October 22, 2010
AUSTRALIAN social worker Hong Vo says she will struggle to return to the country of her birth after spending 10 terrifying days in a Vietnamese jail.
Mrs Vo, 53, was arrested on October 10 in Hanoi after handing out leaflets against China’s “threat” to the sovereignty of the Paracel and Spratly islands in the South China Sea.
She was charged with terrorism offences and thrown into jail without access to a lawyer, but was finally released 10 days later after the intervention of the Australian Consulate last night.
An emotional Mrs Vo arrived at Melbourne Airport today clutching her Australian passport, greeted by her two sons and members of the Viet Tan, a pro-democracy organisation of which she is a member.
Mrs Vo says she had done nothing wrong, although admits she was aware the peaceful protest was not permitted by Hanoi authorities.
“We were all non-violent,” she told reporters.
In jail she shared a cell with another prisoner and was given food and water.
“It was extremely difficult because I was kept out from the whole world in isolation,” she told reporters.
“It’s not something that I’ve ever experienced.”
Mrs Vo said she was devastated at her expulsion from Vietnam and said it would be very difficult to return.
“Not for a long while,” she said.
“I should be free to enter the country as often as I wish.”
Mrs Vo, who migrated to Australia in the early 1980s, said she intended to continue her work fighting for Vietnam.
She was arrested under Article 84 of the Vietnamese Penal Code, a Vietnamese government spokeswoman said last week. The article includes offences of “terrorism”.
Viet Tan is based in the US and describes itself as non-violent and pro-democracy, but Vietnam labels it a “terrorist organisation”.
Viet Tan chairman Do Hoang Diem said Mrs Vo was a brave long-time campaigner who had worked with the organisation to establish democracy and reform Vietnam through peaceful means.
“When she was arrested she told me, `Don’t worry about me, I’m not scared of them’.”
Mr Diem said there were no human rights in Vietnam.
“The Vietnamese Communist Party relies on the sponsorship from the Chinese Communist Party to remain in power,” he told AAP.
“Vietnam is still a party dictatorship, there’s no free speech, there’s no freedom of the press.”
