{"id":40390,"date":"2018-10-17T09:25:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T09:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queme.org\/?p=40390\/"},"modified":"2018-10-17T09:29:19","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T09:29:19","slug":"does-vietnam-have-carte-blanche-for-crackdown-on-dissent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/does-vietnam-have-carte-blanche-for-crackdown-on-dissent\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Vietnam have carte blanche for crackdown on dissent?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Thich
International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Human rights advocates are expressing concern over an intensified crackdown on dissent in Vietnam<\/a>. Some analysts suggest that the Communist regime is emboldened by perceptions that it is a strategically vital bulwark against China\u2019s sharp power in the region.<\/p>\n

By making a rare second trip this year to Vietnam, Defense Secretary James Mattis is signaling how intensively the Trump administration is trying to counter China\u2019s military assertiveness by cozying up to smaller nations<\/a> in the region that share American wariness about Chinese intentions, The South China Morning Post reports.<\/p>\n

The authorities of Thanh Minh Zen monastery in Ho Chi Minh City recently expelled Thich Quang Do (above), a well-known human rights activist and supreme patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV). As a result of his commitment to religious freedom and democracy, Thich Quang Do was under house arrest since 2003 and subject to strict regime surveillance, Asia News reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"The International Buddhist Information Bureau (IBIB) said that the 91-year-old patriarch had been asked on Sept. 15 to leave the monastery by its superior monk Th\u00edch Thanh Minh as his presence had become a distraction to the daily operations of the monastery. Speaking to RFA\u2019s Vietnamese service<\/a>, IBIB director Vo Van Ai explained the various difficulties that the intrusive police presence caused the monastery during the patriarch\u2019s house arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t want to visit the monastery because they are afraid of being monitored by the police. They even took pictures of everyone visiting the monastery,\u201d Vo said. Life inside the monastery had been \u201cjust like a prison\u201d for the elderly patriarch.<\/p>\n

In a letter to U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam<\/a> Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. Congressman Alan Lowenthal explained<\/a>, \u201cThe Patriarch left the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery \u2026 and was only able to take with him three Buddhist monk robes. From September 15th to October 5th, Patriarch Thich Quang Do was \u201chomeless\u201d and had to stay at various monasteries throughout Saigon. On October 5th, the Patriarch boarded a train back to his ancestral hometown in Thai Binh Province, northern Vietnam. His current health and well-being are unknown and communications with the Patriarch have been cut off. I am deeply concerned with Patriarch Thich Quang Do\u2019s current conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Do
Do Cong Duong (left) – RFA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Vietnamese citizen journalist who in September was sentenced to four years in prison for \u201cdisrupting the public order\u201d has seen his sentence grow to nine years after being convicted on other charges, RFA adds:<\/a><\/p>\n

Defend the Defenders reported on October 12 <\/em>Do Cong Duong<\/em><\/a> (left) was sentenced Friday to five more years on the charge of \u201cabusing democratic freedom\u201d under Article 331 of the country\u2019s 2015 Penal Code. The NGO affiliated with Reporters Without Borders said that just as in the first trial, Duong\u2019s relatives were not allowed to observe the second trial from inside the courtroom at the People\u2019s Court of Bac Ninh Province.<\/em><\/p>\n

The regime has also attacked \u201cthe Lady Gaga of Vietnam\u201d (see below), who has traded in the trappings of fame to push for human rights and creative expression, CNBC reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to be a pop star,\u201d Mai Khoi<\/a> says in her presentation told the Oslo Freedom Forum this September<\/a>. \u201cI had a lot of fans, shows and money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFacebook has been a huge force for freedom in Vietnam, but this positive effect is now being reversed as the social media platform is delivered to authoritarianism,\u201d she writes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"VietnamVietnam is ranked as \u201cnot free\u201d by Freedom House<\/a>, the democracy and human rights watchdog.<\/p>\n

Observers of contemporary Vietnamese politics are speculating that human-rights violations and the suppression of dissent will mark the legacy of President Tran Dai Quang, analyst Heather Stur writes for The National Interest:<\/a><\/p>\n

Quang assumed the presidency in 2016, and prior to that, he had led the Ministry of Public Security, which includes Vietnam\u2019s secret police and intelligence agency. According to <\/em>the BBC<\/em><\/a>, Quang was a \u201cloyal and committed communist party member and known for his hard-line approach to dissent. Scores of dissidents have been jailed under his leadership.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Vietnamese authorities have repeatedly targeted, harassed, and detained Thich Quang Do both for practicing his faith and for his tireless advocacy for religious freedom and related human rights, says the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF):<\/a><\/p>\n

For example, in 2001, he launched a plan called \u201cAppeal for Democracy in Vietnam,\u201d which was supported by more than 300,000 Vietnamese from different faith backgrounds, as well as international stakeholders. As a result, the government placed him under administrative detention without trial at Thanh Minh Zen Monastery and prevented him from receiving medical treatment despite suffering from diabetes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 has been nominated 16 times for the Nobel Peace Prize, notes the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights & Qu\u00ea Me: Action for Democracy in Vietnam<\/a>. In November 2015, 91 international personalities<\/a>, including four Nobel Peace Prize laureates, signed a letter to US President Obama calling for his release. Th\u00edch Qu\u1ea3ng \u0110\u1ed9 was awarded the Rafto Memorial Prize <\/a>by the Norwegian Rafto Foundation in 2006 for his role as a \u201cunifying force\u201d and a \u201csymbol of the growing democracy movement in Vietnam\u201d, the \u201cDemocracy Courage Tribute\u201d<\/a> by the World Movement for Democracy in 2006, and the \u201cHomo Homini\u201d<\/a> Prize by the Czech Foundation People in Need 2003, under the auspices of the late President Vaclav Havel.<\/p>\n

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    Human rights advocates are expressing concern over an intensified crackdown on dissent in Vietnam. Some analysts suggest that the Communist regime is emboldened by perceptions that it is a strategically vital bulwark against China\u2019s sharp power in the region. By making a rare second trip this year to Vietnam, Defense Secretary James Mattis …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":40375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,60,65],"tags":[706,710,709,711,713,712,708,707],"class_list":["post-40390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-others","category-press-review","category-resources","tag-alan","tag-cong","tag-do","tag-duong","tag-khoi","tag-ma","tag-quang","tag-thich"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/434"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}