Quê Me Quê Me: Action for democracy in Vietnam & Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
JAKARTA, 5 May 2011 (VCHR) – A delegation from the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) participated in the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum 2011 (ACSC/APF) and associated events from 30 April-7 May 2011 in Jakarta, Indonesia, to draw attention to widespread human rights violations in Vietnam. The ACSC/APF is a major civil society venue, organized as a parallel process to the annual Summit of leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Hosted by Indonesia, this year’s ASEAN chair, the ACSC/APF brought together over 1,300 civil society participants from countries all over the world including the 10 ASEAN states, China, South Korea, Japan, Timor-Leste, the USA, Canada, France, Holland, Sweden, the UK… Civil society concerns raised at the ASCS/APF will be forwarded to ASEAN leaders at the Summit which takes place this week-end (7-9 May 2011).
Speaking on issues of civil liberties, Mr. Vo Tran Nhat, VCHR Executive Secretary noted the contrast between Indonesia’s democracy and the totalitarian system in Vietnam. In 2010, whilst Vietnam held the chair of ASEAN and its new mechanism, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), the Vietnamese government pressured Thailand to prevent the VCHR and its partner, the FIDH, from holding a press conference in Bangkok to launch their report on human rights in Vietnam. FIDH representatives were also banned from attending the ASCS/APF in Hanoi.
Mr. Vo Tran condemned Vietnam’s perception of legitimate human rights and pro-democracy activities as “threats against national security”. ”The government’s paranoia is growing with the fast spread of new IT technology, the Internet and blogs”, he observed, adding that “Vietnam is the second largest prison for ‘netizens’.”
Whereas international opinion is well-informed on human rights violations in China or Burma, this is not the case with Vietnam, he said. One reason is Vietnam’s sophisticated propaganda outreach, and its creation of a “two-track” human rights policy, one track “for export only” and the other for “domestic consumption”. The former upholds the respect of human rights internationally whilst the latter suppresses them at home.
In addition, Vietnam has devised strategies that are often invisible to an outside observer: “Vietnam uses tactics of isolation, harassment, house arrest and surveillance to silence dissent. Critics not only face repression themselves, but for their whole families– wives are barred from work, children are expelled from school”.
The most blatant example of these policies is in the domain of religious freedom, and particularly the state’s repression against the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), Vietnam’s largest and oldest religious community. Having failed to suppress the UBCV with a campaign of ruthless repression launched in 1975 (arrests and murder of UBCV dignitaries, forced drafting of monks into the military, confiscation of property), the government sought to place Buddhism under control by creating a State-sponsored Buddhist organization in 1981 and banning the UBCV.
This policy also failed, and today the UBCV is still alive and resisting government repression. But its members live in a climate of fear and face daily harassments, arbitrary detention, interrogation and threats. UBCV leader Thich Quang Do remains under house arrest without trial at the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in Saigon after over 28 years in detention for his peaceful advocacy of religious freedom, democracy and human rights.
Directives for religious repression are articulated in documents such as a 600-page training manual obtained by the VCHR, with a print-run of 1 million numbered copies, which provides for the formation of “religious police” and instructs religious cadres and police to “struggle against religions” and to “promote Buddhism with Socialist orientations”. Thousands of religious agents and security Police disguised as monks have infiltrated UBCV pagodas today.
At the same time, Vietnam’s government is masking this ongoing anti-UBCV repression by hosting spectacular public relations operations to support State-sponsored Buddhism, such as hosting the UN Vesak Day (Birth of Buddha) in 2008, or the construction of massive Buddhist temples such as Bai Dinh Pagoda in the province of Ninh Binh.
As the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights made its report to the ASEAN People’s Forum, new violations were committed in Vietnam. The arbitrary sentence of 5 years in prison and 3 years house arrest against on-line journalist Vi Duc Hoi on charges of “anti-socialist propaganda” was confirmed by the Appeals’ Court (29.4.2011), and poet Bui Chat, founder of the Giay Vun (Scrap Paper) Publishing House was arrested at Tan Son Nhat airport, Saigon, as he returned from Buenos Aires where he had been awarded the 2011 Freedom to Publish award by the International Publishers Association (30.4.2011). He was temporarily released on 2 May, but remains under surveillance and subjected to interrogations by the Police.
This post is also available in: French Vietnamese
