Vietnam:
Pervasive Deaths, Injuries in Police Custody
Urgent Need to End Abuses, Ensure Justice for Victims
Human Rights Watch
Bangkok,
September 16, 2014
Police
throughout
Vietnam abuse people in their
custody, in some cases leading to death, Human Rights Watch said in a report
released today. The Vietnamese government should take immediate action to end
suspicious deaths in custody and torture of detainees by police, Human Rights
Watch said.
The 96-page report, “Public
Insecurity: Deaths in Custody and Police Brutality in Vietnam,”
highlights cases of police brutality that resulted in deaths and serious
injuries of people in custody between August 2010 and July 2014. Human Rights
Watch documented abuses in 44 of Vietnam’s 58 provinces, throughout the country,
and in all five of the country’s major cities.
“Police severely abused people in custody in every region of Vietnam,” said
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia
director at Human Rights Watch. “The Vietnam government has a human rights
crisis on its hands and should investigate and start holding abusive police
accountable.”
The report draws on Human Rights Watch’s review of police abuse cases
reported in government controlled Vietnamese-language newspapers, as well as
reports from independent bloggers, citizen journalists, and foreign news
agencies. Many of the accounts included in this report have never before been
published in English. Human Rights Watch also conducted research in Vietnam for
this report but decided to not interview victims and witnesses there because
doing so would have exposed them to almost certain retaliation.
In many cases, those killed in police custody were being held for minor
infractions. In an August 2012 case, police beat Nguyen Mau Thuan to death in
Hanoi after arresting him less than three hours earlier in relation to a minor
dispute in his neighborhood. In August 2010, police beat and tear gassed Le Phuc
Hung to death in Gia Lai province while holding him for allegedly stealing water
pipes.
Police frequently provided causes for these deaths that strained credulity
and gave the appearance of systematic cover-ups. The police alleged that dozens
of otherwise mentally and physically healthy people committed suicide by hanging
or other methods. In other cases, only a vague and unconvincing explanation was
given, as in the case of Nguyen Van Duc in Vinh Long province, who according to
an autopsy died from a hematoma in the brain and other injuries. Police
attributed his injuries to doctors who were “too hard with their hands” during
emergency treatment. A surprisingly large number of people – many of them young
and healthy in their 20s and 30s – allegedly died from medical problems in
custody. Injuries in police custody are also reported frequently throughout the
country.
A number of survivors said they were beaten to extract confessions,
sometimes for crimes they maintained they did not commit. In July 2013, Soc
Trang province police beat and forced six men to confess to a murder. Others
said they were beaten for criticizing police officers or trying to reason with
them. Victims of beatings also included children and people with mental
disabilities.
Local media coverage of these incidents has been uneven, raising serious
concerns about the negative impact of government control of the media. In some
instances, media reports were extensive and detailed, exposing conflicting
police statements and misconduct, such as in the case of Nguyen Cong Nhut, an
alleged “suicide” who died in custody in April 2011 in Binh Duong province. On
the other hand, there was no media coverage of other key cases, such as the
death of Hoang Van Ngai, an ethnic Hmong, in March 2013 in Dak Nong province.
Journalists reported that in some cases local authorities had prevented them
from approaching the families of victims for interviews.
“Vietnam should permit the media to do its job of investigating and
reporting the news about official abuses,” Robertson said. “Independent
journalism could help expose abuses that otherwise would be swept under the
carpet.”
Officers who commit serious, even lethal, transgressions rarely face serious
consequences. In many cases in which abuses are officially acknowledged, police
officers face only light internal disciplinary procedures, such as criticisms or
warnings. Demotions, transfers, or dismissals of offending officers are rare,
and prosecutions and convictions even rarer. Even when they are prosecuted and
convicted, police officers tend to receive light or suspended sentences.
In one case, a police officer was even promoted after committing abuses. In
July 2010,
deputy chief Nguyen Huu Khoa of La Phu
commune (Hoai Duc district, Hanoi) was accused of beating a truck
driver named Nguyen Phu Son. It was unclear how the case was investigated and
handled, but by December 2010, Nguyen Huu Khoa had been promoted to chief.
“Vietnam should promptly open an impartial investigation for every
accusation of police brutality, and take strong action when the evidence reveals
abuse,” Robertson said. “Until police get a loud and clear message from the top
levels of government that abuse won’t be tolerated, there will be no security
for ordinary people who fall into police hands,”
In several of the cases, Human Rights Watch found that police arrested
people based on vague suspicions without supporting evidence, and then beat them
to elicit confessions. Police also routinely ignored basic procedures to
safeguard citizens against ill-treatment or arbitrary detention and prevented
lawyers and legal consultants from gaining immediate access to their clients.
“All persons detained should be granted immediate and unhindered access to
their lawyer in order to minimize possible police abuse during interrogation,”
said Robertson.
The Vietnam government should immediately adopt a zero-tolerance policy for
abuse by police, provide better training for police at all levels, particularly
commune police, and install cameras in interrogation and detention facilities,
Human Rights Watch said. The government also should facilitate the role of legal
counsel for suspects and detainees and ensure freedom of expression for
journalists and on the Internet.
The government should also form an independent police complaints commission
to review and investigate all reported police abuse and misconduct and provide
high-level support for prompt and impartial investigations and prosecutions of
police abuse and misconduct.
“UN agencies and international donors assisting Vietnam establish the rule
of law shouldn’t allow these punishing police practices to continue,” Robertson
said. “There should be a concerted outcry to press for government action to end
police abuses.”
“Public Insecurity: Deaths in Custody and Police Brutality in Vietnam” is
available at:
http://hrw.org/node/128619
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Vietnam, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/asia/vietnam
For more information, please contact:
In Bangkok, Phil Robertson (English, Thai): +66-85-060-8406; or
robertp@hrw.org. Follow on
Twitter @Reaproy
In San Francisco, Brad Adams (English): +1-347-463-3531 or
adamsb@hrw.org. Follow on Twitter
@BradAdamsHRW
In Washington, DC, John Sifton (English): +1-646-479-2499 (mobile); or
siftonj@hrw.org. Follow on
Twitter @johnsifton