HUMAN
RIGHTS WATCH WORLD REPORT 2003
Vietnam
Despite promises by the
general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) to accelerate the
process of reform and promote democracy, Vietnam's human rights record continued
to deteriorate during 2002. National Assembly elections conducted in May
continued Vietnam's tradition of single party rule, while proponents of
multi-party democracy, human rights, and religious freedom were arrested or
closely monitored.
The government continued to
stifle free expression and restrict the exercise of other basic human rights.
Authorities destroyed thousands of banned publications, restricted press
coverage of a key corruption scandal, increased the monitoring of the Internet,
denied the general public access to international television programs broadcast
by satellite, and arrested or detained dissidents who used the Internet or other
public fora to publicize their ideas. The year saw the death of Vietnam's most
well-known dissident, Tran Do, and the trial of Li Chi Quang, one of an emerging
group of younger pro-democracy advocates in Vietnam.
Officials continued to
suppress and control the activities of religious groups, including ethnic
minority Christians in the northern and central highlands, members of the banned
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, and Hoa Hao Buddhists in the south.
Authorities made a new round of arrests of indigenous minority church leaders
and land rights activists in the Central Highlands, the site of widespread
unrest in 2001.
The year saw an intensified
crackdown on freedom of expression and use of the Internet. In January, the
Ministry of Culture and Information (MoCI) instructed police to confiscate and
destroy banned publications. On January 16, more than seven tons of books were
burned in Ho Chi Minh City, including pornographic magazines, books published
abroad, and books written by Vietnamese dissidents. In July, authorities in
Hanoi destroyed 40,780 compact discs, 810 videotapes, 3,000 books, and six
kilograms of other publications, including pornography and foreign-published
books.
Two editions of the Far
Eastern Economic Review, published in Hong Kong, were banned in Vietnam: a
July edition covering a major corruption scandal, and an August edition that
reviewed a biography of Ho Chi Minh, which mentioned the leader's alleged love
affairs.
The MoCI's Press Department
refused to renew the press credentials of three editors at Tuoitre (Youth)
newspaper, citing a "serious error in propaganda work." This appeared to be a
reference to the publication of a survey of youth idols published by the paper.
In the survey, U.S. President Bill Clinton scored higher than Prime Minister
Phan Van Khai. The government destroyed 120,000 copies of the offending edition.
In April, the VCP Central
Committee stated that publications and books with "wrongful" or "bad" contents
would be banned and that party members whose words and actions were contrary to
party principles would be dealt with severely. Government officials were
instructed to list the classified information and state secrets that each
official was responsible for safeguarding.
Domestic newspapers, and
television and radio stations remained under government control. On June 18, the
prime minister signed a decree restricting access to international television
programs broadcast by satellite exclusively to government officials, state
media, and foreigners. On June 20, the chief of the VCP's Central Ideology and
Culture Board announced that the media should not "expose secrets, create
internal divisions, or hinder key propaganda tasks" in its coverage of the
controversial Nam Cam corruption case, which was slated to go to court by year's
end. Among the 151 people arrested in conjunction with the case, Vietnam's
largest trial ever in terms of numbers of defendants, were twelve police
officers, three former prosecutors, and two journalists.
In September, the government
confiscated the passport of Vietnamese actor Don Duong, who was denounced by
state media as a "lackey of hostile forces" because of his roles in two recent
American films banned in Vietnam. In October, Vietnamese writer Duong Thu Huong
was called a "national traitor" by Cong An Thanh Pho (Ho Chi Minh City
Police) after she published an article in a Vietnamese newspaper in Australia
stating that the war in Vietnam had not made its citizens more wise or bold in
exercising their rights, but more cowardly.
In October, the MoCI issued
a stern reprimand to Vietnam's state-operated printing houses for publishing
books with anti-Communist content or that distorted Vietnam's history, and by
re-printing dissident books originally published abroad.
In June, the prime minister
instructed the MoCI to tighten up controls at Vietnam's four thousand public
Internet cafés to prevent customers from accessing "state secrets," pornography,
or "reactionary" documents. The government blocked approximately two thousand
websites, including those of Vietnamese dissident groups based overseas.
