Vietnam chapter of Human Rights
Watch World Report 2001
Vietnam
The government's human rights record took
several major steps backward during 2001, with religious rights in particular
coming under attack. Security forces arrested dozens of ethnic minority
Montagnards in a heavy-handed response to a popular protest over land rights in
the Central Highlands in February. The authorities detained, arrested or
harassed many religious leaders and political dissidents, including members of
the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, the Hoa Hao Buddhist sect, Roman
Catholics, retired Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) members and military
veterans known for their criticism of the party, and ethnic minority Protestants
in the northern and central highlands.
The election of new CPV General Secretary
Nong Duc Manh, known as a consensus builder, at the Ninth Party Congress in
April, raised hopes that Vietnam might step up the pace of reform. These hopes
had been largely dashed by October.
In February 2001, unprecedented mass
demonstrations broke out in Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Kontum provinces in the
Central Highlands. Thousands of indigenous minority people known collectively as
Montagnards, many of them Christians, gathered to demand greater land rights and
religious freedom. In response, authorities sent troops to the region, and
police conducted door-to-door searches for suspected leaders of the protests,
arresting at least twenty in February alone. Some were beaten, kicked, or
shocked with electric truncheons by police officers upon arrest and during
interrogation. In many parts of the highlands, the government banned gatherings
of more than four people, restricted freedom of movement, and increased its
surveillance and harassment of ethnic minority Protestants. Telephone
communication to, from, and within the region was cut off for weeks. Diplomats
and foreign media were barred from visiting the area, other than a
government-sponsored press tour in mid-March and a four-day trip by the U.S.
Ambassador in July.
Fearing arrest, more than 1,000
Montagnards fled to Cambodia. (See Cambodia.)
In September, the People's Courts in Dak Lak and Gia Lai sentenced fourteen
Montagnards to prison sentences ranging from six to twelve years on charges of
disrupting security brought under article 89 of the Penal Code. At least ten
other Montagnards were sentenced in several district-level trials quietly
conducted in Dak Lak and Gia Lai in October, bringing the total tried as of
November to at least twenty-four people
Human Rights Watch received reports of
security forces burning down several Protestant churches in the Central
Highlands. On March 10, heavily-armed police and soldiers, in full riot gear and
carrying electric batons, raided Plei Lao village, Chu Se district, Gia Lai
where several hundred ethnic Jarai villagers were conducting an all-night prayer
meeting. After police officers arrested one young villager, a crowd gathered and
pulled the youth from the police jeep. Police and soldiers fired tear gas and
then bullets into the crowd. Dozens were wounded by shooting or beating, and at
least one villager, Rmah Blin, was killed. The security forces then burned down
the church. As of October, at least four of the dozens arrested were believed to
remain in detention at T-20 prison in Pleiku. In September, Plei Lao villager
Siu Boc was sentenced to eleven years in prison at a trial in Gia Lai. Beginning
in June, provincial authorities conducted dozens of ceremonies in the Central
Highlands in which Montagnards who had participated in the February
demonstrations were forced to read confessions about their alleged wrongdoings
and renounce Christianity in front of entire villages, sealing their pledges by
mandatory drinking of rice wine mixed with goat's blood.
Throughout Vietnam, the government
conducted a systematic campaign of intimidation and surveillance of perceived
political opponents. On February 9, academic Ha Sy Phu was placed under
administrative detention for two years in Dalat for allegedly collaborating with
"hostile forces" abroad. That same month democracy activist Vu Cao
Quan was summoned to police headquarters several times after he organized a
meeting in Hai Phong to discuss democratic reforms. On April 24, Vu was arrested
and detained for ten days after meeting in Hanoi with other democracy activists.
On April 26, a squad of policemen in Hanoi went to the home of another
well-known dissident, Hoang Minh Chinh, and insisted that he go with them to
police headquarters. Hoang Minh Chinh refused and remained under surveillance
throughout the year.
In June, security police apprehended
Vietnam's most influential dissident, Tran Do, in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and
confiscated a draft section of his memoirs. Afterwards, Tran wrote to party
leaders and the Vietnam Association of Writers to protest the seizure of his
writings.
