Men carry flowers and portraits of Hoang Minh Chinh during his funeral in Hanoi February 16, 2008. Vietnamese political activists spanning the generations on Saturday bade farewell to onetime senior Communist Party member turned dissident Hoang Minh Chinh who died in his late 80s earlier this month. REUTERS/KhamFebruary 16, 2008
By Grant McCool
HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese political activists spanning the generations on Saturday bade farewell to onetime senior Communist Party member turned dissident Hoang Minh Chinh, who died in his late 80s earlier this month.
Hundreds of people, many wearing white headbands of mourning, attended the funeral in Hanoi of the leader of the outlawed Democratic Party of Vietnam and founder member of "Bloc 8406", a diverse group of mainly Internet activists named for the date it was established in April 2006.
Several younger political activists, including some who in recent years have been jailed for opposing one-party rule, were among relatives and older friends who paid respects to Chinh. He died on Feb. 7 after suffering from prostate cancer.
"He dedicated all his life to the struggle for democracy and liberty," activist Pham Hong Son, who was released in Aug. 2006, told Reuters at the funeral. "I am of the younger generation and I wish to follow his legacy."
Son was arrested in 2002 and then tried after posting a translation of a U.S. State Department article "What is Democracy?" onto the Internet. He still lives under police surveillance and some restrictions.
Plainclothes police watched and filmed mourners at Saturday's funeral.
The Southeast Asian country has opened its economy to the world and reduced poverty through high economic growth, but it does not tolerate proponents of a multi-party system.
About 40 activists have been arrested in the past year, according to international human rights groups and Western diplomats. Some have been put on trial and sentenced to between three years and eight years in prison for "spreading propaganda against the state", a criminal offence in Vietnam.
A government spokesman says the defendants, who include lawyers, businessmen and union organisers, were not tried for their political beliefs, only for breaking Vietnam's laws.
MARXIST-LENINIST
Chinh's associates say he became a member of the Communist Party after the 1945 revolution in northern Vietnam, trained in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and was appointed director of the Marxist-Leninist Institute in Hanoi in 1960.
Seven years later he was removed and imprisoned for four years after writing an essay critical of the ruling party.
He was imprisoned at least twice more in the 1980s and 90s. In 2005, he was allowed to go to the United States for medical treatment, but faced abuse on his return after criticising the Hanoi government while in America, according to rights groups.
Chinh's casket was accompanied to a cremation ceremony by yellow-robed monks of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, to which Chinh converted in his final days.
"According to his wishes, he became a Buddhist with a Buddhist name," monk Thich Khong Tanh said.
Several faiths are practiced in Vietnam under government supervision. The UBCV rejects state supervision of religion.
Hundreds of people, many wearing white headbands of mourning, attended the funeral in Hanoi of the leader of the outlawed Democratic Party of Vietnam and founder member of "Bloc 8406", a diverse group of mainly Internet activists named for the date it was established in April 2006.
Several younger political activists, including some who in recent years have been jailed for opposing one-party rule, were among relatives and older friends who paid respects to Chinh. He died on Feb. 7 after suffering from prostate cancer.
"He dedicated all his life to the struggle for democracy and liberty," activist Pham Hong Son, who was released in Aug. 2006, told Reuters at the funeral. "I am of the younger generation and I wish to follow his legacy."
Son was arrested in 2002 and then tried after posting a translation of a U.S. State Department article "What is Democracy?" onto the Internet. He still lives under police surveillance and some restrictions.
Plainclothes police watched and filmed mourners at Saturday's funeral.
The Southeast Asian country has opened its economy to the world and reduced poverty through high economic growth, but it does not tolerate proponents of a multi-party system.
About 40 activists have been arrested in the past year, according to international human rights groups and Western diplomats. Some have been put on trial and sentenced to between three years and eight years in prison for "spreading propaganda against the state", a criminal offence in Vietnam.
A government spokesman says the defendants, who include lawyers, businessmen and union organisers, were not tried for their political beliefs, only for breaking Vietnam's laws.
MARXIST-LENINIST
Chinh's associates say he became a member of the Communist Party after the 1945 revolution in northern Vietnam, trained in the Soviet Union in the 1950s and was appointed director of the Marxist-Leninist Institute in Hanoi in 1960.
Seven years later he was removed and imprisoned for four years after writing an essay critical of the ruling party.
He was imprisoned at least twice more in the 1980s and 90s. In 2005, he was allowed to go to the United States for medical treatment, but faced abuse on his return after criticising the Hanoi government while in America, according to rights groups.
Chinh's casket was accompanied to a cremation ceremony by yellow-robed monks of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, to which Chinh converted in his final days.
"According to his wishes, he became a Buddhist with a Buddhist name," monk Thich Khong Tanh said.
Several faiths are practiced in Vietnam under government supervision. The UBCV rejects state supervision of religion.
4 comments:
I will rejoice when I see problems on the horizon for the Vietnam. Perhaps, it is the only way for Cambodia to decide what is good for her people when Vietnamese are busy fighting off their own. I hope those days will come sooner than later. I hope Vietnam will be devided. Call me evil minded, I do not care.
US. needs to put intense pressure on Hanoi in regard of religious freedom and human rights. These issues are part of the US.'s concerns in the region, not just its economic interest.
whoever shall rejoice at such a lost is practically an idiot and humanely an individual without emotions and humanity.
Life is not black, or white. Evil does not come in from the same source. Corruption is not the problem of other people's doing.
You are evil minded. This is a good Vietnamese man who fought for change, a change which if happen in Vietnam, will also positively affect its policy towards its neighbor such as our country.
To the Viet man of 10:41
I believe he (9:02) who wrote those words is a decent Khmer with psychological suffering and a strong resentment for the Viet. And I do not enjoy the company of the Viet people either knowing that the Viet race is lacking concern towards other human beings. The Viets will destroy anyone around them to feed their need to survive. They have proven it countless of times. Want me to give examples? Let me know. But the Viets are as bad as wild animals. Not to be bashing you Viets, but just to clarify the known facts. Viets, you are despicably bad in the neighborhood. This Viet race is a non-peaceful race, it lacks the human conscience, and it should be eliminated once and for all for the sake of peace in the entire region of southeast asia.
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