Human Rights Day in Vietnam
The
Network of Vietnamese Bloggers
December
15, 2013
Summary
This report, compiled by the Network of Vietnamese
Bloggers, aims to provide a full description of acts of oppression by the
Vietnamese authorities against some citizens who peacefully exercised their
right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly in celebration of the
International Human Rights Day on December 10.
Background
On November 12, 2013, Vietnam was elected by the
United Nations General Assembly as one of the fourteen members of the United
Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the 2014-2016 term. It got 184 votes
out of a total of 192, the highest among the candidates, and this was
highlighted by state-owned media as “recognition by the international community
for its recent achievements” in human rights promotion and protection.
On the one hand, the Vietnamese government
reaffirmed that it “fully respects and implements all its human rights
commitments”. The Permanent Mission of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the
United Nations, in a note verbale dated August 27, 2013, said Vietnam would
undertake fourteen voluntary pledges, including “Promote human rights
education and training to improve the awareness and capacity of law-enforcement
agencies to better ensure peoples’ rights and fundamental freedoms.”
On the other hand, however, the authorities have
attempted to shut down human rights activism inside the country and have been
escalating their oppression of human rights activists, including bloggers.
Attacks on balloon release in Hanoi
On December 6, 2013, the Network of Vietnamese
Bloggers issued on its website an invitation to social gatherings, saying, “As
Vietnam was recently elected to the UNHRC, the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers
will organize a series of events to promote, foster, and celebrate Human Rights
values.” The events were set to take place on December 8 and 10 in both
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Shortly after the Network published its invitation
online, all of its active members were put under tight surveillance by police
forces and the so-called “social order defenders” . The members’ phones were
tapped, some of them were almost kept under house arrest. Among those were
Nghiêm Việt Anh and Nguyễn Đình Hà, the two bloggers who went to Swedish
Embassy in Hanoi on August 7 to hand in Statement 258. Nghiêm Việt Anh said he
had never been followed so closely before with a team of police on guard in
front of his apartment round the clock. Nguyễn Đình Hà was barred from going
out, and when he tried to leave home for work, he was pushed back inside by the
local police surrounding his apartment. Another blogger in Nha Trang, Nguyễn
Ngọc Như Quỳnh (aka. Mẹ Nấm, Vietnamese for “Mother Mushroom”), reported that
her Internet connection was cut off every week night.
Prior to the day of the celebration, a shipment of
the Network’s T-shirts bearing its logo was confiscated by the police at the
Hanoi railway station upon arrival from Ho Chi Minh City.
At the Network's invitation, a group of bloggers
gathered in Thống Nhất Park in the centre of Hanoi to release balloons and
disseminate human rights materials on December 8. The slogan on the green
balloons said, “Our human rights must be respected.” The materials included an
article on basic human rights, copies of the UN Convention against Torture to
which Vietnam is a signatory, and an article introducing this convention.
Photo by blogger Gió Lang Thang (Network of
Vietnamese Bloggers)
From early in the morning, the park was full of
police, “social order defenders”, and members of “government-organized local
women's associations.” Plainclothes police were all around the place, and ten
police lorries were parked just in front of the park’s main gate on Trần Nhân
Tông street. At around 3pm when the bloggers came and began to distribute human
rights balloons and materials, they were quickly surrounded and outnumbered by
these government forces. Dozens of police, social order defenders and women
tried to push the bloggers away. Some women used megaphones to ask the bloggers
to disperse. The electronic megaphones strongly suggested that these
“voluntary” women had been well prepared in advance of the event.
A "social order defender" wearing his red
band and a member of the local Women's
Association.
Photo by blogger Mai Xuân Dũng
The bloggers refused to leave, and when many young
people, including children, eagerly joined the balloon release, the policemen
and defenders reacted by pressing burnt cigarettes against the balloons,
blowing them up. They also grabbed the human rights materials to tear them up.
Some ran off after successfully grabbing the materials. Worse, plainclothes
policemen and defenders began to hit the bloggers from their blind sides, then
the perpetrators ran away or escaped into the street crowd, so that it was
impossible to know exactly who beat up the bloggers and how. A female blogger,
Đào Trang Loan (aka. Hư Vô, Vietnamese for “Nothingness”), 23, was punched many
times from behind and even slapped strongly into her face.
Plainclothes policemen and “social order
defenders” attacked people celebrating Human Rights Day in Hanoi. Photo by blogger Binh Nhì (Network of Vietnamese Bloggers - NVB)
Police lieutenant Nguyễn Vũ Huy, ID number 127-459,
seized the rucksack of Phạm Minh Vũ (aka. Sep Pham) and ran off while people
shouted, “Theft! Theft!” A footage showing this seizure and escape was posted
online a few hours later and went viral on the Internet.
