Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2002 - Vietnam

Cyber-activists jailed³⁵

On 20th December 2002, Mr. Nguyen Khac Taon was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment and three years probation by the People's Court of Hanoi for "spying" (Article 80 of the Criminal Code). Mr. Taon is presently jailed in Prison B14 near Hanoi. The trial was held behind closed doors. He had been arrested in a cyber café in Hanoi on 8th January; the police had searched his house and confiscated various documents and petitions on farmers' protests. His lawyer, Mr. Tran Lam, has only been allowed to see his client twice since the beginning of his detention, and never privately. His mother, Mrs. Tran Thi Quyet, has only seen him once since his arrest. The official paper of the Communist Party, Nhan Dan (The People), reported that Mr. Taon had "libelled and disparaged the members of the Party's Bureau and the State" by sending e-mails and disseminating information to "reactionaries in exile".

For the last two years, Mr. Taon has been helping farmers fight against the confiscation of their land by the State. He has drafted petitions and disseminated information on demonstrations and farmers' protests.

On 8th November 2002, Mr. Le Chi Quang, a legal expert and IT specialist, was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for "suggesting pluralism and a multiparty system", "asking for Article 4 of the Constitution to be repealed" (corresponding to the monopoly of the Vietnamese Communist Party) and "joining an anti-corruption association". On 21st February 2002, he was arrested in Hanoi after posting an internet article criticising the re-drawing of the Chinese-Vietnamese border.

The use of the internet to call for political reform has led to the arrest of various citizens this year, such as Mr. Pham Hong Son, a doctor, Mr. Nguyen Vu Binh, a journalist and Mr. Vu Ngoc Binh, a chemistry professor. They are still in jail.

Religious leaders still in detention³⁶

Mr. Thich Huyen Quang, patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, entered into his twentieth year of imprisonment in 2002. He is being held without charge or trial due to his commitment to human rights and freedom of conscience since 1975. On 20th December 1993, he issued a declaration calling for democratic reform. Mr. Huyen Quang is isolated in a pagoda-prison, under close surveillance and lacks adequate health care.

During the summer of 2002, the Vietnamese ambassador to the European Union was reassuring in her statements that Mr. Huyen Quang had been transferred, "on her request", to the province of Binh Dinh and enjoyed freedom of movement. Mr. Quang dismissed her statements and said in a message sent to Brussels in September that he was still in jail in Nghia Hanh, in the province of Quang Ngai. The Vietnamese authorities spread false rumours according to which the patriarch had been invited to Hanoi. Those statements were linked to the visit of a European Parliament delegation in September, who had a mandate to meet religious leaders from different denominations.

Mr. Tchich Quang Do, member of the Buddhist Church, is still under administrative detention for launching a "Call for Democracy in Vietnam" in February 2001. He is detained in his pagoda, the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery, in Ho Chi Minh and lacks adequate health care and contact with the outside. Security agents have been posted inside and outside the monastery and search the bonzes who bring his food.

In 1995, Mr. Quang Do was sentenced to five years in jail for organising a humanitarian mission on behalf of the Buddhist Church in support of the victims of the October 1994 floods in the Mekong Delta.

Father Nguyen Van Ly is still being held in the Ba Sao camp, in the province of Nam Ha. On 19th October 2001, he was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment and five years of house arrest by the People's Court of the Thien province, on a charge of "sabotage of national unity" and "upsetting law and order". He had also written articles and speeches condemning religious persecution and in favour of human rights and freedom of religion. He was not given a fair trial. Furthermore, he is in a jail far away from his home, which is a serious impediment to his right to receive visitors from his relatives, and his family is harassed when they try to see him.

The European Parliament delegation was not allowed to see the three religious leaders in jail during its mission in September 2002.

Since 25th July 2002 there has been no news of Mr. Thich Tri Luc, a member of the Buddhist Church. He had fled to Cambodia in April and was granted refugee status by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on 28th June. He is said to have been kidnapped by agents of the Vietnamese secret police forces on Cambodian territory, repatriated or executed.

In 1992, Mr. Luc had been arrested and held without trial for ten months after condemning ill-treatment inflicted to Buddhist monks and calling for reform. He took part in the humanitarian mission of the Buddhist Church in 1994 (led by Mr. Thich Quang Do) and was sentenced to two and half years' imprisonment and five years' administrative detention for "abusing democratic freedoms to threaten the interests of the State". After his release, he had been under house arrest, undocumented and subjected to constant questioning and harassment by Security agents.

[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.]

35. See Urgent Appeal VTN 001/1202/OBS 073.

36. See Annual Report 2001.