Vietnam Human Rights Defenders Weekly | February 19, 2017
On February 14, 2017, authorities in Vietnam’s central province of Nghe An violently stopped local fishermen who were attempting to go to the neighboring province of Ha Tinh to lodge a legal complaint against the Taiwanese Formosa steel plant, which caused an environmental disaster in the country’s central coastal region by discharging a huge amount of toxic industrial waste into the sea.
Instead of ensuring safety for the farmers from Quynh Luu district so they could go file their lawsuit, authorities in Nghe An deployed thousands of police officers, military commandos and militia to block their way. In Dien Chau district, about 20 km from Quynh Luu, police used thugs to incite trouble – an opportunity security forces used to crack down on the farmers, who were led by Catholic priest J.B. Nguyen Dinh Thuc. Security forces beat many people, including Father Thuc, and detained dozens of them for several hours.
In light of the incident, the leadership of Vinh diocese urged the farmers to return home and to send only a small group of representatives to Ky Anh district to lodge the legal complaint.
Three days later, hundreds of patriotic activists gathered in the centers of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi to mark the 38th anniversary of the Chinese military invasion of the six Vietnamese northernmost provinces, during which tens of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed by the invaders, who also destroyed infrastructure in the invaded areas. Local authorities in the two cities dispersed the gatherings, detaining dozens of activists for questioning for hours.
On February 16-17, authorities in the two cities and other localities also deployed large numbers of plainclothes agents to the private residences of other activists, placing them under de facto house arrest in a bid to prevent them from participating in the peaceful meetings.
On February 13, authorities in the southern province of Vinh Long detained members of the unsanctioned Vietnam Inter-fair Council as they held a meeting. Police detained them at a local police station, where one clerk was beaten by police officers. Shortly after being released, many religious clerks were beaten and robbed by thugs outside of the police station.
Amnesty International calls on the international community to pay attention to the situation of prisoner of conscience Tran Thi Thuy, who has been treated in an inhuman way in An Phuoc prison despite suffering from severe diseases, including a tumor in her uterus.
Labor activist Doan Huy Chuong was released on February 13 after completing his seven-year imprisonment sentence. He remains under police close surveillance and has no identification card, as his card was confiscated upon his arrest, seven years ago.
===== February 13 =====
Members of the Vietnam Inter-fair Council Detained, Many Brutally Beaten
Defend the Defenders: On February 13, authorities in Vietnam’s southern province of Vinh Long detained many members of the unregistered Vietnam Inter-fair Council, beating a number of them, the victims reported.
That day, members of the Vietnam Inter-fair Council held a new-year meeting in the province. Shortly after they gathered, local police came and requested them to leave.
When they refused to do so, the Vinh Long authorities deployed more than 100 police officers and militia to detain the religious clerks at local police stations.
Among those detained were Catholic priest Le Ngoc Thanh, Protestant pastor Nguyen Manh Hung, Buddhist Venerable Thich Khong Tanh, and Cao Dai monk Hua Phi.
Mr. Phi was beaten by police officers while being interrogated inside the police station while Cao Dai monks Chau Van Gon and Nguyen Van Giang were attacked and robbed by thugs shortly after being released, in front of the police stations. The thugs also took their cell phones and wallets with money and personal documents.
===== February 14 =====
Vietnam Security Forces Violently Crack Down on Fishermen Seeking to Sue Polluting Formosa Plant
Defend the Defenders: On February 14, Vietnam’s security forces violently suppressed fishermen from the central province of Nghe An as they were on their way to file a legal complaint against the Taiwan-invested Formosa Steel Plant over polluting the local environment, an act that has affected their livelihoods, social networks reported.
Heavily-equipped police attacked the delegation, which consisted of more than a thousand residents from Song Ngoc parish, beating dozens of them, including Catholic priest J.B. Nguyen Van Thuc, when the delegation arrived in Dien Chau district. Many farmers suffered from severe injuries, citizens-journalists reported on the scene.
