Vietnam's use of espionage charges against peaceful dissidents clearly
violates Vietnam's international human rights obligations and this
practice should be strongly condemned by delegates at the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights now meeting in Geneva, Human Rights Watch said
today.
"Vietnam has signed UN treaties protecting the right to free
expression. Yet it's locking up citizens using the Internet to express
their views."
Brad Adams, executive director for Asia at Human Rights Watch
"Vietnam has signed UN treaties protecting the right to free
expression. Yet it's locking up citizens using the Internet to express
their views," said Brad Adams, executive director for Asia at Human
Rights Watch. "This is going on while Vietnam is participating in
deliberations of the United Nations' highest human rights body. Delegates
should publicly call on Vietnam to cease these arrests."
Human Rights Watch condemned the arrest of noted physician Dr. Nguyen Dan
Que on March 17, 2003 outside his home in Ho Chi Minh City. According to
the Vietnamese foreign ministry, Dr. Que will be prosecuted under Article
80 of the Vietnamese Criminal Code for sending information critical of
the Vietnamese government via the Internet. Article 80 covers crimes of
espionage and carries a sentence ranging from twelve years to the death
penalty. Officials claim he was arrested at an Internet café, though his
family disputes this claim. Police searched his house and confiscated his
laptop computer and written essays.
Dr. Que, a well-known democracy and human rights advocate, was released
as part of a prisoner amnesty in 1998 while serving a 20-year prison
sentence. Even upon his release, he has remained under heavy surveillance
and has been prohibited from resuming his medical practice as an
endocrinologist. His family has had no access to him since his arrest on
March 17.
Last year, Human Rights Watch honored him with Hellman/Hammett grant, an
award recognizing repressed writers worldwide.
"Dr. Que should be immediately and unconditionally released,"
said Adams. "Under international law, he has committed no
crime."
Other dissidents in Vietnam have been detained in recent months and given
harsh sentences, many of them for using the Internet to express their
views. Last December, Nguyen Khac Toan was sent to prison for twelve
years on charges of espionage. An appeal of his sentence is set to be
heard on April 2.
Pham Que Duong was arrested on December 28, 2002 and indicted under
Article 80, but has not yet been put on trial. He is 71 years old and a
former colonel in the People's Liberation Army who quit the Communist
Party and became a democracy activist; his family is not allowed to
provide him urgently needed food and medicine in prison.
Last October, Li Chi Quang was arrested in an Internet café in Hanoi
while sending an email message to a democracy advocate abroad. He
received a four-year sentence on charges of disseminating propaganda
against the state.
Pham Hong Son was arrested in March 2002 and charged with espionage under
Article 80. His crime was to have translated an article on democracy from
the U.S. Embassy website, which he sent to some of his friends and senior
Vietnamese officials. The translation was later posted on the Internet.
Vietnam is currently one of 53 members of the UN Commission on Human
Rights. It has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR), which, under Article 19, protects the right to
"seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds,
regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, or
through any other media of his choice."
Vietnam's Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dao Viet Trung, spoke
at the Commission in Geneva on March 19 and specifically referred to
Hanoi's commitment to the ICCPR. "Under the Constitution, laws and
policies of the State of Vietnam, human rights in all their aspects are
guaranteed," he declared. "Our goal has always been to ensure
the better realization of the rights and welfare of the people."
Human Rights Watch urged UN delegates, in their speeches and public
comments, to call for an immediate end to the wave of recent arrests.
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