Unable to disperse the crowd, plainclothes police
and defenders made a collective assault against bloggers Lê Đức Hiền and Phạm
Minh Vũ at around 4.15pm. Being dominated by these aggressive attackers, the
bloggers had to stop their gathering. Even when they left the park at 5pm, the
bloggers were still rushed by the police and defenders outside in the streets,
their belongings taken.
Balloons with slogan “Our human rights must be
respected” were confiscated by police. Photo
by blogger Gió Lang Thang (NVB)
“Dirty bombs” employed
In Ho Chi Minh City on that same day, the
celebrations of the International Human Rights Day were set to take place at
September 23 Park, which lies close to Quách Thị Trang roundabout, District 1,
centre of the City, from 5pm to 7pm.
As planned, at 5pm, about 20 bloggers, including
Nguyễn Hoàng Vi (aka. An Đổ Nguyễn), her sister Nguyễn Thảo Chi (Mss Sapphire),
Phạm Lê Vương Các (Cùi Các), Hoàng Dũng, Phạm Chí Dũng, were present at the
location. Many pedestrians joined them and together they made a crowd of almost
200 citizens.
Bloggers celebrated Human Rights Day in Ho Chi Minh
City . Photo by the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers
(NVB)
Then they were quickly surrounded by policemen,
“social order defenders” and the “government-organized masses”, who would soon
harass them and incite disorder to draw away attention. Old women, members of
the state-controlled women's association, tried to take the balloons and blow
them up in their hands in the presence of many pedestrians, including children.
Many copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were robbed and torn
up.
Torn UNDHR
The government forces became more aggressive when
the bloggers were about to sit down in a circle to discuss the human rights
documents disseminated. As at the previous celebration in Hanoi, they attacked
the bloggers from the blind sides. Châu Văn Thi (aka. Yêu Nước Việt, Vietnamese
for “Loving My Nation of Vietnam”) was hit from behind on his head. He was
injured and his glasses broken. The attacker ran off quickly.
Nguyễn Tuấn Anh, a member of the Communist Youth
Union, was filmed grabbing documents from Nguyễn Hoàng Vi, pushing her down and
running away with the documents he stole. His acts constituted the crime of
“property robbery by snatching” under Article 136 of the Vietnamese Penal Code,
as jurist and blogger Trịnh Hữu Long pointed out later in an article on his
blog.
Plainclothes police and defenders threw shrimp
sauce. Photo by blogger Nguyễn Hoàng Vi (Danlambao)
Worst of all, plainclothes police and defenders
threw shrimp sauce at people who they thought were members of the Network of
Vietnamese Bloggers. The bloggers, stained with this kind of “dirty bombs”,
were shocked and had to disperse in the end.
Nguyễn Nữ Phương Dung (aka. Miu Mạnh Mẽ) wrote in
anger later on her Facebook page, “When we were just sitting and singing
together, ruffians from all around rush in among our group, beating up Châu Văn
Thi and throwing shrimp sauce at us... in the presence of many policemen and
social order defenders who just stood there with their arms folded watching all
those bad things.
Our rights were violated. We, the human rights
advocates, were treated in such a rude way. We tried to be peaceful, we tried
to be friendly to you, and you used violence in return. Why, so why did Vietnam
try to win a seat in the UNHRC? What was that for?”
Blogger Miu Mạnh Mẽ - Nguyễn Nữ Phương Dung in the
NVB's T-shirt
Assault and battery
Police crackdowns on bloggers did not cease. On the
contrary, they escalated to a worrying climax on the International Human Rights
Day of December 10 in Ho Chi Minh City. Around ten bloggers, who simply sought
to exercise their right to freedom in a peaceful way, were brutally suppressed
when they were going to attend a meeting to celebrate human rights values and
the official inauguration of the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers.
Dozens of policemen, civil defenders and
government-organized women's groups surrounded Nguyễn Hoàng Vi's apartment, who
was with Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh (aka. Mẹ Nấm) and Quỳnh's 13-month-old son. At
5pm, when Vi and Quỳnh were about to leave - Vi for the meeting, and Quỳnh for
home to take care of her son - these people rushed in the house and beat them
up. The women punched, slapped Vi and Quỳnh, pulled their hair to drag them
back in the house, and even snatched a teddy bear from Quỳnh's son, causing the
child to cry in fright. It is worth noting that while these women were
battering Vi and Quỳnh, the police and defenders huddled around to protect the
attackers from being seen.
