On 13 May, Nguyen The Vu, Nguyen Quoc Quan and Somsak Kunmi will stand trial in Vietnam, charged with terrorism. Together with three others, they were arrested 17 November last year. ´Free them now ´ is an international campaign to prevent these three and others from being sentenced, potentially with heavy prison terms. (05-MAY-08)
Based on material received from the international ´Free them now´-campaign – www.freethemnow.net – this article has been edited and prepared for publication here by HRH F / Niels Jacob Harbitz.
The following is a press release issued by Viet Tan* two days after the arrests:
On November 17, 2007, Vietnamese security police detained members and supporters of Viet Tan, a pro-democracy organisation, in Saigon. Those arrested and taken away included:
Viet Tan members
Dr. Nguyen, Quoc Quan, American citizen
Ms. Nguyen, Thi Thanh Van, French citizen
Mr. Truong, Leon (Van Ba), American citizen
Other individuals
Mr. Nguyen, The Vu, Vietnamese citizen
Mr. Nguyen, Trong Khiem, Vietnamese citizen
Mr. Khunmi, Somsak, Thai citizen
With the exception of Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan whose place of detention is currently unknown, all the individuals were arrested at a residence on Ton That Hiep street, ward 13, district 11, Saigon. They were taken initially to the public security office in district 10 and then reportedly to the main detention center in Saigon.
Before their arrest, they participated in discussions with other democracy activists on promoting peaceful democratic change. Specifically, they aspired to publicize information on successful nonviolent struggles from around the world and to use these lessons to help empower the Vietnamese people.
While it has been over 48 hours since the arrests, the families of the local residents and the embassies of the non-Vietnamese citizens have yet to be notified. Viet Tan expresses our deep concern for the safety of these six individuals. Clearly, communist Vietnam lacks the most basic judicial system and opportunity for a fair and open trial.
Information on the arrested 
Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, right, born 1953, was a high-school teacher in Kien Giang province, Vietnam. He emigrated to the United States in 1981 and graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1987 with a Ph.D. in Mathematics. He specialized in research on Machine Translation from English to Vietnamese. A co-founder of the Vietnamese Professionals Society, he is married with two children and a resident of Sacramento, California.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, born 1956, was a university student in France and settled there after the communist takeover of Vietnam in 1975. She is active in the overseas Vietnamese-language media, having served on the editorial staff of the monthly Viet Nam Dan Chu (Vietnam Democracy). Under the pen name Thanh Thao, she is a key correspondent for Radio Chan Troi Moi, Viet Tan’s nightly broadcast inside Vietnam. She is married and a resident of Paris, France.
Mr. Truong Van Ba, born 1953, emigrated to the United States in 1979. He operated a food catering truck while devoting most of his time as a community activist. He has two children living in the United States and two grown children in Vietnam. He is a resident of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Mr. Nguyen The Vu, right, born 1977, is a citizen of Vietnam and employed as a sales executive. The arrest on November 17, 2007 occurred at his home in district 11, Saigon. He is married.
Mr. Nguyen Trong Khiem, born 1989, is a citizen of Vietnam and college student. He is the younger brother of Nguyen The Vu and was arrested for sharing the same residence in Saigon.
Mr. Somsak Khunmi, born 1949, is a Thai citizen residing in Ubon, Thailand.
While these individuals may have different backgrounds and reside in different countries, they are Vietnamese patriots who share a common dream to establish democracy and reform the country. Their activities and those of all Viet Tan members center on principles of nonviolent struggle to mobilize the power of the people against a dictatorship that uses violence as a means of suppression.
In the face of these arrests, Viet Tan calls on:
-Vietnamese inside and outside the country, in the spirit of unity and shared goal, to pressure the communist government to cease the acts of repression, terror, and imprisonment against peaceful democracy activists from inside and outside the country.
-The Vietnamese communist government to honor international covenants and immediately provide to the embassies and families of the arrested their exact whereabouts and condition.
-The Vietnamese communist government to respect the values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially freedom of speech, and immediately release all the above individuals as their only activity was to peacefully express their support for freedom and democracy.
-The American, French and Thai embassies to request the Vietnamese authorities to provide information on the whereabouts and personal safety of the respective nationals of these countries, and to visit these nationals while they are in jail to ensure their safety and well-being.
