Authorities in HCM City deploy police, militia and thugs to deal with peaceful demonstrators on June 10, 2018
Defend the Defenders, June 2018
Vietnamese patriotic activists and pro-democracy campaigners in Ho Chi Minh City are playing the game of “cat-and-mouse” with the security forces as the country’s biggest economic hub is under de-facto martial law.
After the mass proteston June 10 again the two bills on Special Economic Zone and Cyber Security with the participation of tens of thousands of people, authorities in HCM City have been tightening public control in a bid to prevent similar protests in future.
The city’s government are sending police, including riot police, and militia to the main streets and important corners while walking streets are closed for local residents and tourists, and others are barricaded. In reality, the city is under de facto martial lawfrom late afternoon till late evening of Sunday.
In response to the repressive measures of the local government, activists have not given up but created new form of resistance to continue their struggle for multi-party democracy and human rights as well as protection of the country’s sovereignty while avoiding the government’s persecution.
Initiatited by activist Vu Thach, activists are conducting public protests at any time and any place where lack of police presence. When the city’s center is under tight control, campaigners tend to gather in smaller groups in less popular areas in times when police lose their concentration like in late afternoon and early evening.
In the past years, public gatherings were mostly conducted on Sunday’s mornings, but now activists would hold demonstrations on week days. Instead of gathering in city’s center for matching, activists now rally on streets with their motorbikes and when suitable, they can show and hang their banners and chant.
The goal is to keep the campaign’s spirit and make the government pay for their moves. As public protests can break out every moment, the government was forced to maintain their resources whole times and they will lose patience or become tired, then activists’ chance will come.
Vietnam’s movement started in 2007 when the government publicized its plan to set up bauxite mining projects in the Central Highlands, one of the strategic locations for the national security. Political dissidents, intellectuals and many former senior officials, including legenda General Vo Nguyen Giap and Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh opposed the projects because of the involvement of Chinese contractors.
Hundreds of people signed in a joint petition calling for abandoning the project. Although the government ignored their voice and continued its plan, their acts can be considered as the first movement of the country’s activism.
In following years, activists publicly criticized the government’s plans to build a high-speed electrical rail connecting Hanoi and HCM City, with proposed budget of nearly $56 billion, and a nuclear power project in the central coastal region with an estimated spending of tens of billions of dollars.
According to scientists, the high-speed electrical rail project is expensive and impractical for Vietnam which has GDP of less than $200 billion. The country needs to upgrade its rail system by building 1.435-meter rail to replace the current 1-meter rail constructed by France in early the 20th century.
Meanwhile, activists, scientists and environmentalists had expressed their concerns about Vietnam’s ambitious plan to build tens of nuclear power plants in the central coast while the country is lacking of financial resource and expertise. In addition, nuclear power plants would pose serious threats given the low accounbility of state officials, they said.
Vietnam’s communist government, for many years of consideration, have stopped the two grand projects.
In the three cases above, the form of activism was online petition.
The public demonstration as one form of activism started in 2011 when thousands of people went to streets in Hanoi, HCM City and other cities to protest China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the South China Sea. In the begining, Vietnam’s government tolerated some first protests but violently dispersed others because it feared that the patriotic demonstrations may turn into anti-government ones. Many activists were arrested, beaten and interrogated, and some were imprisoned in trumped-up politically motivated cases.
There were two major campaigns in 2014 and 2016. The first was in Hanoi when local activists and environmentalists went on streets to protest the local government’s plan to chop down 6,700 old trees grown by French more than 100 years, and the second, at nationwide level, was against the Taiwanese Formosa Plastic Group for its affiliate Formosa steel plant’s discharging huge amount of toxic industrial waste into the country’s central coast which caused the devastating environmental disaster in which hundreds of tons of fisheries died in April 2016.
In both cases, Vietnam aggressively responded, violently dispersing crowds and torturing many detained activists. Many activists, including Hoang Duc Binh, Nguyen Van Hoa, Nguyen Van Oai, and Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, were convicted and sentenced to lengthy imprisonments of between six and 14 years in prison.
On June 10-17 this year, Vietnam arrested hundreds of protestors, beating many of them during their detentions and in custody. Authorities in HCM City and Binh Thuan announced that they still hold dozens of protestors for investigating them on allegations of “causing public disorders,” “disrupting security” and “resisting on-duty state officials” with punishment of between three to seven years in prison for every charge.
Authorities in HCM City have also continued their persecutionagainst released protestors.
Despite aggressive response of the government, Vietnamese activists pledge to continue their non-violent struggling campaign because they believe that only peaceful protests are basic tools for ensuring democratic society after defeating the violent communist regime.
