Vietnam Committee condemns Hanoi's "systematic liquidation" of the Vietnamese dissident movement; link to John Carey analysis; Berman Perfect Spy to be published in Vietnamese by Vietnam News Agency (fwd)
tuna
Paris, 11 May 2007
Vietnam Committee condemns Hanoi?s ?systematic liquidation? of the
Vietnamese dissident movement
PARIS, 11 May 2007 (Vietnam Committee) - The Vietnam Committee on
Human Rights is deeply disturbed by the extremely harsh prison
sentences handed down today against human rights lawyers Nguyen van
Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, and against other dissidents in the unfair
trials of 10 and 11 May 2007. The Committee fears that other harsh
convictions will follow. The Committee strongly denounces the recent
vast wave of repression against dissidents whose sole ?crime? is that
of exercising their legitimate right to freedom of expression and
association, rights enshrined in the Vietnamese Constitution and the
UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which
Vietnam acceded in September 1982.
Vo Van Ai, President of the Vietnam Committee for Human Rights firmly
denounced this ?systematic liquidation of the Vietnamese dissident
movement?, recalling that ?the international community, deceived by
the new lease of freedom enjoyed by Vietnamese dissidents over the
previous year, gave Hanoi everything it wanted on a plate : removal
from the US State Department?s blacklist of ?Countries of Particular
Concern? for religious freedom violations, WTO membership, favoured
trading status with the US (PNTR) and recognition of its international
legitimacy at the APEC Summit in Hanoi in November 2006. Vietnamese
democracy activists served as ?useful dissidents?. Hanoi no longer
needs them, and is throwing them into prison just as one throws away
old clothes??.
Mr Ai concluded with a warning to the international community,
especially to democratic countries seeking to do business with
Vietnam. ?Now you see how Vietnam treats its people, how cleverly it
deceives good-willed ? if not na?ve people ? and how it is
systematically opposed to any notion of democratisation or even the
minimal respect for human rights. These things could have easily been
foreseen by reading the Vietnamese government?s declarations or
observing the plight of the Patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church
of Vietnam (UBCV) Thich Huyen Quang and his Deputy Thich Quang Do,
both detained for 25 years without trial, and the regime?s ill-
treatment of all ?non-recognized? religious communities (Buddhists,
Protestants, Hoa Hao etc?).
Yesterday, 10 May 2007, Le Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Bac Truyen and Huynh
Nguyen Dao were respectively sentenced to 5, 4 and 3 years in prison,
followed by 2 years probationary detention (house arrest) for
?spreading propaganda against the State? (Article 88 of the Vietnamese
Penal Code). Today, 11 May 2007, lawyers Nguyen van Dai and Le Thi
Cong Nhan were convicted under the same change. Nguyen Van Dai was
sentenced to 5 years in prison and 4 years probationary detention, and
Le Thi Cong Nhan to 4 years prison and 3 years probationary detention.
All were condemned under Vietnam?s vaguely-worded ?national security?
laws. The United Nations has repeatedly condemned these laws as being
totally incompatible with international human rights legislation, and
called for their immediate abrogation.
As is the custom in Vietnam, these trials were totally unfair. The
right to presumption of innocence was not upheld, defence was grossly
inadequate and the judges were not impartial. The authorities
demonstrated ?transparency? by allowing foreign observers (journalists
and diplomats) to follow the trial on television, but pretexted
technical problems to prevent them from hearing the proceedings
clearly.
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John Carey's excellent analysis on his Peace and Freedom blog here:
http://johnib.wordpress.com/2007/05/11/vietnam-dissident-lawyers-jailed/
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Larry Berman's Perfect Spy book about PhamXuanAn to be published in
Vietnamese by Communists
Full article link: http://vietamreview.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/10/2941632.html
Update on Perfect Spy by Larry Berman--to be published in Vietnamese
by the Vietnam News Agency. Four more dissidents sentenced in Hanoi
by Jean Libby
The Vietnam News Agency announced on April 28 that it has the
publication rights to Larry Berman's book Perfect Spy, about
PhamXuanAn, in Vietnamese. What does this mean to Vietnamese in
America? It means that the questions about PXA as a double agent will
be swept under the rug. No questions allowed--if the Communists
publish it, he must have been a true Communist agent. Good move for
the Communists. It also means that Berman's very cogent analysis of
Henry Kissinger's betrayal of South Vietnam at the Paris Peace Accords
has more legitimacy. (see pages 196-200 for this.) Another good move.
Bad America. Or is it a good move if you follow the logic? Larry
Berman has shown that the invasion of South Vietnam was indeed in
violation of the Paris Peace Accords. The statements of the Communist
regime that reunification and independence desired by the Vietnamese
people were through Communism are false.
Jean Libby, editor
VietAm Review
http://vietamreview.blogharbor.com