The Rt. Hon. John W. Howard
Prime Minister of Australia
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
20 July 2007
Dear Prime Minister
I am writing to express my deep concern about recent violations of human rights in Vietnam.
On 18 July 2007 hundreds of farmers from more than a dozen provinces in Vietnam had protested for almost a month outside Ho Chi Minh City’s National Assembly building. The ensuing government crackdown on demonstrators saw the police tearing down the protestors’ banners and signs, and taking away some of the protestors on buses.
The suppression of this peaceful protest is a demonstration of Vietnam’s continuing intolerance for government critics and the limits it imposes on its citizens’ rights of assembly and on their freedom of expression.
Similar protests have been held in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in recent years, largely in response to local officials’ expropriation of farmland without properly compensating those dispossessed. This recent protest, like past gatherings, had been closely monitored by uniformed and plainclothes police since it began in the third week of June. At least one person had already been arrested for bringing food to the demonstrators prior to the protest’s dispersal. A smaller gathering raising the same issues had also come together in recent days in Hanoi.
The government is likely to have broken up the most recent protest in part because prominent critics of the government and members of the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) voiced support for the protest. Since joining the World Trade Organization and hosting the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hanoi in November 2006, the government has cracked down on its critics, arresting and sentencing dozens, including prominent religious figures, journalists, and scholars.
While the Vietnamese government repeatedly says it is committed to reform and the rule of law, yet it stops citizens from peacefully protesting about abuse by local officials.
As a member of the United Nations Vietnam is obliged to abide by international human rights conventions and as such should be reminded of their obligations under these international legal frameworks.
I would like to urge the Prime Minister to encourage the government of Vietnam to abide by human rights conventions
Yours sincerely
Bernie Ripoll MP
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for
Industry and Innovation
Federal Member for Oxley