An activist’s release shows pressure from Washington works.
January 31, 2013
Hanoi rarely delivers good news on human rights, which makes the release this week of Nguyen Quoc Quan all the more notable. Mr. Quan, an American citizen, was freed Wednesday after eight months in detention and deported back to his family home in California. There’s a lesson here for Washington.
Mr. Quan, who moved to the U.S. in the 1980s and became a citizen, was detained at the Ho Chi Minh City airport in April last year. He’s a leader of the U.S.-based Vietnam Reform Party, or Viet Tan, a group that advocates peaceful democratization, which has led the Vietnamese Communist Party regime in Hanoi to label it a “terrorist organization.”
Mr. Quan was initially charged with terrorism when he was caught carrying pamphlets on nonviolent resistance to oppression. He had been held on similar charges in 2007 before being deported back to America in 2008. It’s a testament to his dedication that he traveled to Vietnam again despite the risks.
Hanoi planned to put Mr. Quan on trial on January 22, after it tried and sentenced 14 Vietnamese activists earlier in the month on charges related to their association with Viet Tan. The trial date was postponed with no explanation, and Mr. Quan’s release and deportation this week came as a surprise.
State media reported he signed a confession as a condition of his release, but his wife and Viet Tan leaders say he did not. This Vietnamese claim could be an attempt to save face after a climbdown.
What most likely did make a difference in Mr. Quan’s case was regular attention from Washington. Members of Congress recently sent an open letter to U.S. Ambassador David Shear in Hanoi, asking him to press the authorities for Mr. Quan’s release. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised the issue last year in meetings with Vietnamese officials.
Vietnam is trying to build closer relations with Washington as a counterbalance to Beijing’s growing assertiveness in South China Sea territorial disputes. This made Washington’s complaints about Mr. Quan’s detention hard for Hanoi to ignore.
As a U.S. citizen, Mr. Quan was a high-profile victim. But local activists, such as those who received sentences ranging from probation to 13 years in prison earlier this month, also deserve attention. Cooperation on security issues doesn’t preclude Washington from holding Vietnam’s leaders to account on human rights, and it provides more leverage to do so.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
