September 9, 2010
Hanoi(dpa) – A banned Vietnamese exile political party acknowledged Thursday that a dissident arrested last month on political charges belonged to its organization. September 9, 2010
Pham Minh Hoang, 55, a French-educated math professor, was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City on August 13.
According to his wife Le Thi Kim Oanh, police accused him of belonging to the Viet Tan Party, an exile political party that advocates multiparty democracy in Vietnam.
Hoang and Oanh initially denied he belonged to Viet Tan. But in a press release distributed Thursday by Viet Tan’s office in Washington, the group said Hoang was one of four of its members arrested in Vietnam this summer.
Hoang had written internet posts under a pen name criticizing the Vietnamese government. Oanh said police had accused him of violating Article 79 of Vietnam’s legal code, which bars ’activities aimed at overthrowing the government.’
Viet Tan says it engages in non-violent activism, but the Vietnamese government considers it a terrorist organization.
’Accusing citizens who are promoting peaceful political change of ’aiming to overthrow the socialist government’ or any other crime under the penal code of Vietnam is baseless and anti-democratic,’ the Viet Tan press release said.
The group said three other members had been arrested in July and August. Duong Kim Khai, 52, is a pastor in the Mennonite Church. Tran Thi Thuy, 39 years old, is a merchant, and Nguyen Thanh Tam, 57 years old, is a farmer.
Vietnam’s communist government often steps up arrests of political activists in the period preceding the Communist Party congress, which takes place once every five years. The next one is slated for the first quarter of 2011.
Most of the dissidents arrested in recent years have criticized policy on Chinese-run bauxite mines in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, or have advocated stronger Vietnamese claims to the Spratly and Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, disputed by China.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on August 17 called on police to ensure no alternative political parties are formed that might threaten the control of the communist government.
