient encore appelé les députés européens à ne pas ratifier l'accord avec le Vietnam, où "la situation des droits humains et du droit du travail" continue, selon elles, "d'être préoccupante". [en savoir plus]

Commerce: des ONG appellent le Parlement européen à ne pas ratifier l'accord UE-Vietnam

10.02.2020 (Le Figaro) - Plusieurs dizaines d'ONG ont appelé lundi les députés européens à ne pas ratifier l'accord de libre-échange entre l'UE et le Vietnam, où «la situation des droits humains et du droit du travail» continue, selon elles, «d'être préoccupante». «Contrôlé par un parti unique, le Vietnam n'offre pas de garanties suffisantes en matière de respect des libertés publiques», écrivent ces organisations. «La répression policière et politique touche particulièrement les défenseurs des droits humains, de l'environnement et toutes celles et ceux qui critiquent le régime.» [en savoir plus]

Human Rights Watch Film Festival, London

10.02.2020 (HRW) - The London Human Rights Watch Film Festival (HRWFF) will be presented from 12 to 20 March 2020, featuring empowering documentaries and dramas celebrating courageous people from 14 countries: Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, Guatemala, Germany, Iran, Macedonia, Mexico, Peru, Romania, the United States, and Vietnam. Eleven of the 14 films selected for this 24th edition are directed by women.

Many filmmakers, contributors, Human Rights Watch researchers, and activists will take part in rigorous post-screening Q&As and panel discussions at Barbican Cinema, Curzon Soho, and Regent Street Cinema. [read more]

Victims of Vietnam land clash seek US support - Activist calls for an independent inquiry to bring justice to victims and protect innocent detainees

07.02.2020 UCA News reporter, Hanoi (UCA News) -  A well-known rights activist has appealed to American diplomats to help victims of last month’s deadly clash between villagers and police over disputed farmland on the outskirts of Hanoi.

Trinh Ba Phuong said on Feb. 6 that he had met three officials from the US embassy in Hanoi about the clash that left four people dead on Jan. 9 in Dong Tam Commune.

Phuong told the diplomats during the two-hour meeting that the victims and activists wanted the US and the international community to work with Vietnam to conduct an independent investigation into the clash, which claimed the lives of three police officers and 84-year-old community leader Le Dinh Kinh. [read more]

What happened during the deadly land dispute clash in Dong Tam, Vietnam?

06.02.2020 Written by Loa (Global Voices) - On January 9, 2020, Vietnamese authorities deployed thousands of police to Đồng Tâm village on the outskirts of the capital Hanoi to solve a land dispute. A clash between residents and authorities followed, and three police officers and two civilians were killed.

The government has barred all independent media from entering the area, leaving state media and social media as the main sources of information. Many netizens are trying to piece together what happened. The Loa team also got together to make sense of what went down. [read more]

NGOs Ask EU Parliament to Vote Against EU-Vietnam FTA And IPA Over Human Rights Issues

06.02.2020 (RFA) - A total of 28 NGOs Tuesday urged the European Parliament (EP) to postpone consent to the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) until Vietnam’s government agrees to protect the rights of laborers and ensure human rights.

The FTA was signed in June 2019, and is scheduled to be voted on in the European Parliament for approval next week. [read more]

NGOs Urge European Parliament to Postpone Consent to EU-Vietnam Trade Deals

04.02.2020 (HRW) - Dear Member of the European Parliament,

We are writing ahead of the February 11th plenary vote on the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) to urge you to vote for postponing Parliament’s consent to the deals until the Vietnamese government agrees to meet concrete and verifiable benchmarks to protect labour rights and human rights. [read more]

Former Vietnamese Political Prisoner to Receive Rights Award in Paris

31.01.2020 (RFA) - Former Vietnamese prisoner of conscience Tran Thi Nga is set to receive ACAT-France’s Engel Prize for Human Rights on Saturday in Paris after being freed early in January from a nine-year prison term imposed in Vietnam for “spreading propaganda against the state.