*For the last two decades, Viet Tan – the Vietnam Reform Party – has faced countless challenges. Committed to establishing democracy and reforming the country, our members are resolute before this most recent challenge. Viet Tan will continue to be an active participant in Vietnam’s democracy movement and to work for the freedom of all political prisoners in Vietnam.
Some ten days later, Viet Tan could tell the following:
Vietnamese communist authorities acknowledge detaining Nguyen Quoc Quan, Nguyen The Vu, and Nguyen Viet Trung
Through the official Vietnamese press on November 27, 2007, the Ministry of Public Security acknowledged the arrests of US citizen Nguyen Quoc Quan and Vietnamese citizens Nguyen The Vu and Nguyen Viet Trung. Communist authorities also published details about Viet Tan’s efforts to distribute leaflets in Vietnam. Juxtaposed in the details on several arrested Viet Tan members and supporters, an official newspaper also published pictures of two alleged Vietnamese-Americans—Le Van Phan and Nguyen Thi Thinh—who were held for reportedly smuggling a firearm into the country on November 23rd.
Based on these latest developments, Viet Tan affirms that:
1. Pressured by international public opinion, elected officials from around the world, and the American, French, and Thai embassies, the Vietnamese communist government acknowledged the arrests of Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, Mr. Nguyen The Vu, and Mr. Nguyen Viet Trung after ten days.
2. The act of purposely hiding the detention of a foreign national by the Vietnamese communist government is a violation of international norms and laws.
3. The Vietnamese communist authorities understood that they could not continue jailing democracy activists for peacefully promoting ideas on nonviolent struggle and thus had to fabricate a link with two individuals who allegedly smuggled a firearm into Vietnam—in order to paint Viet Tan as a terrorist organization. Viet Tan categorically denies any association with Mr. Le Van Phan or Ms. Nguyen Thi Thinh. Furthermore, Viet Tan does not support the use of violence for any reason.
4. Viet Tan challenges the communist authorities to publish in Vietnamese newspapers all documents from Viet Tan which the Ministry of Public Security considers works of sabotage or violence so that the people of Vietnam can be informed and come to their own conclusion.
5. Viet Tan is concerned for the well-being of the six individuals arrested on November 17 & 20, and whose photos appear in the official press. We urge foreign embassies to request immediate visitation rights with their citizens. We are especially concerned for Somsak Khunmi, Nguyen The Vu and Nguyen Viet Trung, and ask human rights organization and the Thai and western embassies to give attention to their safety.
Viet Tan would like to extend our appreciation to all individuals and organizations, elected officials, and the American, French and Thai embassies for their requests and pressure on the Vietnamese communist government to publicly acknowledge the above-mentioned arrests. We look forward to your continued support so that all political prisoners in Vietnam, including those unlawfully arrested above, will soon have the freedom to work for democratic change in Vietnam through peaceful, nonviolent means.
Last month, 8 April, Viet Tan updated the world on the case with the following release:
Vietnamese authorities free Nguyen Viet Trung while still detaining Nguyen Quoc Quan, Somsak Khunmi and Nguyen The Vu
Contact: Duy Hoang +1 (202) 470-1678
A. Vietnamese authorities free Nguyen Viet Trung while still detaining Nguyen Quoc Quan, Somsak Khunmi and Nguyen The Vu
On April 7, communist authorities released Mr. Nguyen Viet Trung, a relative of pro-democracy activist in Norway, after more than four months of detention without trial. Nguyen Viet Trung was arrested on November 20, 2007, three days after security police arrested Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, Mr. Truong Van Ba, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, Mr. Somsak Khunmi and Mr. Nguyen The Vu as they were preparing to distribute pro-democracy literature. In the weeks following, state-control media branded the detained activists as “terrorists.” Due to international pressure, authorities released Truong Van Ba on December 11, 2007 and Nguyen Thi Thanh Van the following day.
With the release of Nguyen Viet Trung, Viet Tan is pleased that he will be reunited with his family and we sincerely thank all the individuals, human rights organizations and governments, especially Norway’s, which have pressured the Vietnamese government.
The fact that the Hanoi regime freed Truong Van Ba and Nguyen Thi Thanh Van after 24 days of detention and Nguyen Viet Trung after more than four months of detention—without even a trial—dispels all the accusations fabricated by the communist authorities against these democracy activists. Likewise, Nguyen Quoc Quan, Somsak Khunmi, and Nguyen The Vu were arrested for engaging in the same peaceful political activities as the above-mentioned individuals and must also be immediately released. Their continued detention is illegitimate and without any legal grounds.
