The number of prisoners of conscience unjustly jailed across Viet Nam has surged by one third to 128 in signs of a growing crackdown on peaceful activism, new research by Amnesty International reveals today.
The Vietnamese government holds at least 128 prisoners of conscience in prisons across the country, a sharp rise from the 97 identified last year. Detention conditions remain appalling, with evidence of prisoners being tortured and otherwise ill-treated, routinely held incommunicado and in solitary confinement, kept in squalid conditions, and denied medical care, clean water, and fresh air.
The Vietnamese authorities are clearly becoming more thin-skinned by the day. It’s their own citizens who are paying the terrible price, simply because of something they said or someone they met.
Half a century after the war and following three decades of integration, Vietnam has seen economic growth but our overall development remains behind the advanced countries in the region. Without sustainable and comprehensive development, Vietnam is at risk of falling further behind.
Vital to Vietnam’s development, the Internet has the power to transform Vietnamese society; in many ways it already has. In the absence of an independent media, citizens have turned to the Internet to follow the news and debate national issues.
My name is Nguyễn Văn Tráng, a human rights defenderwanted by the Vietnamese government. As a democracy activist in Vietnam, I spent five years living in constant fear of being hunted down. I thought that fear would subside once I fled the country. I believed I would be safe—or at least safer. But I was wrong.
Y Krec has exhibited personal bravery in the face of horrific persecution. Not just against himself but against his community. He has been jailed multiple times simply for practicing his faith outside of government control.