In August, the MoCI ordered
the closure of ttvonline.com, a popular web site operated by a Hanoi-based
company, for operating an Internet site without official permission and
publishing articles "contrary to the spirit" of the Press Law. On August 16, the
MoCI stated that penalties would be imposed on Internet café owners who allowed
customers to view web sites harmful to national security or that displayed
"depraved" or "reactionary" content. In addition, Internet café owners would be
required to obtain licenses and background checks before going into business.
MoCI instructed Vietnam's only Internet gateway, the state-owned Vietnam Data
Communications Co., to obstruct subversive web sites, based on lists of banned
sites compiled by government ministries. In October, the MoCI ordered Vietnam's
state-owned Internet service providers (ISP) to block politically and morally
unacceptable web content.
Several dissidents and
pro-democracy activists were arrested or harassed during the year after issuing
public critiques of the government, some of which were circulated on the
Internet. Several arrests occurred after dissidents visited the China-Vietnam
border or publicly criticized recent bilateral border agreements between the two
countries. Former army officer Nguyen Khac Toan, forty-six, was arrested on
January 8, a day after meeting prominent dissident Nguyen Thanh Giang. On
January 12, poet Bui Minh Quoc, 62, was put under administrative detention in
Dalat on charges of possessing anti-government literature after he made a trip
to the China-Vietnam border.
Li Chi Quang, thirty-two, a
young lawyer whose essay "Beware of Imperialist China," was distributed on the
Internet, was arrested at an Internet café in Hanoi on February 21. On October
28, he was sentenced to four years in prison after a half-day closed trial in
Hanoi, on charges of disseminating propaganda against the socialist state. Other
dissidents and members of the foreign press corps were barred from observing the
trial.
On March 10, scholar and
anti-corruption activist Tran Van Khue, sixty-six, was arrested and placed under
two years of administrative detention after he published a critical letter to
Chinese President Jiang Zemin, which was circulated on the Internet. Then on
March 27, police arrested Pham Hong Son, thirty-four, after he translated an
article titled "What is Democracy," and sent it to his friends and senior
Vietnamese officials. In addition, he had written an open letter, which was
published on the Internet, protesting the fact that his house had been searched
and his computer and documents confiscated.
With National Assembly
elections slated for May, a growing number of dissidents called for multi-party
reforms to counter Vietnam's one-party system. The electoral process is
currently controlled by the VCP, which screens and approves all electoral
candidates. In February, former VCP member and respected military veteran Pham
Que Duong applied to run in the election. Local VCP officials rejected his
candidacy, charging that he was a "dangerous element" and guilty of twenty
crimes. Only fifty-one of the 498 National Assembly seats were won by non-VCP
candidates.
In July and August, groups
of prominent dissidents sent petitions to the government protesting the arrest
and harassment of fellow dissidents and calling for democratic reforms,
establishment of an anti-corruption body, creation of a constitutional court to
examine violations in constitutional law, and publication of Vietnam's border
treaties with China. On July 19, police detained one of the signers, Nguyen Vu
Binh, thirty-four, and searched his house. Formerly a journalist at the Tap
Chi Cong San (Communist Review), Nguyen resigned his position in 2000 and
announced plans to form an independent political party. Nguyen was arrested in
Hanoi on September 25 and expected to go to trial by year's end.
On September 20, public
security officials raided the Ho Chi Minh City home of human rights advocate
Nguyen Dan Que, confiscating his papers and documents and pressuring him to
leave with the police for further questioning. Que refused to leave when the
police could not produce a court order for his arrest. Ten security officials
were subsequently stationed outside his home.
Five Vietnamese writers
received Hellman/Hammett awards from Human Rights Watch in 2002 in recognition
of the courage with which they faced political persecution: Le Chi Quang, Nguyen
Dan Que, Nguyen Vu Binh, Ven. Thich Quang Do, and Tran Van Khue.
Religious
Repression
Repression against the banned
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) continued during the year. UBCV
Supreme Patriarch Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, eighty-three, remained under
tight surveillance at a pagoda in Quang Ngai province, where his health
continued to deteriorate. Venerable Thich Quang Do remained under administrative
detention in Ho Chi Minh City. UBCV monk and former political prisoner Venerable
Thich Tri Luc, who fled to Cambodia in April, was "disappeared" from Phnom Penh
in July, shortly after receiving refugee status from the U.N. High Commissioner
for Refugees in Cambodia. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and
international rights organizations expressed concerns about the safety of Thich
Tri Luc who was feared to have been forcibly returned to Vietnam and imprisoned.
