Mob Attacks
Home of Vietnamese Dissident, Family
December 11
2005
WASHINGTON—Dozens of people armed with wooden sticks and rotten food attacked a
prominent 84-year-old Vietnamese dissident, while police allegedly looked on and
later refused to take a report.
“About 50 people, maybe more, maybe less, gathered in front of our house,”
former Communist Party intellectual Hoang Minh Chinh said. “They encircled me
and harassed me. They shouted, ‘You bastard, what did you do? You went abroad
and said bad things about the government.’”
The Dec. 1 attack is the latest in a series against Chinh, who is currently
staying with his adult daughter in Hanoi following a U.S. trip in August. While
in Washington, Chinh testified to a U.S. congressional committee on human rights
violations in his homeland.
“They then encircled me. Some guys hit my head with their bottles of spring
water. They beat me three times altogether,” he said.
Grown children beaten by mob
“Then a guy took out a one-meter-long stick of iron and a one-meter-long stick
of wood. Our children stood at the door,” he said.
“Three guys jumped forward, and beat one of them. One member of the mob, aged
about 50, came forward to our eldest daughter, grabbed her hair, pinned her
down, and hit her hard.”
Chinh, 84, said repeated calls to security services and officials produced
little response. “It was a critical and threatening situation,” he told RFA
reporter Gia Minh.
Born on Nov. 16, 1922 in the northern province of Nam Dinh, Chinh is a former
Secretary General of the Vietnam Democratic Party and also a former director of
the Vietnam Institute of Philosophy.
In Sept. 29 testimony to the Committee on International Relations of the U.S.
House of Representatives, Chinh recounted a litany of rights abuses against
religious groups, pro-democracy politicians, and prisoners of conscience.
The Dec. 1 attack lasted around three hours, during which the house was pelted
with rotten eggs and tomatoes, and further threats were hurled, while four
uniformed security agents looked on, Chinh said.
Central government blamed
“[They] just stood there and watched the mob, and disregarded the attackers,” he
said. The guards only intervened when the mob moved to break down the front door
of the family home.
Last month, Chinh issued an appeal to the United Nations and the international
community to intervene to prevent repeated attacks on his daughter’s house,
which included a neighbor brandishing a butcher knife and someone throwing acid
into his house.
In previous interviews with RFA’s Vietnamese service, Chinh said he was fairly
sure where responsibility for the attacks lay. “The circumstances indicate to me
that this is not a spontaneous reaction on the part of the local authorities but
it is instigated by higher authorities,” he told RFA reporter Viet Hung.
“The circumstances mean that the centrally-controlled Party media have already
made false allegations against me. Thus they have stirred anger in the people in
readiness for violations against my safety and the safety of my whole family,”
he said.
Writer Hoang Tien witnessed the incident, he said. The couple called officials
and security officers who promised help, but officials arrived only after most
of the damage was done and then refused to take a crime report, Tien said.
“Only after they attacked, intimidating from outside the house, breaking the
glass door, insulting [the Chinhs], and throwing such smelly things as shrimp
sauce did the green-uniformed security agents appear, and by that time the dirty
attack had already finished,” he said.
“The victims asked to file a report, [but] their request was refused. So our
conclusion was that the government had certainly given a green light for the
attack.”
“Usually a crowd of 30 people or so must be dissolved immediately. Also, special
permission had not been requested in this case,” Tien said. “What was very
strange was that the mob intentionally attacked, insulted, and threw dirty stuff
at the old couple and their children.”
Police response
Residents of the Viet Kiet Compound later reported seeing some plainclothes
security agents in the crowd, using their mobile phones, he said.
Security officials at the Hang Bai precinct in Hoan Kiem District, asked how
they had handled the Chinhs’ calls for help, declined to comment.
“Sorry, I can’t answer you on the phone,” a spokesman said after consulting with
a superior officer. ‘‘Sorry, I can’t answer your question. Please understand me…
Please understand me. I can’t answer you.”
An official with Security Task Force Team 113 of Hoan Kiem District acknowledged
logging a request for help and dispatching officers who found nothing amiss.
“According to our…daily incidents log, someone called our office to report that
a crowd of rowdy people came to cause disorder that affected the safety of local
residents. After the report, members of Security Task Force Team 113 arrived at
the spot,” the official said.
“After evaluating the information sources, they noticed that there was nothing
but a relationship between a number of people and a certain person that came
back home from a medical treatment trip overseas, and that they wanted to
question him about his feedback about information sources abroad,” he said.
“These people reported that they just wanted to get more understanding about
such a thing and just questioned him about it. And indeed they did not intend to
take any action of violence…If you have any concern or feel that such an
incident may have its negative impact, go ahead and file a complaint or directly
contact some other responsible authority.”
Original reporting by Gia Minh for RFA's Vietnamese service. Vietnamese service
director: Diem Nguyen. Produced for the Web in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.
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