Vietnam in fresh crackdown as political tensions rise

  

AFP -  11/07/2010

A fresh crackdown is under way against bloggers and activists in Vietnam as political tensions rise before a Communist Party Congress in January, observers say.

In the latest arrest, Cu Huy Ha Vu, a prominent government critic, was held for "propaganda against the state", official television said Saturday.

It quoted the Ministry of Public Security as saying investigators found anti-state documents in Vu's laptop and that he had advocated a multi-party system.

Last year Vu filed an unsuccessful court complaint against Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung over a controversial bauxite mine.

Authorities also rejected a bid by Vu's law firm to represent at trial several Catholic parishioners convicted last month in connection with a dispute over a cemetery.

The Catholics, and now Vu, are among at least 17 community activists, dissidents and bloggers reported to have been convicted, arrested or charged since October 1.

While critics outside the ruling Communist Party have been targeted, observers say there has also been criticism from within, over a scandal at state-run Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin).

Vinashin has been driven to the brink of bankruptcy and lawmakers in the communist-dominated National Assembly last week demanded answers.

One deputy, Nguyen Minh Thuyet, called for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister, who appointed the firm's former chairman Pham Thanh Binh.

Binh was suspended in July and later arrested over the group's debts, which local media said amounted to at least 80 trillion dong (4.3 billion dollars).

Observers have questioned why the long-rumoured scandal was finally allowed to surface in the state-controlled press in recent months, and have speculated about its impact on the prime minister, whom they say is fighting to maintain a top leadership post.

The government has also been criticised -- by a broad section of society -- for its decision to allow the bauxite mining in Vietnam's Central Highlands.

Prominent intellectuals and former officials last month petitioned the government to stop the development.

The five-yearly Congress determines which leaders will run the one-party state.

Not all of the recent arrests can be attributed to the looming Congress but there is a jostling for political power and "a heightened sensitivity to dissent", said a foreign diplomat who declined to be named.

He sees the latest arrests as part of a cycle since 2007 but "it's just sort of sped up in the last while".

There has also been a fresh wave of attacks against websites, observers say.

The anhbasam.com political and social blog became the latest to be hacked, its founder Nguyen Huu Vinh said last week.

His website was damaged on the same day state-linked media reported that gossip blogger Le Nguyen Huong Tra, who uses the pseudonym Co Gai Do Long, had been detained for "infringing on the interests of the state" after she allegedly criticised a security official and his family.

The timing of arrests like this "raises questions and creates opportunities for some politicking", said David Koh, senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

"There is a new crackdown on Internet bloggers... and I don't know when it will stop," said one blogger, asking for anonymity.

"Blogging now is very dangerous in Vietnam."

The blogger speculated that internal struggles linked to the approaching Congress could be to blame but because the process is so opaque, "we don't know".

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, said leaders want to show they are tough, and send down instructions to police ahead of the Congress.

"You want to be seen as protecting the Party," he said. "I think it's very much connected to the internal politics of Vietnam."

Vietnam has become increasingly integrated into the wider world and observers say the ruling party is nervous about the growing penetration of alternative voices.

 

 

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