Members of the Hoa Hao sect of
Buddhism, one of the six officially authorized religions in Vietnam, continued
to face problems. In January, the An Giang provincial court sentenced Hoa Hao
Buddhist member Bui Van Hue to three years in prison for violating a 1999
administrative detention order and illegally leaving Vietnam after being
extradited from Cambodia. In April, Hoa Hao Buddhist monk Le Minh Triet was
placed under two years' administrative detention after completing an eight-year
prison sentence in Thuan Hai province. Le Quang Liem, the leader of the Hoa Hao
sect, remained under administrative detention in Ho Chi Minh City. In November,
police officers dispersed a two-week protest by Hoa Hao followers at Quang Minh
Tu temple in An Giang province, who had resisted an order to remove the gate to
their temple. Several Hoa Hao Buddhists were reportedly beaten and briefly
detained in a confrontation with police.
Evangelical Protestants,
particularly those worshipping in house churches, remained under surveillance.
In July, Protestant house church leader Nguyen Dang Chi was detained in Dong Nai
province in the south, reportedly for preaching without official approval. After
villagers protested outside the police station where he was being held, police
released Nguyen.
Ethnic Hmong and Tai
Christians in the north, particularly in Lai Chau and Lao Cai provinces, were
beaten, detained, and pressured by local authorities to renounce their religion
and cease Christian gatherings. In February, reports were received that the
security presence had been increased in border communes in Muong Lay District,
Lai Chau, where Hmong Christians were prohibited from gathering for religious
ceremonies and some chapels were dismantled. On August 7, Hmong Christian Mua
Bua Senh died in Dien Bien Dong District, Lai Chau, after numerous beatings by
police officers for refusing to renounce his religion. In October, the
officially-recognized Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North) admitted several
hundred Hmong Christian churches, providing some measure of protection against
persecution. Nonetheless, at least twelve Hmong Christians remained in prison
for their religious beliefs during the year.
Central
Highlands
Conditions worsened for
indigenous highlanders (known as Montagnards) in the Central Highlands. In
March, a tripartite agreement between Vietnam, Cambodia, and the U.N. to
voluntarily repatriate some one thousand Montagnard refugees who fled to
Cambodia crumbled when Vietnam refused to permit U.N. monitors access to the
Central Highlands. More than four hundred highlanders were deported from
Cambodia to Vietnam in April and May alone, when Cambodia closed its borders and
refused to admit asylum seekers. (See Cambodia.)
In June, Vietnamese
authorities launched a new crackdown in the Central Highlands, even as the
deputy prime minister publicly attributed the troubles in the Central Highlands
to mistakes by the nation's leadership. More than six hundred "fast deployment"
military teams were dispatched to the region during the year, which largely
remained off limits to international observers. Authorities closed down hundreds
of churches lacking official authorization--more than three hundred in Dak Lak
province alone. In November the official Phap Luat (Law) newspaper
reported that dozens of evangelical Christians had been forced to confess to
having preached illegally and more than 2,700 Christians had severed connections
with "bad elements who abuse religious issues to sow divisions in national
unity."
Between June and November,
dozens of arrests were carried out against Protestant church leaders, land
rights advocates, and individuals suspected of guiding asylum seekers to
Cambodia. In late August, district officials in Mdrak, Dak Lak, arrested at
least thirty Ede villagers on the grounds that they were planning a
demonstration for Vietnam's National Day. The charges and place of detention of
the majority of those arrested were not made public. Dozens of highlanders
disappeared or went into hiding.