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June 28, 2018
Vietnamese Activists Start “Cat-and-Mouse Game” with Security Forces under De-facto Martial Law
by Nhan Quyen • [Human Rights]
Authorities in HCM City deploy police, militia and thugs to deal with peaceful demonstrators on June 10, 2018
Defend the Defenders, June 2018
Vietnamese patriotic activists and pro-democracy campaigners in Ho Chi Minh City are playing the game of “cat-and-mouse” with the security forces as the country’s biggest economic hub is under de-facto martial law.
After the mass proteston June 10 again the two bills on Special Economic Zone and Cyber Security with the participation of tens of thousands of people, authorities in HCM City have been tightening public control in a bid to prevent similar protests in future.
The city’s government are sending police, including riot police, and militia to the main streets and important corners while walking streets are closed for local residents and tourists, and others are barricaded. In reality, the city is under de facto martial lawfrom late afternoon till late evening of Sunday.
In response to the repressive measures of the local government, activists have not given up but created new form of resistance to continue their struggle for multi-party democracy and human rights as well as protection of the country’s sovereignty while avoiding the government’s persecution.
Initiatited by activist Vu Thach, activists are conducting public protests at any time and any place where lack of police presence. When the city’s center is under tight control, campaigners tend to gather in smaller groups in less popular areas in times when police lose their concentration like in late afternoon and early evening.
In the past years, public gatherings were mostly conducted on Sunday’s mornings, but now activists would hold demonstrations on week days. Instead of gathering in city’s center for matching, activists now rally on streets with their motorbikes and when suitable, they can show and hang their banners and chant.
The goal is to keep the campaign’s spirit and make the government pay for their moves. As public protests can break out every moment, the government was forced to maintain their resources whole times and they will lose patience or become tired, then activists’ chance will come.
Vietnam’s movement started in 2007 when the government publicized its plan to set up bauxite mining projects in the Central Highlands, one of the strategic locations for the national security. Political dissidents, intellectuals and many former senior officials, including legenda General Vo Nguyen Giap and Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh opposed the projects because of the involvement of Chinese contractors.
Hundreds of people signed in a joint petition calling for abandoning the project. Although the government ignored their voice and continued its plan, their acts can be considered as the first movement of the country’s activism.
In following years, activists publicly criticized the government’s plans to build a high-speed electrical rail connecting Hanoi and HCM City, with proposed budget of nearly $56 billion, and a nuclear power project in the central coastal region with an estimated spending of tens of billions of dollars.
According to scientists, the high-speed electrical rail project is expensive and impractical for Vietnam which has GDP of less than $200 billion. The country needs to upgrade its rail system by building 1.435-meter rail to replace the current 1-meter rail constructed by France in early the 20th century.
Meanwhile, activists, scientists and environmentalists had expressed their concerns about Vietnam’s ambitious plan to build tens of nuclear power plants in the central coast while the country is lacking of financial resource and expertise. In addition, nuclear power plants would pose serious threats given the low accounbility of state officials, they said.
Vietnam’s communist government, for many years of consideration, have stopped the two grand projects.
In the three cases above, the form of activism was online petition.
The public demonstration as one form of activism started in 2011 when thousands of people went to streets in Hanoi, HCM City and other cities to protest China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the South China Sea. In the begining, Vietnam’s government tolerated some first protests but violently dispersed others because it feared that the patriotic demonstrations may turn into anti-government ones. Many activists were arrested, beaten and interrogated, and some were imprisoned in trumped-up politically motivated cases.
There were two major campaigns in 2014 and 2016. The first was in Hanoi when local activists and environmentalists went on streets to protest the local government’s plan to chop down 6,700 old trees grown by French more than 100 years, and the second, at nationwide level, was against the Taiwanese Formosa Plastic Group for its affiliate Formosa steel plant’s discharging huge amount of toxic industrial waste into the country’s central coast which caused the devastating environmental disaster in which hundreds of tons of fisheries died in April 2016.
In both cases, Vietnam aggressively responded, violently dispersing crowds and torturing many detained activists. Many activists, including Hoang Duc Binh, Nguyen Van Hoa, Nguyen Van Oai, and Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, were convicted and sentenced to lengthy imprisonments of between six and 14 years in prison.
On June 10-17 this year, Vietnam arrested hundreds of protestors, beating many of them during their detentions and in custody. Authorities in HCM City and Binh Thuan announced that they still hold dozens of protestors for investigating them on allegations of “causing public disorders,” “disrupting security” and “resisting on-duty state officials” with punishment of between three to seven years in prison for every charge.
Authorities in HCM City have also continued their persecutionagainst released protestors.
Despite aggressive response of the government, Vietnamese activists pledge to continue their non-violent struggling campaign because they believe that only peaceful protests are basic tools for ensuring democratic society after defeating the violent communist regime.