Police also detained a number of people and released them later on the same day, bloggers said. However, they were unable to provide the exact number of detainees.
The Catholic farmers came from the Song Ngoc parish, which covers three communes in Quynh Luu district – Quynh Ngoc, Son Hai and Quynh Tho – that have been severely affected by the discharge of a huge amount of very toxic industrial chemicals by the Formosa Steel Plant, an affiliate of the Taiwanese Formosa Plastic Group, into Vietnam’s central coast sea in April 2016.
In late June 2016, the Taiwanese company pledged to pay a compensation of $500 million for the affected fishermen in the four provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue. However, farmers from these areas are yet to receive any compensation.
Having been affected by the environmental disaster caused by the Formosa Steel Plant but excluded from the people eligible for receiving compensation, fishermen from the Song Ngoc parish planned to go to the People’s Court in Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province (where the firm is located) to file their complaint against the Taiwanese company.
The delegation, led by Catholic priest J.B. Nguyen Van Thuc, was forced to go to Ha Tinh on foot after the car-renting company they had entered into a contract with announced that it had been ordered by the Nghe An’s police not to transport the farmers.
The delegation started their journey in the morning of Tuesday, heading to the neighboring province – an estimated journey of over 180 km.
In response, Vietnam’s government deployed thousands of policemen, military commandos and militia to National Road No. 1, on which the delegation was moving. It strived to stop the delegation by any means, observers reported.
In order to protect farmers from further being assaulted, the leadership of the Vinh diocese requested followers to return home and to send a small group of parishioners led by priest Thuc to Ky Anh to lodge their legal complaint on their behalf.
Last year, nearly a thousand of Catholic followers in Dong Yen parish, Ky Anh district, whose life was seriously affected by Formosa’s illegal discharge, also sued the Taiwanese company; however, Ky Anh district’s People’s Court rejected their conplaint.
Due to the illegal discharge, hundreds of tons of fish died in the central coast from April-June 2016. The negative impact of the spill is forecast to last for decades.
Last year, thousands of activists held peaceful demonstrations in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other localities to protest the Formosa Plastic Group, demanding that the Taiwanese firm pay adequate compensation, restore a clean environment in the affected areas, and stop the operations of its steel plant in Ky Anh district. However, the protests were violently suppressed by Vietnam’s communist government. Hundreds of protestors were detained and many of them were brutally beaten in police custody.
Recently, Vietnam’s government allocated a huge plot of land to Formosa Steel Plant so it builds dormitories for its staff. Chinese firms also invested in the project.
/2017/02/14/vietnam-security-forces-violently-suppress-fishermen-seeking-to-sue-pollution-causing-formosa/
===== February 17 =====
Former Vietnamese Prisoner of Conscience to Address Geneva’s Human Rights Summit
Dang Xuan Dieu, a well-known Vietnamese political dissident who was released mid-January 2017 and forced to live in exile in France, will speak for the first time about his release at the 9th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights & Democracy, which starts on February 21.
He will join other high-profile activists to testify on urgent human rights situations in Iran, Russia, Turkey, Tibet, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Venezuela, Mauritania and other countries at the event organized by a coalition of 25 non-governmental human rights groups.
Dieu was persecuted by Vietnam’s one-party communist regime for advocating democracy and human rights for the country’s Catholic minority. While serving his 14-year imprisonment sentence, during the last six years prison guards humiliated and tortured him in part because he refused to wear his prison uniform which bore the word “criminal.”
Dieu’s arbitrary detention attracted international attention after he staged hunger strikes for prisoners’ rights, which helped secure his release.
The annual conference is timed to take place in Geneva days before foreign ministers gather to open the March 2017 session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
“It’s a focal point for dissidents worldwide,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, which for the ninth year in a row will be organizing the annual event together with a cross-regional coalition of 20 other human rights groups.
The global gathering is acclaimed as a one-stop opportunity to hear from and meet front-line human rights advocates, many of whom have personally suffered imprisonment and torture.
