Vietnam: Donors Must Insist on Human Rights Progress

Human Rights Watch wrote:
From Human Rights Watch Mon Dec 1 13:29:16 2003


For Immediate Release:

Vietnam: Donors Must Insist on Human Rights Progress
Number of Political Prisoners has Skyrocketed in the Last Year

(New York, December 2, 2003) -- International donors must step up
pressure on Vietnam to take concrete steps to improve its dramatically
worsening human rights record, Human Rights Watch said today.

On December 2 and 3, the World Bank will convene Vietnam’s annual donor
meeting in Hanoi, attended by 50 countries and financial institutions,
making up the Consultative Group on Vietnam. The group will discuss
Vietnam’s progress on reform and poverty reduction and make aid pledges
for the coming year.

“Vietnam’s already dismal human rights record has sunk to new depths
this year,” said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia Division of
Human Rights Watch. “The Vietnamese government has spent the year
arresting and imprisoning dozens of Buddhists, political dissidents,
‘cyber-dissidents,' and ethnic minority Christians.”

The Vietnamese government has reacted defensively to resolutions passed
this month by the European Parliament and the U.S. House of
Representatives that are strongly critical of Vietnam’s human rights
record.

“Diplomats in Hanoi should keep up the pressure,” said Adams. “Donors
should make sure that Vietnamese government officials at the highest
levels know that the international community is serious about seeing
immediate action to protect human rights.”

Harsh Treatment of Buddhists
Persecution of members of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV),
which is not officially recognized by the government, has increased in
recent months. The government appeared to be easing up on the group
earlier this year, when UBCV leader Thich Quang Do was released from two
years of administrative detention and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai
visited UBCV Supreme Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang.

However, in October a standoff took place between police and the two
UBCV leaders, who were stopped en route to Ho Chi Minh City and accused
of carrying documents containing state secrets. The monks were allowed
to return home, but then placed under unofficial house arrest. Dozens of
other members of the UBCV are now effectively confined to their pagodas,
which are under strict police surveillance. Phone lines are cut or
monitored and movement in and out of the pagodas is restricted. Four
monks have been formally sentenced to two years of administrative
detention: Thich Tue Sy, Thich Thanh Huyen, Thich Nguyen Ly, and Thich
Dong Tho.

Internet Dissidents
Vietnam has increased restrictions on Internet use, while detaining and
imprisoning individuals on charges of espionage or circulating material
critical of the government via the Internet. Cyber-dissidents who have
been detained or sentenced to prison since the end of last year include
Nguyen Dan Que, who was arrested in March 2003; Le Chi Quang, sentenced
to four years in prison in November 2002; Nguyen Khac Toan, sentenced to
12 years in December 2002; Nguyen Vu Binh, held incommunicado since his
arrest in September 2003; Pham Que Duong, arrested in December 2002;
Tran Khue, arrested in December 2002; Pham Hong Son, sentenced to 13
years in June 2003 (reduced to five years in August 2003); and Nguyen
Vu Viet, Nguyen Truc Cuong, and Nguyen Thi Hoa, relatives of political
prisoner Father Nguyen Van Ly, who were sentenced to five, four and
three-years of imprisonment respectively in September 2003 but released
for time served after an appeals trial on November 28, 2003.

More than 100 Montagnard Christians in Prison
Montagnard Christians from the Central Highlands comprise a significant
portion of people imprisoned in Vietnam for their religious or political
views. Human Rights Watch has records of 124 Montagnards who are
currently serving prison terms of up to 13 years for nonviolent
political activism, organizing Christian gatherings, or for attempting
to seek asylum in Cambodia. All of the arrests have taken place since
February 2001, when thousands of Montagnards peacefully marched on
provincial capitals in the highlands, launching a movement for return of
ancestral lands and religious freedom.

