The number of prisoners of conscience unjustly jailed across Viet Nam has surged by one third to 128 in signs of a growing crackdown on peaceful activism, new research by Amnesty International reveals today.
The Vietnamese government holds at least 128 prisoners of conscience in prisons across the country, a sharp rise from the 97 identified last year. Detention conditions remain appalling, with evidence of prisoners being tortured and otherwise ill-treated, routinely held incommunicado and in solitary confinement, kept in squalid conditions, and denied medical care, clean water, and fresh air.
The Vietnamese authorities are clearly becoming more thin-skinned by the day. It’s their own citizens who are paying the terrible price, simply because of something they said or someone they met.
On the occasion of To Lam’s visit to the United States to attend the launch meeting of the Board of Peace, Viet Tan calls on governments not to legitimize the authoritarian consolidation underway in Vietnam.
The Communist Party of Vietnam officially opens its 14th National Congress today. In the run up to the conclave, To Lam declared that the Congress will determine the country’s direction for the next five years. Thus, the “true owners of the nation” have been completely sidelined—subject to intimidation, monitoring and imprisonment. An atmosphere of fear once again blankets the country, just as it has during previous Party congresses.
A joint letter, signed by iInternational NGOs, human rights organizations, and Vietnamese activists, addresses Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding the company’s compliance with censorship demands from the Vietnamese government.
Vietnam has experienced rapid economic growth in recent years. However, politically, the country remains tightly controlled by the Communist Party, which tolerates no challenge to its authority.
