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.
Over the past two years, the level of repression under Communist Party Chief To Lam, who holds the rank of Police General, has increased in severity against both citizens within the country and individuals in the Vietnamese diaspora.
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, Viet Tan wishes to highlight a troubling reality: there is no genuine press freedom in Vietnam. All authorized media outlets operate under the strict control of the communist regime and are subject to systematic censorship.
The newly “elected” President of Vietnam, To Lam, is making an official visit to China from April 14 to 17. This trip sends a clear political signal: Hanoi is becoming further dependent on Beijing for its legitimacy.
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.
