Japan: End Aid to Vietnam’s Police
Vietnamese
Public Security Ministry a Major Rights Violator
Human Rights
Watch | October 30, 2020
(Tokyo) –
The Japanese government should immediately cancel plans to provide financial
assistance to Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security, which has long been
responsible for serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today.
On October
19, 2020, Japan’s Foreign Ministry announced a 300 million yen (US$2.84 million)
grant for the Public Security Ministry to purchase unspecified equipment for
“counterterrorism” and the “maintenance of public order.” The Foreign Ministry
claimed the grant would “contribute” to the “strengthening of counterterrorism
measures and the maintenance of public order,” and would “stabilize society” in
Vietnam.
“The
Japanese government should not give a single yen to Vietnam’s Public Security
Ministry, which is a notorious violator of human rights with a long track record
of torturing criminal suspects and human rights defenders,” said Phil Robertson,
deputy Asia director. “Providing Vietnam equipment under the guise of
counterterrorism and public order will just make it easier for the police to
brutally suppress peaceful protests.”
Over the
last several decades, the Vietnamese police force, which operates under the
supervision of the Public Security Ministry, has beaten, tortured, and otherwise
ill-treated countless people in custody with near impunity. Human Rights Watch
documented the systematic use of torture against ordinary criminal suspects in
the 2014 report “Public Insecurity: Deaths in Custody and Police Brutality in
Vietnam.”
In
September, Tran Van Quynh, 40, alleged that three police officers from Na Mao
commune in Thai Nguyen province detained him without providing a reason, and
beat him severely. He was admitted to the hospital a few days later and was
diagnosed with a ruptured intestine. Two of the police officers reportedly
visited him in the hospital and promised to pay for his medical treatment, but
the authorities have not investigated the incident.
In November
2019, Dang Thanh Tung, 26, died in police custody in Ha Nam province. Police had
arrested him in September for alleged involvement in procuring girls for
prostitution. The police claimed that Dang died from illness, but his wife,
Nguyen Thi Lan, told a reporter she saw many bruises on his body. She reported
bruises on his chest, back, arms, thighs, and buttocks and said his mouth was
swollen and bloody. She also reported that the police tried to prevent her from
taking videos of the bruises.
Vietnamese
police also participate in the suppression of basic rights such as freedom of
expression and assembly through intimidation and arrests in the name of
counterterrorism. In January 2019, the police arrested an Australian national,
Chau Van Kham, on fabricated charges of “terrorism” for his affiliation and
peaceful activities with Viet Tan, an opposition political party, which operates
lawfully in many countries, but which Hanoi has arbitrarily labeled “terrorist.”
In November 2019, a Vietnamese court convicted Chau and sentenced him to 12
years in prison. Chau is among the more than 130 political prisoners in Vietnam,
held for the peaceful exercise of their fundamental rights.
In response
to a Human Rights Watch inquiry about the type of equipment to be purchased
using Japan’s financial aid, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said it will be determined
in coordination with the Vietnamese government going forward.
Rather than
granting assistance, Japan should publicly and privately call on the Vietnamese
government to carry out major institutional reforms in the Public Security
Ministry. These reforms should include establishing an independent police
complaints commission to accept complaints from the public and to provide
oversight of the internal affairs and professional responsibility units of the
police.
The ministry
should also revise police regulations and manuals regarding the use of force to
meet international legal standards, including the United Nations Code of Conduct
for Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force
and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, and it should allow independent civil
society groups to monitor detention facilities, including station lockups and
jails as well as guarantee immediate access for suspects’ legal counsel upon
being arrested.
“Japanese
taxpayers should demand that their government uphold human rights principles in
its overseas aid program, starting with canceling this grant to Vietnam’s most
abusive line ministry,” Robertson said. “Japan’s leaders should be using their
significant leverage in Hanoi to seek real improvements and reforms, not make an
already bad human rights situation even worse.”
Vietnam Human Rights Network |