“The speakers’ compelling and vivid testimonies will aim to stir the conscience of the U.N. to address critical human rights situations around the world,” said Neuer.
Subjects on the program this year include discrimination against women, jailing of journalists, prison camps, Internet freedom, religious intolerance, and the persecution of human rights defenders.
Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy
——————–
Many Vietnamese Activists Detained after Attending Peaceful Gatherings on 38th Anniversary of China’s Invasion, Dozens of Others under House Arrest
Defend the Defenders: On February 17, Vietnam’s security forces in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City harassed local activists who gathered in the center of the two cities to mark the 38th anniversary of China’s invasion of the country’s six northernmost provinces, detaining many of them for hours.
Hundreds of after activists gathered in Ly Thai To King memorial in Hanoi and General Tran Hung Dao memorial in Ho Chi Minh City to commemorate the thousands of fallen soldiers and civilians killed by the People’s Liberation Army of China during the one-month military invasion, which started on February 17, 1979.
Authorities in the two cities deployed a large number of police officers, plainclothes agents and militia to the gatherings. Shortly after activists arrived, security forces demanded them to leave, telling them they were causing social instability.
A number of activists, including Nguyen Thi Kim Chi in Ho Chi Minh City and Nguyen Xuan Dien, Nguyen Lan Thang, Bach Hong Quyen, blogger Trung Nguyen, Dang Bich Phuong and Le My Hanh, were detained by the police.
The detainees were released after being interrogated for hours in police stations. Many complained that police confiscated their cell phones and destroyed all data of the equipment, including pictures and videos of the gatherings.
The governments of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as well as other localities also deployed a large number of plainclothes agents to the private residences of local activists since the morning of February 16, placing them under de facto house arrest to prevent them from taking part in the gatherings. Victims include prominent dissidents Nguyen Dan Que, Pham Chi Dung and Le Cong Dinh in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, Pham Thanh, Nguyen Trung Linh, Le Anh Hung and Vu Quoc Ngu in Hanoi, and Catholic priest Phan Van Loi in Hue.
Some activists, including Phung The Dung and Nguyen Van Phuong from Hanoi, complained that police came for “administrative checks” late in the night of Thursday.
One month earlier, on January 19, Vietnam’s authorities also violently suppressed peaceful demonstrations of local activists on the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of the loss of Hoang Sa (Paracels) to China, detaining and beating many of them before releasing them several hours later.
On February 17, 1979, China sent 600,000 soldiers to attack Vietnam’s six northernmost provinces. During the month-long military invasion, the People’s Liberation Army of China, equipped with tanks and modern artillery, killed around 50,000 Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. The Chinese invaders also destroyed infrastructure and houses in these areas.
The two communist countries held a border war until 1989 before agreeing to a ceasefire and normalized bilateral relations in the early 1990s.
In order to keep the country under a one-party regime, the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam has attached importance to its relations with China, considering the giant northern country as its closest political ally, although Beijing has never reciprocated this consideration.
Vietnam’s economy is very dependent on China. Bilateral trade rose 8% to nearly $72 billion in 2016, with Vietnam registering a trade deficit of $28 billion, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
A huge volume of substandard Chinese goods has been flooding Vietnam, while nearly all key infrastructure projects in Vietnam have been carried out by Chinese contractors who use outdated technologies and bring thousands of untrained workers to the project sites.
China and Vietnam are disputing over the Hoang Sa (Paracels) and Truong Sa (Spratlys) in the East Sea (South China Sea). Vietnam has peacefully administered the two archipelagos since the 17th century while China’s military invaded the former and some reefs on the latter in the 1956-1988 period.
/2017/02/17/vietnam-violently-disperses-peaceful-gatherings-on-38th-anniversary-of-chinas-invasion-in-northern-region/
——————-
Amnesty International Calls to Speak out against the Inhumane Treatment Inflicted to Prisoner of Conscience Tran Thi Thuy
Defend the Defenders: On February 17, Amnesty International called on the international community to pay attention to the situation of Vietnamese prisoner of conscience Tran Thi Thuy, who has been treated in an inhuman way by prison authorities while suffering from severe diseases, including a tumor in her uterus.
