Vietnamese Bloggers Recognized for Commitment to Rights
5 Win Prestigious
Hellman/Hammett Awards
Human Rights Watch
Dec 20, 2012
(New York) – Five
Vietnamese bloggers are among an extraordinary group of 41 people from 19
countries who have received the prestigious Hellman/Hammett award recognizing
writers who demonstrate courage and conviction in the face of political
persecution. They are Huynh Ngoc Tuan, Huynh Thuc Vy, Nguyen Huu Vinh, Pham Minh
Hoang, and Vu Quoc Tu (short biographies below).
“Like other Vietnamese
exercising their right to free expression, many of the country’s growing corps
of bloggers are increasingly threatened, assaulted, or even jailed for
peacefully expressing their views,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human
Rights Watch, which administers the annual Hellman/Hammett awards. “By
recognizing these five brave men and women, who have already suffered much and
face on-going threats to their basic rights, we are honored to amplify the
voices the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party wants to prevent from participating
in public discussions of Vietnam’s many social and political problems.”
This year’s Vietnamese
award-winners reflect the diversity of sectors in Vietnamese society whose
critical and concerned voices the government wishes to silence: advocate of
religious freedom Nguyen Huu Vinh (who blogs as J.B Nguyen Huu Vinh); rights
defender Pham Minh Hoang (who blogs as Phan Kien Quoc); freelance journalist Vu
Quoc Tu (known as Uyen Vu); novelist Huynh Ngoc Tuan; and the youthful
political, social commentator Huynh Thuc Vy. All five have been persecuted for
their writings.
Human Rights Watch said
that the Vietnamese government systematically suppresses freedom of expression,
association, and peaceful assembly, and persecutes those who question government
policies, expose official corruption, or call for democratic alternatives to
one-party rule. Writers and bloggers often face lengthy prison terms imposed by
“people’s courts,” temporary police detention and onerous interrogation,
intrusive surveillance by various authorities, restrictions on domestic travel
and prohibitions on leaving the country, beatings by security officials and
anonymous thugs, fines, and denial of opportunities for livelihood.
On December 16, 2012, the
police at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh city prohibited blogger Huynh
Trong Hieu from leaving Vietnam for the United States to receive the 2012
Hellman/Hammett awards on behalf of his father, Huynh Ngoc Tuan, and his sister
Huynh Thuc Vy, and confiscated his passport. According to the police, they acted
upon a request from the police of Quang Nam province where the Huynh family
resides. Two other 2012 Hellman/Hammett recipients, bloggers Nguyen Huu Vinh and
Vu Quoc Tu, have been also prohibited from leaving the country (Nguyen Huu Vinh
in August 2012 and Vu Quoc Tu in May 2010). Blogger Pham Minh Hoang is serving a
three-year probation term, which restricts his movement within his residential
ward.
In a recent case, the
three founders of Vietnam’s Club of Free Journalistsand former Hellman/Hammett
awardees, Nguyen Van Hai (who blogs as Dieu Cay), Ta Phong Tan, and Phan Thanh
Hai (who blogs as Anhbasg), were sentenced to imprisonmenton September 24, 2012,
for “propaganda against the state.” That same month, politically beleaguered
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered the Ministry of Public Security to target
blogs and websites not approved by the authorities, punish those who create
them, and prohibit state employees to read and/or disseminate information
published on these websites.
“As Vietnam’s government
escalates its repression of an increasingly outspoken online community, it is
more important than ever for the world to celebrate the work of the five
Vietnamese recipients of this year’s Hellman/Hammett awards,” Adams said. “The
world’s democracies should not just continue with business as usual in Vietnam.
Instead, they should make the release of all writers and political prisoners a
condition of good relations.”