Viet Tan is mindful of all the democracy activists, members of other political organizations, who remain imprisoned in Vietnam for advocating human rights and democracy. We will continue to strive for their freedom as we work for democratic change in Vietnam through peaceful, nonviolent means.
Back to 20 November 2007, Reporters without Borders issued this release:
Call for release of French campaigner and journalist Nguyen Thi Thanh Van
Five others arrested during a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City
Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrest of 3 activists in the pro-democracy party Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party), including Frenchwoman Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, a renowned freedom of expression activist.
She is a regular media contributor to the Vietnamese community media in exile: the monthly Viet Nam Dan Chu (Democracy in Vietnam) and Radio Chan Troi Moi (New Horizon – the voice of a democratic and reformed Vietnam). She is also secretary general of the France-Vietnam Mutual Aid Organisation (AFVE). She is married and lives in Paris.
According to a statement put out by Viet Tan, three of their activists were arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on 17 November. These were Nguyen and two Americans. They were arrested along with a Thai national and two Vietnamese as they tried to hold a meeting to promote the pro-democracy movement in the country. They were placed in custody in Ho Chi Minh City, with the exception of Nguyen Quoc Quan, whose whereabouts are not known.
“The arrest of five people, including French national Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, for taking part in a meeting, shows that the crackdown launched against dissidents in 2007 has not yet ended,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.
“We call for their immediate release since they were only engaged in peacefully promoting freedom of expression”, it added.
The others being held are: Nguyen Quoc Quan, mathematics researcher in the United States, from Sacramento, California, Truong Van Ba, restaurateur in Honolulu, Hawai, Nguyen The Vu, a trader living in Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen The Khiem, student and younger brother of Nguyen The Vu, and Thai national Somsak Khunmi.
ULR for this article:
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24441
The same day, Agence France Presse issued this:
Six activists arrested in Vietnam, says dissident group
HANOI – Security forces in communist Vietnam have arrested six pro-democracy activists including two US, one French and one Thai national — a dissident group said Tuesday.
Police detained them last Saturday in the southern hub of Ho Chi Minh City and were still holding them at an unknown location, the US-based Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform) party said in a statement. “Before their arrest, they participated in discussions with other democracy activists on promoting peaceful democratic change,” the group said.
“Specifically, they aspired to publicise information on successful non-violent struggles from around the world and to use these lessons to help empower the Vietnamese people.”
Among those reported arrested were three Viet Tan members — US citizens Nguyen Quoc Quan, a mathematics researcher, and Truong Van Ba, a Hawaii restaurant owner; and Frenchwoman Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, a contributor to Viet Tan’s outlawed Radio Chan Troi Moi (New Horizon).
Police also arrested three other political activists — Thai citizen Somsak Khunmi and two Vietnamese nationals, Nguyen The Vu, a trader, and his brother Nguyen The Khiem — the group said in its statement.
Viet Tan said the families of the local residents and the embassies of the non-Vietnamese citizens had not yet been notified and expressed its “deep concern for the safety of these six individuals.” “While these individuals may have different backgrounds and reside in different countries, they are Vietnamese patriots who share a common dream to establish democracy and reform the country,” said Viet Tan.
A police official in the city’s district 11, where the detentions reportedly occurred, told AFP only that “We have not heard anything about this affair.”
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned the reported arrests, saying the French citizen was a “renowned freedom of expression activist” who also wrote for the monthly Viet Nam Dan Chu (Democracy in Vietnam). “We call for their immediate release since they were only engaged in peacefully promoting freedom of expression,” the media freedom group said.
URL for this article:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i3XTHOK_u0l8P89KYOkWMiERJ-iA
Also on 20 November, Time magazine published the following article
Vietnam Arrests a New Activist Breed
By Kay Johnson
Vietnamese security agents had been tracking their quarry for days, and when police made their move on Nov. 17, they took no chances. At least 20 officers surrounded a house in Ho Chi Minh City and swarmed inside, arresting six people and confiscating documents connected to planned “democracy seminars”, witnesses told a pro-democracy group. Such raids are far from unusual: this year at least a dozen Vietnamese activists have been arrested, most charged with “propaganda against the Socialist Republic,” a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
But what made the weekend roundup different is that this time the targets were “hostile foreign elements”, as the Vietnamese government describes overseas activists — including two U.S. citizens, a Frenchwoman and a Thai national. As of Tuesday, there was no official word on what crime they are accused of; Vietnamese authorities refused to discuss the arrests.