Nguyễn Tiền Tuyến, Vi's roommate, a seven-month
pregnant woman, was also beaten when she tried to dissuade the attackers from
assaulting Vi and Quỳnh. Some pedestrians, hearing the noises and coming to
help, were stopped and pushed away by the police outside.
Subsequent to the assault, which lasted for about 15
minutes, the police locked Vi, Quỳnh, and the roommate inside. Images and a
video clip of the assault, posted by Quỳnh to her Facebook page, spread quickly
and caused a huge outcry in the Facebook community. Some bloggers went to help
the three women and the little child, and all of them were assaulted intensely
by the police with fists and helmets. Blogger Hoàng Văn Dũng (aka. Hoàng Dũng
CDVN), a member of the Vietnam Path Movement, was seriously attacked and the
photo of his face in blood was really shocking. Blogger Trần Hoàng Hận (aka. Go
Find Freedom) was arbitrarily arrested. He was taken to the police station of
Ward 17, Gò Vấp district, and released after a few hours with his face swollen
and bruised. Hận had to spend the next day in hospital.
Blogger Nguyễn Hoàng Vi, Hoàng Dũng, Trần Hoàng Hận
after being attacked (Photo by NBV)
Meanwhile, the meeting of bloggers in Ho Chi Minh
City was canceled as many of its attendants were prevented from leaving their
home. Some bloggers decided to move to a local church to continue the
celebration. All of them were threatened by the police. Blogger Châu Văn Thi,
26, was stopped on his way home by some “strangers” who kept following him from
days before. Only when Thi implored these “strangers” not to assault him did
they let him go.
In total, there were nine bloggers seriously
attacked in the Human Rights Day celebration in Ho Chi Minh City on December
10. Their names are listed below in alphabetical order.
1. Hoàng Văn Dũng;
2. Võ Công Đồng;
3. Trần Hoàng Hận;
4. Bùi Vũ Huy Hoàng;
5. Nguyễn Lê Viễn Phương;
6. Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh and her son;
7. Nguyễn Bá Tín;
8. Nguyễn Tiền Tuyến;
9. Nguyễn Hoàng Vi.
During the assaults, the police did not give their
victims any reason as to why they were beating them up.
In Hanoi, a meeting to celebrate the International Human
Rights Day and inaugurate the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers was held in Thủy
Tạ cafe at the side of Hoàn Kiếm Lake in the central area of Hanoi. Apart from
the already confiscated T-shirts, a banner bearing the words “The Network of
Vietnamese Bloggers celebrates Human Rights Day” was also confiscated at the
print shop prior to the meeting. Everything went on smoothly, however, except
that there was a sudden blackout, then the police came in and closed down the
meeting in the presence of Jonathan D. London, a scholar from City University
of Hong Kong, who attended the meeting and delivered a speech as a blogger and
supporter of human rights and democracy movements in Vietnam.
Police forces kept watching the bloggers closely in
the following days. When this line is being written, bloggers attending the
Human Rights Day celebrations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are still put under
tight surveillance.
Post-HR Day
Subsequent to the suppressed celebrations, the
Network of Vietnamese Bloggers continued its commitments by sending some of its
members, including Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, Nguyễn Thảo Chi, Đào Trang Loan,
Nguyễn Hoàng Vi, and Châu Văn Thi to regional countries in an effort to seek
support from international organizations for promoting human rights in
Vietnam.
Two female bloggers, Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh and
Nguyễn Hoàng Vi, left Vietnam while they were still in bad health condition as
a result of the collective assault by plainclothes police and “the
governmennt-organized masses” in Vi's apartment on the International Human
Rights Day.
All of the bloggers were stopped at the airport and
prohibited from leaving the country. Nguyễn Hoàng Vi's and Nguyễn Ngọc Như
Quỳnh's passports were confiscated.
Opinions by the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers
So far, no reason has been given for all the acts of
oppression, including harassment, confiscation and destruction of human rights
materials, employing “dirty bombs” of shrimp sauce, assault and battery, and
detention. However, the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers believes that the
actions taken by the police and their “supporters”, including the social order
defenders and government-paid women associations, were aimed at suppressing
bloggers, especially active members of the Network, who were peacefully
exercising their right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.
Further, it's worth noting that the way these government forces barred bloggers
from going out of their homes, even rushed in Nguyễn Hoàng Vi's apartment to
assault three women, including a pregnant one, and a 13-month-old boy, then
locked them up, is an obvious violation of the right to liberty, security, and
freedom of movement.