Released on Jan. 10 following diplomatic pressure after serving three years of her sentence, Tran and her two sons and husband were put on a plane and sent to Atlanta, Georgia, where she now lives in exile from Vietnam. [read more]

Le prix Acat à la militante vietnamienne Tran Thi Nga

31.01.2020 par Arnaud Vaulerin (Libération) - L'association de lutte contre la torture et la peine de mort récompense samedi le militantisme de Tran Thi Nga, expulsée du Vietnam vers les Etats-Unis pour avoir défendu les droits humains et critiqué les scandales environnementaux.

Malgré les épreuves, elle n’a jamais signé. Pendant des mois, la police vietnamienne a usé de toutes les pressions, tortures, violences et menaces pour forcer Tran Thi Nga à admettre qu’elle s’était rendue coupable de «propagande antiétatique». Et pendant des mois, rien n’aura été épargné à cette activiste des droits humains, aujourd’hui âgée de 42 ans, qui recevra ce samedi le prix Engel-du Tertre des droits de l’homme de la fondation Acat. [en savoir plus]

Jailed Vietnamese Blogger Transferred to New Prison With No Word to His Family

24.01.2020 (RFA) - Vietnamese authorities have transferred an environmental activist and blogger to a new prison far from home without notification to his wife, who traveled this week to his old jail in a fruitless attempt to see him, his wife says.

Speaking on Thursday to RFA’s Vietnamese Service, Nguyen Thi Chau said she had traveled on Jan. 21 to see her husband, Nguyen Ngoc Anh--now serving a six-year term for criticizing Vietnam's government on Facebook--at his prison in Ben Tre province to visit and deliver food, but was told he wasn’t there. [read more]

Vietnamese Intellectuals Denounce Police Killing at Dong Tam

22.01.2020 (RFA) - Over 30 notable Vietnamese intellectuals on Tuesday officially denounced the killing at the hands of police of an elderly community leader at Hanoi’s Dong Tam commune during land dispute protests Jan. 9.

Le Dinh Kinh, 84 was shot and killed by police who swarmed his home in a 4:00 a.m. assault on the commune that involved about 3,000 security officers from the police and armed forces.

The group filed their denouncement by delivering it to the Supreme People’s Procuracy of Vietnam and the Hanoi Police Department. [read more]

Tragic Clashes in Land Dispute Rekindle Criticism of Vietnamese Regime

18.01.2020 (Latin American Herald Tribune) - HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam – The death of an 84-year-old village leader during clashes between locals and police in northern Vietnam has rekindled opposition in the country to Hanoi’s Communist regime while highlighting the difficulties it faces in resolving conflicts over land ownership.

A member of the Communist Party who held leadership positions in the local administration, Kinh came to prominence in April 2017 following his arrest (and alleged torture) while defending the ownership of locals’ land in the same longstanding dispute with the military-owned telecommunications company Viettel.

In a country where dissent is quelled through continued arrests and where all press is state-owned, land disputes have been one of the few reasons for social conflict. [read more]

State vs people conflict rocks and roils Vietnam - Lethal police-villager clashes at Dong Tam threaten communist nation’s stability and standing

18.01.2020 By David Hutt (Asia Times) - It remains unclear what exactly transpired this month in an incident that killed three Vietnamese police officers and one elderly protestor over a long-running land dispute at Dong Tam commune outside of Hanoi.

According to reports, an estimated 3,000 police in riot gear attempted a dawn raid to evict residents and erect a fence around 59 hectares of land for a planned military airport at the commune, the scene of a 2017 conflict that saw dozens of police taken hostage by residents in a similar eruption of tensions.

Police were reportedly met by angry residents who retaliated with low-grade grenades and Molotov cocktails, according to state media reports on the clashes. An unknown number of villagers have been arrested, with some charged with murder. [read more]

Un trágico disturbio convierte a un anciano en héroe de la oposición vietnamita

17.01.2020 Eric San Juan (EFE) - 11 La muerte de un líder vecinal de 84 años durante un enfrentamiento con la Policía por unas tierras en el norte de Vietnam está reavivando la oposición interna al régimen comunista de Hanói y ha convertido al anciano fallecido en un héroe de la resistencia.