A number of highlanders were
tried and convicted during the year. On January 25, four highlanders in Chu Se
District, Gia Lai, were sentenced to prison terms of up to six and a half years
for "organizing illegal migrations." The state media reported that the men had
been deported from Cambodia in April and May 2001. In October, Rlan Loa, an
ethnic Jarai from Krong Pac District, Gia Lai, was sentenced to nine years in
prison for having "illegally migrated abroad." Rlan Loa was part of a group of
167 highlanders deported from Cambodia to Vietnam in December 2001. On October
22, three Ede men, Y Tim E Ban, Y Coi B Krong, and Y Tho Mas E Ya, were
sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of inciting local people to flee
Vietnam. State press reported that on October 24, two Ede men, Y Su Nie, and Y
Khai, had "surrendered' to the police in Mdrak District, Dak Lak. On November
15, two Jarai, Ksor Dar and Rahlan Phyui, were sentenced to three and two years
respectively for allegedly having guided Montagnard asylum seekers to Cambodia.
Public demonstrations
continued to be strongly discouraged throughout Vietnam, although a group of
women from the countryside were allowed to conduct a small rally against
corruption in front of VCP General Secretary Nong Duc Manh's home in Hanoi in
February. In May, Manh stated that demonstrations timed with the National
Assembly elections showed that "our democracy has become excessive."
There were increasing numbers
of reports of conflicts over state confiscation of farmers' land. In February
more than one hundred villagers protested in Ninh Binh province over a land
dispute. The leader of the demonstration and eleven others were sentenced to up
to thirteen years in prison after a four-day trial in October. In September,
Pham Trong Son and Nguyen Thi Thai were sentenced to three years and twenty
months, respectively, on charges of disrupting public order after they
circulated a petition and organized a protest against inadequate state
compensation after their land was confiscated in Ho Chi Minh City. In October,
eleven people were injured during a demonstration in Hai Duong City near Hanoi
by hundreds of villagers protesting their evictions and inadequate compensation
for a new highway and trade center. In Ha Tay province in November, hundreds of
villagers clashed with police after authorities forced 190 people to move for
the construction of an industrial zone.
In March, the prime minister
instructed the Public Security Ministry to upgrade prisons and detention
facilities. However, lack of food and medical care in prisons continued to be
widespread. Human Rights Watch received reports of prisoners being subjected to
police torture in detention or during interrogation, solitary confinement in
dark cells, and shackling. Vietnamese state media reported in January that two
police officers were to be tried for torturing a man to death during
interrogation. In May, farmers in southern Binh Dinh province blocked traffic
and threw rocks at police after a villager died in police custody, allegedly a
suicide. In September and October, President Tran Duc Luong approved the early
release of more than nine thousand prisoners in an amnesty to mark Vietnam's
National Day. No known religious or political prisoners were included in the
releases.
Administrative detention
without trial continued to be used against suspected dissidents, including
minorities in the Central Highlands, under the 1997 Decree 31/CP. The death
penalty continued to be widely used for a wide range of offenses, including
corruption and drug trafficking.
Trafficking
and HIV/AIDS
Criminal networks that often
operated with the tacit support of government and police officials trafficked
hundreds of Vietnamese women and girls for prostitution, domestic work, and
forced marriage both internally and to other Asian countries, particularly
Cambodia and China. Vietnam was also a transit country for women being
trafficked from other countries in Asia.
Some sentences were handed
down during the year under Vietnam's law against trafficking in women and
children. In May, the People's Court in Hanoi convicted five Vietnamese people
for trafficking women to China and sentenced them to up to fourteen years in
prison. In September, the court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced the operator of a
prostitution ring to eight years in prison.
The problem of HIV/AIDS
continued to grow, with the Ministry of Health estimating that 154,000 people
were infected with HIV. The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs
estimated that one-quarter of Vietnam's estimated 14,600 sex workers were HIV
positive.
Officials adopted an
increasingly harsh stance towards high-risk groups for AIDS, such as drug users
and prostitutes, who were deemed "social evils." In late 2001, the government
announced plans to send all of Vietnam's one hundred thousand registered drug
addicts to compulsory drug detoxification centers for up to two years. As many
as seventy-five thousand drug users remained in detention during the year in
seventy-one crowded drug detoxification camps.
The government continued to
prohibit independent human rights groups from operating in Vietnam, restricted
the access of U.N. officials seeking to monitor repatriated refugees, and denied
permission for international human rights organizations such as Human Rights
Watch and Amnesty International to conduct official missions to Vietnam.
At the annual Consultative
Group meeting conducted in December 2001, international donors pledged U.S.$2.4
billion in assistance to Vietnam. Most of Vietnam's donors were circumspect
regarding pressure on Vietnam to improve its human rights record. A number of
donors supported Vietnam's ambitious ten-year Legal Reform Strategy.