All four of those detained are members of Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform), an organization of overseas Vietnamese working for political change in the motherland. According to the group, the banned materials the activists were distributing included a booklet called “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” a summary of peaceful democratic movements from Eastern Europe to Indonesia and the Philippines. “This was simply a peaceful expression of these people´s beliefs,” says Duy Hoang, the group´s Washington, D.C.-based spokesman.
Viet Tan identified its arrested members as Nguyen Quoc Quan, 54, of California and Leon Truong, 54, of Hawaii, both U.S. citizens born in Vietnam. French-Vietnamese writer and activist Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, 51, and ethnic-Vietnamese Thai national Khunmi Somsak, 58, were also arrested. The activists´ respective embassies said they are now trying to find out what law they are accused of breaking.
The latest arrests say a lot about Vietnam´s intolerance for dissent, but the circumstances of the raid — the democracy seminars — also illustrate new strategies that Vietnamese groups overseas are adopting to challenge the ruling Communist Party. For a long time, in Little Saigons around the world, anti-communist groups tended to be dominated by former officers of the South Vietnamese regime, pushing to create a government in exile, and had little contact with the people in Vietnam itself. Some groups continued to advocate violence: as late as 2001, members of the California-based Government of Free Vietnam were convicted of plotting the attempted bombings of Vietnamese embassies in Bangkok and Manila.
But in recent years, a younger generation of Western-raised Vietnamese has taken a different approach. These new activists — characterized by 35-year-old Hoang, a former investment banker who left Saigon in a boat with his family at age 12 — have been leading a p.r.-savvy campaign for Vietnam´s hearts and minds, ditching anti-communist rhetoric in favor of pro-democracy advocacy and strenuously denouncing violence in favor of peaceful grassroots movements. Viet Tan, founded in 1982, uses mass emails to recruit new members inside Vietnam (it won´t say how many) and coordinate them with dissident groups. It raises funds to funnel to sympathizers who hold democracy seminars inside the country. Members seek to convert Vietnamese studying in overseas universities to the cause. “This is not your father´s overseas Vietnamese political group,” says Hoang.
Regardless, the new-style pro-democracy groups have had difficulty making even the smallest political change inside Vietnam. Association with any overseas group — Hanoi still classifies most as terrorist organizations — is grounds for arrest; several of the Vietnamese activists put on trial this year had their links to overseas groups like Viet Tan used as evidence against them. “They are on the right side, advocating non-violent political change, but are they doing good?” asks Carl Thayer, a veteran Vietnam analyst who lectures at Australia´s National Defence University. “Any action like that provokes repression. The key leaders of the pro-democracy movement in Vietnam have been systematically rounded up. So they just aren´t getting any traction.” It´s not clear whether the latest arrests will help bring attention to their cause, either. So far, reaction from the U.S. embassy and other foreign missions has been muted, with officials saying they are still seeking more information. Still, the targeting of foreign nationals, apparently for the crime of promoting democracy, is not likely to win Vietnam many hearts and minds abroad.
URL for this article:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1686037,00.htm
Six days later, 26 November, Committee to Protect Journalists, released this: VIETNAM: French journalist arrested along with activists
New York —The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Vietnamese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release French activist and journalist Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, who was arrested on November 17 in Ho Chi Minh City along with a group of five political activists associated with the pro-democracy Viet Tan party.
Thanh Van is an editorial member of the exile-run monthly Viet Nam Dan Chu (Vietnam Democracy) and a contributor to the Japan- and U.S.-based Chan Troi Moi radio program, which is regularly broadcast on shortwave radio to Vietnam. She was arrested by security officials at a private residence in Ho Chi Minh City, according to a statement released by the Viet Tan party. Thanh Van resides in Paris.
She and four other activists were initially held at Saigon’s public security office. The whereabouts of a fifth activist, U.S. citizen Nguyen Quoc Quan, is currently unknown. According to a source associated with the Viet Tan party who spoke with CPJ, Thanh Van and the four others have since been moved to Saigon’s main detention center.
