Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2004 - Vietnam

Arbitrary detention and trials of cyber-activists¹⁰⁰

In the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the communist authorities continued to blatantly stifle all form of criticism and dissent, as they increased the repression against all divergent opinions, thus increasingly restricting the freedoms of opinion and expression guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution.

Mr. Nguyen Vu Binh, a journalist, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 2003, and Mr. Nguyen Khac Toan was sentenced to twelve years and three months imprisonment in December 2002 for their human rights activities on the Internet. At the end of December 2004, they were still in jail.

Moreover, Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, a Vietnamese dissident and human rights activist, who was arrested on 17 March 2003 after publishing written statements denouncing infringements on freedoms of expression and of the press in Vietnam, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years imprisonment for "abusing democratic rights to jeopardize the interest of the State, and the legitimate rights and interest of social organisations and citizens", by the Ho Chi Minh People's Court, on 29 July 2004. Dr. Que did not have access to legal representation, and the trial only lasted three hours. At the beginning of the trial, he was allowed to make a statement in which he proclaimed his innocence. He was then removed from the courtroom to listen to the rest of the proceedings in a separate room. His health greatly deteriorated while in jail. He suffered from high blood pressure, a bleeding peptic ulcer, and kidney stones. His family provided the necessary medicine to the detention centre, but it was unclear if the medicine had reached him.

Colonel Pham Que Duong, a respected Communist Party veteran and military historian who had filed an application to set up an independent anti-corruption association and called for democratic reforms, and Mr. Tran Khue, a scholar, both arrested in December 2002 after they met in Ho Chi Minh City, were sentenced to prison terms in 2004.

On 3 February 2004, Mr. Pham Que Duong was charged with espionage for having links to foreign reactionary organisations, using the Internet to receive and distribute documents hostile to the communist regime, and working as a correspondent for a Canadian magazine. On 14 July 2004, he was sentenced to 19 months in prison on charges of "abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State", the more serious charge of espionage being dropped.

On 9 June 2004, Mr. Tran Khue was charged with espionage and violating a house arrest order. On 9 July 2004, he was acquitted of the more serious charge of espionage, but sentenced to 19 months imprisonment on charges of "taking advantage of democratic rights to infringe upon the interests of the State" (Article 258 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment) and of violating a house arrest order.

As their sentences included time already served, Mr. Pham Que Duong was released on 29 July and Mr. Tran Khue on 30 July 2004.

Religious leaders in arbitrary detention¹⁰¹

Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and his deputy Thich Quang Do, members of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), remained under house arrests. Thich Huyen Quand has been under house arrest since 1982 and Thich Quang Do was put under house arrest in October 2003 just after being released from administrative detention in June 2003. On 9 October 2003, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the two monks were accused of "carrying State secrets" (Articles 263/264 of the Criminal Code).

In a letter addressed to the Vietnamese authorities on 25 October 2004, Venerable Thich Quang Do expressed his fear that these accusations might be "a prelude to a much more serious accusation" – that of "espionage", under Article 80 of the Code, which is punishable by 20 years in prison, a life sentence or even the death penalty; or perhaps that of "deliberately disclosing state secrets" under Article 263 of the Code, punishable by 15 years of imprisonment.

On 21 November 2004, Thich Quang Do received a two-hour visit from a delegation of US diplomats at the Thanh Minh Zen monastery in Ho Chi Minh City. This was the first time the UBCV deputy leader was allowed to receive visits since he was arrested in 2003. He told the delegation about the current plight of the banned UBCV, and the US delegation informed him of the State Department's recent decision to designate Vietnam as a "country of particular concern" for its egregious violations of religious freedom.

On the next day, the Vietnamese police intercepted a mini-van with Venerable Thich Vien Dinh and nine other UBCV members as they drove towards the Thanh Minh Zen monastery in Ho Chi Minh City. They were going to accompany Thich Quang Do to visit Thich Huyen Quang, who is seriously ill. Thich Huyen Quang had been taken into the Quy Nhon general hospital on 18 November 2004. After checking the vehicle's papers and the monks' identity cards – all of which were in order – the police announced they were going to tow the van to the police station. Thich Vien Dinh refused to let the police impound the van, and alerted the nearby Giac Hoa pagoda of the incident. After a tense 4-hour stand-off, in which 50 monks staged a sit-in protest around the vehicle and large crowds of people gathered on the scene, the police eventually allowed the UBCV monks to drive on to the Thanh Minh Zen monastery. When Thich Vien Dinh and the UBCV monks arrived at the monastery, the police tried to prevent Thich Quang Do from leaving. After an hour of discussions, the police finally let Thich Quang Do leave Ho Chi Minh City in the van, with security police in a jeep and on motorbikes following behind. However, as they reached Trang Bom, local security police intercepted the vehicle. They ordered Thich Quang Do to return immediately to Ho Chi Minh City where the local police had "invited" him to attend "working sessions" (interrogations). Thich Quang Do refused and remained inside the vehicle with the other monks. The monks were held on the road for four hours before the police forcibly escorted them back to Ho Chi Minh City, where they were summoned for questioning. On 23 December 2004, Thich Quang Do was able to visit Thich Vien Dinh, while 30 policemen were watching his Giac Hoa pagoda.

