HUMAN RIGHTS IN JULY
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leaders of the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) may be feeling uneasy during the
last few weeks after their election of the XI National Assembly followed by the
reshuffling of their government. However, they must have been worrying much
more about pressure and criticism from outside and inside against Hanoi's
violations of human rights and religious freedom. Naturally, the VCP is trying
to ward off the blows and continues to react stubbornly, probably to test the
willing and patience of the free world.
On Friday, July 26, the U.N. Human Rights Committee urged the VCP
government to lower the number of crimes subject to capital punishment, cease
administrative detention and revoke restrictions on freedom of expression.
Members of the committee attending the conference held at Geneva put many
questions to the Hanoi delegation. The delegation failed to give acceptable
answers and even refused to respond to a member of the committee who asked for
the list of current prison camps in Vietnam.
On July 25, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders called on
the VCP government to release the dissidents Pham Hong Son, Nguyen Vu Binh, Le
Chi Quang and Tran Khue.
Last week, the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom, a federal agency, wrote
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, asking him to
raise religious freedom issues with Vietnamese Communist officials during the
ASEAN Regional Forum at the end of July.
The letter raises concerns about serious violations of
human rights and religious freedom in Vietnam and urges Powell to press Hanoi
to take concrete actions in compliance with international agreements on human
rights, civil rights and religious freedom:
- Release from imprisonment, detention, house arrest,
or intimidating surveillance persons who suffer such brutal treatment because
of their religious identities or activities.
- Permit full
access to religious leaders by U.S. diplomatic personnel and government
officials, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and
international human rights organizations.
Hanoi should also invite a return visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on
Freedom of Religion.
- Establish the freedom to engage in religious
activities and permit members of religious groups to select their own leaders,
to express and advocate religious beliefs, to distribute religious literature;
eliminate controls on the activities of officially registered organizations;
allow indigenous religious communities to conduct educational, charitable, and
humanitarian activities.
- Permit religious groups to gather for observances of
religious holidays.
- Return confiscated religious properties.
- Permit domestic Vietnamese religious organizations
and individuals to interact with
foreign organizations and individuals.
- Permit domestic Vietnamese religious and other
non-governmental organizations to
distribute their own and donated aid.
- Support exchanges between Vietnamese religious
communities and U.S. religious and other non-governmental organizations
concerned with religious freedom in Vietnam.
Such requests are not matters of concern in
non-Communist regimes, but in Vietnam under Communist leaders, they are
classified as plots of "peaceful evolution" by "reactionary power" from outside
in attempts to overthrow the Communist Party dictatorship. Powell may get some
cliché-ridden explanations from Hanoi but there is no hope that any of the
requests will be accepted.
In an unexpected event, the German Parliament dealt a
surprise blow at Hanoi human rights records. The German Parliament passed a
resolution on June 28, 2002, denunciating the Communist regime in Hanoi of
continuous violations of all agreements it has signed
regarding human rights and religious freedom.
The "Resolution on Human Rights and Ethnic
Minorities in Central Highlands in Vietnam" asks the German government to
take action to:
- Urge the
Hanoi government to abide by all covenants of human rights it has signed.
-
Always raise issues of human rights as stated in the 1995 Agreement of
Cooperation between European Community and Hanoi in talks with Hanoi officials
and in the coming ASEM Summit to be held in September 2002.
-
Support the proposals of Pope John Paul II about religious freedom and the
immediate release of the Rev. Nguyen Van Ly.
-
Call off the house arrest of the Ven. Thich Quang Do, Secretary General of the
Unified Buddhist Church.
-
In talks with Hanoi, raise the importance of signing and ratifying the second
memorandum to the convention of political and civil rights in order to abolish
death sentences, convention against torture and barbaric persecution, and
convention of protecting professional immigrants and their relatives.
-
Demand that the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees be free to visit the
Central Highlands without obstruction.
-
Demand that the Montagnards' living conditions be enhanced, their human rights
and religious freedom be respected and international standards of protection
for ethnic minorities be complied with.
*
In
defiance of criticism and protests from around the world, Hanoi continues its
brutal suppression on the dissidents and religious leaders. The latest
suppressive actions include crackdowns on the Protestants.
Public Security in the southern province
of Dong Nai arrested a "house church" pastor in early July, a few
dozen Protestant Christians tried to visit their detained leader, Nguyen Dang
Chi.
When security officials prevented their
visit on the morning of July 7, the parishioners sat down outside the prison in
Phu Ly commune and refused to leave. Finally at around midnight, more than 12
hours after the sit-down protest began, Chi was released. He had been questioned and fined several
times before his arrest on July 6 for preaching without formal permission.
Another
crackdown befell the young man Nguyen Vu Binh.
On July 20,
Public Security officers arrested Binh from his home in Hanoi and brought him
to the local precinct. Officers also searched his computer, read his e-mails,
and printed out personal documents. After interrogating Binh, authorities
allowed him to return home that evening. However, on the morning of July 21,
Communist cops detained him again.
On July 22, 2002, the New York-based Committee
to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the detention of writer Nguyen Vu Binh.
However, Hanoi Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh quickly denied
Binh's arrest, saying that Nguyen Vu Binh has not been arrested and
detained," she said. "Mr. Nguyen Vu Binh has committed actions which
endangered security and public order. He was therefore summoned
by local police to explain and clarify his actions."
Binh's arrest
comes amid escalating harassment of dissidents and writers in the country. On
July 6, 2002, Binh and 16 other writers, retired government officials, and
relatives of detained journalists wrote an open letter addressed to the
country's top leaders. The letter supported political reforms and called for
the release of several political prisoners, including Pham Hong Son and Le Chi
Quang, who were both detained earlier this year because of writings they
published on the Internet.
"Nguyen
Vu Binh's arrest violates both Vietnam's own constitution and international
law," said CPJ executive director Ann Cooper. "We demand his
immediate and unconditional release."
Binh
is a former journalist who worked for almost 10 years at Tap Chi Cong San
(Journal of Communism), an official publication of the Vietnam Communist Party.
To be given such job, Binh must have proved himself one of the most faithful
party members. But in January 2001, he
left his position there after applying to form an independent opposition party
called the Liberal Democratic Party.
Since
then, Binh has written several articles calling for political reforms and
criticizing the Communist government policy. Communist authorities have
repeatedly harassed and interrogated him. His home phone line has been cut
since September 2001, when authorities briefly detained him for helping to
create an independent anti-corruption organization.
The
stories do not surprise the Vietnamese people, but they should be read and
pondered over and over again by those particularly the U.S. Congressmen who are
unconditionally supporting the Hanoi dictatorship against moves to press for
better respect of human rights and religious freedom.
On
the brighter side, on July 27, Human Rights Watch released a list of 37
democracy activists from 19 countries to be awarded Hellman/Hammett Human
Rights Prizes including five Vietnamese. They are the young lawyer Le Chi
Quang, Doctor Nguyen Dan Que, writer Nguyen Vu Binh, Most Ven. Thich Quang Do,
Professor Tran Khue.
During the last few years, more and more VCP ranking cadres,
officials, intellects, ideologists and army officers turned dissidents. It
seems that the higher they study Communism, the more they realize its
inevitable breakdown and its perilous outcomes to the Vietnamese people.
Experiences prove that no one hates Communism more than defectors
from the Communist Party. And Communist leaders seem to be in fear of no one
more than their party members who turn dissidents.
***
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