Pham Thanh Nghien

In the early morning of January 8, the authorities carried out their land-grabbing for the second day at Loc Hung vegetable garden, Ward 6, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City.

A house of former political prisoners Pham Thanh Nghien and Huynh Anh Tu was destroyed on this day. The couple just completed building their new house in Loc Hung with their ten-year savings, only to see that house destroyed a week after. Pham Thanh Nghien managed to leave to bring her one-year-old daughter to a safe place thanks to a friend’s support, while Huynh Anh Tu stayed behind and witnessed the destruction of their house at 4:25 pm.

Tu and Nghien’s family is now in a particularly precarious situation: as a former refugee in Thailand and long-term political prisoner, Huynh Anh Tu does not have any identification papers, so they are unable to rent. Nghien and Tu’s toddler has asthma and they need a home with electricity for her to have access to a functioning nebulizer aspirator.

Note: Loc Hung vegetable garden is a six-hectare area that belongs to the Catholic Church of Vietnam in Ward 6, District Tan Binh, Ho Chi Minh City. That area has been in dispute between the local government and the households for nearly twenty years. The authorities prevented the Loc Hung residents from legalizing their land use right even though the residents have valid documents to support their claim.

The negotiation ended with the first forced eviction on January 4, destroying around 10 houses by a powerful force, including police, civil defense forces, and volunteer youth, with equipment such as bulldozers and firetrucks. After the second day of land-grabbing on January 8, 2019, all 112 houses were totally destroyed.

Please read more on the land-grabbing at Loc Hung vegetable garden, here.

Pham Thanh Nghien was summoned by the Ha Noi Public Security with a letter dated July 13, 2021. The reason, as explained by the Nghien herself, was that Ha Noi public security found her book named “Slices of life behind bars” (“Những mảnh đời sau song sắt”) in Nguyen Thuy Hanh’s possession after searching her house. The book was published in the US back in 2017.

The problem was, however, Nghien was living in Ho Chi Minh City when Ha Noi Public Security sent the summons to her registered household in Hai Phong. The letter only arrived on July 26, while demanding her presence in Hanoi on July 28.

It should also be noted that both cities, Ha Noi City and Ho Chi Minh City, were in total lockdown at that time due to COVID-19. The public security should have known that travel either from Hai Phong or Ho Chi Minh city to Ha Noi was impossible. The letter, therefore, looks more like a warning to Nghien for her online critiques against the government for their failures concerning the welfare of citizens during COVID.

Note: photo below is of Nghien and her husband who were doing a sketch to mock the promise of the Vietnamese government concerning a stimulus package worth over 62,000 billion VND (approx $2 billion USD) that never seemed to come.

Former political prisoner Pham Thanh Nghien, currently residing in Ho Chi Minh City, was told by her family in Hai Phong (North Vietnam) that on July 26, Hai Phong police came to tell them that she had been summoned to go  to Hanoi on July 28 to answer questions regarding Nguyen Thuy Hanh, founder of the 50K Fund, who was arrested earlier this year. 

Hanoi police said they found a book by Nghien — Slices of life behind bars — at Thuy Hanh’s house. It is not clear what that had to do with Nghien, or why Hanoi police did not request that the Ho Chi Minh City police contact her directly. Nghien was unlikely to be able to comply with the summons, as both areas were in lockdown from COVID-19 at the time of the summons.

Nghien received two summonses repeatedly on December 23 and December 30, 2021, from the Security Investigating Agency of Ho Chi Minh City. They requested Nghien be at the Investigating Agency Office (in District 1) on December 31. 

Nghien said on her blog that she refused to go due to vague justification for the first summoning (on December 23), stating that the public security needed to “work” with her. Nghien responded and requested further information on December 24.

The second summons (on December 29, delivered on 30) asked for her presence as “witness” in Nguyen Thuy Hanh’s case. Nghien attended the meeting and returned home safely.