Báo
Đức phỏng vấn Điếu Cày Nguyễn Văn Hải :
Alexander
Freund - Deutsche Welle
24.11.2014
Bloggers
in Vietnam are severely repressed. A month ago, one of the country's
most popular bloggers was set free, only to be immediately deported
to the US. He talks to DW about his experiences and plans for the
future.
Vietnamese
blogger Nguyen Van Hai is known by his pseudonym Dieu Cay. He was
released from prison in late October and flown to the US almost
immediately; Nguyen wasn't even given the opportunity to say goodbye
to his family.
In
2008, he was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment after being accused
of "propaganda against the state," a charge which Nguyen
has always refuted.
Nguyen,
a former soldier, founded the "Independent Journalists' Club"
in 2007, which became a headache for Vietnamese authorities. He
criticized the prevalence of rampant corruption in the country and
the attitude of the communist government in the territorial conflict
with China.
Nguyen
believed that the government was busy filling its pockets and it
needed to liberate itself from its big and influential neighbor.
In
Vietnam, many suffer the same fate as Nguyen. Reporters Without
Borders (RWB) describes the situation regarding freedom of opinion
and expression, and freedom of the press in Vietnam as very serious.
In
RWB's yearly index on press freedom, Vietnam is placed at 174, after
Iran, in the list of 180 countries. China is at 175. According to
RWB, around 26 Vietnamese online activists and citizen journalists
like blogger Le Thi Phuong Anh of Vietnam's "Brotherhood
for Democracy," an online network that campaigns for the
democratization of Vietnam, are still in prison.
Le
Thi has been in jail since May 2014 in the southern Vietnamese
province of Dong Nai. She doesn't even know exactly what she has been
charged with.
Nguyen
received a warm welcome in Los Angeles
On
November 22, during his state visit to the country, German economy
minister Sigmar Gabriel met with human rights activists in Vietnam.
The popular blogger "Mother Mushroom" and the brother of
lawyer and political prisoner Le Quoc Quan were also part of the
delegation which met Gabriel.
In
a DW interview, blogger Nguyen Van Hai analyzed the current situation
in Vietnam from his exile in the US.
.
DW:
You spent more than six years of your life in prison. For the last
month, you have been free and living in the US. How does it feel?
.
I
was in jail for six years, six months and two days. My release was
unexpected. It is difficult to express in words all that I felt when
I entered the US. After the plane took off, I was moved when I looked
at the country which is shaped like an "S" (On a map,
Vietnam looks like an S).
I
knew that I needed to carry on with my struggle, so that I could
return some day. My family and friends still live in Vietnam. They
all have to live in a society where human rights are not respected.
Freedom
is the dominant feeling. It is my lifelong dream, to finally have
free access to the Internet, to call someone up without the fear that
someone else could be listening to your conversation. On the street I
don't have communist security officers following me.
.
When
and how did you find out about your travel to the US?
.
In
September, a representative of the US State Department informed me
that they were discussing my case with Vietnamese officials. I did
not, however, know of any concrete dates then.
You
have organized anti-China protests regarding the territorial
conflict. You have also criticized the government because of its
corrupt practices. Do you see yourself as a patriot, a political
activist or as an opposition member?
As
a Vietnamese citizen I expressed my opinion together with my friends
in order to protect the territorial integrity of my country. We
demand that the government respect the interests of our country.
The
interests of the people should take priority over the interests of
individual groups. Every citizen of every country would react in the
exact same manner as I did. I am a citizen, who takes responsibility
for his country and for himself.
.
When
you reached the US, you were greeted by people who were waving the
South Vietnamese flag. There has been no South Vietnam for the past
40 years - the country was based on a market economy, but it was not
a democratic state. What would you say about the welcome you
received?
.
I
was born in North Vietnam and I also grew up there. I have never
lived in South Vietnam and that is why I do not want to comment on
whether South Vietnam was a democracy or a state based upon rule of
law. But when I went there in 1971, I saw some differences from the
regime in the north.
There
was freedom. Private newspapers were allowed to be published. South
Vietnam had a more dynamic and prosperous economy. Citizens could
trade freely. People could strike and express their opinion.
Everything was different from what we had learned and heard in the
North. What kind of a constitutional state was North Vietnam at the
time? How can the North speak about rights and laws? Even today in
Vietnam, only the law of the communist party is valid.
At
the airport in Los Angeles, I was warmly welcomed the way I would
have been by a family welcoming a member returning after a long time.
For me, it doesn't matter which flags my countrymen welcome me with.
What
matters, is that they received me warmly. The flag is a symbol. In a
democratic society, I need to respect the thoughts and symbols of
other human beings.
.
Do
you have plans for the future?
.
In
the future, I will keep doing the same as before. We started the
struggle for human rights and freedom of expression in Vietnam and I
will not stop doing that.
.
©
2014 Deutsche Welle
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