At least 60 Montagnards have been arrested and detained this year alone.
The situation has been especially tense since August, when the
government launched a fresh wave of arrests and sealed off the
highlands. Authorities have dispatched additional police and military to
the region and established military checkpoints along the main roads.
Strict restrictions are enforced on travel within the highlands, on
meetings of more than two people, and on communication with the outside
world. Gathering for Christian worship outside of the home is largely
forbidden. Possessing a cell phone to make international calls brings
the very real threat of arrest.

Montagnards who voluntarily returned from the Cambodian refugee camps
are placed under strict surveillance and sometimes house arrest, as are
asylum seekers who have been forcibly repatriated from Cambodia.
Security is especially tight during the visits to the Central Highlands
of diplomatic or foreign press delegations. Government officials
continue to force Montagnards to sign pledges or announce in public
self-criticism sessions that they will renounce Christianity and cease
any political or religious activities. Authorities have also forced
Montagnards to sign “voluntary” papers pledging to withdraw petitions
opposing government confiscation of their land.

To escape the repression, dozens, and possibly hundreds, of Montagnards
have fled from their villages and gone into hiding in Vietnam. Most are
unable to seek asylum in neighboring Cambodia, which has sealed its
border and enforces a policy of forced repatriation of Montagnard asylum
seekers.

The repression in the Central Highlands is expected to become even more
intense this month, when officials invariably detain evangelical
Christian leaders and shut down Christmas worship services, which are
perceived as linked to the Montagnards’ political organizing.

Recommendations
During the discussion of governance issues at the Consultative Group
meeting, donors should press Vietnam to take the following steps:

1. Unconditionally release all persons being held for the peaceful
expression of their religious and political views.

2. End the practice of detaining and prosecuting persons in secret, and
in particular make public the names of all persons held for political
and related activities.

3. Achieve greater transparency and accountability in the legal and
penal systems and work towards the establishment of an independent and
impartial judiciary. Give advance notification of trial dates and allow
international observers and independent monitors access to trials and to
persons in pretrial or administrative detention and in prison.

4. Invite the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which visited
Vietnam in 1994, to visit again. The working group should be allowed
unrestricted access to police stations, district and provincial jails,
military-operated detention centers in border areas, as well as prisons
such as Ba Sao prison in Nam Ha province, where most of the Montagnard
political prisoners are currently held.

5. Amend or repeal Vietnam’s Criminal Code to bring it into conformity
with international standards. Eliminate ambiguities in the Criminal
Code’s section on crimes against national security, to ensure that these
laws cannot be applied against those who have exercised their basic
right to freedom of expression.

6. Repeal the 1997 Administrative Detention Directive 31/CP, which
authorizes detention without trial for up to two years for individuals
deemed to have violated national security laws. The government should
ensure that all detainees receive a fair trial within a reasonable time
as required under international law.

7. Address the grievances of the indigenous minorities of the Central
Highlands, including land confiscation, repression of religious freedom,
lack of educational opportunities, pressure to join family planning
programs, and restriction of freedom of assembly, association, and of
movement. Lift the bans on religious gatherings and other meetings and
cease the pressure on Montagnard Christians to renounce their faith and
cease political activity.

8. Cease the persecution, unlawful arrest, torture and other
mistreatment of Montagnards who have voluntarily or forcibly been
returned from Cambodia to Vietnam.

9. Insist that the government allow unrestricted access to the Central
Highlands by diplomats, independent journalists, and by U.N. human
rights experts such as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the
U.N. Special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom (who visited Vietnam in
1998).

Human Rights Watch urged both bilateral and multilateral donors not only
to insist that the Vietnamese government take the essential steps
required to strengthen human rights protection but to provide any
technical assistance needed. Donors should closely monitor Vietnam’s
progress in meeting its reform commitments at the donors’ mid-year
meeting next year.

For more information, please contact:
In New York, Brad Adams: + 1 212 216 1228
In London, Urmi Shah: +44 207 713 2788
In Brussels, Vanessa Saenen: +32 2 732 2009




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