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The Committee for Human Rights in Vietnam Denounces Vietnam Government's Repression against Human Rights Activists
THE COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN VIETNAM ỦY BAN NHÂN QUYỀN VIỆT NAM P.O BOX 648 BƯU ĐIỆN BỜ HỒ, HŔ NỘI, VIỆT NAM Email:humanrightsvn@gmail.com www.humanrightsvn.blogspot.com
Hŕ Nội, February 9, 2007
From February 3 to 8, 2007, the Communist government of Vietnam has initiated an organized campaign of repression against well-known activists, such as attorney Nguyen van Dai - who has just received the coveted Hellman/Hammett prize from the Human Rights Watch - attorney Le thi Cong Nhan, Mr. Pham van Troi and the three staff members from the Thien An Law Office.
Security agents also searched the Thien An Law Office and confiscated two hard disks, a box of of documents; and while searching the residence of attorney Nguyen van Dai, they, too, seized a laptop, a scanner, a telephone (a mobile phone?), and one box of documents. At the home of attorney Le thi Cong Nhan, they have confiscated a desktop computer, and one box of documents. They have carried on continuous interrogation with attorneys Nguyen van Dai and Le thi Cong Nhan during the week of February 3 to 8, 2007, which to date has not been terminated.
More seriously, the communist government of Vietnam is now resorting to mental terrorism, which is the same tactics that it had employed during the 50’s of the 20th century. That is, they are applying People’s Court techniques of denouncing and accusing (which was made notorious by the Land Reform campaign of 1953-56 in North Vietnam). On February 5, 2007 they carried on this type of kangoroo court at the neighborhood of engineer Bach Ngoc Duong.
On the evening of February 8, 2007, the communist government has mobilized about 200 people, between the ages of 60 to 80 at the People’s Committee of Ward Bach Khoa to carry on this type of People Court tactics. They’ve called it The Conference of the People and proceeded with reading aloud Mr. Dai’s biography, afterwards falsely accused attorney Dai as a member of The XXI Democracy Party, calumniated him as a traitor, who has sold out his country. During the whole two and a half hour of this denouncing and accusing ordeal, they did not allow attorney Dai to utter a single word (in his defense). Finally, they concluded that attorney Nguyen van Dai is guilty on two counts, violating Article 88 and 258 of the Criminal Code. They demanded to disbar and revoke his law license, to close down the Thien-An Law Office, and to pursue criminal actions against attorney Nguyen van Dai. Using the security force and the extremist’s threat they pressured him into signing the affidavit, but lawyer Nguyen van Dai declared: “You all can kill me, but I will never sign it.” In the end they conceded.
In the face of the Communist government’s mounting pressure and unrelenting repression against the democracy and human rights fighters, the Human Rights Committee of Vietnam has called for an emergency session during the night of February 8, 2007 and resolved:
1) To denounce the communist government of Vietnam for using vile, ignoble and repressive tactics to browbeat and terrorize the democracy activists. 2) To call on all Vietnamese living and working abroad to join force with the general democracy movement in Vietnam and make known to the Communist government our people mutual desire for a rule of law based on justice and fairness and demand that they cease and desist all abject and inhumane tactics at once. To call on all citizens of the world to support this endeavor. 3) The Human Rights Committee of Vietnam is calling on the citizens of the world over to unite and support the people of Vietnam in the struggle for democracy, freedom and human rights and boycott across the board all products and services that are state-owned, e.g. Vietnam Airlines Vietnam and FPTelecommunication in the year of 2007. 4) To call on all media and telecommunication agencies, broadcast and internet, to disseminate and publicize this call. 5) To call on various governments of the world, international human rights organizations to denounce the human rights violations committed by the Hanoi government.
On behalf of the Human Rights Committee of Vietnam,
Nguyen Phuong Anh, Pham van Troi, Bach Ngoc Duong, Nguyen Cong Ly, Bui Minh Thanh
Vietnam Human Rights Network |