(New York) 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:
- Unconditionally release all persons being held for the peaceful expression of their religious and political views.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Cease the persecution, unlawful arrest, torture and other mistreatment of Montagnards who have voluntarily or forcibly been returned from Cambodia to Vietnam.
- 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.
