Vietnam: Free Religious Activists Immediately
Crackdown Threatening Freedom of Religion
Human
Rights Watch
September 30, 2011
(New York) – Vietnamese
authorities should immediately end their crackdown on religious activists and
free 15 people detained for expressing their beliefs, Human Rights Watch said
today. The arrests, primarily targeting Catholic Redemptorists, are a new blot
on the country’s already problematic record on freedom of religion.
The current wave of arrests began on July 30, 2011, when the police arrested
three Catholic activists at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City as they
returned from abroad. During the next seven weeks, the authorities arrested 12
more religious activists. So far, 10 have been charged with violating penal code
article 79, subversion of the administration, which carries a 5-to-15-year
sentence for “accomplice” and 12 years to life, or the death penalty, for those
designated as “organizers” or those whose actions have “serious consequences.”
“These latest arrests demonstrate the
Vietnam government’s hostility
toward people who seek to practice their faith freely, outside government
constraints,” said
Phil Robertson , deputy Asia director
at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities’ actions against these peaceful
religious advocates are a telling indicator of Vietnam’s deepening abuses of
human rights.”
Many of those arrested in the last two months are affiliated with the
Redemptorist Thai Ha church in Hanoi and Ky Dong church in Ho Chi Minh City.
Over the last six months, both churches have regularly held prayer vigils
calling for the safety of activists in prison or in detention, including the
legal advocate Dr. Cu Huy Ha Vu, the Buddhist Hoa Hao activist Nguyen Van Lia,
the blogger Nguyen Van Hai (Dieu Cay), the blogger Phan Thanh Hai (Anhbasg), and
the blogger Pham Minh Hoang. On September 25, the Ky Dong church held another
vigil to pray for the 15 religious
activists arrested in the last two months, as well as other prominent activists.
The Redemptorists, formally known as the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer,
are a Catholic missionary congregation founded in Italy in 1732 that currently
operate in more than 77 countries worldwide.
The arrests of the influential Catholic bloggers Le Van Son and Ta Phong Tan
capped a police campaign of harassment, short-term detention, and interrogations
against both bloggers related to their writings. On August 2, the morning of
Vu’s appeals court hearing, Le Van Son traveled to the area near the People’s
Supreme Court to express his support for Vu, and he was closely followed by
police. The next morning police arrested him. Ta Phong Tan was arrested on
September 5, six days after she posted an analysis of the illegality and
arbitrary nature of Le Van Son’s arrest on her blog, dated August 30. Ta Phong
Tan was awarded the prestigious Hellman Hammett prize on September 14 for her
writings in the face of ongoing persecution.
Pastoral leaders at both churches report they suffer from regular police
surveillance and harassment. On July 10, the immigration police at the Ho Chi
Minh City airport prevented Father Pham Trung Thanh, the leader of the
Redemptorists in Vietnam, from leaving the country to attend a religious meeting
in Singapore, stating that he belongs to “the category of those who have not
been allowed to leave the country” (thuoc
dien chua duoc xuat canh). The police did not provide any
explanation of why he has been placed in this category. Two days later,
immigration police at the Moc Bai border checkpoint in Tay Ninh prevented
another Redemptorist leader, Father Dinh Huu Thoai, from leaving the country. On
July 19, Dinh Huu Thoai filed a lawsuit against the officials at that checkpoint
for violating his rights, but the People’s Court of Tay Ninh dismissed it on
September 26, ruling that the matter is “not under the jurisdiction of the
Court.”
“Freedom of movement is a basic human right, enshrined in Vietnam’s Constitution
and protected by international human rights covenants ratified by Vietnam,”
Robertson said. “By preventing Redemptorist leaders from traveling abroad to
attend religious events, the government is showing just how little the rule of
law means in Vietnam.”
The most recent arrest occurred on September 19, when Ho Chi Minh City police
detained Tran Vu Anh Binh as he returned home from a funeral at the Mother’s
Savior Church in the city.
In the recent report on freedom of religion in Vietnam, the US State Department
asserted that “[t]here were continued reports of abuses of religious freedom in
the country,” and added that “[t]here was no change in the status of respect for
religious freedom by the government during the reporting period.”
“Washington needs to publicly acknowledge that Vietnam carries out severe
repression against religious dissidents and to press the government to release
everyone being held for peacefully expressing the dictates of their conscience
rather than the party line,” Robertson said. “Vietnam’s government should
acknowledge that freedom of religion does not mean freedom to only behave in
ways pre-approved by the government.”
Source URL:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/09/30/vietnam-free-religious-activists-immediately
Links:
[1] https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/09/30/vietnam-free-religious-activists-immediately
[2] https://www.hrw.org/asia/vietnam
[3] https://www.hrw.org/bios/phil-robertson
[4] http://www.hrwnews.org/press/KyDongchurch_Vigil_09252011_copyright_VRNs.jpg
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Copyright 2011, Human Rights Watch
