Vietnam-Human Rights Developments in 2008. Human Rights Watch Asia
From: Dan Duffy
Date: 2009/1/15
From: HRWAsia@aol.com
Subject: Vietnam-Human Rights Developments in 2008
To: hrw@online.com.kh
Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2009, 7:47 PM
Enclosed below is the Vietnam chapter from Human Rights Watch's World
Report 2009, which covers human rights developments during 2008. The
564-page report summarizes major human rights issues in more than 90
countries, reflecting the extensive investigative work carried out in 2008
by Human Rights Watch staff. For the full report please see: www.hrw.org
For more information regarding the Vietnam chapter, please contact:
* In London: Brad Adams: (o) +44 20 7713 2767; (m) +44 7908 728 333
* In Washington, DC: Sophie Richardson: (o) 1 202 612 4341; (m) 1 917 721 7473
Vietnam - Human Rights Development in 2008
The Vietnamese government continues to crackdown on democracy activists,
journalists, human rights defenders, cyber-dissidents, and members of
unsanctioned religious organizations. Social unrest increased in 2008 as
thousands of workers joined strikes for better pay and working conditions.
An informal nationwide land rights movement swelled, as thousands of
farmers traveled to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi to publicly express their
grievances about land seizures and local corruption.
Ethnic Khmer Buddhists in the Mekong Delta and Montagnard Christians in
the Central Highlands protested against land confiscation and religious
persecution. 2008 saw the harshest crackdown on Catholics in Vietnam in
decades as Vietnamese authorities sought to curtail mass prayer vigils in
Hanoi calling for the return of government-confiscated church properties.
Political and Religious Prisoners
More than 400 political and religious prisoners remain behind bars in
harsh prison conditions. Prisoners are placed in solitary confinement in
dark, unsanitary cells, and there is compelling evidence of torture and
ill-treatment of political prisoners, including beatings and electric
shock. Credible sources report the use of forced prison labor in a cashew
processing facility at Xuan Loc prison, where many political prisoners are
imprisoned.
Arbitrary Detention and Unfair Trials
National security laws are used to imprison members of opposition
political parties, independent trade unions, and unsanctioned media
outlets and religious organizations. Political dissidents are often tried
without access to legal counsel in proceedings that take less than a day.
Laws such as Ordinance 44 authorize the detention without trial of
dissidents at “social protection centers” and psychiatric facilities if
they are deemed to have violated national security laws. In March 2008,
police arrested Bui Kim Thanh, an activist who defended victims of land
confiscation and involuntarily committed her to a mental hospital for the
second time in two years.
In May, a Ho Chi Minh City Court sentenced three members of the opposition
Viet Tan party to up to nine months’ imprisonment on charges of terrorism
and threatening national security for planning to distribute leaflets
about their party.
Several land rights activists and landless farmers petitioning for redress
were imprisoned during 2008, including seven in July on charges of causing
public disorder. In September an appeals court upheld the two-year prison
sentence of activist Luong Van Sinh, who had circulated reports and
photographs of farmers’ protests on the internet.
Media and Internet Restrictions
The Vietnamese government strictly controls the media. Criminal penalties
apply to authors, publications, websites, and internet users who
disseminate information or writings that oppose the government, threaten
national security, reveal state secrets, or promote “reactionary” ideas.
The government controls internet use by monitoring online activity,
harassing and arresting cyber-dissidents, and blocking websites of
democracy and human rights groups and independent media based in Vietnam
and abroad.
In July 2008, the Kien Giang People’s Court upheld a five-year prison
sentence for internet reporter, land rights activist, and Vietnam Populist
Party member Truong Minh Duc for “abusing democratic freedoms.”
In September, prominent internet writer Nguyen Hoang Hai (or Dieu Cay),
was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Following his trial, police detained
at least a dozen other democracy activists and bloggers, many of whom,
like Dieu Cay, had protested China ’s claims to the disputed Spratly and
Paracel islands.
In October, a Hanoi court sentenced reporters Nguyen Viet Chien of Young
People (Thanh Nien ) newspaper to two years in prison and Nguyen Van Hai
from Youth (Tuoi Tre) to two years’ re-education for having exposed a
major corruption scandal in 2005.
Freedom of Religion
Vietnamese law requires that religious groups register with the
government. Those that do not join one of the officially authorized
religious organizations—the governing boards of which are under the
control of the government—are considered illegal.
Authorities harass and arrest church leaders campaigning for rights or
choosing not to affiliate with state-controlled religious oversight
committees. For decades, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Do, now Supreme
Patriarch of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, has either
been in prison or under house arrest for publicly protesting government
policies.
