BANGKOK—Authorities in Vietnamhave detained dozens of rights activists and anti-Chinese protesters in recentdays, interrogating some while confining others to their homes orneighborhoods.
Several activists, including writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia, collegestudent Ngo Quynh, Pham Van Troi, and Nguyen Van Tuc, have been arrested. Others, including Phan Thanh Nghien, poet Tran Duc Thach, NgheAn, and schoolteacher Vu Hung, have been continually summoned to"working sessions" with police.
"Presently, police are installing checkpoints and cordoningoff my home to prevent me from attending a demonstration," activist NguyenBa Dang said.
‘Working session’
Meanwhile, democracy activist Do Duy Thong was also summoned toa "working session" last weekend, his wife Ho Thi Ba said from thecouple's home near the capital, Hanoi.
"On Sept. 13, more than 10 men from the Thuong Tin districtpolice department under Ha Tay province arrived at our home to demand that myhusband report to a ‘working session,’” she said. "He had been previously forcibly taken in for questioning.His camera and mobile phone were confiscated [without being returned]."
...They threatened to cause me atraffic accident."
Nguyen Phuong Anh
Protesters had planned to march to the Chinese embassy Sept. 14 toprotest Beijing's claim over the Spratly and Paracel Islands.
"Around 11 a.m., when I just finished cooking I asked themto allow him to have lunch before leaving, but he was instructed to reportimmediately to the session and have lunch later. I pleaded to them that becausethe meal was ready he should be allowed to have lunch. Also, he wasn’t guiltyand he wouldn’t finish the session until late in the afternoon," Ho Thi Basaid.
‘Accident’ threatened
Nguyen Ba Dang, based in the northern province of Hai Duong, said he hadbeen threatened with arrest if he left his neighborhood and with attack through aroad “accident” staged by criminal gangs.
He said he had been approached by officials right up toprovincial government level.
"It's the Nam Trung village police, then the Nam Sachdistrict police, and finally the Hai Duong province police. Also, it was thestaff of the Information and Indoctrination Department of Hai Duong provincethat came to my home with a threat that I not leave my locality," he said.
Hanoi-based Nguyen Phuong Anh reported a similar experience.
"What happened to me was that they threatened to cause me atraffic accident if I left tomorrow, Sept. 14,” to attend a demonstrationoutside the Chinese embassy over the territorial dispute surrounding theSpratly and Paracel Islands, Anh said.
"My son, a fourth grader, was later hit in a stagedmotorcycle accident around 4 p.m. this afternoon, Sept. 13,” he said.
"It was the police who advised me not to leave home.They've already threatened me as they did to poet Xuan Quynh-Luu Quang Vu.Look! There are six, seven men being posted in front of my house," headded. The condition of his injured son wasn't immediately known.
Hospitalized
Ha Tay-based Vu Hung, who was dismissed from his job as a highschool physics teacher two months ago because of his contacts with Vietnamesedemocracy activists, was sent to hospital after his "workingsessions" with police.
"Now I am very exhausted from being constantly interrogatedby the police. Presently, they're keeping a tight lid on the information aboutme as I am closely guarded," Vu Hung said.
"All that I want to say in these difficult circumstances isthat everyone, college students in particular, should focus on carrying out thedemonstration plan successfully. I won’t be allowed to leave home even I reallywant to."
Protest was trigger
Students who planned to attend the Sept. 14 demonstration saidit was the trigger for the arrests.
"They arrested and detained the people fighting for democracyand human rights as these people were preparing for the protest on Sept. 14,"one student said.
"This action goes to show that the state is afraid of thesubject of democracy and freedom in Vietnam. The Vietnamese authorities’action goes against the constitution of Vietnam. But that is not unusual inVietnamese society."
"They don't want the activists to have the opportunity toinform the people how the state is being oppressive and totalitarian, of what democracy and human rights mean for Vietnam," the student said.
"These actions actually made us youth more determined toattend the protest to let the state know that we, the younger generation, arenot cowards. We don't bow to force, and we don't accept the humiliation oflosing our land and our territorial waters," he added.
Rights criticism
Overseas rights groups slammed the detentions, which coincidedwith the visit of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte for bilateraltalks on security issues, economic ties, and human rights.
"Vietnam'sgovernment is well-known for having zero tolerance for free expression,"Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at HumanRights Watch, said in a statement on the group's Web site.
"The current wave of arrests of democracy activists is athinly veiled effort by the government to silence independent bloggers,journalists, and human rights defenders in Vietnam," she said.
Human Rights Watch called for the immediate release from prisonof a prominent internet writer and activist, Nguyen Van Hai, known by his penname Dieu Cay, who was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Sept. 10.
Following Dieu Cay's closed-door trial, police detained andinterrogated at least a dozen other democracy activists, bloggers, and humanrights defenders, it said.
Many of the activists detained this week, like Dieu Cay, haveparticipated in protests against China's claims to the disputedSpratly [in Vietnamese, Truong Sa] and Paracel [Hoang Sa] islands.
Original reporting in Vietnamese by Viet Hung and Hien Vy. Vietnamese servicedirector: Diem Nguyen. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Editedby Sarah Jackson-Han.