The government stepped up the harassment
in September, when fifteen dissidents were detained in Hanoi, including Pham Que
Duong, Hoang Tien, Hoang Minh Chinh, Tran Van Khue, Nguyen Vu Binh, and Nguyen
Thanh Giang. On September 2, just before the detentions, Pham Que Duong and Tran
Van Khue had submitted a request to the government to form an independent
anti-corruption organization. On October 9 Tran Van Khue was officially placed
under house arrest for two years under Administrative Detention Decree 31/CP. In
February and again in June, Pham Que Duong, Hoang Minh Chinh, and Hoang Tien
joined more than a dozen other dissidents in signing joint appeals to CPV
officials calling for the repeal of decree 31/CP, which authorizes detention for
up to two years without trial.
Police summoned outspoken Buddhist monk
Thich Quang Do, the second highest-ranking monk in the banned Unified Church of
Vietnam (UBCV), for interrogation several times during the year. On February 4,
Thich Quang Do was detained and searched by security police after visiting
UBCV's Supreme Patriarch, Thich Huyen Quang, who has been under house arrest in
Quang Ngai province since 1982. In June, Thich Quang Do was placed under
administrative detention for two years at his pagoda after he announced that he
intended to escort Thich Huyen Quang to Ho Chi Minh City for medical treatment.
Three other UBCV monks, Thich Khong Tanh, Thich Quang Hue and Thich Tan An, were
also detained at the same time. On September 2, Ho Tan Anh, a leader of the
banned Buddhist Youth Movement (BYM), which is affiliated with the UBCV, burned
himself to death in Danang, reportedly as an act of protest against religious
intolerance in Vietnam. Afterwards, police searched the homes of several BYM
leaders.
As in past years, the government only
allowed religious activities by officially-recognized churches and
organizations. In April 2001, the State Bureau of Religious Affairs recognized
the Evangelical Church of Vietnam, thus granting legal status to approximately
three hundred individual churches in the south but specifically excluding the
much more numerous ethnic minority Protestant house churches. Christians in
ethnic minority areas were suppressed and pressured to renounce their faith, not
only in the Central Highlands but also in the northern provinces of Lai Chau,
Lao Cai and Ha Giang. At least sixteen ethnic Hmong were thought to be in prison
in Lai Chau, Vinh Phuc and Thanh Ha provinces as of October. In April and June,
Ho Chi Minh City police shut down services conducted by outspoken Mennonite
pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, who was beaten and detained on August 17, reportedly
for operating a school for children without official permission.
In January, Ha Hai, secretary general of
the banned Hoa Hao church, was sentenced to five years in prison for violating
house arrest orders and "abusing democratic rights." On March 17, Le
Quang Liem, Chairman of the Central Council of the Hoa Hao Buddhist Church, was
arrested in Ho Chi Minh City. Two days later, Hoa Hao church member Nguyen Thi
Thu immolated himself in a protest in Dong Thap province. Other Hoa Hao members
sentenced during the year included Ho Van Trong and Truong Van Duc.
Despite a visit by a Vatican delegation to
Vietnam in June, little progress was made towards establishing diplomatic ties
between Vietnam and the Vatican. Vietnam continued to insist on having final
approval over Catholic religious appointments, accepting three Vatican-approved
bishops in June but rejecting three others. However, the authorities permitted
Catholics to attend an annual celebration mass at the historic Our Lady of La
Vang Church in Quang Tri province. In March, Catholic Father Nguyen Van Ly was
put under house arrest in Hue and denounced by state media after he submitted
written testimony to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. On
May 17, he was arrested after leading a religious service at which he allegedly
distributed leaflets. He was charged with violating his house arrest order and
inciting public disorder. In October, after a one-day trial by the People's
Court in Thua Thien-Hue province, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison
for "undermining the policy of national unity" and violating his
probation order under articles 87 and 269 of the Penal Code. At least three
members of the Catholic Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix, imprisoned in
1987 for holding training courses and distributing religious books, remained in
prison.
Freedom of association continued to be
severely restricted, and the formation of independent associations, trade
unions, or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) remained prohibited. The
government tolerated a number of small gatherings and "sit-ins" to
protest land grabs or corruption. In an unusually large protest in Hanoi in
March , five hundred ethnic minority people from northern Son La province
gathered outside Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum in Hanoi to put forward their side in a
land dispute. Police, who allowed representatives of the delegation to speak
with officials, quickly cordoned off the area. Later, as part of security
arrangements for the Ninth Party Congress, the prime minister ordered a
clampdown on public protests in Hanoi.