The Network of Vietnamese Bloggers believes that
human rights protection is the duty of everyone, not just a group of people, an
organization or a government. We believe that it is the right and an obligation
of every Vietnamese person to contribute to protecting the human rights,
including fundamental freedoms and democracy and dignity of our country’s over
ninety million people.
By disseminating human rights materials, the
bloggers just wanted to promote human rights education and improve public
awareness of rights, as stated in the fifth commitment by the Permanent Mission
of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the United Nations in its note verbale
dated August 27, 2013.
By holding gatherings in public sites, they just
wanted to celebrate the International Human Rights Day given Vietnam's entry
into the UNHRC, and to promote and foster human rights values.
By officially inaugurating the Network of Vietnamese
Bloggers, they just wanted to announce the establishment of a non-partisan and
non-profit CSO who commits itself to protecting and promoting human rights in
Vietnam and contributing to improving the respect for rights in the region and
the world.
By going abroad to meet with regional and
international human rights organizations for promoting human rights in Vietnam,
they did not, in any circumstance, affect national security, public order,
public health or morals, or threaten others' freedoms.
We hereby affirm that:
- All the activities undertaken by the Network's
members and other Vietnamese citizens are purely exercising fundamental
freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international treaties to
which the Vietnamese state is a signatory.
- The restriction of movement against Vietnamese
citizens, especially those who are members of the Network of Vietnamese
Bloggers, is a violation of Article 12 of the International Covenant of Civil
and Political Rights, which stipulates that “Everyone lawfully within the
territory of a State shall, within that territory, have the right to liberty of
movement and freedom to choose his residence; Everyone shall be free to leave
any country, including his own; The above-mentioned rights shall not be subject
to any restrictions except those which are provided by law, are necessary to
protect national security, public order (ordre public), public health or morals
or the rights and freedoms of others, and are consistent with the other rights
recognized in the present Covenant.”
- All the acts of oppression by the Vietnamese
governmennt on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day and its
subsequent restriction of movement against Vietnamese citizens run counter to
the commitments made by the Vietnamese governmennt to the UNHRC in particular
and to the international community in general.
We strongly condemn all the acts of oppressions,
especially violence against women and children. Suppressive acts by
state-sponsored forces are causing social disorder, sowing division among the
people, undermining community spirit, and smearing the image of Vietnam as a
member of the UNHRC.
The Network of Vietnamese Bloggers
is an assemble of bloggers across Vietnam who claims that their mission is to
promote and protect human rights, including fundamental freedoms, democracy and
dignity. It was de facto founded on July 18, 2013 when these bloggers released
the “258 Statement”, urging the Vietnamese government to amend its legal system
to demonstrate its UN Human Rights Council candidacy commitment. It was
officially inaugurated as a group advocating for human rights, especially
freedom of expression, on December 10, 2013.
---------------------------------------------------------
Dân Làm Báo (Citizen Journalism)
Tuyển tập này bao gồm 6 báo cáo, đều được soạn thảo
bằng tiếng Anh:
1.
Stakeholder submission for the UPR of Vietnam 2014. Đây là báo cáo chính trong tuyển tập, do VOICE, Dân Làm Báo, Truyền
thông Chúa Cứu thế, Con Đường Việt Nam, và Freedom House, phối hợp thực hiện
vào tháng 5/2013. Nó cũng là phần “báo cáo của các bên liên quan” (stakeholder
submission), một trong các nguồn tài liệu chính để Nhóm Làm Việc về UPR của
Liên Hợp Quốc sử dụng làm căn cứ đánh giá tình hình nhân quyền ở Việt Nam.
2.
Vietnam 2013 Human Rights Report (Báo cáo Nhân
quyền Việt Nam 2013), do Dân Làm Báo thực hiện.
3.
Human Rights Day in Vietnam (Báo cáo về
những vụ đàn áp blogger nhân ngày Nhân quyền Quốc tế), do Mạng Lưới Blogger
Việt Nam thực hiện.
4.
Freedom of Religion and Artistic Expression (Về tự do tôn giáo và quyền tự do sáng tác), do VOICE thực hiện.
5.
How State Impunity Operates (Lợi dụng luật
pháp để chống tự do ngôn luận), bài viết của nhà báo Đoan Trang.
6.
Chronology of Blogging Movement in Vietnam (Lịch sử blog Việt).
Dân Làm Báo
sẽ đăng tải tất cả các báo cáo trong tuyển tập này, để bạn đọc tham khảo.
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