Vietnam
releases Internet democrats
Hanoi (dpa – August 16, 2006) - Vietnam's communist government has released
three young people arrested last year for anonymous comments made in an internet
voice-chat forum, and one of them vowed Wednesday he would continue to push for
democratic reform.
Truong Quoc Huy, 25, said one of his first acts on being released last month was
to join the new "8406 Group" of government critics formed in April this year.
"I will continue to criticize the government on their wrong-doings," Huy said by
telephone, adding that his arrest last year along with his brother and their
friend only made him "more courageous."
The case, believed to be Vietnam's first arrests involving Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP), had become a rallying cry for international free-speech groups
that decry Vietnam's persecution of critics of the ruling Communist Party.
Huy said that under questioning, it became apparent that Vietnamese internal
security police had been monitoring the voice chat forum PalTalk.
"Security police recorded our talk on PalTalk and checked with contacts who
happened to know who I was," Huy said, adding that police knew both his PalTalk
alias and his personal e-mail identity.
He added that he had never advocated violent overthrow of Vietnam's government.
"I only spoke out my thoughts and opinions about corruption, the lack of human
rights and free speech."
Vietnam's government had never acknowledged it was detaining Huy, his brother
Truong Quoc Tuan, 28, and Tuan's fiancée Pham Anh Dao, a legal US resident also
known as Lisa Pham.
Nor would a government spokesman immediately confirm their release, which Huy
said was on July 7.
The three were seized in an October 19, 2005 in a police raid on the home of the
Truong brothers, according to Reporters Without Borders, an international
free-speech advocacy group.
They were held pending investigation of charges of plotting to overthrow
Vietnam's government, but released before being brought to trial. Vietnam can
hold suspects for up to 16 months in jail before any formal indictments.
Huy said the three were isolated from other prisoners and questioned about their
speeches on PalTalk, an internet voice-chat service that has a forum on
democracy run by Vietnamese exiles living in Canada.
After their release, Huy said, officials from the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh
City helped Lisa Pham return to the US. Officials at the consulate would not
confirm or deny the report.