Foreign governments, international human rights organizations and individuals should speak out and demand that the Vietnamese government release Ms. Thuy immediately and unconditionally, and immediately provide her with adequate medical care, in accordance with her wishes, including hospital treatment, said the London-based human rights group, adding that petitions should be sent to Minister of Public Security To Lam, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh before March 31, 2017.
Thuy, a Hoa Hao Buddhist and land activist, is serving an eight-year prison sentence after being convicted of “activities aimed at overthrowing the state” under Article 79 of the 1999 Penal Code. She was arrested in August 2010 and is currently held in An Phuoc Detention Center in the southern province of Binh Duong.
Prison authorities have denied her adequate medical treatment since April 2015, when she was first diagnosed with a tumor in her uterus. She is no longer able to walk without assistance, and her life is at risk due to the appalling conditions in the prison. Authorities have also rejected her family’s proposal of paying for private medical care for her.
Thuy is not due to be released until August 2018. She and the other six activists with whom she was tried were accused of having joined or been associated with Viet Tan, an overseas-based group which peacefully campaigns for democracy in Vietnam. She has refused to “confess” to the alleged crimes for which she was convicted, despite the severe hardship she is forced to endure.
In September 2011, the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention adopted Opinion No. 46/2011, which stated that the detention of Thuy and her six co-defendants is arbitrary and should be remedied by their release and compensation.
In 2016, she was listed by Amnesty International as one amongst 84 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam.
Denial of medical treatment in these circumstances, possibly involving the intentional infliction of severe pain and suffering for the purpose of extracting a confession, could amount to torture and, therefore, a violation of the Convention against Torture, which Vietnam ratified in February 2015, said Amnesty International.
Although Vietnam ratified the convention, insufficient steps have been taken to bring the country into compliance, said Amnesty International.
The London-based human rights group has documented torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam in a report entitled “Prisons Within Prisons: Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of conscience in Viet Nam”, released last year.
Urgent Action: Growing Health Fears for Prisoner of Conscience
===== February 18 =====
Vietnam Labor Activist Completes Seven-Year Prison Sentence, Remains under Close Surveillance
Defend the Defenders: On February 13, Doan Huy Chuong, a worker rights advocate, was released after completing his seven-year jail sentence. However, the activist remains under the close surveillance of Vietnam’s security forces.
He was secretly transferred to his home in Tra Vinh province by police, who refused to return the identification card they confiscated from him upon his arrest, seven years ago.
“When I was arrested, they took my personal ID and my driver’s license. They did not return them to me at the court. When I arrived home, [the authorities] told me Tieu Can district police were keeping them. When I asked Tieu Can police, they said they did not have them. Now I have absolutely no personal documents on me. They can arrest me any time, for any senseless reason,” Chuong told the Voice of America radio (VOA).
Chuong said that while a prison vehicle brought him to Tra Vinh province at 3:30pm on February 13, local authorities were still assigned people to guard him and even pressured his father-in-law, forcing him to keep the activist under watch.
The local authorities scared his father-in-law, telling him that they will arrest the activist if he does anything wrong.
At the end of 2009, Chuong and his fellow workers’ rights advocates Ms. Do Thi Minh Hanh and Mr. Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung helped workers at the My Phong leather shoes factory to claim their rights by conducting a strike that lasted for over ten days. Among their demands was the right to form an independent union.
Later, the three activists were arrested and charged with “subversion of the people’s government” under Article 79 of the country’s Penal Code. Chuong and Hanh were sentenced to seven years in jail, while Hung was given a nine-year imprisonment sentence.
Under international pressure, Ms. Hanh was released early in April 2014.