Human Rights Watch also
commemorated the life and work of the 1994 Hellman/Hammett award winning poet
Nguyen Chi Thien, who died in exile on October 2, 2012. Revered as one of
Vietnam’s greatest political poets, Nguyen Chi Thien symbolized personal courage
and determination despite every effort by Vietnamese authorities to silence him
over many decades. Nguyen Chi Thien was first detained in 1960 for questioning
the Communist Party’s version of history. In 1979, during one of his brief
periods of freedom, he barged his way into the British embassy in Hanoi to make
available to the world hundreds of poems he had composed in his head and
memorized while previously in detention, knowing that he would be arrested
again. The poems were published under the title “Flowers from Hell,” becoming a
worldwide literary sensation as he indeed languished in another series of
Vietnamese jails.
About the
Hellman/Hammett Awards
The Hellman/Hammett awards are given annually to writers around the world who
have been targets of political persecution or human rights abuses. A
distinguished selection committee awards the cash grants to honor and assist
writers whose work and activities have been suppressed by repressive government
policies.
The grants are named for
the American playwright Lillian Hellman and her longtime companion, the novelist
Dashiell Hammett. Both were questioned by US congressional committees about
their political beliefs and affiliations during the aggressive anti-communist
investigations inspired by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. Hellman suffered
professionally and had trouble finding work. Hammett spent time in prison.
In 1989, the trustees
appointed in Hellman’s will asked Human Rights Watch to devise a program to help
writers who were targeted for expressing views that their governments oppose,
for criticizing government officials or actions, or for writing about subjects
that their governments did not want reported.
Over the past 23 years,
more than 750 writers from 92 countries have received Hellman/Hammett grants of
up to US$10,000 each, totaling more than $3 million. The program also gives
small emergency grants to writers who have an urgent need to leave their country
or who need immediate medical treatment after serving prison terms or enduring
torture.
“The Hellman/Hammett
grants aim to help writers who have suffered because they published information
or expressed ideas that criticize policy or offend people in power,” said
Lawrence Moss, coordinator of the Hellman/Hammett grant program. “Many of the
writers honored by these grants share a common purpose with Human Rights Watch:
to protect the rights of vulnerable people by shining a light on abuses and
building pressure for change.”
Biographies and
Writings of Vietnamese 2012 Hellman/Hammett Winners
Huynh Ngoc Tuan
Huynh Ngoc Tuan has written dozens of influential articles, commentaries, and a
novella exposing social injustice and government repression. His writings
promote human rights, democracy, and what he believes are the virtues of a
multi-party political system. He was arrested in October 1992 for attempting to
send abroad a novella and several short stories critical of government policies,
for which he was charged with conducting propaganda against the Socialist state.
In April 1993 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by another four
years of probation that restricted his movement and activities. He nevertheless
resumed his dissident actions, writing a memoir detailing his 10 years in
various prisons. In 2007, he joined the pro-democracy grouping Bloc 8406.
In 2011, the police searched Huynh Ngoc Tuan’s house and confiscated a computer,
computer accessories, and paper notebooks. He was fined 100,000,000.00Vietnamese
Dong (about US$5,000) for using information technology to conduct propaganda
against the state. Police pressure has made it impossible for Huynh Ngoc Tuan to
obtain a secure job. Two of Huynh Ngoc Tuan’s children, Huynh Thuc Vy and Huynh
Trong Hieu, are prominent young bloggers in their own right. They also suffer
from police surveillance, intimidation, interrogation, and other forms of police
harassment, such as confiscation of cameras and cell phones.
“In Vietnam, what dominates all social
relations is not the law, but the will of the Communist Party. The Party has
absolute power to make all decisions, ranging from the destiny of the nation to
economic, culture and daily life of the people. The Party has ‘hard’ power
including a prison system, a powerful police force, a big army and a system of
‘Law’ designed to serve this power. The Party also possesses ‘soft’ power
including national resources, the press and media and the state-owned religious
churches. It controls and dominates society using both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power
in an attempt to turn the people into a herd of sheep, or a kind of puppet that
is ignorant, powerless or complicit”.