Vietnam, which continued in
its membership in the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, maintained an edgy
relationship with UNHCR. In February, Vietnamese officials interfered with and
then barred UNHCR officials from conducting site visits in the Central
Highlands, despite the tripartite agreement for voluntary repatriation of
Montagnard refugees.
In August, the U.N. Human
Rights Committee issued its concluding observations in regard to Vietnam's
report on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights. The committee expressed concerns about reports of harassment
and detention of religious leaders; restrictions on public meetings,
demonstrations, and freedom of expression; the situation of ethnic minorities;
capital punishment; prison conditions; the continued application of
administrative detention under decree 31/CP; and the lack of an independent
judiciary.
The U.N. special rapporteur on
disability visited Vietnam in September. He commended the government's policies
in regard to disabled people but called for more active implementation of
rehabilitation, education, and employment programs.
Asia and Australia
Relations with China thawed a
bit with the February visit of Chinese President Jiang Zemin to Vietnam. Jiang
praised the improvement in political and economic ties between the two
countries. The visit came amidst a criticism from dissidents about controversial
border agreements between Vietnam and China.
Relations with Cambodia
remained cooperative. During a February visit to Phnom Penh by the Vietnamese
deputy prime minister, Cambodia and Vietnam agreed to implement a repatriation
agreement calling for return of all Montagnard refugees to Vietnam by April 30.
Cambodian border police reportedly cooperated with Vietnamese officials in
forcibly deporting hundreds of Montagnard asylum seekers back to Vietnam during
the year.
Australia held its first human
rights dialogue with Vietnam in June in Hanoi. The Australian government
reportedly raised concerns about arbitrary detention, freedom of association,
and capital punishment.
European Union
The European Union remained
Vietnam's third largest donor. In talks with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in
Brussels in September, the European Commission president expressed E.U. support
for increased bilateral trade and Vietnam's membership in the World Trade
Organization, while raising concerns about human rights and religious freedom.
In July, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency approved a
three-year U.S.$840,000 study on corruption in national and local government.
In April, the European
Parliament issued a resolution about treatment of the highlanders in Vietnam and
closure of the refugee camps in Cambodia. Hanoi-based E.U. diplomats conducted
several short visits to the Central Highlands, although they were reportedly
denied access to highlanders in detention and refugees who had been repatriated
from Cambodia.
United States
Bilateral political and
economic relations between the United States and Vietnam continued to slowly
improve, despite Vietnam's strong reaction to U.S. pressure on human rights and
religious freedom. In April, Vietnam reacted defensively to the annual report of
the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which condemned
Vietnam's "grave violations" of religious freedom and designated it as a country
of particular concern. A USCIRF delegation, which visited Vietnam in March,
expressed concerns about the detention of religious dissidents and the
government's suppression of both unregistered as well as officially recognized
religious organizations. In August, the U.S. ambassador for religious freedom
visited Vietnam.
In September, the U.S. pledged
up to $20 million for a five-year plan to reduce the rate of HIV/AIDS in Vietnam
among high-risk groups. In announcing the grant, U.S. Ambassador Raymond
Burghardt stressed that HIV/AIDS is a virus, and not a "social evil."
In April, Vietnam's state
media called the U.S. offer to resettle Montagnard refugees from Cambodia a
"scheme to sabotage repatriation, ignite a new rash of illegal border crossings
and cause instability in both the Central Highlands and throughout Vietnam."
Burghardt visited the Central Highlands in late March, where he discussed land
rights issues with local people and explored aid and investment opportunities
for the United States.
During the annual U.S.-Vietnam
human rights dialogue, conducted in Hanoi in November, the U.S. proposed that
Vietnam open up access to the Central Highlands, release political prisoners,
and authorize return visits by the U.N. special rapporteurs on religion and
ethnic minorities, and by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Few
concrete commitments were secured.
Available from :
https://www.hrw.org/wr2k3/asia9.html
Vietnam Human Rights Network
[Home] [About
us] [Bills
of Rights] [Documents]
[Human Rights news]
[Forum] [Join]
[Downloads]
[Links]