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February 20, 2017
Vietnam Human Rights Defenders Weekly February 13-19, 2017: Vietnam Violently Cracks Down on Fishermen Seeking to Sue Polluting Formosa Plant
by Nhan Quyen • [Human Rights], DEFENDER’S WEEKLY
Vietnam Human Rights Defenders Weekly | February 19, 2017
On February 14, 2017, authorities in Vietnam’s central province of Nghe An violently stopped local fishermen who were attempting to go to the neighboring province of Ha Tinh to lodge a legal complaint against the Taiwanese Formosa steel plant, which caused an environmental disaster in the country’s central coastal region by discharging a huge amount of toxic industrial waste into the sea.
Instead of ensuring safety for the farmers from Quynh Luu district so they could go file their lawsuit, authorities in Nghe An deployed thousands of police officers, military commandos and militia to block their way. In Dien Chau district, about 20 km from Quynh Luu, police used thugs to incite trouble – an opportunity security forces used to crack down on the farmers, who were led by Catholic priest J.B. Nguyen Dinh Thuc. Security forces beat many people, including Father Thuc, and detained dozens of them for several hours.
In light of the incident, the leadership of Vinh diocese urged the farmers to return home and to send only a small group of representatives to Ky Anh district to lodge the legal complaint.
Three days later, hundreds of patriotic activists gathered in the centers of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi to mark the 38th anniversary of the Chinese military invasion of the six Vietnamese northernmost provinces, during which tens of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians were killed by the invaders, who also destroyed infrastructure in the invaded areas. Local authorities in the two cities dispersed the gatherings, detaining dozens of activists for questioning for hours.
On February 16-17, authorities in the two cities and other localities also deployed large numbers of plainclothes agents to the private residences of other activists, placing them under de facto house arrest in a bid to prevent them from participating in the peaceful meetings.
On February 13, authorities in the southern province of Vinh Long detained members of the unsanctioned Vietnam Inter-fair Council as they held a meeting. Police detained them at a local police station, where one clerk was beaten by police officers. Shortly after being released, many religious clerks were beaten and robbed by thugs outside of the police station.
Amnesty International calls on the international community to pay attention to the situation of prisoner of conscience Tran Thi Thuy, who has been treated in an inhuman way in An Phuoc prison despite suffering from severe diseases, including a tumor in her uterus.
Labor activist Doan Huy Chuong was released on February 13 after completing his seven-year imprisonment sentence. He remains under police close surveillance and has no identification card, as his card was confiscated upon his arrest, seven years ago.
===== February 13 =====
Members of the Vietnam Inter-fair Council Detained, Many Brutally Beaten
Defend the Defenders: On February 13, authorities in Vietnam’s southern province of Vinh Long detained many members of the unregistered Vietnam Inter-fair Council, beating a number of them, the victims reported.
That day, members of the Vietnam Inter-fair Council held a new-year meeting in the province. Shortly after they gathered, local police came and requested them to leave.
When they refused to do so, the Vinh Long authorities deployed more than 100 police officers and militia to detain the religious clerks at local police stations.
Among those detained were Catholic priest Le Ngoc Thanh, Protestant pastor Nguyen Manh Hung, Buddhist Venerable Thich Khong Tanh, and Cao Dai monk Hua Phi.
Mr. Phi was beaten by police officers while being interrogated inside the police station while Cao Dai monks Chau Van Gon and Nguyen Van Giang were attacked and robbed by thugs shortly after being released, in front of the police stations. The thugs also took their cell phones and wallets with money and personal documents.
===== February 14 =====
Vietnam Security Forces Violently Crack Down on Fishermen Seeking to Sue Polluting Formosa Plant
Defend the Defenders: On February 14, Vietnam’s security forces violently suppressed fishermen from the central province of Nghe An as they were on their way to file a legal complaint against the Taiwan-invested Formosa Steel Plant over polluting the local environment, an act that has affected their livelihoods, social networks reported.
Heavily-equipped police attacked the delegation, which consisted of more than a thousand residents from Song Ngoc parish, beating dozens of them, including Catholic priest J.B. Nguyen Van Thuc, when the delegation arrived in Dien Chau district. Many farmers suffered from severe injuries, citizens-journalists reported on the scene.
