Radomir Tylecote, 15th February 2007

Recent religious repression

In December 2006, immediately after a wedding in Gia Lai province, police took an entire group at a wedding ceremony for interrogation in particular, during Christmas 2006, provincial authorities prevented many Protestant house congregations from celebrations. On December 21 Mr. A Luong of Buon Me Thuot was seriously beaten by security police stationed outside the house of Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh.

Numerous Mennonite congregations in the provinces of Plei Mo and Gia Lai, as well as H're house churches in Quang Ngai, Lao Cai and Ha Giang provinces in northern Vietnam, were harassed and prohibited from organizing Christmas events, an immediate resumption of direct repression of freedom of belief following the APEC summit in November.

Attacks on democracy activists

Also in December 2006, the communist government continued its campaign of harassment and house-detention of many democracy advocates, and summoned them for interrogation.

On December 1st, the Ministry of Public Security is reported to have searched Mr. Tran Quoc Hien's residence illegally, without a warrant.

On December 10th, International Human Rights Day, the secret service summoned for interrogation democracy activists lawyer Nguyen Van Dai (recent recipient of the Hellman-Hammett prize from Human Rights Watch), writer Hoang Tien, Miss Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, engineer Do Nam Hai and journalist Nguyen Khac Toan, under the accusation that they were forbidden from participating in an online human rights seminar that day. They also prevented other advocates from attending the wedding of the sister of the activist and lawyer Miss Le Thi Cong Nhan and jammed her incoming telephone calls. Nguyen Van Dai was taken in for interrogation on December 9th and 10th.

In the afternoon of December 13, Ms. Duong Thi Xuan, secretary of Dan Chu Tu Do (Freedom and Democracy) Magazine, after visiting activists Hoang Minh Chinh and Le Hong Ngoc was stopped by a group of seven people who forcibly took her to the Tran Hung Dao police station, where she was searched for any documents she might have exchanged with Mr Chinh. Police threatened her husband on December 15th that she would be arrested if she kept on seeing Mr. Chinh.

On December 15th, Mr Nguyen Phuong Anh was stopped by police, and his car, papers and 4.5m dong in cash were taken. He was then beaten around the head by police.

On December 19, Le Thi Cong Nhan and her mother, Mrs. Tran Thi Le, were summoned for interrogation by Secret Service A42 branch.

On December 26, on the flight to Bangkok to spend her year-end vacation and visit her friends, Cong Nhan was stopped and denied exit by the Noi Bai Airport Security by order of the Ministry of Public Security. On December 27, Cong Nhan was interrogated again by A42 branch regarding her flight to Bangkok.

On December 12, 2006 and January 1, 2007, secret service agents forced activists including Nguyen Van Dai to attend a ‘working session’, thus preventing them from gathering for New Year.

In 2007

From February 3rd to 8th 2007, the Vietnamese government continued to carry out an organized campaign against activists including Nguyen Van Dai, Le Thi Cong Nhan and Pham Van Troi. The authorities carried out interrogations of attorneys Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan during the week of February 3 to 8.

The government appears to be using that tactic of denouncing human rights activists brining them before kangaroo courts before their neighbourhoods. On February 5 they used this type of kangaroo court in the neighborhoods of engineer and activist Bach Ngoc Duong and Nguyen Van Dai. The government mobilized a reported 200 people, between the ages of 60 to 80, at the People’s Committee of Bach Khoa ward in a People’s Court tactics.

In a ‘Conference of the People’ Mr. Dai was accused of being a traitor and ‘selling out his country’. During the two and a half hour ordeal, Dai was not allowed to utter a single word in his defence. Nguyen Van Dai was found guilty on two counts, and informed his legal license would be revoked, office closed and a criminal prosecution taken up against him. Under pressure to sign the affidavit, he declared: ‘You all can kill me, but I will never sign it’. The authorities conceded.

Summary of recent violations:

The government continued to violate Articles 58, 68, 69, 70, 71, and 73 of the Vietnamese Constitution of 1992, with regard to the protection of the citizen's properties, the freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, the inviolability of one's body, and the inviolability of one's domicile. It also acted in violation of Articles 7, 9, 12, 17, 18 and 21 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with reference to the inviolability of one's body, the right to liberty of movement, the inviolability of one's home, the right to freedom of belief and religion, and the right of assembly.