Strikes, while rare, increased during the
year, mostly directed against foreign and private companies. In the first six
months of the year there were more than a dozen strikes in Ho Chi Minh City
against foreign-invested companies. In August, more than four hundred garment
workers struck in Ho Chi Minh City to claim unpaid wages and protest the alleged
beating of a pregnant worker at a South Korean-owned company.
All media remained state-owned and tightly
controlled. There were no private newspapers and television was operated solely
by the government. Foreign media representatives were required to obtain advance
authorization from the Foreign Ministry for all travel outside Hanoi and to
clear all interviews with Vietnamese nationals four days in advance. In July a
new media decree, 31/2001/ND-CP, took effect. It imposed fines for a variety of
offenses, including republishing previously banned stories, intentionally
providing false information to the media, and publishing articles containing
pornography or "superstitious attitudes."
In August, the government passed a decree
that imposed stricter regulations on Internet cafes and imposed fines for
illegal Internet usage, while opening up provision of Internet services to
privately-owned businesses, including foreign companies. The government
continued to maintain strict control over the country's overall gateway to the
Internet by controlling the operation of the sole Internet access provider. In
addition, the government continued to use firewalls to block access to sites
considered objectionable or politically sensitive. In August, Internet access
was terminated in Phu Yen province, on the grounds that it could threaten
national security.
Prison conditions continued to be
extremely harsh. Human Rights Watch received reports of the use of shackles and
solitary confinement in cramped, dark cells, and the beating, kicking, and use
of electric shock batons on detainees by police officers. In June, the official
press reported that more than 17 percent of detainees at Chi Hoa prison in Ho
Chi Minh City were held beyond the expiration of their sentences, including one
inmate who was still in detention thirteen years after his conviction was
overturned on appeal. Police officers routinely arrested and detained suspects
without written warrants, and suspects were often held in detention for as long
as a year without being formally charged or tried. Decree 31/CP, the
administrative detention decree, was used on many occasions to place dissidents
under house arrest.
Corruption was identified by the Ninth
Party Congress as one of the "four dangers" facing Vietnam. The
Central Committee passed new measures to address corruption within the CPV, such
as requirements for members to reveal their assets. In July, the Ministry of
Public Security proposed to establish a special court to address corruption,
saying it threatened to undermine the CPV's authority. In September, six
government officials were convicted for corrupt land deals involving the Thang
Long water park. While a businessman convicted in the same case was jailed for
twenty years, the officials were either released or sentenced to prison terms of
a year or less. In mid-November a provincial court opened a trial of twelve
people accused of bribery and embezzling money from government development
projects in northern Lai Chau province, inhabited primarily by low-income ethnic
minorities.
The National Assembly appeared to be more
assertive than in previous years. In June, National Assembly members grilled
cabinet officials on live television about their progress on previous policy
commitments. That same month the assembly rejected a law supported by the
minister of planning that would have increased the authority of district courts,
reportedly because of concerns that the bill would cause a dramatic increase in
the prison population and violations of judicial procedures. Also in June,
assembly members questioned safety plans for the party-approved Son La dam
project as well as the proposed relocation of hundreds of thousands of people to
make way for the dam. Despite the controversy, however, they approved the
project in late June.
In July, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai
called for the 1992 constitution to be amended, reportedly in order to clarify
the role of the judiciary, national assembly, and state bureaucracy, and
distribute more decision-making power to local authorities. A nationwide
campaign was announced in August to solicit public opinion on the proposal, with
the caveat that CPV policies be reflected. A clandestine group called the
Vietnam Restoration Party (To Chuc Phuc Hung Vietnam) ignored that caveat and
distributed a letter calling for the repeal of article 4 of the constitution,
which states that the CPV is "the force leading the State and
society."
The government did not allow independent
associations or human rights organizations to operate in Vietnam. Contact with
international human rights organizations was strongly discouraged and the
government continued to refuse to permit international human rights
organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to conduct
official missions to Vietnam. In October Tran Van Khue, who had proposed to
establish an anti-corruption NGO, was placed under house arrest.
Vietnam's increasingly poor human rights
record came under international criticism during the year. The government's
repression of religious leaders and its crackdown against ethnic minorities in
the Central Highlands drew particular fire. At the annual World Bank-sponsored
donor meeting in December 2000, Vietnam's donors, while pledging U.S. $2.8
billion in aid, pressed the government to focus more on environmental issues and
good governance, in addition to economic reforms. In July, the World Bank signed
its largest set of loan agreements with Vietnam, totaling U.S. $520 million,
targeted at infrastructure development, economic growth, and poverty reduction.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that its Japan Special Fund would
provide U.S. $600,000 for secondary education in rural areas, targeted at ethnic
minorities.