Police also detained a number of people and released them later on the same day, bloggers said. However, they were unable to provide the exact number of detainees.
The Catholic farmers came from the Song Ngoc parish, which covers three communes in Quynh Luu district – Quynh Ngoc, Son Hai and Quynh Tho – that have been severely affected by the discharge of a huge amount of very toxic industrial chemicals by the Formosa Steel Plant, an affiliate of the Taiwanese Formosa Plastic Group, into Vietnam’s central coast sea in April 2016.
In late June 2016, the Taiwanese company pledged to pay a compensation of $500 million for the affected fishermen in the four provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue. However, farmers from these areas are yet to receive any compensation.
Having been affected by the environmental disaster caused by the Formosa Steel Plant but excluded from the people eligible for receiving compensation, fishermen from the Song Ngoc parish planned to go to the People’s Court in Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province (where the firm is located) to file their complaint against the Taiwanese company.
The delegation, led by Catholic priest J.B. Nguyen Van Thuc, was forced to go to Ha Tinh on foot after the car-renting company they had entered into a contract with announced that it had been ordered by the Nghe An’s police not to transport the farmers.
The delegation started their journey in the morning of Tuesday, heading to the neighboring province – an estimated journey of over 180 km.
In response, Vietnam’s government deployed thousands of policemen, military commandos and militia to National Road No. 1, on which the delegation was moving. It strived to stop the delegation by any means, observers reported.
In order to protect farmers from further being assaulted, the leadership of the Vinh diocese requested followers to return home and to send a small group of parishioners led by priest Thuc to Ky Anh to lodge their legal complaint on their behalf.
Last year, nearly a thousand of Catholic followers in Dong Yen parish, Ky Anh district, whose life was seriously affected by Formosa’s illegal discharge, also sued the Taiwanese company; however, Ky Anh district’s People’s Court rejected their conplaint.
Due to the illegal discharge, hundreds of tons of fish died in the central coast from April-June 2016. The negative impact of the spill is forecast to last for decades.
Last year, thousands of activists held peaceful demonstrations in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other localities to protest the Formosa Plastic Group, demanding that the Taiwanese firm pay adequate compensation, restore a clean environment in the affected areas, and stop the operations of its steel plant in Ky Anh district. However, the protests were violently suppressed by Vietnam’s communist government. Hundreds of protestors were detained and many of them were brutally beaten in police custody.
Recently, Vietnam’s government allocated a huge plot of land to Formosa Steel Plant so it builds dormitories for its staff. Chinese firms also invested in the project.
/2017/02/14/vietnam-security-forces-violently-suppress-fishermen-seeking-to-sue-pollution-causing-formosa/
===== February 17 =====
Former Vietnamese Prisoner of Conscience to Address Geneva’s Human Rights Summit
Dang Xuan Dieu, a well-known Vietnamese political dissident who was released mid-January 2017 and forced to live in exile in France, will speak for the first time about his release at the 9th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights & Democracy, which starts on February 21.
He will join other high-profile activists to testify on urgent human rights situations in Iran, Russia, Turkey, Tibet, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Venezuela, Mauritania and other countries at the event organized by a coalition of 25 non-governmental human rights groups.
Dieu was persecuted by Vietnam’s one-party communist regime for advocating democracy and human rights for the country’s Catholic minority. While serving his 14-year imprisonment sentence, during the last six years prison guards humiliated and tortured him in part because he refused to wear his prison uniform which bore the word “criminal.”
Dieu’s arbitrary detention attracted international attention after he staged hunger strikes for prisoners’ rights, which helped secure his release.
The annual conference is timed to take place in Geneva days before foreign ministers gather to open the March 2017 session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
“It’s a focal point for dissidents worldwide,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, which for the ninth year in a row will be organizing the annual event together with a cross-regional coalition of 20 other human rights groups.
