Gulfnews | April 15, 2014
Vietnam has granted early release to two high-profile dissidents, bringing the number of democracy activists freed this month to three in what the government called a “policy of leniency”.
The unusual moves come as Hanoi is negotiating a free trade deal with the United States that is expected to help Vietnam’s stumbling economy.
American officials have said the deal might not get congressional approval unless Vietnam’s government shows it is taking steps to improve its human rights record.
Vi Duc Hoi and Nguyen Tien Trung were released over the weekend.
They were convicted of crimes relating to their peaceful advocacy of multiparty democracy in Vietnam, ruled by an authoritarian government that doesn’t allow freedom of expression or political assembly.
“It was due to international pressure that the government of Vietnam had to release me,” Hoi, a former member of the ruling Communist Party, told Radio Free Asia, a US government-funded network. “I lost some weight but I am still OK physically and mentally.”
Phil Robertson, Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the two men should never have been imprisoned.
“There are still hundreds more political prisoners languishing in Vietnam’s prisons, so there is a very long way to go before we can say that Vietnam is making any sort of appreciable progress on human rights,” he said.
Earlier this month, another prominent activist, Cu Huy Ha Vu, was released and went directly from jail to the United States, which had been negotiating for his release. He was four years into a seven-year sentence. A photo widely distributed on Facebook shows him at an American airport giving a V-for-victory sign. A US diplomat posted at the embassy in Hanoi is next to him in the picture.
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April 16, 2014
Vietnam releases dissidents amid foreign pressure
by Nhan Quyen • Cu Huy Ha Vu, Nguyen Tien Trung, Vi Duc Hoi
The unusual moves come as Hanoi is negotiating a free trade deal with the United States that is expected to help Vietnam’s stumbling economy.
American officials have said the deal might not get congressional approval unless Vietnam’s government shows it is taking steps to improve its human rights record.
Vi Duc Hoi and Nguyen Tien Trung were released over the weekend.
They were convicted of crimes relating to their peaceful advocacy of multiparty democracy in Vietnam, ruled by an authoritarian government that doesn’t allow freedom of expression or political assembly.
“It was due to international pressure that the government of Vietnam had to release me,” Hoi, a former member of the ruling Communist Party, told Radio Free Asia, a US government-funded network. “I lost some weight but I am still OK physically and mentally.”
Phil Robertson, Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the two men should never have been imprisoned.
“There are still hundreds more political prisoners languishing in Vietnam’s prisons, so there is a very long way to go before we can say that Vietnam is making any sort of appreciable progress on human rights,” he said.
Earlier this month, another prominent activist, Cu Huy Ha Vu, was released and went directly from jail to the United States, which had been negotiating for his release. He was four years into a seven-year sentence. A photo widely distributed on Facebook shows him at an American airport giving a V-for-victory sign. A US diplomat posted at the embassy in Hanoi is next to him in the picture.