At midday of June 2, 2015, several members of the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers, including Nguyễn Tiến Nam from Yên Bái, Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh (a.k.a. Mẹ Nấm, Mother Mushroom) from Nha Trang, and Dương Lâm from Sài Gòn came together to discuss on the Southeast Asian Sea dispute and the TPP negotiation between the United States and the communist Vietnam government. The discussion especially focused on advocacy efforts in the second phase of the 2015 Human Rights Campaign, which aims at calling for the release of prisoners of conscience and fighting for freedom and democracy in the context of the TPP negotiation process.
The meeting had been planned before the bloggers came to the farewell party by Ms. Elenore Kanter, Counsellor and Head of Political and Trade Section for the Swedish Embassy in Vietnam.
However, before they arrived at the residence of Pham Thanh Nghien, a political dissident in Hai Phong, they found a great many plainclothes policemen waiting. One policeman pushed Nguyen Tien Nam off the taxi and said he and the other bloggers could not enter the area.
More than 20 young men, including some drunken guys, surrounded the bloggers outside Pham Thanh Nghien’s apartment and tried to incite them to violence.
Pham Thanh Nghien, seeing her friends harassed by the police, went out to pick them up. She immediately got her hair pulled by a young man in red. This man also hit Nghien on her face and head. Nghien’s sister-in-law, back home from work to see the assault, came to stop it and she herself was slapped in her face and kicked at her back by the policemen.
Two elder sisters and another sister-in-law of Pham Thanh Nghien were also beaten when they tried to calm people down. The plainclothes police pushed Ms. Pham Thanh Loan down and dealt a harsh blow in her face so that her cheek got swollen later. She had previously suffered from spinal degenerative disease and scoliosis, and now she is hurt after being pushed down.
At the same time, the thugs surrounded other members of the NVB, splitting them up and pushing them to the other side of the road. Under the siege of thugs, the bloggers could just call for help.
While police were assaulting Pham Thanh Nghien and her sisters, more than ten security agents were standing watching and doing nothing.
Other policemen were watching the thugs “in action.”
Neighbors who came to stop the assault and to advise the police not to restrict freedom of movement for the bloggers were all blocked and provoked by the police.
Luu Van Thi, Deputy Director of the police in Dong Hai I ward (his phone number is 0904185419) waited until the thug who attacked Thanh Nghien had run away before he came and asked the bloggers to go to the local police station and “report” on the incidence, but the bloggers declined to do.
After accomplishing their “mission” of assault, the police reluctantly let the bloggers go and have lunch near Nghien’s residence.
Despite being threatened by the police, the restaurant owner asked the bloggers to come in and have lunch under the siege of the thugs.
Below are some photos of the thug-police:
Trần Thủy, from the city’s security department. He’s the one who treated rudely and swore at blogger Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, and he wanted to summon the bloggers to the local police station “to work.”
The thug who assaulted blogger Phạm Thanh Nghiên
The gang of security agents and thug-police
The half-naked policeman and other thugs who are so familiar
with and rude to blogger Pham Thanh Nghien in every encounter between them.
Even the people who stopped to restrain both sides were harassed by the police.
This half-naked thug is the rude man who stank of alcohol and kept threatening the bloggers.
This is the most aggressive thug. He said, “Take them all to the police station. Don’t talk to them.” He was also the one who stole banners from the florist wreaths laid in the funeral of Pham Thanh Nghien’s mother early last year.
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June 4, 2015
Police assault Pham Thanh Nghien and members of the NVB
by Nhan Quyen • Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (Me Nam), Pham Thanh Nghien
Dan lam bao | Jun 04-2015
Other policemen were watching the thugs “in action.”
Trần Thủy, from the city’s security department. He’s the one who treated rudely and swore at blogger Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, and he wanted to summon the bloggers to the local police station “to work.”
The thug who assaulted blogger Phạm Thanh Nghiên
The gang of security agents and thug-police
The half-naked policeman and other thugs who are so familiar
with and rude to blogger Pham Thanh Nghien in every encounter between them.
Even the people who stopped to restrain both sides were harassed by the police.
This half-naked thug is the rude man who stank of alcohol and kept threatening the bloggers.
This is the most aggressive thug. He said, “Take them all to the police station. Don’t talk to them.” He was also the one who stole banners from the florist wreaths laid in the funeral of Pham Thanh Nghien’s mother early last year.