NEWS ANALYSIS, JANUARY 26, 2002.

Human rights records in Vietnam have contributed to an endless collection of stories about the Communist oppression. International human rights organizations and many nations have continued to criticize the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) regime for violations of covenants on Human Rights and Civil and Political Rights which Hanoi has adopted. And Hanoi has always denied the accusations.

Last week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch released the 2002 annual report, severely criticizing major steps backward in Hanoi human rights records and in religious freedom in 2001. "Throughout Vietnam, the government conducted a systematic campaign of intimidation and surveillance of perceived political opponents," targeting former party cadres and army

veterans as well as clergymen, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report released Wednesday, January 23.

The report also cited the demonstrations by thousands of people of several ethnic groups in February, 2001. It said the demonstrations met with "heavy-handed response" from the Communist authorities. Currently, oppression against the protesting montagnards is continuing though skillfully camouflaged.

The report prompted an immediate reaction from Hanoi authorities. Phan Thuy Thanh, the foreign ministry spokeswoman wasted no time to accuse the Human Rights Watch of "joining overseas anti-Communist organizations" to propagate slander against the VCP regime.

Nong Duc Manh, the party general secretary, followed the same pattern in an interview with Time Magazine (Jan 21), saying that "there is no political prisoner in Vietnam. No one is arrested or imprisoned because of one's speech or opinion." Manh said that Father Nguyen Van Ly was sentenced 15 years to prison for breaking the laws, not for his denunciation of the Communist regime.

In the interview, Manh also rejected the appeal for multi-party regime by the opposition in and out of Vietnam, boasting that "Communist regime is a burning desire of the Vietnamese people."

Earlier this week, another report on human rights in Vietnam was made public by Mr. Gerd Poppe after his visits to Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia from 17 to 27 November, 2002. A ranking envoy of the German government (Commissioner for Human Rights), Mr. Poppe, 61, said his advice that Hanoi should improve its human rights records was not successful.

According to Mr. Poppe, the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) and its government seem to be more ready for human rights dialogues if they are not criticized. He noted that the VCP government has promoted overt discussion about corruption and said it would not cover up for some of its corrupt cadres. The VCP however, still holds its tight control over political and social affairs, while freedom of speech and of the press is strictly limited.

He noted that there were more and more Vietnamese who could afford the access to the Internet to look for information from outside. In fact, most Internet users are party and government officials and civilians who are members of upper-middle class and higher. The total of all of them is estimated at less than 200,000 people.

Poppe handed a list of 6 political prisoners to the Foreign Ministry in Hanoi and requested special consideration of these cases, particularly of Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest who was openly protesting against Hanoi religious oppressive policies. Rev. Nguyen Van Ly was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Communist summary court in Hue last year without defendant's attorney in a haste closed-door trial.

The German envoy also expressed his great concerns about religious freedom activists currently imprisoned or under house arrest, one of those is the Ven. Thich Quang Do.

Mr. Poppe was not allowed to meet with Ven. Thich Quang Do and leaders of the Catholic Church or the independent Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. He might only see representatives of the state-controlled Protestant Church and the Buddhist Church, which is also under state control. However, representatives of both churches had to admit that their religious activities must be permitted by Communist authorities.

Mr. Poppe says that the Communist judiciary system is very weak, not independent, lack of professional training for judges, defending attorney's power is very limited. Unlike Indonesia and Cambodia, the VCP regime does not permit independent human rights organizations to be established in Vietnam.

Mr. Poppe's visit to Vietnam indicates a more aggressive attitude towards the Communist regime in Vietnam by not only Germany but the European Union as well. So far, Berlin and the Union have been acting with discretion against the Hanoi dictatorship on the matter of human rights and religious freedom. Besides, Poppe contends that the dialogues with Hanoi about human rights should be made public instead.

As a sign to reaffirm the Communist Party's ruling power, the authorities in Vietnam last week confiscated publications and manuscripts of many authors. Among the books are "Meditation and Aspiration" by Nguyen Thanh Giang, "Dialogues in 2001" by Tran Khue and Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuan, "Diary" a manuscript by retired NVA General Tran Do.... Their books advocate true democracy, human rights, political pluralism and criticize the surreptitious agreements that give up several large chunks of national territory to China.

A year ago, Hanoi authorities confiscated "Tales of the Year 2000" by Bui Ngoc Tan, a report of life in Communist prisons in details written as a novel which attracted a great many Vietnamese and foreign readers. The crackdown last week included a threat of harsh suppressive measures against the writers who are considered by the Communist regime as hard core dissidents.

In a move the more defiant to public opinion, the VCP authorities detained Bui Minh Quoc, a poet and democracy activist well known for the last decades. According to a report on Wednesday, January 23, the French "Reporters Sans Frontieres" (Reporters Without Borders) protested in a letter addressed to the VCP government against the round up and placement under house arrest of Bui Minh Quoc. He is also a reporter having served the Communist North Vietnamese Army in the Vietnam War.

RSF General Secretary Robert Menard affirms that the VCP government is violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Hanoi had ratified in September 1982. The RSF letter demands the end of house arrest for Bui Minh Quoc and Ha Si Phu, another dissident and Quoc's colleague, especially immediate release of the famous journalist Nguyen Dinh Huy, imprisoned since 1993 for his non-violent appeal for democracy.

Bui Minh Quoc was arrested on January 8 at a railway station near Hanoi. Public Security searched and seized documents regarded as "reactionary" which are papers with notes concerning the debate over the concession of Vietnam territory to China.

Both Nong Duc Manh and Phan Thuy Thanh might have been honest in their statements as their education stuffed with Communist teaching and propaganda are concerned. They have been taught to think and act that way. It's nothing wrong to say that all prisoners in hundreds of "re-education" camps and prisons are incarcerated only because they have violated criminal laws. But it's the enforcement of the laws under the Communist regime that counts.

The first Criminal Law of the Communist regime in Vietnam since 1945 was promulgated in 1985. Besides what always exist in criminal legislation in other countries, the 1985 law of the Communists in Vietnam has dozen articles aiming at punishing those who act against the "socialist" dictatorship even with non-violent means and the most peaceful methods.

There are articles dealing with actions considered not criminal violations in a western democracy such as disseminating propaganda against the socialist regime; producing, storing, circulating materials and literature against the socialist regime (Art. 82) or against a friendly foreign socialist state (Art. 86) ; abusing freedoms of the press, of assembly, of religion and others to do anything harmful to the interests of the state, society or of citizens (Art. 205)...

The general and vague wording of the law allows the Communist authorities to act almost at will to suppress anyone or anything that they see as unfavorable to the political security of their Communist regime. Therefore, keeping a draft of the ex-prime minister's speech was charged with "betraying national secret." Submitting petition for publishing a newspaper, application for license to form a people's association to support the government in anti-corruption operations is branded "sowing division among the citizens.."

In short, almost every action of political or religious nature however peaceful it is, can be prosecuted by VCP regime as a crime and sentenced by one of the articles of the criminal law.

The narrow-minded Communist officials might be incapable to perceive the fact that human rights violations, political oppression, the detention of Vietnamese citizens who are only political and religious activists... all are condemnable to the common sense of the humankind. Without having been re-oriented, Hanoi leaders and officials would keep on thinking and saying that there are no political or religious prisoners.

People outside Vietnam may have expected that economic reforms and assistance from foreign countries would promote the Communist regime to be more tolerant to its people. But what were going on in Vietnam during 2001 have done away with such a hope.

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