Mr. Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, the most famous prisoner of conscience in Vietnam
Mr. Thuc, who is a prisoner of conscience, has to stay without working ventilator in his room where temperature may hit 41oC, he told his family. The time electricity cut coincides with working hours.
By Vu Quoc Ngu, August 16, 2016
Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, the prominent political prisoner, has been disciplined by authorities of a Vietnamese prison after he refused forced labor without being paid, his family has said.
Mr. Thuc, who is serving his 16-year imprisonment in Prison No. 6 in the central province of Nghe An, has been left without electricity as the prison’s authorities cut off electricity in his room during hot summer period in one of the hottest regions in Vietnam as a discipline for his refusal, the family reported after a recent visit.
Earlier, the prison’s authorities asked him to work eight hours every day, particularly making paper votive. He refused to do the job unless the prison signs labor contract and pay him sufficiently.
Mr. Thuc, who is a prisoner of conscience, has to stay without working ventilator in his room where temperature may hit 41oC, he told his family. The time electricity cut coincides with working hours.
The forced labor is banned according to Vietnam’s 2013 Constitution.
Mr. Thuc, a 50-year-old engineer, entrepreneur and human rights activist, was arrested seven years ago and accused of carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the administration under Article 79 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
Mr. Thuc, one of the London-based Amnesty International’s prisoners of conscience, was the founder and president of EIS, an international internet and telephone line provider. He opened EIS as a computer shop in 1993 which assembled its own computers, and by 1994 the brand dominated the home PC market in Ho Chi Minh City. Later on it became an internet service provider, and in 1998 became the first Vietnamese ISP to branch out from dial-up to an integrated services digital network.
EIS started providing Voice over IP services in Vietnam in 2003. They developed subsidiaries, One-Connection Singapore, One-Connection USA /Innfex, One-Connection Malaysia and One-Connection Vietnam, to provide internet access and telephone lines internationally. One-Connection Vietnam’s operation license was withdrawn following Thuc’s arrest.
He began blogging under the pen name of Tran Dong Chan after he received no response to letters he had written to senior government officials. In 2008 he started co-writing “The Path of Vietnam”, which assessed the current situation in Vietnam, with a comprehensive set of recommendations for governance reform focused on human rights.
He was arrested in 2009, initially for “theft of telephone wires”, and later for “carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the administration” against the state. He made a televised confession but later recanted, saying he was coerced.
His sentence was the longest ever passed on a Vietnamese dissident. His imprisonment was condemned by then British Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis and U.S. Ambassador Michael W. Michalak. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded his detention was arbitrary and requested the Vietnamese government to release him and provide compensation. Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience and called for his release.
During his serving in Xuyen Moc Prison in the southern province of Vung Tau before transferred to Nghe An, he and other fellows had conducted a number of hunger strikes to protest the prison’s inhumane treatment against political prisoners. The prison’s authorities punished him by putting him in solitary confinement.
In June, he conducted long hunger strike to demand political reforms in Vietnam.
He has rejected to live in exile in the U.S. as the Vietnamese communist government proposed recently.
Meanwhile, Enforced labor is rampant in Vietnamese prisons where between 100,000 and 200,000 prisoners were forced to work without being paid, said Lao Dong Viet (Viet Labor), an independent trade union in the Southeast Asian nation.
Viet Labor made this conclusion based on its investigation conducted in September-December last year. The researchers interviewed over 40 former prisoners from the three regions of the country.
In prisons, inmates have been forced to work like slaves in very poor conditions. They have been often beaten by prisons’ guards. The most popular works for prisoner are removing shells of cashew nut without wearing gloves, making bricks, making clothes, and farming and their products are for export and domestic consumption.
Enforced labor is founded in 56 prisons out of 60 prisons across the nation. Prisoners have been forced to work for 40-50 hours a week.
Viet Labor considers the activity as organized by the communist government which brings huge profits for the communist party’s leaders, prisons’ authorities and companies involving in the activity.
Viet Labor, members of which have been persecuted, intimidated and harassed by Vietnam’s government, has urged the Vietnamese authorities to improve prisoners’ living conditions and working environment as well as pay for prisoners who can have some money when they are freed.
Despite working hard in prison, most of prisoners have no money after serving their sentences. Once being freed, they face many difficulties, including discrimination. As a result, many of them have been forced to commit crimes and come back to prison.
Few years ago, the New York-based Human Rights Watch also released a report about enforced labor in Vietnam’s rehabilitation facilities where drug addicts, HIV-infested, criminal prisoners and prisoners of conscience were forced to work in very poor conditions.
The Human Rights Watch said one of the dangerous work is cashew nut processing as cashew nut shell is poisonous and harmful for eyes and hands.