"Estoy desolado por la muerte del señor Le Dinh Kinh, creo que las autoridades no han respetado las leyes nacionales e internacionales al enviar a cientos de policías armados", comenta a Efe Trinh Ba Phuong, uno de los activistas más próximos a los vecinos. [seguir leyendo]

Vietnam's battalions of 'cyber-armies' silencing online dissent

17.01.2020 by Adam Bemma (Al Jazeera) - Hanoi, Vietnam - 'Force 47', thought to be 10,000-strong, seen as government's online enforcers as new cybercrime law takes effect.

Wearing his trademark black fedora, human rights defender Anh Chi updates his YouTube audience on the situation in Dong Tam village, 40km (25 miles) southwest of Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, the site of a recent deadly dispute over land.

Anh Chi is among the few social media-savvy activists, who are trying to push the boundaries of delivering news and analysis straight to the Vietnamese public. But these days, their voices are increasingly becoming muted due to government restrictions. [read more]

Vietnamese Bank Freezes Accounts of Dong Tam Activists, Supporters

17.01.2020 (RFA) - Vietnamese authorities ordered a local bank Friday to freeze several accounts of people involved in deadly protests Jan. 9 over the planned construction of a military airport near the capital Hanoi, including an account that had collected a huge sum in donations for the family of an elderly community leader killed in the protest.

Le Dinh Kinh, 84 was shot and killed by police who swarmed his home in a 4:00 a.m. assault in Hanoi’s Dong Tam commune that involved about 3,000 security officers from the police and armed forces.

According to an announcement from the Ministry of Public Security, the accounts were frozen because of ongoing investigations into the protest. [read more]

Dans un Vietnam en plein essor économique, la persécution des chrétiens grandit

17.01.2020 (Journal Chrétien) - L’économie vietnamienne est en plein essor, de même que l’oppression des groupes religieux par le régime communiste.

Au Vietnam, des villageois et des responsables locaux ont récemment pris d’assaut une maison, ligoté avec des cordes une fillette de six ans et ses parents et tiré la famille hors du village. C’était leur châtiment pour être devenus chrétiens. L’enfant est tombée dans le coma. [en savoir plus]

Amnesty International accuses Vietnam of ‘weaponising’ social media

16.01.2020 John Reed (Financial Times) - Group claims content on Facebook and YouTube is suppressed during deadly land dispute.

Amnesty International has accused Facebook and Google’s YouTube video-sharing platform of suppressing content during a violent land dispute in Hanoi that left four people dead.

The rights group said that the communist-ruled country had been “weaponising” social media. It added that it was likely that “cyber troops” had been deployed to flood the US social media platforms with complaints about users to force administrators to remove content.  [read more]

Vietnam: Amnistía Internacional denuncia arrestos y censura tras una protesta por tierras

16.01.2020 (DW) - AI aseguró que Hanói está convirtiendo a Facebook en un arma para perseguir a quienes dicen lo que piensan.

Las autoridades de Vietnam lanzaron una campaña de arrestos y censura en las redes sociales para aplacar las críticas tras una disputa por tierras hace una semana que se saldó con cuatro muertos, denunció este miércoles (15.01.2020) Amnistía Internacional (AI). [seguir leyendo]

Police Attacked First in Vietnam’s Dong Tam Clash, Witness Reports Say

16.01.2020 (RFA) - Police attacked first in a deadly clash over a land dispute in Hanoi’s Dong Tam commune on Jan. 9 that claimed the lives of an elderly community leader and three police officers, a new report drawn from multiple witness reports says, contradicting official accounts.

Released on Thursday and circulated to human rights organizations and foreign embassies in Vietnam, the report, published in English and titled “Fighting Over Senh Field: A Report on the Dong Tam Village Attack,” says that villagers fought back only after being assaulted by police in the latest flare-up in years of tensions over construction of a military airport near the capital. [read more]

Viet Nam: Arrests and social media crackdown follow deadly clashes over land

16.01.2020 (Amnesty International) - Vietnamese authorities have stepped up a countrywide crackdown marked by arrests and widespread social media censorship as they attempt to stifle public debate about a deadly land dispute, said Amnesty International today.

The intensifying assault on peaceful criticism follows clashes last week between police and residents of a village at the heart of a high-profile dispute, which left four people dead and sparked nationwide outrage. Official collusion over land deals have been a major source of discontent in Viet Nam.