– Huynh Ngoc Tuan,
2012
Huynh
Thuc Vy
Huynh Ngoc Tuan’s daughter Huynh Thuc Vy is a young political blogger whose
writing has spread extensively on the internet. Due to her father’s status as a
political prisoner, Huynh Thuc Vy suffered discrimination during her childhood.
She began publishing articles on the foreign-based website Dan Chim Viet in late
2008. Touching upon various social and political issues, Huynh Thuc Vy’s writing
promotes a multi-party political system, freedom, and democracy, and urges young
people to become socially and politically engaged. While teaching herself law,
Huynh Thuc Vy has emerged as a proponent of a society run by rule of law and
written in support of legal activists who have been imprisoned for their
peaceful activism.
After the Huynh family home was searched and computer equipment and notebooks
seized, Huynh Thuc Vy was fined 85,000,000.000 Vietnamese Dong (about US$4,250).
Like her father, she has difficulty finding gainful employment because of police
pressure.
“In Vietnam, one has to vote whether one
wants to or not. Who you vote for is not important. It does not affect or change
any national matter, whether big or small. It also has nothing to do with the
life of any particular community of normal people.…
“To remain silent before such absurdity is
to agree with such absurdity. It means a lack of responsibility to oneself and
to society and the country. We must choose for ourselves a progressive society
in which the right to vote and the right to run for an election must be carried
out in a meaningful, democratic and just manner.” – Huynh Thuc Vy, 2011
Nguyen Huu Vinh
Nguyen Huu Vinh (also known as Jean Baptiste Nguyen Huu Vinh or J.B Nguyen Huu
Vinh)is a prominent Catholic blogger advocating freedom of religion and
fundamental human rights. He writes about such topics of great public concern as
land confiscation, police brutality, abusive government policies, and repression
of church and religious freedom. He is also well known for having written a
five-part series of reports narrating in detail the appeal trial of prominent
legal activist Dr. Cu Huy Ha Vu. In addition, Nguyen Huu Vinh composes poetry
and short fiction commenting on social and political issues. His 2012 blogs have
included the four-part satire “Meeting President Obama,” with himself as
protagonist, in which he encounters Obama in a dream and the two of them discuss
issues like freedom of speech and freedom of press.
Nguyen Huu Vinh has been
subjected to intrusive surveillance, intimidation, interrogation, and detention.
He has been assaulted twice by unknown thugs: first, in January 2010, for
reporting police ill-treatment of parishioners during a land dispute between
Dong Chiem parish and the local government; then, in July 2012, for blogging
reports about anti-China protests at Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi. In August 2012,
the authorities prohibited Nguyen Huu Vinh from leaving Vietnam to accompany his
mother on a medical trip to Singapore.
I am walking along the
road
What changes in the last
sixty years do I see?
On the side, new villas
are being constructed
Syringes and needles are
thrown on the path
Drug addicts hang out
nearby
They are the children
and grandchildren of peasants
I asked what happened
They responded that
there are many development projects
Fertile rice fields in
the old days
Have become parts of
these projects to please the leader
I am not sure if I was
awake or in a nightmare
The countryside is
“reformed,” yet individual family is destroyed
The old master of the
land before, the peasants
Now become landless
wanderers
A class of land
petitioners grows every day
They used to toil the
field,
Today they are drifting
on urban streets…–
Nguyen Huu Vinh, 2012
Pham Minh Hoang
Pham Minh Hoang (who blogs as Phan Kien Quoc) previously taught applied
science at the Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic University. In his blog, he has
written about social and political issues, including workers’ rights, national
destruction of Vietnamese cultural heritage sites, and environmental pollution.
He has conducted free “soft” skills courses for young people, teaching them how
to build self-confidence and how to form scientific views so they can be
prepared for future careers. According to state media, in these courses, Pham
Minh Hoang allegedly taught young people about civil disobedience.
Pham Minh Hoang was arrested on August 13, 2010, for his alleged affiliation
with the officially-proscribed Viet Tan party, a group that once espoused
rebellion against the communist government but later changed its approach to
peaceful resistance. Human Rights Watch has found no evidence that Pham Minh
Hoang has advocated or participated in violent action against the government.
