Many Vietnamese Activists Hold Street Demonstration in Hanoi to Condemn Gov’t-support Attacks against Human Rights, Democracy Advocates

biểu tình vụ nguyễn chí tuyến

The demonstrators, marching around Hoan Kiem Lake in the city’s center, were with banners demanding Vietnam’s police to stop persecution against local activists. They also shouted to condemn recent attacks against outspoken individuals who expressed their opinions on the country’s socio-economic issues.
They also hang Mr. Tuyen’s portraits with his head full of blood.

By Vu Quoc Ngu | May 14, 2015

Nearly one hundred of Vietnamese activists on May 14 held a demonstration in Hanoi to protest the recent brutal government-assisted assaults against local human rights and democracy campaigners.

The demonstration was taken four days after plainclothes agents severely attacked Nguyen Chi Tuyen, a well-known activist in Hanoi, near his private house in Long Bien district.

The demonstrators, marching around Hoan Kiem Lake in the city’s center, were with banners demanding Vietnam’s police to stop persecution against local activists. They also shouted to condemn recent attacks against outspoken individuals who expressed their opinions on the country’s socio-economic issues.

They also hang Mr. Tuyen’s portraits with his head full of blood.

Mr. Tuyen, an official of a Hanoi-based publishing house, is one of many victims of police attacks during the past few years.

Along with barring local activists from going abroad or meeting with foreign diplomats, Vietnam has often used plainclothes agents or hired thugs to brutally beat human rights activists and political dissidents.

Victims of the government-supported attacks are human rights lawyers Le Quoc Quan and Nguyen Bac Truyen, democracy advocate Nguyen Van Dai, independent journalist Truong Minh Duc, activists Nguyen Anh Tuan, Ha Thanh and Nguyen Son Tien, and land right activist Tran Thi Nga.

The police attack against Tuyen has drawn international attention. Mr. Felix Schwarz, political officer of the German Embassy in Vietnam visited his house after Tuyen returned from hospital where he received special treatment for serious injuries in his head and body.

Janet Nguyen, a Vietnamese American member of the California’s Senate has urged U.S. Ambassador Ted Osius to Vietnam and the New York-based Human Rights Watch to take proper measures to investigate Tuyen’s  assault and bring the attackers to a court.