Some Facebook users said they received the following message: "Due to legal requirements in your country, we have restricted access to your profile on Facebook. This means that other people in your country cannot see your profile, and may not be able to interact with you over Messenger."

These restrictions were likely prompted by the Vietnamese authorities’ deployment of cyber troop capabilities to flood Facebook with reports complaining of individual users’ social media activity. Viet Nam is believed to have a cyber troop force numbering 10,000. [read more]

Viêt-Nam. Arrestations et censure des réseaux sociaux font suite aux affrontements meurtriers concernant un conflit foncier

16.01.2020 (Amnesty International) - Les autorités vietnamiennes durcissent la répression menée à travers tout le pays, marquée par des arrestations et la censure des réseaux sociaux, dans le but de museler le débat public au sujet d’un conflit foncier meurtrier, a déclaré Amnesty International le 16 janvier 2020.

L’offensive soutenue contre les critiques pacifiques fait suite à des affrontements la semaine dernière entre la police et les habitants d’un village au cœur d’un conflit foncier très médiatisé, affrontements qui ont fait quatre morts et suscité l’indignation de tout le pays. Au Viêt-Nam, la collusion des autorités dans les transactions foncières est une source majeure de mécontentement. [en savoir plus]

Deadly land dispute in Vietnam sparks crackdown on 'critical' social media

16.01.2020 by Rina Chandran (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - BANGKOK - A deadly land dispute in Vietnam has led to a crackdown on social media posts, a sign of growing heavy-handedness by authorities as rising demand for land spurs more conflicts across the country, analysts and human rights activists said.

Four people were killed and dozens arrested last week in the northern village of Dong Tam near the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, as a long-running land dispute flared after a dawn raid by police.

Social media "played an important role in mobilising public support" for the villagers back in 2017 said John Gillespie, a professor at Australia's Monash University, and an expert on land conflicts in Vietnam. The government appears to have moved quickly to prevent it from happening this time, he said.

"This case shows a worrying escalation in the level of force the government is prepared to use to suppress local objections to public infrastructure developments," Gillespie said. [read more]

MEPs: Don't waste your chance to change Vietnam

15.01.2020 by Claudio Francavilla (EUobserver) - In coming weeks, the European Parliament is expected to take a binding decision on whether to approve, postpone or reject the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Investment Protection Agreement (IPA).

Negotiations between the Commission and the Vietnamese government went from 2012 to June 2019.

During this time, Vietnam has been engaged in a brutal crackdown on dissent and organised labour, especially since 2016. Scores of human rights activists, journalists, bloggers, religious figures and union campaigners have been brutally attacked or imprisoned under the country's draconian penal code for peacefully expressing their views. [read more]

Kein Freihandelsabkommen mit Vietnam ohne Menschenrechte

15.01.2020 (Sonnenseite) - Hoang Phong Ngo & Vietnamese community for political refugees in European Union hat diese Petition an Europa Parlament gestartet: "Kein Freihandelsabkommen mit Vietnam ohne Einhaltung der Menschenrechte und Arbeitsnormen"

Europa möchte gerne mit Vietnam das EVFTA (Europäisch Vietnamesische Freihandelsabkommen) abschließen, das Vietnam 50 Milliarden Euro  pro Jahr bringen sollte. Vietnam führt an der Spitze der Menschenrechtsverletzungen und akzeptiert nicht die Internationale Arbeitsstandards (ILO).

Das Abkommen ohne Menschenrechtswahrung und Internationale Arbeitsstandards würde das diktatorische Regime noch mehr stabilisieren, den Unterdrückungsapparat unterstützen, und die Bevölkerung hat nichts davon. Wir appellieren an das Europa Parlament mit euren Unterstützungen:   

a) Das EVFTA muss solange auf Eis gelegt werden, solange die Menschenrechte von dem vietnamesischen diktatorischen Regime missachtet bzw. mit Füssen getreten werden, die internationalen Arbeitsstandards (ILO) nicht von dem Regime in Vietnam vollkommen akzeptiert und umgesetzt werden. [Weiterlesen]

Vietnam’s Deadly Land Clash Leaves Questions Unanswered

15.01.2020 By Duy Hoang (The Diplomat) - Thousands of Vietnamese security police stormed a village on the outskirts of Hanoi in the early hours of January 9. As if moving against a terrorist leader, security forces sealed off the commune of Dong Tam, illuminated the night with flash grenades, and in a hail of bullets burst into the home of 84-year-old Le Dinh Kinh.