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August 16, 2016
Vietnam Prominent Political Prisoner Disciplined for Refusing Forced Unpaid Labor
by Nhan Quyen • Tran Huynh Duy Thuc
Mr. Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, the most famous prisoner of conscience in Vietnam
By Vu Quoc Ngu, August 16, 2016
Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, the prominent political prisoner, has been disciplined by authorities of a Vietnamese prison after he refused forced labor without being paid, his family has said.
Mr. Thuc, who is serving his 16-year imprisonment in Prison No. 6 in the central province of Nghe An, has been left without electricity as the prison’s authorities cut off electricity in his room during hot summer period in one of the hottest regions in Vietnam as a discipline for his refusal, the family reported after a recent visit.
Earlier, the prison’s authorities asked him to work eight hours every day, particularly making paper votive. He refused to do the job unless the prison signs labor contract and pay him sufficiently.
Mr. Thuc, who is a prisoner of conscience, has to stay without working ventilator in his room where temperature may hit 41oC, he told his family. The time electricity cut coincides with working hours.
The forced labor is banned according to Vietnam’s 2013 Constitution.
Mr. Thuc, a 50-year-old engineer, entrepreneur and human rights activist, was arrested seven years ago and accused of carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the administration under Article 79 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
Mr. Thuc, one of the London-based Amnesty International’s prisoners of conscience, was the founder and president of EIS, an international internet and telephone line provider. He opened EIS as a computer shop in 1993 which assembled its own computers, and by 1994 the brand dominated the home PC market in Ho Chi Minh City. Later on it became an internet service provider, and in 1998 became the first Vietnamese ISP to branch out from dial-up to an integrated services digital network.
EIS started providing Voice over IP services in Vietnam in 2003. They developed subsidiaries, One-Connection Singapore, One-Connection USA /Innfex, One-Connection Malaysia and One-Connection Vietnam, to provide internet access and telephone lines internationally. One-Connection Vietnam’s operation license was withdrawn following Thuc’s arrest.
He began blogging under the pen name of Tran Dong Chan after he received no response to letters he had written to senior government officials. In 2008 he started co-writing “The Path of Vietnam”, which assessed the current situation in Vietnam, with a comprehensive set of recommendations for governance reform focused on human rights.
He was arrested in 2009, initially for “theft of telephone wires”, and later for “carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the administration” against the state. He made a televised confession but later recanted, saying he was coerced.
His sentence was the longest ever passed on a Vietnamese dissident. His imprisonment was condemned by then British Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis and U.S. Ambassador Michael W. Michalak. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded his detention was arbitrary and requested the Vietnamese government to release him and provide compensation. Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience and called for his release.
During his serving in Xuyen Moc Prison in the southern province of Vung Tau before transferred to Nghe An, he and other fellows had conducted a number of hunger strikes to protest the prison’s inhumane treatment against political prisoners. The prison’s authorities punished him by putting him in solitary confinement.
In June, he conducted long hunger strike to demand political reforms in Vietnam.
He has rejected to live in exile in the U.S. as the Vietnamese communist government proposed recently.
Meanwhile, Enforced labor is rampant in Vietnamese prisons where between 100,000 and 200,000 prisoners were forced to work without being paid, said Lao Dong Viet (Viet Labor), an independent trade union in the Southeast Asian nation.
Viet Labor made this conclusion based on its investigation conducted in September-December last year. The researchers interviewed over 40 former prisoners from the three regions of the country.
In prisons, inmates have been forced to work like slaves in very poor conditions. They have been often beaten by prisons’ guards. The most popular works for prisoner are removing shells of cashew nut without wearing gloves, making bricks, making clothes, and farming and their products are for export and domestic consumption.
Enforced labor is founded in 56 prisons out of 60 prisons across the nation. Prisoners have been forced to work for 40-50 hours a week.
Viet Labor considers the activity as organized by the communist government which brings huge profits for the communist party’s leaders, prisons’ authorities and companies involving in the activity.
Viet Labor, members of which have been persecuted, intimidated and harassed by Vietnam’s government, has urged the Vietnamese authorities to improve prisoners’ living conditions and working environment as well as pay for prisoners who can have some money when they are freed.
Despite working hard in prison, most of prisoners have no money after serving their sentences. Once being freed, they face many difficulties, including discrimination. As a result, many of them have been forced to commit crimes and come back to prison.
Few years ago, the New York-based Human Rights Watch also released a report about enforced labor in Vietnam’s rehabilitation facilities where drug addicts, HIV-infested, criminal prisoners and prisoners of conscience were forced to work in very poor conditions.
The Human Rights Watch said one of the dangerous work is cashew nut processing as cashew nut shell is poisonous and harmful for eyes and hands.