Police Generals Dominate Vietnam New Leadership, More Political Crackdown Expected

Vietnam police officers suppress protestors during peaceful anti-China demonstration in 2011

by Vu Quoc Ngu, February 01, 2016

Vietnam is expected to intensify crackdown against local political dissidents, social activists and human rights in the next few years as a number of police generals have been elected to the highest bodies of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam in the 2016-2021 term, experts said.

At the 12^th National Congress held in Hanoi on Jan 21-28, four police generals were elected to the party’s 19-member Politburo, the highest decision-making body in the communist nation. Two others were elected to the Secretariat, the party’s body responsible for its daily works.

Along with the re-election of Minister of Public Security General Tran Dai Quang, who is set to succeed President Truong Tan Sang, Deputy Minister Senior Lieutenant General To Lam, former police generals Pham Minh Chinh and Nguyen Hoa Binh and Nguyen Van Nen were also the new member of the Politburo.

Gen. Lam, who is the head of the security forces, is likely to fill the post leaved by Mr. Quang in July.

Mr. Chinh and Mr. Binh were deputy minister of Public Security while Mr. Nen was police officer before being appointed to the head of the government’s Office. The first is expected to head the party’s Commission of Organization while Mr. Binh is expected to leave his current post as chief of the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam. The trio is in the Secretariat fir the 2016-2020 period.

The congress also elected Deputy Ministers of Public Security Bui Van Nam and Nguyen Van Thanh to the 200-member Central Committee. In addition, Lieutenant General Nguyen Duc Chung, head of the Police Department in Hanoi, was also included in the committee which is the highest party’s body between the two consecutive National Congresses.

Vietnam has intensified crackdown against government critics, social activists and human rights defenders nationwide in recent years. The Ministry of Public Security claimed it had arrested and dealt with 1,410 cases involving 2,680 people who had “violated national security”, a term which is often used by the communist government to silence local political dissidents, social activists and human rights defenders. Minister Quang also labeled independent civil society organizations as opposition groups.

The latest victim of Vietnam’s ongoing persecution is human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, who was arrested on Dec 16 last year together with his assistant Le Thu Ha.

In addition, many activists have been attacked by police and thugs, the Amnesty International said, adding 69 male and female activists are known to have been targeted in 36 violent attacks, perpetrated by police or men in plain-clothes, widely believed to be working for, or with, the police.

According to the ministry, 226 detainees died in police custody in the period between October 2010 and September 2014, and police said most of their deaths were caused by illness and suicides. Around 20 people were killed in police station last year and the number of victims has amount to three in January this year.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said police torture is systemic in Vietnam.