Letter to denounce the Vietnam government violates rights to freedom of movement of citizens

As my movement both inside Vietnam and going out of Vietnam has been arbitrarily impeded and on a prolonged basis, I am also bound to use my freedom of expression to bring this to the attention of the U.S. Government and Congress, to the European Union, to the international NGOs concerned with human rights, freedom and democracy and to the international media. This is because these restrictions and harassments imposed on me by the Vietnamese government are not consistent with that government’s seating in the United Nations Human Rights Council, nor do they make it deserving of the preferences to be granted to Vietnam by the international community in the upcoming TPP or other economic and diplomatic favor

pham chi dung

Pham Chi Dung
IJAVN | Oct 22, 2014

To:  The U.S. Government and Congress
        The European Union
        International NGOs concerned with human rights & democracy

My name is Pham Chi Dung, president of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam — a civil society in Vietnam.

I would like to bring to your attention that on October 17, 2014, I was illegally prevented by a number of police officers belonging to the Security Police of Ho Chi Minh City as I was on my way going to a meeting with my fellow journalists in our Association at a cafe in Saigon.

It should be noticed that this happened exactly at the same time as Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung was in Europe declaring that “we believe that human rights, freedom, and democracy are irreversible trends and constitute objective demands of human society.”

This is not the first time that my freedom of movement has been blatantly and illegally violated like that.

On February 1, 2014, as I was about to catch a flight to Switzerland to participate in a seminar on the occasion of Vietnam‘s UPR organized by UN Watch, the Security Police of Ho Chi Minh City had forbidden me to take the trip, they confiscated my passport and only gave an oral explanation “for reason of national security.” Up to this moment they have yet to return my passport to me or even promise to.

As far as I know, I have absolutely not done anything that could threaten the national security of Vietnam. I believe therefore that the Ho Chi Minh City Security Police is dutybound to make clear in which way I have impacted national security — and based on which article of law.

As my movement both inside Vietnam and going out of Vietnam has been arbitrarily impeded and on a prolonged basis, I am also bound to use my freedom of expression to bring this to the attention of the U.S. Government and Congress, to the European Union, to the international NGOs concerned with human rights, freedom and democracy and to the international media. This is because these restrictions and harassments imposed on me by the Vietnamese government are not consistent with that government’s seating in the United Nations Human Rights Council, nor do they make it deserving of the preferences to be granted to Vietnam by the international community in the upcoming TPP or other economic and diplomatic favors.

Sincerely yours,

Vietnam, October 17, 2014
Phạm Chí Dũng, Independent Journalist
Email: phamchidungsg@gmail.com