Wednesday, December 5
HANOI, Vietnam – The U.S. Embassy confirmed Tuesday that Vietnam has arrested four U.S. citizens, two being investigated for terrorism and two being held on unspecified charges.
The embassy had previously confirmed that two U.S. citizens in Ho Chi Minh City were arrested Nov. 17 for allegedly circulating pro-democracy petitions. The second pair were arrested on Nov. 23 at the Ho Chi Minh City airport.
The Vietnamese government has yet to officially notify the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi about the airport incident or the charges on which the pair are being held, embassy spokeswoman Angela Aggeler told reporters Tuesday. The embassy does not believe the two sets of arrests are related.
According to accounts in the Vietnamese media, Le Van Phan and Nguyen Thi Thinh were arrested after authorities found a gun in their luggage. Meanwhile, consular officials in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday visited Nguyen Quoc Quan, one of the two citizens arrested for allegedly circulating pro-democracy petitions. He appeared to be in good health, Aggeler said.
Quan was among a group of six people who were arrested for circulating petitions produced by Viet Tan, a pro-democracy group based in California. The other American in the group was identified in the Vietnamese media as Truong Leon.
The Vietnamese government considers Viet Tan a terrorist group, but the organization says it supports peaceful political change in Vietnam, where the communist government does not tolerate challenges to its rule. Assistant Secretary of State Stephen Mull, who was visiting Hanoi on Tuesday, said the U.S. government was not aware of any evidence that Viet Tan is a terrorist organization.
Mull, assistant secretary for political-military affairs, was in Vietnam to promote military cooperation between the two nations.