United Nations
In August, the U.N. Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued its Concluding Observations
on a report, overdue since 1993, submitted by the Vietnamese government. The
committee expressed concerns about religious persecution of ethnic minorities,
allegations of forced sterilization of Montagnard women, and the impact of
population transfers to areas inhabited by indigenous groups. Relations between
the Vietnamese government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) were often strained during the year over the fact that thirty-eight
Montagnards were resettled to the U.S. in April, and the UNHCR's establishment
of sites to receive asylum seekers in Cambodia. In July, talks between UNHCR,
Vietnam and Cambodia on the possibility of voluntary repatriation of Montagnards
from Cambodia broke down when Vietnam refused to grant UNHCR unhindered access
to the Central Highlands to monitor the status of returning asylum seekers. In
September, Vietnam ratified two optional protocols to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, one on the sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography, and the other on child soldiers.
Japan
Vietnam's largest donor, Japan, provided
assistance to conduct legal training programs and reform of the legal system in
the specific areas of civil code reform, drafting of the civil procedure code
and criminal procedure code, as well as various commercial laws.
European Union
The E.U., Vietnam's second largest donor,
was vocal in its support of human rights. In July, the European Parliament
adopted an emergency resolution on religious freedom in Vietnam and denounced
the persecution of several religious leaders and ethnic minorities in the
Central Highlands. That same month E.U. External Affairs Commissioner Chris
Patten raised concerns about religious freedom and restrictions on international
media based in Vietnam in a meeting with the Vietnamese foreign minister. In
talks with CPV Secretary General Nong Duc Manh during an August visit to
Vietnam, the foreign minister of Sweden raised the issue of human rights and
greater freedom of the press, and even broached the topic of a multiparty
system. After an European Commission (EC) meeting in Hanoi in November, an EC
spokesman said that Vietnam had made some progress on human rights conditions
but that it still had a long way to go.
Several E.U. political figures became the
subject of controversy after they visited dissidents in Vietnam. In April,
Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Lars Rise of the Norwegian opposition
Christian People's Party was detained and deported from Vietnam after visiting
several dissidents. In June, Italian MEP Olivier Dupuis was expelled after he
tried to stage a sit-in at the monastery where Thich Quang Do lives under house
arrest.
United States
Relations between the U.S. and Vietnam
were strained at times during the year, but the overall trend was positive.
Vietnam reacted defensively, however, to any suggestion that its human rights
record could be improved. Several times during the year the Foreign Ministry
charged that the U.S. was inciting unrest in Vietnam and interfering in its
internal affairs, in particular by sponsoring hearings on religious rights in
Vietnam in February and by approving Montagnard resettlement to the United
States. U.S. Ambassador Pete Peterson pressed hard for an official visit to the
troubled Central Highlands after the February unrest. He secured approval only
in July, shortly before he ended his term as ambassador. Peterson was highly
critical of some provincial officials for preventing him from talking freely
with villagers.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James
Kelly, the first senior Bush administration official to visit Vietnam, made a
strong statement criticizing the arrest of Father Nguyen Van Ly, which occurred
during Kelly's visit in May. The seventh round in the U.S.-Vietnam human rights
dialogue took place in Hanoi in July, with no tangible results.
In October the Senate passed a resolution
approving the Bilateral Trade Agreement between the U.S. and Vietnam. In
September, the House approved the Vietnam Human Rights Act, which would link
future increases in non-humanitarian aid to progress on human rights. Vietnam
reacted strongly against the measure, issuing public statements from the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the mass party organizations.
Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Fellow ASEAN members made virtually no
comment on Vietnam's human rights record during the year. In July, Hanoi hosted
the annual ASEAN ministerial meetings, the ASEAN Regional Forum, and the ASEAN
Post Ministerial Conference, attended by ASEAN members as well as the U.S.,
E.U., Canada, Japan, and China.
Vietnam's relations with neighboring
Cambodia were tense at times over the issue of the Montagnards, especially when
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen defied his long-time ally by refusing to send
the first group of twenty-four Montagnard asylum seekers back to Vietnam in
March. However, the two countries signed agreements during the year to
strengthen border controls, prevent illegal crossings, and train Cambodian
police in Vietnam.
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