The global gathering is acclaimed as a one-stop opportunity to hear from and meet front-line human rights advocates, many of whom have personally suffered imprisonment and torture.
“The speakers’ compelling and vivid testimonies will aim to stir the conscience of the U.N. to address critical human rights situations around the world,” said Neuer.
Subjects on the program this year include discrimination against women, jailing of journalists, prison camps, Internet freedom, religious intolerance, and the persecution of human rights defenders.
Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy
——————–
Many Vietnamese Activists Detained after Attending Peaceful Gatherings on 38th Anniversary of China’s Invasion, Dozens of Others under House Arrest
Defend the Defenders: On February 17, Vietnam’s security forces in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City harassed local activists who gathered in the center of the two cities to mark the 38th anniversary of China’s invasion of the country’s six northernmost provinces, detaining many of them for hours.
Hundreds of after activists gathered in Ly Thai To King memorial in Hanoi and General Tran Hung Dao memorial in Ho Chi Minh City to commemorate the thousands of fallen soldiers and civilians killed by the People’s Liberation Army of China during the one-month military invasion, which started on February 17, 1979.
Authorities in the two cities deployed a large number of police officers, plainclothes agents and militia to the gatherings. Shortly after activists arrived, security forces demanded them to leave, telling them they were causing social instability.
A number of activists, including Nguyen Thi Kim Chi in Ho Chi Minh City and Nguyen Xuan Dien, Nguyen Lan Thang, Bach Hong Quyen, blogger Trung Nguyen, Dang Bich Phuong and Le My Hanh, were detained by the police.
The detainees were released after being interrogated for hours in police stations. Many complained that police confiscated their cell phones and destroyed all data of the equipment, including pictures and videos of the gatherings.
The governments of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City as well as other localities also deployed a large number of plainclothes agents to the private residences of local activists since the morning of February 16, placing them under de facto house arrest to prevent them from taking part in the gatherings. Victims include prominent dissidents Nguyen Dan Que, Pham Chi Dung and Le Cong Dinh in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, Pham Thanh, Nguyen Trung Linh, Le Anh Hung and Vu Quoc Ngu in Hanoi, and Catholic priest Phan Van Loi in Hue.
Some activists, including Phung The Dung and Nguyen Van Phuong from Hanoi, complained that police came for “administrative checks” late in the night of Thursday.
One month earlier, on January 19, Vietnam’s authorities also violently suppressed peaceful demonstrations of local activists on the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of the loss of Hoang Sa (Paracels) to China, detaining and beating many of them before releasing them several hours later.
On February 17, 1979, China sent 600,000 soldiers to attack Vietnam’s six northernmost provinces. During the month-long military invasion, the People’s Liberation Army of China, equipped with tanks and modern artillery, killed around 50,000 Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. The Chinese invaders also destroyed infrastructure and houses in these areas.
The two communist countries held a border war until 1989 before agreeing to a ceasefire and normalized bilateral relations in the early 1990s.
In order to keep the country under a one-party regime, the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam has attached importance to its relations with China, considering the giant northern country as its closest political ally, although Beijing has never reciprocated this consideration.
Vietnam’s economy is very dependent on China. Bilateral trade rose 8% to nearly $72 billion in 2016, with Vietnam registering a trade deficit of $28 billion, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
A huge volume of substandard Chinese goods has been flooding Vietnam, while nearly all key infrastructure projects in Vietnam have been carried out by Chinese contractors who use outdated technologies and bring thousands of untrained workers to the project sites.
China and Vietnam are disputing over the Hoang Sa (Paracels) and Truong Sa (Spratlys) in the East Sea (South China Sea). Vietnam has peacefully administered the two archipelagos since the 17th century while China’s military invaded the former and some reefs on the latter in the 1956-1988 period.
