Vietnam dissidents forced to flee after exposing Communist crackdown

A policeman, flanked by local militia members, tries to stop a foreign journalist from taking pictures outside the Ho Chi Minh City people's court, where a human rights case was taking place in August. Photograph: Ian Timberlake/AFP/Getty Images

Nguyen Thu Tram and Nguyen Ngoc Quang threatened with imprisonment after collaborating with the Guardian on a story about harassment of pro-democracy activists

Tuesday 25 October 2011

guardian.co.uk

Two Vietnamese dissidents have fled the country under the threat of imprisonment or worse after collaborating with the Guardian on an article that highlighted a mounting crackdown in the country.

In addition, the correspondent who wrote the story, freelancer Dustin Roasa, was detained as he tried to return to Vietnam recently and held overnight at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat airport before being put on a flight out of the country the next day. "You are not welcome in Vietnam for security reasons," Roasa was told.

The article published in January exposed how dozens of pro-democracy activists were monitored, harassed, arrested, beaten and imprisoned for challenging the authority of the Communist party. Two dissidents quoted, Nguyen Thu Tram and Nguyen Ngoc Quang, were forced to flee Vietnam under threat of arrest and now live uncertain lives as refugees, all for speaking to a foreign reporter.

Roasa set up a series of meetings during a two-day trip to Vietnam in January. His rendezvous with Nguyen Thu Tram in a cafe passed off without incident.

Vietnam dissident calls for reforms during appeal

Cu Huy Can

August 2, 2011
Associated Press

his father was "one of the people who gave birth to this regime that is putting me on trial today." - Cu Huy Ha Vu

HANOI, Vietnam—The dissident son of one of Vietnam's founding revolutionaries proclaimed his innocence during an appeals trial Tuesday, saying he's not against the Communist Party but supports a multiparty system.

French-educated lawyer Cu Huy Ha Vu, 53, is appealing a seven-year prison sentence received in April for conducting propaganda against the state.

He has asked the court to dismiss his case, saying he did nothing wrong and that his trial was a conspiracy against him. But prosecutors seeking to uphold the sentence said Tuesday that Vu's actions have violated national security and abused freedom of the press and speech to oppose the state.

"I did not oppose the Communist Party of Vietnam. I only demanded a multiparty system that would allow healthy competition for the ultimate interests of the people and of the nation," Vu told the court.

Vietnam to try dissidents for subversion

Le Cong Dinh, a Fulbright scholar, was the deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association from 2005 to 2008. (TUOI TRE)

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Compiled by Thuy Hang
Vietnewsonline.vn

Four Vietnamese dissidents charged with “subversive activities” against the government will stand trial in a case that attracted international attention on Wednesday.

Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court put the four defendants, including prominent lawyer Le Cong Dinh, on trial on charges of “acting to overthrow the people’s administration” under Article 79 of the Vietnam Criminal Code.

The two-day trial is expected to draw some 60 local and international correspondents and representatives from embassies, consulates and foreign diplomatic agencies.

The dissidents were arrested originally on charges of “distributing anti-government material” under Article 88 of the Criminal Code. A conviction on a conspiracy charge can result in a jail sentence of three to 20 years.

Meanwhile, a conviction on the subversion charge can result in a jail sentence of five years to death penalty.

According to the indictment, 43-year-old Tran Dinh Duy Thuc, the former director of an IT company, in late 2005 set up a reactionary organization, inciting others to take part in the group.

Thuc connived with the banned “Democratic Party of Vietnam” to organize activities, including posting articles with “anti-state” content on three blogs.

On May 24, 2009, Thuc was arrested while he was using the internet to link up with “overseas reactionary forces,” according to police.

Based on Thuc’s statement and documents seized, police arrested Le Thang Long, director of an IT company on June 4, and high-profile lawyer Le Cong Dinh on June 13, 2009.

The agency then arrested Nguyen Tien Trung and Tran Anh Kim on July 7, 2009.

Tran Anh Kim was sentenced to five and a half years in jail by the People's Court of northern Thai Binh Province on December 28, 2009.

Le Cong Dinh, 41, a Fulbright scholar, was the deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association from 2005 to 2008 and is known as one of the top lawyers in Vietnam in the field of international trade.

Dinh was accused of attending a training course on non-violent political change organized by reactionary organization Viet Tan in Thailand.

The indictment says Dinh also took part in drafting a new constitution for Vietnam, and kept anti-government document.

Nguyen Tien Trung was accused of establishing a reactionary group while he was studying in France in 2006 and joining the banned Democratic Party of Vietnam.

Le Thang Long was accused of joining the dissident group established by Tran Huynh Duy Thuc.

Activists join funeral of elder Vietnamese dissident

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/Kham

February 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.