Vietnam: 2007 was characterized by the harshest crackdown on peaceful dissent in
20 years
Following is the
short version of Human Rights Watch’s Report on human rights condition in
Vietnam. Please click here to read the full
version.
2007 was characterized by the harshest crackdown on peaceful
dissent in 20 years. The government, emboldened by international recognition
after joining the World Trade Organization in late 2006, moved to suppress all
challenges to the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) by arresting dozens of
democracy and human rights activists, independent trade union leaders,
underground publishers, and members of unsanctioned religious groups. This
reversed a temporary easing of restrictions in 2006, prior to Vietnam’s hosting
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, when independent activism and
opposition political parties had surfaced.
Of nearly 40
dissidents arrested since the crackdown began, more than 20 were sentenced to
prison in 2007, most under Penal Code article 88, conducting anti-government
propaganda. In March Roman Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, a founder of the Bloc
8406 democracy group, was sentenced to eight years in prison. Others sentenced
included human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, labor activist Tran Quoc Hien, and
at least five opposition party members. Members of independent churches were
also imprisoned. Le Tri Tue of the Independent Workers’ Union “disappeared” in
May after claiming political asylum in Cambodia with the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He was presumed to have been abducted and
sent to prison in Vietnam.
Prior to the visit of Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet to the United
States in June, Vietnam released political prisoners Nguyen Vu Binh, who had
served five years, and lawyer Le Quoc Quan, arrested in March 2007 and charged
with attempting to overthrow the government after participating in a fellowship
at the National Endowment for Democracy in the United States. Eleven people
imprisoned on national security charges were reportedly released in a prisoner
amnesty in October 2007, but the Vietnamese government did not publicize their
names.
Despite flouting its international human rights commitments, in October Vietnam
was elected to a two-year term on the UN Security Council.
Detention without Trial
Vietnamese law continues to authorize arbitrary detention without trial.
Administrative detention decree 31/CP was repealed in 2007, but a more
repressive law, Ordinance 44, authorizes placing people suspected of threatening
national security under house arrest or in detention without trial in Social
Protection Centers, rehabilitation camps, or mental hospitals. Lawyer Bui Thi
Kim Thanh, who assisted farmers with land rights complaints, was arrested in
November 2006 and involuntarily committed to a mental hospital. She was released
in July 2007.
Prisons and Torture
Hundreds of religious and political prisoners remain behind bars in harsh
conditions throughout Vietnam. Prisoners are placed in solitary confinement in
dark, unsanitary cells, and there is compelling evidence of torture and
ill-treatment of political prisoners, including beatings and electric shock. A
disturbing number of Montagnard prisoners—even those in their thirties—have died
shortly after release because of illness attributed to harsh conditions and
mistreatment in prison.
Freedom of Expression, Information, and Assembly
All media in Vietnam is controlled by the government or the VCP. Criminal
penalties apply to publications, websites, and internet users that disseminate
information that opposes the government, threatens national security, or reveals
state secrets.
Foreign internet service providers (ISPs) are prohibited from operating.
Internet cafe owners are required to obtain customers’ photo identification,
which is supplied to Vietnamese ISPs. The ISPs are required to install
monitoring software that identifies internet users and their online activities,
and store the information for a year. The government monitors online activity
and blocks websites covering human rights, religious freedom, democracy groups,
and independent media. Website owners must obtain government approval for
website content.
Internet users such as Truong Quoc Huy, whose trial is expected by the end of
the year, have been imprisoned for alleged national security crimes after
participating in pro-democracy discussion forums or using the internet to
disseminate views disfavored by the government.
In February police detained and questioned Roman Catholic priests Chan Tin and
Phan Van Loi, editors of Freedom of Speech. In April police arrested Tran Khai
Thanh Thuy, an editor of the dissident bulletin Fatherland. In September the
government ordered the closure of Intellasia, an Australian-owned website in
Hanoi, charging that it disseminated “reactionary” material.
Decree 38 bans public gatherings in front of places where government, Party, and
international conferences are held, and requires organizers to obtain advance
government permission. In July Ho Chi Minh City police dispersed a month-long
peaceful protest by hundreds of farmers—many of them elderly women—against
government land seizures.
Religion
Vietnamese law requires that all religious groups register with the government
and bans religious activities deemed to cause public disorder, harm national
security, or “sow divisions.”
During 2007 the Minh Ly Sect in southern Vietnam and the more pro-government
part of the Mennonite church in Vietnam were granted legal registration. Other
Mennonites in Vietnam, such as those affiliated with Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang in
Ho Chi Minh City, a former prisoner of conscience, continued to be harassed.
