March 24, 2011
Authorities in Vietnam expel three activists who joined demonstrations against graft.
Vietnam has deported three Vietnamese-American members of a banned pro-democracy group detained for participating in protests backing disgruntled farmers in the country’s second city.
The last to be held, Jennifer Truong, 44, left the country Thursday, according to the U.S.-based opposition group Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party).
Viet Tan said Nguyen Quang Khanh, 57, was released on Wednesday after nine days in detention and Nguyen Ly Trong, 60, was returned to the U.S. on March 21 after being held for a week.
The group’s spokesman Duy Hoang condemned the Vietnamese government’s “arbitrary practice of arresting people and deciding how long to hold them.”
“What we’re committed to doing is promoting freedom of assembly in Vietnam,” he said.
“That’s why we stood with the farmers who organized the peaceful demonstration on March 14 and will continue to support others who are held in Vietnam, including Viet Tan members.”
Spokeswoman for Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Phuong Nga said Truong, Khanh, and Trong had been detained for “inciting others to provoke public insecurity” when the group took part in the demonstration against government graft and illegal land grabs in Ho Chi Minh City.
“After taking these cases into consideration, with the clemency policy of Vietnam and in accordance with Vietnamese law, the authorities … decided to deport these three people,” she said.
Viet Tan said Truong remained under detention longer than the others because she had met with citizens affected by government corruption and interviewed them for the international media.
Truong also joined protesters in unfurling a banner slamming government graft and stayed with the demonstrators until security officers detained her and the other two Viet Tan members at around 10 a.m. that morning.
U.S. assistance
On Tuesday, a State Department spokesman said authorities in Vietnam had notified U.S. diplomats that the three Americans were detained. He said U.S. officials had requested consular access.
Viet Tan’s Hoang said the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City had been actively involved in the situation and had closely followed its development.
“After these individuals were detained, their families contacted the Consulate, and the Consulate raised the issue with the Vietnamese government … The U.S. State Department in general has been very supportive,” he said.
Vietnamese authorities are also holding French-Vietnamese citizen Pham Minh Hoang, a blogger and mathematician, who was accused in September of being a Viet Tan member and of conspiring to overthrow the government.
Vietnam’s one-party communist leadership does not tolerate dissent and has labeled Viet Tan a “terrorist organization.”
In a statement, Viet Tan said that a number of its Vietnamese members remain in custody after addressing the government on behalf of aggrieved citizens or for speaking up about land issues, and that none of them have been allowed family visits or access to legal representation.
“The Hanoi government routinely arrests those who campaign for the cause of social justice and development of Vietnam, while ignoring the suffering of many,” the group wrote.
“The regime refuses to address the countless grievances of those affected by land confiscation, a policy that has roots in the endemic corruption that permeates the state and party apparatus.”
Reported by Joshua Lipes.
Source: Radio Free Asia
