Tuesday December 11, 2007
The US ambassador in Vietnam said Tuesday he had seen no evidence to support claims in the communist country’s state media that four Vietnamese-Americans detained there are guilty of terrorism.
Michael Michalak also said the US side had not yet been notified of the charges against them, and he was “disappointed” about delays in allowing consular access to the US citizens arrested last month.
“We have seen no information that would support the charges of terrorism against these individuals that have been suggested by the local media,” he told a Hanoi media briefing.
“If they’re being detained because of peaceful expression of political views, we protest that most vigorously and call for their immediate release.”
Police in Ho Chi Minh City on November 17 arrested six political activists, including two US members of the California-based Viet Tan, or Vietnam Reform Party, which is banned in the Southeast Asian one-party state.
Nguyen Quoc Quan, a mathematician from California, and Leon Truong, a Hawaii restaurateur, were arrested along with Frenchwoman Nguyen Thi Thanh Van, Thai citizen Somsak Khunmi and two Vietnamese nationals.
State media later said two more Vietnamese-Americans, reportedly carrying a handgun and bullets, were arrested at the city’s airport on November 23, in reports that collectively labelled the detainees “terrorists.”
Michalak said “to date, we have received no formal notification of charges against the individuals. We continue to seek information, including about the activities that resulted in Vietnamese action against these individuals.”
State media reports in Vietnam have accused Viet Tan of being a “reactionary and terrorist” group plotting to overthrow the communist government.
Viet Tan says it supports only non-violent political action and denies any links to the couple arrested on November 23, Le Van Phan and Nguyen Thi Thinh.
Michalak said the woman had “denied any knowledge of any gun in her bag” and the embassy was requesting help from American authorities to track their luggage for any evidence of having carried weapons.
The US envoy said he was pleased that consular access had now been granted but added that “as always, the United States will protest any actions taken to silence those engaged in the peaceful expression of their political views.”
The latest row comes as international criticism of Vietnam’s human rights record has grown stronger. At a conference last week the US and EU again urged Vietnam to free jailed dissidents and guarantee basic freedoms. About 300 Vietnamese-Americans on Monday protested outside the Vietnamese embassy in Washington against the latest arrests.
Eleven US lawmakers have also written to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, saying the arrests “violate the government of Vietnam’s promise to continue to improve its human rights record.”
Vietnam says it does not prosecute political activists, only people who break the law, including provisions that ban anti-state propaganda.
On Monday a court in southern Vietnam jailed four more dissidents for “spreading distorted information to undermine the state,” state media said.
At least three of those tried and sentenced were arrested in October last year after founding the United Workers-Farmers Organization (UWFO), which Vietnam has banned.
The UWFO condemned the sentences and said it would “continue to struggle for the rights of forming independent labor unions and justice for those who suffer government corruption.”
