Vietnam Free Expression Newsletter No. 46/2018 – Week of November 19-25

From left to right: Nguyen Thai Binh, Phan Thanh Y, and Tu Thien Luong
This week, we remember four religious and environmental activists (Nguyen Thai Binh, Nguyen Dinh (not pictured), Phan Thanh Y, and Tu Thien Long) who were members of An Dan Dai Dao, a Buddhist sect founded in 1969 but outlawed after the Communist regime took over South Vietnam in April 1975. They were arrested in November 2012 and sentenced to between 12 and 16 years. Twenty-two people in total were tried under Article 79 of the 1999 Penal Code in January 2013, in what is called the “Council for the Laws and Public Affairs of Bia Son” affair. The group was charged with subversion and accused of writing documents critical of the government, and setting up two companies and investing in an eco-tourism park as a cover for recruiting supporters. However, those affiliated with the group maintained that the activities of the group were purely religious and that the authorities interpreted their religious teaching in political terms.

On the morning of November 21, dozens of police came to Le Hong Phong’s private house and forced him to go to the police station of Gia Lam District, Hanoi without giving any reason. Later, Facebooker Bui Thi Minh Hang posted that Thong was released and came home at 6:00pm on November 21. He gave thanks for peoples’ concern but wanted to take a rest after “being taken care” for hours by police.

William Nguyen, an American graduate student of Vietnamese descent, has spoken out more about his ordeal of being arrested, detained, and deported from Vietnam. Read the English translation of his BBC interview, here. When asked, What would you like to tell a representative of the Vietnamese government if you sit in front of them right now?, he said: “I am not your enemy. I wasn’t when I was participating in the protests, and I’m not now. But the country urgently needs the contributions of all Vietnamese—native and overseas— and that will be impossible without national reconciliation and political reform. In these two goals, I am willing to help in any way I can.”

Le Thu Ha, a colleague of human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, came back to Vietnam and landed at Noi Bai International Airport on November 20 after living in Germany for five months. In June, she was released from a nine-year prison sentence in exchange for exile from the country. This si the first time that a political prisoner has returned to Vietnam by themselves after being released to live in a foreign country. At Noi Bai airport, Thu Ha messaged her mother, but she lost contact with her. On the morning of November 21, the security force of Quang Tri told her friends that Ha would not be allowed to enter Vietnam and would be sent back. Later in the day on November 21, the Brotherhood for Democracy reported that Ha was sent to Bangkok and was waiting to return to Germany. Le Thu Ha’s mother, Hoang Thi Binh Minh, in an interview with BBC, said that Ha wanted to come back to Vietnam to take care of her mother. However, her family and friends tried to persuade her to stay in Germany. In the phone calls with her mother, Ha said that her life in Germany is lonely and her mother thinks she was homesick. Ha did return safely to Germany, her mother confirmed.

On November 20, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (a.k.a Me Nam/Mother Mushroom) was awarded one the 2018 International Press Freedom Awards for her commitment to free expression in Vietnam. In a short acceptance speech, she gave thanks to her supporters and emphasized her continued fight for human rights in Vietnam. She also called on people to take action in the case of Tran Thi Nga.

Facebooker Nhi Nguyen reported that journalist Thu Le and her daughter were taken in custody again on November 22, 2018 when they were at a hotel. Later, Thu Le reported her incident on Facebook, stating that she and her daughter rented a room at a hotel to after being harassed by police at their home. When she attempted to leave the room, police were waiting outside and “invited” her to the local police headquarters. She was released later that same day. Thu Le previously faced harassment after she was briefly detained and beaten by the police on November 9 for meeting up with families of protesters who were tried and imprisoned in Dong Nai Province.

The selfless courage of this year’s Press Freedom Award winners is an inspiration — and a reminder: “Vietnam allowed Mother Mushroom, as she is known to her readers, to go into exile in the United States with her family. But Ms. Nguyen will not be celebrating. She sees the award as ‘not for myself,’ she said during a visit to The Post last week, but for all her fellow bloggers and human rights defenders in Vietnam, many of whom remain behind bars. And she herself would rather be in her home country, doing her work, she told us as she eyed our newsroom with envy. Vietnam needs a free press, she said, but the media are all state-owned and state-controlled. Every Tuesday, media outlets receive their orders — print this, retract that, glorify this one, lie about that one — from functionaries relaying instructions from the Communist Party Politburo.”

Mai Khoi & The Dissidents at National Sawdust: “Throughout the band’s eleven-song set list, Mai Khoi’s lyrics declared, boldly and without a doubt—they were literally the writing on the wall—that she’s a citizen of a country that systematically controls and silences the free expression of its populace. Her voice, whether defiant and soaring or supple and evocative, declared another truth. Mai Khoi also belongs to a borderless territory, more difficult to contain and police, where generations of musicians, writers, and artists worldwide have created within and called home. That territory exists in every country, and since 2002, the Human Rights Foundation has awarded the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent to its most inspiring, at-risk inhabitants. In 2018, Mai Khoi was one of the recipients, along with the Sudanese rapper and former child soldier Emmanuel Jal, and the Belarus Free Theater.”

Vietnam: how to circumvent state repression: “Social movements are usually concerned with four main tasks: first, to strengthen the voice of the oppressed and the marginalized. Second, to learn from other movements’ knowledges, strategies and tactics. Third, to build networks of international solidarity. Fourth, to work towards an emancipatory political programme that provides the groundwork for these strong international ties. Yet, different contexts demand different actions. In authoritarian countries like Vietnam, activists (and non-activists) are required to embrace tactics that facilitate the circumvention of acute state repression, including hiding, fleeing, creating and merging. In the following I provide an explanation of how these tactics are being used in the Vietnamese context.”

Exile won’t stop Vietnamese blogger from highlighting abuses: “Quynh says her eyesight was affected by months in solitary confinement, with her cell kept in darkness during the day and flooded with blinding light at night. ‘In Vietnam, I read in the newspaper that the people in the U.S. have freedom, but it belongs to the U.S. government. My government said that,’ Quynh said in a recent interview. ‘When I came here … I found out the people here, the citizens in the U.S., they really have’ freedom. What she has so far seen as she settles into her new life in Houston has given Quynh the belief that her homeland — criticized by groups such as Amnesty International for restricting freedom of speech, the press and religion — will one day be transformed and she will be able to return.”

The trial of female blogger and activist Huynh Thuc Vy has been moved from November 22 to 30. The trial will be held in Dak Lak Province. She is charged under Article 276 of the 1999 Penal Code for “offending the national flag” and faces up to three years in prison for spray-painting a flag in 2017 as a sign of protest. On November 2, 2018, the court issued an order banning Huynh Thuc Vy from leaving her residence. She was put under supervision from November 6 to December 1, 2018. Human Rights Watch condemned the charges against her in a statement released ahead of the previously-scheduled trial. Phil Robertson, Asia Director, said that “It is wrong to put protecting a national symbol first over protecting the rights of the nation’s people.”

TAKE ACTION

Mark your calendars! November 27 is Giving Tuesday. How will you give? 2018 has been a tough year for activists in Vietnam, with 54 activists and protesters arrested in the year thus far. In total, there are 181 political prisoners currently serving jail time or in pre-trial detention. Yet they continue their work, and so will we! Find out how you can support them, here. And please consider donating to The 88 Project to help sustain our efforts to bring up-to-date information about political prisoners and activists at risk.

© 2018 The 88 Project