October 14, 2009
HANOI (AFP) – The United States embassy said Wednesday it was “deeply disturbed” by the convictions last week of nine Vietnamese democracy activists despite Vietnam’s international commitments to uphold human rights.
In separate trials, the nine were jailed for up to six years under Penal Code Article 88, which rights activists say criminalises peaceful dissent. Many of the accused were convicted in connection with banners they displayed which denounced the ruling Communist Party and called for democracy.
The US embassy said in a statement that the nine were sentenced “for undertaking peaceful activities in support of democracy, human rights and political pluralism.
“The activists were simply expressing their views peacefully and posed no threat to Vietnam’s national security.”
The embassy said it was also concerned about the case of writer Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, “who was beaten and arrested after she publicly expressed her support for the nine activists.
“These actions, together with the violent expulsion of monks and nuns from the Bat Nha monastery in Lam Dong Province and the government’s failure to protect them from assault, contradict Vietnam’s own commitment to internationally accepted standards of human rights and the rule of law,” the embassy said.
The monks and nuns from Bat Nha are followers of one of the world’s most influential Buddhist monks, French-based Thich Nhat Hanh, a peace activist and confidant of slain US civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
Late last month the followers said they had fled Bat Nha for another pagoda after threats from unidentified people armed with hammers and batons. The embassy urged Vietnam “to honor its international human rights commitments” and immediately and unconditionally release the prisoners who are in detention for peacefully expressing their views.