July 8, 2013
The trial of Le Quoc Quan, a high profile human rights lawyer, will focus renewed attention on Vietnam’s treatment of activists.
Since the start of this year more than 50 people have been convicted and jailed after political trials.
Southeast Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel travelled to Vietnam and interviewed Le Quoc Quan’s family in secret ahead of his trial which begins on Tuesday.
Presenter: Zoe Daniel, Southeast Asia correspondent
Speakers: Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, wife; Le Quoc Quyet, brother; Ha Huy Son, Le Quoc Quan’s lawyer
ZOE DANIEL: Critics of the Vietnamese government are watched by the authorities and so are their families.
We visited Vietnam without permission to report, and saw Le Quoc Quan’s family under the cover of darkness.
(Doorbell ringing)
He’s been in jail since December, leaving his young family alone.
It’s been a struggle for his wife, Nguyen Thu Thu Hien.
NGUYEN THI THU HIEN (translation): As for me, I miss him so much because I now have to take care of three children and to bring them up, especially when they are sick, and taking them to school. With our youngest daughter, she was only nearly one when he was arrested so she wouldn’t recognise him now.
ZOE DANIEL: Le Quoc Quan was taking one of his three children to school when he was arrested on what rights groups believe are trumped up charges of tax evasion, which have been used against political dissidents before.
Vietnam is becoming notorious for heavy-handed action against peaceful activists who criticise the policies of the one party communist state, which in turn attempts to intimidate and silence them.
Le Quoc Quan’s family has not been allowed to visit him in prison, their only contact letters and poems scratched onto old milk boxes with a pin and smuggled out of jail, read to me by his brother Le Quoc Quyet.
(Le Quoc Quyet reading poem in Vietnamese)
LE QUOC QUYET (translation): When a government resorts to violence, when guns are used as a means of violence, he falls under an open sky, a pink lotus falls as blood spills.
ZOE DANIEL: Le Quoc Quan has long been a political blogger and activist. He’s been jailed before, interrogated and beaten. His family has also been targeted – a cousin and another brother have been jailed too.
LE QUOC QUYET (translation): The reason is Quan’s advocacy. The whole family has been harassed many times over, both in our work and our lives because if it’s just harassment against Quan the pressure wouldn’t be enough.
So they want to create more pressure by arresting his family members in an attempt to pressure Quan and to force him to abandon his work.
ZOE DANIEL: Even Le Quoc Quan’s lawyer Ha Huy Son sees us in secret. His safety and that of his family are also at risk.
HA HUY SON (translation): When I take up cases like these, my friends and my family members worry about me and they also keep their distance.
ZOE DANIEL: Last year Le Quoc Quan spoke to AM after three of his fellow bloggers were sentenced to hefty jail terms.
LE QUOC QUYET: These bloggers, they have only one thing they would like to do is to tell about the truth in Vietnam; to tell about the current situation, about the social, economic and political system in Vietnam.
You know, this is terrible.
ZOE DANIEL: Now he’s awaiting his own sentence.
When we leave Le Quoc Quan’s house, we’re tailed by the secret police.
His family, for the moment, is safe and awaiting his trial.
Source: ABC Radio Australia