The Vietnamese authorities had, despite holding her for more than 48 hours, failed to contact the French Embassy about her status and whereabouts. It was unclear if she or any of the other detained activists have been charged with any specific crime. At the time of her arrest, Thanh Van was meeting with local democracy activists to discuss nonviolent democratic movements—a theme she frequently reported on during her radio programs, according to the CPJ source.
“We condemn the arrest of journalist Nguyen Thi Thanh Van and her colleagues,” said Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director. “We are particularly concerned because this process thus far has taken place without any visible legal basis.”
Thanh Van’s arrest marks the latest in a growing government crackdown against Vietnam’s fledgling pro-democracy movement. Earlier this year scores of activists, including prominent freedom of expression defenders, were arrested and charged with anti-state crimes. The roundup commenced in March, only weeks after Vietnam successfully acceded to the World Trade Organization.
On April 21, authorities arrested Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, an award-winning journalist and writer who was charged with violating Article 88 of the criminal code, which prohibits the dissemination of information that authorities deem harmful to the state. Thuy had posted a number of Internet essays calling for greater democracy, according to people familiar with her writings.
URL for this article:
http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/asia/vietnam26nov07na.html
The following day, 27 November, Human Rights Watch issued this:
VIETNAM: Democracy Activists Should Be Released
New York – The Vietnamese government should immediately and unconditionally release two human rights lawyers, Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, whose prison sentences were reduced after an appeals court hearing in Hanoi today, Human Rights Watch said. Nguyen Van Dai, 38, founder of the Vietnam Committee for Human Rights, and Le Thi Cong Nhan, 28, an advocate for multiparty democracy, were arrested in March. In a trial in May, Dai and Nhan were sentenced to five and four years imprisonment, respectively, on charges of disseminating propaganda against the government under article 88 of Vietnam´s penal code.
“No one should be imprisoned for peaceful political expression of their views,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Vietnam´s crackdown on dissent shows no sign of letting up. Instead, the authorities continue to arrest and imprison people for simply exercising their freedom of speech and advocating for democratic reforms.”
Dai, a recipient this year of the Hellman/Hammett prize for writers facing political persecution, had conducted human rights training seminars in Hanoi, documented land rights grievances by rural petitioners, defended persecuted Christians, and helped launch a democracy newsletter. Nhan was spokeswoman for Dang Thang Tien Vietnam (Vietnam Progression Party), one of several opposition parties that surfaced during a brief period in 2006 when the Vietnamese government temporarily eased restrictions on freedom of expression.
Among the crimes listed in Dai and Nhan´s indictment, dated April 24, are: conducting workshops to “defame and spread disinformation” against the government; “misinterpreting” the state´s policies regarding labor unions in Vietnam; communicating through the internet with Vietnamese human rights organizations abroad; and “collecting and hoarding” books by Vietnamese dissidents and human rights activists, along with banned newsletters such as “Freedom and Democracy” and “Free Speech.”
In today´s hearing, the appeals court reduced each of their prison sentences by one year. However, upon release, Dai and Nhan will be placed under administrative probation, or house arrest, for another four years and three years, respectively.
“As a newly elected member of the UN Security Council, Vietnam should uphold its international obligations on human rights,” Richardson said. “Instead, the Vietnamese government is violating the basic rights of its own citizens.”
Lawyers for Dai and Nhan forcefully advocated for the right of citizens to peacefully express their opinions and argued against the constitutionality of article 88 of the penal code. Lawyer Bui Quang Nghiem told the court: “Criticism against the party and the leaders and about human rights cannot be considered propaganda against the socialist state. If a law runs counter to reality and international conventions, courage is needed to change or modify it. Dai and Nhan are innocent, and I ask for their freedom.”
In a particularly courageous step, Dai´s wife, Vu Minh Khanh, released a public statement today defending her husband´s human rights work. She systematically detailed numerous procedural errors that took place during Dai´s detention, police investigation, and first instance trial. She also described violations of his civil rights as guaranteed by Vietnam´s Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam is a state party, and she called for suspension of article 88 and the immediate release of her husband.
Dai and Nhan are among more than 40 democracy activists, opposition party members, underground publishers, and labor union leaders who have been arrested in Vietnam during the last 15 months.
The Vietnamese government launched its crackdown on peaceful dissent in late 2006 after it secured membership in the World Trade Organization and was removed from the US government´s list of countries with the worst track records of violating the right to freedom of religion.