While most Roman Catholics are able to practice their religion, those who
advocate for political and civil rights have been harassed, imprisoned, or
threatened with arrest.
Monks from the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), including top
leaders Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do, have been largely confined to
their pagodas, and after Thich Quang Do spoke at the farmers’ demonstration in
Ho Chi Minh City in July the government increased its harassment and
surveillance of the UBCV. In March UBCV monk Thich Thien Mien, who formed an
association of former political and religious prisoners following his release in
2005 after 26 years in prison, was interrogated by police for alleged
anti-government activities.
Four Hoa Hao Buddhists in Dong Thap were sentenced to prison terms of four to
six years in 2007 for “causing public disorder” after protesting the
imprisonment of Hoa Hao members in 2006.
In February 2007 several hundred ethnic Khmer (known as Kampuchea Krom) Buddhist
monks in Soc Trang peacefully demonstrated for religious freedom. Police
dispersed the demonstration and arrested protest leaders, with five later
sentenced to two to four years’ imprisonment for “causing public disorder.” Tim
Sakhorn, a Kampuchea Krom monk from Cambodia who had been defrocked and deported
to Vietnam in June by Cambodian authorities was sentenced to a year’s
imprisonment at a trial in Vietnam in November on charges of undermining
national unity (see Cambodia chapter).
Ethnic minority Christians belonging to independent house churches continue to
be harassed, pressured to join government-authorized churches, and arrested.
Most congregations that tried to legally register were rejected or received no
response. In Phu Yen province the government recognized-Evangelical Church of
Vietnam reported that an Ede Christian died in April 2007 after being detained
and beaten by police for not renouncing his religion. In July police and
soldiers forcibly evicted ethnic minority Stieng Christians from their farms in
Binh Phuoc, beating some of the villagers and bulldozing their crops and homes.
An independent report facilitated by UNHCR in 2007 found “severe forms of
religion-based punitive action” against Montagnard Christians in the Central
Highlands. During 2007 at least 13 Montagnards were sentenced to prison, joining
more than 350 Montagnards imprisoned on national security charges since 2001 for
peaceful political or religious activities, or trying to seek asylum in
Cambodia. A steady trickle of Montagnard asylum seekers fled to Cambodia, with
many forcibly turned back by Cambodian border police. Problems remained in
monitoring conditions in the Central Highlands without hindrance: after a UNHCR
visit to Dak Lak in June, police detained and beat a Montagnard who had helped
translate for the delegation.
Labor
Members of independent trade unions are arrested and harassed, with at least six
members of the United Worker-Farmers Organization arrested since 2006.
In 2007 the government announced it would raise the minimum monthly salary for
workers in foreign companies for the first time in six years. Despite this,
unprecedented numbers of workers—mostly at South Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese,
and Singaporean enterprises—continued to strike for better pay and working
conditions.
A new draft law would fine workers who participate in “illegal” strikes not
approved by the VCP-controlled union confederation. Decrees issued in 2007
enable local officials to force striking workers back to work, and ban strikes
in strategic sectors including power stations, railways, airports, post offices,
and oil, gas, and forestry enterprises.
Women
While Vietnam’s National Assembly has among the highest proportion of women
representatives of any Asian country and laws prohibiting gender discrimination
and trafficking, poor legal enforcement leaves many women disenfranchised and
subject to domestic violence, trafficking, landlessness, growing rates of
HIV/AIDS, and low school enrollment rates.
Vietnam continues to be a source of and transit point for women and children
trafficked for forced prostitution, fraudulent marriages, and forced domestic
servitude to China, Cambodia, Taiwan, Malaysia, and South Korea. Sex workers,
trafficking victims, and street peddlers—officially classified by the government
as “social evils”—are routinely rounded up and detained without warrants in
compulsory “rehabilitation” centers, where they are subject to beatings and
sexual abuse.
Key International Actors
Vietnam’s donors, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Japan,
pledged US$4.4 billion for 2007, which represents 15 percent of its annual
budget. Vietnam’s largest trading partners are China, Japan, the US, and
Singapore.
In March 2007 33 countries made demarches to the Vietnamese government
condemning the arrest of dissidents. In May the European Union called for the
release of all nonviolent political activists, followed in July by a European
Parliament resolution condemning the crackdown.
Relations with the United States continued to warm as the US granted Vietnam
Permanent Normal Trade Relations at the end of 2006 and removed it from the US
list of religious freedom violators. However, President Bush raised concerns
about human rights with President Triet during their June 2007 White House
meeting.