On 23 November 2004, Thich Quang Do received a summons from the Phu Nhuan Ward People's Committee in Ho Chi Minh City (the local Communist Party authorities) to come for a "working session" at 8 a.m. on the next day. The convocation stated that he was summoned to discuss his "appropriation of State secrets". The summons might be connected to the letter sent by Thich Quang Do to the communist leadership on 25 October 2004. Thich Quang Do was interrogated during four hours (from 8 am to 12 am). Following the questioning, Party officers presented him with a document that the police was said to have found on him at the time of his arrest on 9 October 2003, and which was the "State secret". However, this was not the document that had been confiscated on 9 October. The People's Committee finally allowed Thich Quang Do to go home to take the medicine for his heart and told him to come back in the next few days; Thich Quand Do refused. Vietnamese authorities thus strengthened the surveillance of the Zen Thanh Minh monastry (where Thich Quand Do lives) and cut all mobile telephone communications for reasons of "national security".

However, in mid-December 2004, the administrative detention of Thich Quand Do was relaxed, although he was still accused of possessing state secrets. On 23 December 2004, he was allowed to leave his pagoda to visit monks under house arrest in Ho Chi Minh City but he was accompanied by 30 policemen.

On 5 January 2005, the American embassador in Vietnam, Mr. Michael W. Marine, was able to visit Thich Quang Do and talk to him.

This relatively new situation seems to result from strong American pressure, and in particular from the fact that the USA put Vietnam on the list of "Countries of particular concern" as regards religious freedom.

Release of Thich Tri Luc after completing sentence¹⁰²

Mr. Pham Van Tuong, a former monk and member of the UBCV known as Thich Tri Luc, was released on 26 March 2004, after 20 months in prison.

Mr. Pham Van Tuong had been arrested in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, having fled from Vietnam because of religious persecution in April 2002. At the time of his arrest, he was under UN protection in Cambodia since he had obtained the refugee status from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Phnom Penh in June 2002.

During the following year, his family did not know whether he was dead or alive, and Vietnamese authorities denied having any knowledge of his whereabouts.

In July 2003, Mr. Pham Van Tuong "reappeared" in a jail in Ho Chi Minh City, where he had been detained for 12 months. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry admitted that security police had arrested him on 26 July 2002, allegedly at the Cambodian-Vietnamese border. His family was told that he would stand trial on 1 August 2003, but the trial was postponed indefinitely without any explanation.

On 12 March 2004, Mr. Pham Van Tuong was sentenced to 20 months in prison, at a closed trial at the People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City for "distorting the government's policies on national unity and contacting hostile groups to undermine the government's internal security and foreign affairs". Mr. Pham Van Tuong's trial lasted less than one hour, and he was not represented by a lawyer. His family was informed of the trial only the day before. As he had already served 19 months and 15 days in prison, he was released two weeks after the ruling.

During his 20 months in prison, Pham Van Tuong continually protested that he was a UN Refugee and claimed his right to UNHCR protection. Indeed, the original arrest warrant drawn up by the Vietnamese security police at the Tay Ninh border clearly stated that they had confiscated his refugee card upon his arrest. However, one month later, this warrant was replaced by a new one, signed by Ho Chi Minh City security police, which simply stated that Pham Van Tuong had been arrested on 26 July 2002, inside the Vietnamese border, with no mention of his refugee status. The Ho Chi Minh Police told Pham Van Tuong that his kidnapping in Cambodia was "none of their business", and they refused to allow him access to the UNHCR representative in Vietnam.

[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]

100. See Annual Report 2003.

101. See Annual Report 2003, and Letter to the Vietnamese authorities, 9 November 2004.

102. See Annual Report 2003 and Urgent Appeal VTN 001/0903/OBS 048.1.