The most recent arrests took place earlier this month when 20 police officers raided a private home in Ho Chi Minh City, where a group of activists from the Viet Tan (Reform) Party were meeting. Police confiscated Viet Tan leaflets advocating peaceful democratic change and arrested six activists including two Vietnamese citizens, a Vietnamese-French journalist, two Vietnamese-Americans, and a Thai national.
(The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, international rights groups, and US and European diplomats in Hanoi have criticized Vietnam´s criminalization of peaceful dissent. The Vietnamese government has tried to justify this repression through vaguely worded national security provisions in Vietnam´s penal code such as article 88 (conducting anti-government propaganda), article 87 (undermining the policy of national unity), and article 258 (abusing democratic rights such as freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, association, and other democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State).
URL for this article:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/d6a89a1e932ab01b6a616e3241d44b7a.htm
30 November, Asia Times online piblished this article, written by Shawn Crispin: Vietnam caught between repression and reform
Vietnam´s ongoing crackdown on pro-democracy groups has entered a volatile phase with the recent imprisonment of a group of foreign nationals, an unexpected move that has strained bilateral relations with former battlefield adversary and present pivotal trade and investment partner the United States.
On November 17, Vietnamese police arrested and detained a group of six pro-democracy activists affiliated with the unsanctioned pro-democracy Viet Tan party. The ethnic
Vietnamese activists, among them a US national mathematics researcher, a French national journalist and a Thai citizen, were arrested while handing our fliers that explained and promoted non-violent struggle for democratic change.
The government has through the state-controlled media acknowledged jailing some, though not all, of the activists. In a clumsy attempt to deflect US criticism, communist propagandists manipulated images on the website of state mouthpiece newspaper Sai Gon Giai Phong of detained US national Nguyen Quoc Quan, which were initially published with him wearing prison garb but hours later were replaced with images of him in a white t-shirt. Subsequent articles listed Quan´s nationality as “unknown”.
The authorities have simultaneously attempted to paint the pro-democracy Viet Tan party, which has members both inside and outside of Vietnam, as a terrorist organization bent on stirring violence and unrest – charges the party has firmly denied in a public statement. The only evidence offered to substantiate the terrorism claims has been the arrest of two ethnic Vietnamese Americans – six days after the group of Viet Tan activists were first detained – who were charged with trying to enter Vietnam with a firearm. Viet Tan has denied any association with the two suspects.
None of the Communist Party-led government´s official obfuscation about the arrests or trumped up charges against the Viet Tan party has washed with the US embassy in Hanoi, according to a source familiar with the situation. US Deputy Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Scott Marciel recently cancelled a planned visit to Vietnam in protest against the detentions. It´s still unclear whether Washington would consider imposing some sort of economic sanctions if the US national activists are held indefinitely.
The George W Bush administration earlier this year shifted its previous conciliatory policy towards a more critical assessment. Bush met at the White House with Viet Tan´s senior leadership and thereafter scolded Vietnamese president Nguyen Minh Triet over the country´s abysmal rights record during his high profile visit to Washington – which was billed as a diplomatic victory in the state-controlled media.
Half-hearted reformer
Now the sudden internationalization of the Communist Party´s sustained crackdown on Vietnam´s small but determined pro-democracy movement has put nominal national leader prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung on the horns of a potentially damaging dilemma.
Many had hoped upon Dung´s appointment to the premiership in April 2006 that his government would take a more enlightened approach towards democratic rights and civil liberties. Breaking with the post-revolutionary Ho Chi Minh era – where governments have been run more by faceless committees than led by charismatic leaders – Dung has portrayed himself as a reformer and put his personal stamp of authority on his new-generation administration.
He has leveraged that authority to push for more economic and financial reforms, including streamlining rules and regulations related to foreign trade and investment in line with the country´s new liberalization commitments as a full-fledged member of the World Trade Organization. Dung has also angled to boost the country´s global image by presenting himself as the animated leader of a new Vietnam, breaking with the stiff tradition of his Communist Party predecessors.
In that direction, he is also spearheading some soul-searching inside the 77-year-old Communist Party, as its cadres aim to attract more foreign capital and redefine their role in the ongoing transition from communism to capitalism. That reportedly even includes an internal debate over whether the party should consider a name change. Unconfirmed media reports have party cadres mulling either the “Labor Party” or “People´s Party” as possible new monikers.