Instead, according to state media itself, Pham Minh Hoang’s “crime” is having
written “33 articles that distort the policies and guidelines of the Party and
the State.” He was convicted on August 10, 2011, by the People’s Court of Ho Chi
Minh City for “conducting activities to subvert the administration.” He was
sentenced under article 79 of the Vietnamese penal code to three years in
prison, to be followed by three years on probation. During his appeal trial on
November 29, 2011, the People’s Supreme Court reduced his sentence to 17 months,
as a result of which Pham Minh Hoang was released on January 13, 2012. However,
he is currently serving his three years of probation, which confines his
movement to the residential ward where he lives.
“For a long time, Vietnam’s human labor has
been among the cheapest in the world. This has attracted many investors,
primarily for labor-intensive industries. Now, Vietnam has become a big
processing [country] in the region. The consequence of cheap labor is that the
life of the worker becomes worse and worse. This leads to disputes, conflicts
and collective work stoppages.
“If the state does not have a mechanism to
protect laborers and keeps running after growth statistics, these conflicts will
never end. Vietnam will never get rid of the processing status with its usual
risk, uncertainty and dependency.
“Workers and peasants are not the only
victims of the cost of political stability and economic growth. Another serious
harm is environmental pollution, which has been and will continue to destroy the
health of millions of people in the months and years to come.”
– Pham Minh Hoang, 2009
Vu Quoc Tu
Vu Quoc Tu (who writes as Uyen Vu) is a freelance journalist and a blogger.
He worked for state-controlled magazines in the 1990s and started to blog in the
mid-2000s. Vu Quoc Tu was a founding member of the Club for Free Journalists
established in September 2007 to promote freedom of expression and independent
journalism. During the first few months of its existence, club members covered
newsworthy stories and events that were either suppressed or ignored by
Vietnamese officialdom and the government-controlled media. For example, they
covered wild-cat strikes by industrial workers in Binh Duong province, the
trials of prominent dissidents such as Le Thi Cong Nhan and Nguyen Van Dai, 2008
street protests against the Beijing Olympics, land disputes between Catholic
churches and local administrations, and the 2007 protests by Buddhist monks in
Burma. Three other members of Club for Free Journalists have received Hellman
/Hammett awards in the past: bloggers Nguyen Van Hai (known as Dieu Cay), Phan
Thanh Hai (known as Anh Ba Sai Gon or Anhbasg) and Ta Phong Tan, all of whom are
currently serving prison sentences for exercising their right to freedom of
expression.
Vu Quoc Tu writes about social, economic, and political issues. He has also
reviewed the Vietnamese translation of Orwell’s
Animal Farm and the dissident
poetry of Tran Vang Sao and Bui Chat. He has voiced support for imprisoned
fellow writer Nguyen Van Hai.
Vu Quoc Tu lives with his
wife, Le Ngoc Ho Diep, who blogs as Trang Dem. The couple has been subjected to
intensive police harassment, including intrusive surveillance, interrogation,
and beating. On May 1, 2010, police detained Vu Quoc Tu and Le Ngoc Ho Diep at
Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City as they were boarding a plane to
Bangkok to go on honeymoon. The police held and interrogated them for several
hours and forbade them from traveling abroad, contending this was necessary to
protect Vietnam’s national security. Police pressures have also prevented Vu
Quoc Tu from securing employment in Vietnam.
“… our participation in protests was a way
to peacefully express our views. But the enthusiasm of Vietnamese youth from
Hanoi to Saigon was rejected. Peaceful protests were crushed. I lost my job.
Many others lost a place to live or a job to earn their living. The most
enthusiastic protesters face the most difficulties. Some left our country…
Patriotic people look at one another in reservation. But I still believe that
these spirited young people, no matter how few of them, are like swallow that
signal a Spring is coming for the country of Vietnam.” – Vu Quoc Tu,
2009