Security forces reportedly killed Kinh, along with his son and his 3-month-old grandson.

But Le Dinh Kinh was not a terrorist or fugitive. A long-time member of the Communist Party, he was the patriarch of a respected family and leader of a local protest movement against corruption. [read more]

At Vietnam’s ‘Dong Tam Massacre’, activists claim government attacked its own citizens

15.01.2020 (SCMP) - A long-running battle over land rights in the northern Vietnam village of Dong Tam [1] flared last week after a raid by thousands of police led to four deaths and the arrests of 30 residents.

Three officers were killed along with village leader Le Dinh Kinh, state media reported, while 20 of those arrested face murder charges, punishable by the death sentence in Vietnam.

An independent rights group has called for a government inquiry to establish the facts about events in Dong Tam.

Pham Doan Trang, a journalist, posted on Facebook that last week’s raid was being referred to by some Vietnamese as the “Dong Tam Massacre” and that the Vietnamese government attacked people using tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. During the raid, access roads were blocked, and phone and internet connections were shut down, activists said. [read more]

Vietnam in 2019: Crackdown on rights

15.01.2020 (IFEX) - At least 30 activists and dissidents were sentenced to prison in Vietnam in 2019 simply for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, association, and religion, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2020.

“2019 was a brutal year for basic freedoms in Vietnam,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The Vietnamese government claims that its citizens enjoy freedom of expression, but this ‘freedom’ disappears when it is used to call for democracy or to criticize the ruling Communist Party.” [read more]

Vietnam: Crackdown on Rights - Little Tolerance for Freedom of Expression, Independent Trade Unions

14.01.2020 (HRW) - New York – At least 30 activists and dissidents were sentenced to prison in Vietnam in 2019 simply for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, association, and religion, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2020.

“2019 was a brutal year for basic freedoms in Vietnam,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The Vietnamese government claims that its citizens enjoy freedom of expression, but this ‘freedom’ disappears when it is used to call for democracy or to criticize the ruling Communist Party.” [read more]

'Pushing boundaries': The rise of Samizdat publishing in Vietnam

14.01.2020 by Adam Bemma (Al Jazeera) - Hanoi, Vietnam - Liberal Publishing House publishes and distributes books Vietnam's government does not wants its citizens to read.

Inside a cramped room in a secret - and temporary - location in northern Vietnam, a printer whirs to life, spitting out sheets of paper covered in text.

"The dampness in the room has caused the paper to crease. This isn’t good," said the editor in chief of Vietnam’s Nha Xuat Ban Tu Do - Liberal Publishing House - as he flipped through the newly-printed book.

In Vietnam, as in the former Soviet Union, such publications are known as Samizdat - the illegal copying and distribution of books - and are banned by the government as "anti-state" activity. Under Article 117 of Vietnam’s criminal code, anyone involved in Samizdat risks a jail term of 20 years. The Liberal Publishing House editor prefers not to share their name. [read more]

Trial against Eight Members of Hiến Pháp Group Postponed, New Schedule Not Announced

14.01.2020 (Defend the Defenders) - Vietnam’s communist regime has postponed the first-instance hearing to try eight members of the unregistered group Hiến Pháp (Constitution) on the allegation “disruption of security” under Article 118 of the country’s Criminal Code” for their intention to participate in a peaceful demonstration in early September last year, Defend the Defenders has learned.

The People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City made the decision to delay the trial on January 13, one day prior to the scheduled date, saying the postpone was due to the request of Mr. Le Quy Loc, one of the defendants, for summoning witness(es). [read more]

Elderly Village Leader Killed During Clash With Police is Laid to Rest Outside Hanoi

13.01.2020 (RFA) - Le Dinh Kinh, 84, was killed on Jan. 9 as farmers at Dong Tam threw grenades and petrol bombs at police in the latest flare-up of the long-running dispute over a military airport construction site near the capital. Three police officers were also killed during the clash, and another person injured, state media said last week.