Redefining the party is clearly a politically delicate and complicated exercise, particularly as so much of the monolithic regime´s current legitimacy relies upon its revolutionary past. Vietnam´s capitalist revolution, in contradiction to the party´s traditional egalitarian philosophy, has caused widespread social and economic dislocation and rapid enrichment of party cadres and their affiliated business interests.
Even with rapid economic growth, it´s proving an increasingly difficult social and economic balance for the regime to maintain. For instance, last year the government was rocked by widespread and sometimes violent strikes by factory workers who demanded a rise in the national minimum wage. In an unusual concession to popular demands, the government eventually relented to the workers´ demands, though to the chagrin of the foreign factory owners who located in Vietnam for the cheap wages.
To be sure, under Dung´s watch there have been certain signs of political loosening – albeit still on the party´s own terms and conditions. Earlier this year, Dung fielded questions from the general public over an on-line chat forum. This month he introduced for the first time a similar question and answer session at the traditionally opaque National Assembly of Vietnam, the country´s Communist Party-appointed parliament.
Education Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan was grilled by citizen questions over his policies, which had recently resulted in dropping graduation rates in many provinces, while Finance Minister Vu Vanh Ninh was peppered by even harsher questions about a national e-government project that Dung shuttered because of misuse of funds, according to a recent Asia Foundation report.
At the same time, Dung´s government, and perhaps more importantly the Communist Party´s politburo, continues to treat Vietnam´s budding pro-democracy movement as a security threat rather than a potential reform opportunity. Underscoring the regime´s squeamishness, the head of public security was elevated to the politburo´s second most powerful position at this year´s Communist Party Congress, who now ranks above both the prime minister and president and only behind the party´s general secretary.
That reaffirmed the Communist Party´s strong commitment to the police state it first institutionalized over 30 years ago to ferret out suspected supporters of the former US-backed South Vietnam regime and has since deployed to suppress any hint of political opposition to its rule. What´s unclear is whether those tough tactics will work the same against a new generation of politically minded Vietnamese that are not as easily spun by the bogey of Western-influenced ideas and ideals.
Viet Tan leader Duy Hoang, himself a US citizen, says that the government´s recent repressive measures targeting pro-democracy groups like his have only encouraged more people to join his party´s non-violent struggle for democratic change, which he likens to the civil disobedience campaign led by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning democratic opposition in Myanmar. If the Vietnamese authorities continue to hold US citizens as part of their crackdown on democracy, Washington could soon be persuaded to view the situation similarly.
URL for this article:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IK30Ae01.html
Finally, 5 December, Associated press issued this article:
Vietnam holding four US citizens, embassy confirms
HANOI, Vietnam – The U.S. Embassy confirmed Tuesday that Vietnam has arrested four U.S. citizens, two being investigated for terrorism and two being held on unspecified charges.
The embassy had previously confirmed that two U.S. citizens in Ho Chi Minh City were arrested Nov. 17 for allegedly circulating pro-democracy petitions. The second pair were arrested on Nov. 23 at the Ho Chi Minh City airport.
The Vietnamese government has yet to officially notify the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi about the airport incident or the charges on which the pair are being held, embassy spokeswoman Angela Aggeler told reporters Tuesday. The embassy does not believe the two sets of arrests are related.
According to accounts in the Vietnamese media, Le Van Phan and Nguyen Thi Thinh were arrested after authorities found a gun in their luggage. Meanwhile, consular officials in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday visited Nguyen Quoc Quan, one of the two citizens arrested for allegedly circulating pro-democracy petitions. He appeared to be in good health, Aggeler said.
Quan was among a group of six people who were arrested for circulating petitions produced by Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group based in California. The other American in the group was identified in the Vietnamese media as Truong Leon.
The Vietnamese government considers Viet Tan a terrorist group, but the organization says it supports peaceful political change in Vietnam, where the communist government does not tolerate challenges to its rule. Assistant Secretary of State Stephen Mull, who was visiting Hanoi on Tuesday, said the U.S. government was not aware of any evidence that Viet Tan is a terrorist organization.
Mull, assistant secretary for political-military affairs, was in Vietnam to promote military cooperation between the two nations.
URL for this article:
http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ap/20071204/tap-as-gen-vietnam-us-arrests-9a7ed42.html