Five ethnic Khmer Buddhist monks remain in prison in Soc Trang province
after participating in a peaceful protest in 2007 calling for greater
religious freedom. On June 28, ethnic Khmer monk Tim Sakhorn was released
from a year’s imprisonment in An Giang province. Although a recognized
citizen of Cambodia , Vietnamese authorities have prohibited him from
returning to Cambodia since his release.
Authorities beat and arrest members of ethnic minorities in remote areas
such as Montagnards in the Central Highlands for refusing to join
state-sanctioned church organizations, protesting land confiscation,
making contact with relatives or groups abroad, or trying to seek
political asylum in Cambodia . In April, police arrested Y Ben Hdok in Dak
Lak province after other Montagnards in his district tried to flee to
Cambodia to seek political asylum. After three days in detention, police
told Y Ben’s family to pick up his battered body. According to his family,
his head was bashed in, his ribs and limbs broken, and his teeth had been
knocked out. Police labeled the death a suicide.
Freedom of Association and Labor Rights
The government bans all independent political parties, unions, and human
rights organizations. Decree 88 provides for strict government control of
associations, which effectively serve as agencies of government ministries
or the Vietnamese Communist Party.
Vietnamese workers are forbidden from organizing unions independent of the
government-controlled labor confederation. Activists announced the
formation of independent trade unions in 2006, but were arrested,
imprisoned, harassed, intimidated, and “disappeared” for doing so; at
least 10 independent trade union members have been arrested since 2006.
The whereabouts of Le Tri Tue, one of the founders of the Independent
Workers’ Union , has remained unknown since his “disappearance” in May
2007.
Government regulations impose fines on workers who participate in strikes
not approved by the government, enable local officials to force striking
workers back to work, and ban strikes in strategic sectors including power
stations, railways, airports, and oil, gas, and forestry enterprises.
Despite these restrictions, thousands of workers participated in strikes
calling for better wages and working conditions during 2008, including
10,000 workers at Keyking toy factory in Danang in February.
Freedom of Assembly
Decree 38 bans public gatherings in front of places where government,
party, and international conferences are held, and requires organizers of
public gatherings to apply for and obtain advance government permission.
Despite the restrictions, public protests and social unrest grew during
2008 as citizens throughout Vietnam publicly aired their grievances over
land confiscation, corruption, religious persecution, confiscation of
church property, and China ’s claims to offshore islands.
During 2008 unprecedented numbers of CatholicsDone of the largest
officially recognized religions in Vietnam gathered in Hanoi for prayer
vigils calling for return of government confiscated church property. In
September police used tear gas and electric batons to disband the vigils,
detained protesters, and bulldozed properties considered sacred to
Vietnamese Catholics. Hundreds of thugs, some in the blue shirts of the
Communist Youth League, harassed, cursed, and spat at parishioners and
destroyed church statues. The state-controlled press conducted a smear
campaign against the Archbishop of Hanoi after he publicly defended the
vigils. On September 19 police detained and beat an American reporter
covering the events.
Police continue to forcefully disperse land rights demonstrations. In
February 2008, police used dogs and electric batons to break up a land
rights protest by ethnic Khmer farmers in An Giang province, injuring
several protesters. In April 2008, police and soldiers forcibly dispersed
Montagnard Christians demonstrating in the Central Highlands, and arrested
dozens of protesters. In August, four Montagnards were imprisoned on
charges of organizing protests and helping people flee to Cambodia .
Women and Children
Vietnam continues to be a source of and transit point for women and girls
trafficked for forced prostitution, fraudulent marriages, and forced
domestic servitude to other parts of Asia . Sex workers, trafficking
victims, street children, and street peddlers—officially classified by the
government as “social evils”—are routinely rounded up and detained without
warrants in compulsory “rehabilitation” centers, where they are subject to
beatings and sexual abuse.
Key International Actors
Various governments including New Zealand , Norway , Switzerland , Canada
, Sweden , Australia , UK , France , and the EU made representations to
the Vietnamese government on behalf of activists, independent journalists,
and prisoners of conscience. In October 2008, the European Parliament
called on Vietnam to cease its “systematic violations of democracy and
human rights” before finalization of a new EU-Vietnam cooperation
agreement with Vietnam .
Relations with the US continued to warm with Prime Minister Dung’s June
2008 visit to the US . The US raised concerns about arrests of journalists
and the government’s crackdown on Catholic protesters but asserted that
religious freedom continued to improve. In May, the US Commission on
International Religious Freedom urged the Bush administration to reinstate
Vietnam ’s designation as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for
religious freedom violations. The United States , which designated Vietnam
a CPC in 2004, had lifted the designation from Vietnam just days before
President Bush’s visit to Hanoi in November 2006.
Vietnam is due to be reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review
mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council in May 2009
Dan Duffy
Editor, Viet Nam Literature Project
Chair, Books & Authors: Viet Nam, Inc.