Heavy sentences
for Viet Nam labour activists condemned
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
27 October 2010
Amnesty International has condemned the nine and
seven-year prison sentences given to three activists in
Viet Nam for carrying out their legitimate work on labour rights.
Doan Huy Chuong, Do Thi Minh Hanh, and Nguyen Hoang
Quoc Hung were today convicted and sentenced after a
speedy trial yesterday for ‘disrupting
security’. They had distributed leaflets and supported workers’ rights at a
factory.
“The authorities should immediately release three labour organisers, and stop
this needless crackdown on government critics and peaceful activists” said Donna
Guest, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific.
“Today’s harsh sentences, and the continuing arrests of activists and bloggers,
paint an increasingly bleak picture of freedom of expression and association in
Viet Nam.”
Doan is a founding member of the unofficial United Workers-Farmers Organization
(UWFO) and previously spent 18 months in prison between 2007 and 2008 on the
charge of ‘abusing democratic freedoms’. Do and Nguyen are members of Victims of
Injustice, a petitioners’ movement.
The three activists are the latest to be convicted in an ongoing wave of arrests
and trials of activists, organisers and bloggers.
There have been at least seven other trials of 17 dissidents in Viet Nam since
September 2009, and seven further arrests in the last five months alone.
There have been two arrests of Vietnamese bloggers in the last few weeks: Phan
Thanh Hai, known as Anh Ba Saigon and Nguyen
Huong Tra, known as Do Long Girl. The prominent imprisoned blogger and
journalist Nguyen Hoang Hai known as Dieu Cay
completed a prison sentence for politically-motivated charges last week, but
instead of being released, is now under investigation for ‘spreading propaganda
against the state’.
Four more activists are awaiting trial for ‘attempting to overthrow the state’
following their arrests in July and August. Three of them - Nguyen Thanh Tham,
Tran Thi Thuy and Pastor Duong Kim Khai - have campaigned for social justice for
farmers, while the fourth, Professor Pham Minh Hoang, had protested against
bauxite mining in the Central Highlands. All are members of the overseas
Vietnamese network Viet Tan, which calls for political reform.
At least 30 prisoners of conscience are
currently imprisoned in Viet Nam, including members and supporters of banned
political groups, independent trade unionists, bloggers, businessmen,
journalists, and writers.
The trial, conviction and sentencing of the three labour activists comes on the
eve of the ASEAN summit in Ha Noi, beginning on
28 October.
Public Document
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