/2017/02/17/vietnam-violently-disperses-peaceful-gatherings-on-38th-anniversary-of-chinas-invasion-in-northern-region/
——————-
Amnesty International Calls to Speak out against the Inhumane Treatment Inflicted to Prisoner of Conscience Tran Thi Thuy
Defend the Defenders: On February 17, Amnesty International called on the international community to pay attention to the situation of Vietnamese prisoner of conscience Tran Thi Thuy, who has been treated in an inhuman way by prison authorities while suffering from severe diseases, including a tumor in her uterus.
Foreign governments, international human rights organizations and individuals should speak out and demand that the Vietnamese government release Ms. Thuy immediately and unconditionally, and immediately provide her with adequate medical care, in accordance with her wishes, including hospital treatment, said the London-based human rights group, adding that petitions should be sent to Minister of Public Security To Lam, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh before March 31, 2017.
Thuy, a Hoa Hao Buddhist and land activist, is serving an eight-year prison sentence after being convicted of “activities aimed at overthrowing the state” under Article 79 of the 1999 Penal Code. She was arrested in August 2010 and is currently held in An Phuoc Detention Center in the southern province of Binh Duong.
Prison authorities have denied her adequate medical treatment since April 2015, when she was first diagnosed with a tumor in her uterus. She is no longer able to walk without assistance, and her life is at risk due to the appalling conditions in the prison. Authorities have also rejected her family’s proposal of paying for private medical care for her.
Thuy is not due to be released until August 2018. She and the other six activists with whom she was tried were accused of having joined or been associated with Viet Tan, an overseas-based group which peacefully campaigns for democracy in Vietnam. She has refused to “confess” to the alleged crimes for which she was convicted, despite the severe hardship she is forced to endure.
In September 2011, the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention adopted Opinion No. 46/2011, which stated that the detention of Thuy and her six co-defendants is arbitrary and should be remedied by their release and compensation.
In 2016, she was listed by Amnesty International as one amongst 84 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam.
Denial of medical treatment in these circumstances, possibly involving the intentional infliction of severe pain and suffering for the purpose of extracting a confession, could amount to torture and, therefore, a violation of the Convention against Torture, which Vietnam ratified in February 2015, said Amnesty International.
Although Vietnam ratified the convention, insufficient steps have been taken to bring the country into compliance, said Amnesty International.
The London-based human rights group has documented torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam in a report entitled “Prisons Within Prisons: Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of conscience in Viet Nam”, released last year.
Urgent Action: Growing Health Fears for Prisoner of Conscience
===== February 18 =====
Vietnam Labor Activist Completes Seven-Year Prison Sentence, Remains under Close Surveillance
Defend the Defenders: On February 13, Doan Huy Chuong, a worker rights advocate, was released after completing his seven-year jail sentence. However, the activist remains under the close surveillance of Vietnam’s security forces.
He was secretly transferred to his home in Tra Vinh province by police, who refused to return the identification card they confiscated from him upon his arrest, seven years ago.
“When I was arrested, they took my personal ID and my driver’s license. They did not return them to me at the court. When I arrived home, [the authorities] told me Tieu Can district police were keeping them. When I asked Tieu Can police, they said they did not have them. Now I have absolutely no personal documents on me. They can arrest me any time, for any senseless reason,” Chuong told the Voice of America radio (VOA).
Chuong said that while a prison vehicle brought him to Tra Vinh province at 3:30pm on February 13, local authorities were still assigned people to guard him and even pressured his father-in-law, forcing him to keep the activist under watch.
The local authorities scared his father-in-law, telling him that they will arrest the activist if he does anything wrong.
At the end of 2009, Chuong and his fellow workers’ rights advocates Ms. Do Thi Minh Hanh and Mr. Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung helped workers at the My Phong leather shoes factory to claim their rights by conducting a strike that lasted for over ten days. Among their demands was the right to form an independent union.
Later, the three activists were arrested and charged with “subversion of the people’s government” under Article 79 of the country’s Penal Code. Chuong and Hanh were sentenced to seven years in jail, while Hung was given a nine-year imprisonment sentence.
Under international pressure, Ms. Hanh was released early in April 2014.