Security forces have now surrounded Dong Tam commune, controlling access and cutting off internet service to the area, social media sources said.

In a video clip distributed widely on social media, Le Dinh Kinh’s wife Du Thi Thanh said on Monday that she had been beaten by police during questioning, and had been forced to admit that villagers had used grenades during their clash with police. [read more]

Vietnam arrests Facebook user over land rights clash

13.01.2020 (Newsdiary Online) - Vietnamese Authorities, on Monday arrested a Facebook user for posting information related to a recent land rights clash between locals and police, state media reported.

On Jan. 9, three villagers, including a community leader, and at least three police officers died in Dong Tam village, following a dispute over land rights in the village on the outskirts of Hanoi.

Around one kilometre away from the village lies Mieu Mon Airport, around which Vietnam’s Defense Ministry is currently constructing a fence to protect the land.

Villagers have expressed anger about the demarcation of land, which they say has led to farmland being taken away from them by the government. [read more]

20 Residents in Dong Tam Commune Investigated for Murdering Police Officers during Violent Raid in Hoanh Village on January 9

13.01.2020 (Defend the Defenders) - The Police Department of Hanoi has announced that it has charged 20 residents of Dong Tam commune with “murdering” and two others with “resisting law enforcement officers” in the bloody clash in the commune’s Hoanh village in the early morning of January which led to at least four deaths, including 3 of police officers.

According to the state-controlled media, a senior official from the city’s Police Department said it is holding 26 residents of Dong Tam commune who are said to be involved in the incident, 20 of them were charged with the first allegation with the highest sentence being capital punishment and two were alleged with the second accusation with the highest sentence being seven years in prison.

Among detainees with murder charge are Mr. Le Dinh Cong and Mr. Le Dinh Chuc, sons of Mr. Le Dinh Kinh, the elderly leader of Dong Tam commune who was shot four times by police in the early morning of January 9 [read more]

Civilian Killed in Violent Land Clash in Vietnam Identified as Elderly Community Leader

10.01.2020 By Miriam Jackson (The Union Journal) - Le Dinh Kinh, 84, was killed Thursday as farmers from Dong Tam neighborhood tossed explosives as well as fuel bombs at authorities in the current flare-up of the long-running conflict, which likewise saw a 5th unknown individual suffer injuries.

According to media records, the Dong Tam Commune People’s Committee handed Kinh’s body over to his family members on Friday, although resources informed RFA’s Vietnamese Service that loved ones had yet to obtain it due to the fact that they declined to authorize files associated with the land conflict, without giving information of what the documents claimed. [read more]

Vietnam: quatre morts dont trois policiers dans des affrontements sur le contrôle de terres

09.01.2020 Par Le Figaro avec AFP (Le Figaro) - Trois policiers et un villageois sont morts jeudi dans des affrontements pour le contrôle de terres que se disputent la population locale et l'armée vietnamienne près d'Hanoï, selon les autorités.

Les villageois contestent depuis plusieurs années la légalité de la confiscation par les militaires de terrains entourant l'aéroport de Mieu Mon (Nord).

Les forces de l'ordre ont alors rencontré des habitants «munis de grenades, de cocktails Molotov et de couteaux», selon un communiqué du ministère de la Sécurité publique. Le «désordre» a conduit à «la mort de trois policiers et un villageois» ajoute le communiqué, précisant que d'autres villageois ont été «arrêtés pour violation grave de la loi».

L'ONG Human Rights Watch a exhorté le Vietnam à ouvrir une enquête qui «va au fond de ce qui s'est passé» et à fournir un accès libre au site à des observateurs indépendants, comme des journalistes, des diplomates et des fonctionnaires de l'ONU. [en savoir plus]

3 police, villager die in clash over land in Vietnam

09.01.2020 (Daily Mail) - HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Residents of a Hanoi suburb used grenades, firebombs and spears Thursday in an attempt to stop soldiers from building a wall around a military airport on land they say is private, leaving three police and a villager dead, officials said.

The confrontation occurred in Dong Tam, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement. It said police arrested several people involved in the "riot" and would launch an investigation.

"The situation in Dong Tam village is under control. The authorities will continue their presence at the scene to keep order," said Gen. To An Xo, spokesman of the ministry. [read more]