Mrs. Hong severely injured after being beaten by police in Gia Lai province
When she refused to answer, police officers started to attack her until her collapsed on the ground. Later, police took her back to her house when she was severely injured.
By Vu Quoc Ngu, April 14, 2016
Police in Vietnam’s Central Highlands of Gia Lai on April 14 brutally beat Tran Thi Hong, the wife of prisoner of conscience Protestant Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, while questioning her about a recent meeting with U.S. diplomats.
In the morning of Thursday, the police in Hoa Lu ward, Pleiku city summoned Mrs. Hong to the local police station to interrogate her about the talks between her and U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom David Saperstein, political officer David V. Muehlke of the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, political officer Garrett Harkins of the U.S. General Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City and Mrs. Victoria L. Thoman at her private resident in Hoa Lu ward on March 30.
When she refused to answer, police officers started to attack her until her collapsed on the ground. Later, police took her back to her house when she was severely injured.
Her neighbors saw her fell on the floor so they came to provide some care for her.
The attack was carried out after four U.S.’s diplomats visited her in her private house after the local police blocked her from going to meet them in another place in the city.
On March 7, while Mrs. Tran Thi Hong went to meet with Mr. Harkins in the U.S. General Consulate in HCMC to report the ongoing harassment against her husband in jail, a dozen of police officers went to her private residence in Gia Lai to conduct administrative check. Their acts threatened her children of between five and 13 years old, who stayed in their house without their parents.
Mrs. Hong said security forces I Gia Lai have maintained close surveillance over her house and intimidated the family in the past ten years. They had severely beaten Pastor Chinh and her wife many times before imprisoning him with an 11-year imprisonment in 2012 on charge of undermining national security under Article 87 of the country’s Penal Code.
Since putting him in jail, police have kept watch over the family, blocking foreign diplomats from visiting the pastor’s wife and children after Mr. Katherine Lawson of the U.S. Department of State visited them in Pleiku in 2014. In order to meet them, Mrs. Hong has to go to foreign diplomatic missions in Saigon, about 500 kilometers from her town.
Pastor Chinh is among the religious activists suffering most from Vietnam’s authorities in Gia Lai and Kon Tum who demolished their church in Con R’Bàng village, Vinh Quang commune in Kon Tum.
Mrs. Hong, an active member of the unsanctioned Vietnam Women for Human Rights, needs special attention of international human rights organizations and the public.
Meanwhile, Vietnam is preparing for the upcoming visit of President Barack Obama scheduled in late May. Next week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Vietnam in a bid to strengthen the two countries’ comprehensive partnership and finalize the working schedule of President Obama in the communist nation.
Vietnam has sought to deepen economic and defense ties with the U.S. along with bilateral cooperation in education and other fields. The two countries are members of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement which needs approval of the U.S. Congress. It is unlikely the pact will be easily passed by the Congress which sees human rights situation in Vietnam worsened in recent years.
The attack against Mrs. Hong today, the violent suppression against Vietnamese activists on April 8 when they gathered in Hanoi to mark the 10th anniversary of the pro-democracy group Bloc 8406, and the jail sentences given to seven bloggers and social activists in late March have showed Vietnam’s intensified persecution against local political dissidents, social activists and human rights defenders after the country completed power transition.
Last week, the rubber stamp parliament formally approved Minister of Public Security General Tran Dai Quang as the president, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc as the government leader and Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan as the top legislator one month ahead of the country’s general election for the lawmaking body in the next five years. Many police officers have been promoted to key positions in the country’s new leadership in the 2016-2021 period.
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April 14, 2016
Police in Vietnam’s Central Highlands Brutally Beat Wife of Imprisoned Pastor, Questioning Her about Meeting with U.S. Diplomats
by Nhan Quyen • [Human Rights], Tran Thi Hong
Mrs. Hong severely injured after being beaten by police in Gia Lai province
By Vu Quoc Ngu, April 14, 2016
Police in Vietnam’s Central Highlands of Gia Lai on April 14 brutally beat Tran Thi Hong, the wife of prisoner of conscience Protestant Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, while questioning her about a recent meeting with U.S. diplomats.
In the morning of Thursday, the police in Hoa Lu ward, Pleiku city summoned Mrs. Hong to the local police station to interrogate her about the talks between her and U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom David Saperstein, political officer David V. Muehlke of the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, political officer Garrett Harkins of the U.S. General Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City and Mrs. Victoria L. Thoman at her private resident in Hoa Lu ward on March 30.
When she refused to answer, police officers started to attack her until her collapsed on the ground. Later, police took her back to her house when she was severely injured.
Her neighbors saw her fell on the floor so they came to provide some care for her.
The attack was carried out after four U.S.’s diplomats visited her in her private house after the local police blocked her from going to meet them in another place in the city.
On March 7, while Mrs. Tran Thi Hong went to meet with Mr. Harkins in the U.S. General Consulate in HCMC to report the ongoing harassment against her husband in jail, a dozen of police officers went to her private residence in Gia Lai to conduct administrative check. Their acts threatened her children of between five and 13 years old, who stayed in their house without their parents.
Mrs. Hong said security forces I Gia Lai have maintained close surveillance over her house and intimidated the family in the past ten years. They had severely beaten Pastor Chinh and her wife many times before imprisoning him with an 11-year imprisonment in 2012 on charge of undermining national security under Article 87 of the country’s Penal Code.
Since putting him in jail, police have kept watch over the family, blocking foreign diplomats from visiting the pastor’s wife and children after Mr. Katherine Lawson of the U.S. Department of State visited them in Pleiku in 2014. In order to meet them, Mrs. Hong has to go to foreign diplomatic missions in Saigon, about 500 kilometers from her town.
Pastor Chinh is among the religious activists suffering most from Vietnam’s authorities in Gia Lai and Kon Tum who demolished their church in Con R’Bàng village, Vinh Quang commune in Kon Tum.
Mrs. Hong, an active member of the unsanctioned Vietnam Women for Human Rights, needs special attention of international human rights organizations and the public.
Meanwhile, Vietnam is preparing for the upcoming visit of President Barack Obama scheduled in late May. Next week, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Vietnam in a bid to strengthen the two countries’ comprehensive partnership and finalize the working schedule of President Obama in the communist nation.
Vietnam has sought to deepen economic and defense ties with the U.S. along with bilateral cooperation in education and other fields. The two countries are members of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement which needs approval of the U.S. Congress. It is unlikely the pact will be easily passed by the Congress which sees human rights situation in Vietnam worsened in recent years.
The attack against Mrs. Hong today, the violent suppression against Vietnamese activists on April 8 when they gathered in Hanoi to mark the 10th anniversary of the pro-democracy group Bloc 8406, and the jail sentences given to seven bloggers and social activists in late March have showed Vietnam’s intensified persecution against local political dissidents, social activists and human rights defenders after the country completed power transition.
Last week, the rubber stamp parliament formally approved Minister of Public Security General Tran Dai Quang as the president, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc as the government leader and Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan as the top legislator one month ahead of the country’s general election for the lawmaking body in the next five years. Many police officers have been promoted to key positions in the country’s new leadership in the 2016-2021 period.