Copyright 2005 Congressional Quarterly, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony
June 20, 2005 Monday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 2864 words
COMMITTEE: HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
SUBCOMMITTEE: AFRICA
HEADLINE: HUMAN RIGHTS IN VIETNAM
TESTIMONY-BY: MINKY WORDEN, MEDIA DIRECTOR
AFFILIATION: HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
BODY:
Statement of Minky Worden Media Director, Human Rights Watch
Committee on House International Relations Subcommittee on Africa,
Global Human Rights and International Operations
June 20, 2005
Human Rights Watch appreciates the opportunity to testify today on the
human rights situation in Vietnam. With this week's historic visit to
the U.S. of Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai--the first such
visit since the end of the war thirty years ago--the Administration has
a unique opportunity to vigorously press Vietnam to improve its dismal
human rights record. Religious freedom, repression of dissidents, and
the release of political and religious prisoners should top the agenda.
As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), Vietnam is obligated to respect and uphold fundamental human
rights. These rights are especially important now as the country
struggles with issues of corruption, the future development and
implementation of economic and political policies, and problems
concerning ethnic minorities, good governance, and the rule of law.
Highly publicized steps taken by Vietnam during recent years to
liberalize the economy, including the signing of a landmark trade
agreement with the United States, have not been accompanied by rights
improvements. Hundreds of dissidents have been jailed on criminal
charges simply for advocating democratic reforms or using the Internet
to disseminate proposals for human rights and religious freedom.
Other government critics--including prominent writer s and former
communist party veterans
--are effectively silenced and isolated from the outside world by having
their telephone lines cut or tapped, police stationed in front of their
homes, or being placed under surveillance and house arrest.
Followers of religions not officially recognized by the government are
routinely persecuted. Security officials disperse their religious
gatherings, confiscate religious literature, and summon religious
leaders to police stations for interrogation. Targeted in particular are
members of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, Mennonites, Cao Dai
followers, Hoa Hao Buddhists, and ethnic minority Christians in the
northern and central highlands.
In 2004, the U.S. designated Vietnam as a Country of Particular Concern
for its violations of religious freedom. International pressure has
resulted in a number of prisoner releases this year and the passage of
legislation ostensibly aimed at loosening requirements for Christian
churches to register with the government.
Much more remains to be done, however, to address Vietnam's repressive
policies. Hundreds of religious and political prisoners remain behind
bars--the vast majority of whom are Montagnard Christians imprisoned
since unrest broke out in the Central Highlands in 2001.
There has been no let-up in the practice of authorities forcing minority
Christians to recant their faith.
At the same time, for many ordinary citizens of Vietnam there have
clearly been areas of gradual improvement in recent years, particularly
in the economic sector. Restrictions on everyday life for most citizens
have eased noticeably as the market economy has taken hold. Travel
within Vietnam is easier. Surveillance of ordinary citizens through the
country's extensive network of monitors has become less intrusive. But
despite these advances, Vietnam continues to violate the basic rights of
individuals and groups that the government considers to be "subversive."
Human Rights Watch welcomes today's hearings and the strong bipartisan
Congressional interest in promoting basic rights and freedoms in
Vietnam. During--and after--the visit of Vietnam's prime minister, U.S.
government and business leaders should use their leverage to encourage
Hanoi to repeal repressive policies.
President Bush has raised expectations with his call for democracy and
more open societies around the world. The visit of Prime Minister Phan
Van Khai is an important test of the Administration's willingness to
press countries such as Vietnam to uphold basic rights and freedoms. We
hope that President Bush will ask the prime minister to release and
exonerate all people imprisoned, detained or placed under house arrest
because of their non-violent political or religious beliefs and
practices.
We also hope that members of Congress will continue their interest in
rights conditions in Vietnam. We urge you to visit Vietnam and raise
human rights concerns with leading government officials, to continue to
speak out on behalf of human rights through resolutions and letters to
Hanoi, and to urge the Administration to strongly defend the rights of
those who are detained, harassed, or put under house arrest for
peacefully expressing their views. We support assistance for basic rule
of law reform in Vietnam, including reform of criminal and national
security laws.
Human Rights Watch also hopes that U.S. companies helping to develop the
Internet in Vietnam will protest to Vietnamese authorities the detention
of individuals using the web in ways the government finds politically
sensitive or embarrassing to the state and party. The Internet is
emerging as an increasingly useful vehicle for free _expression in
Vietnam. American companies should make it clear that protecting the
right to free _expression online is as important as protecting
intellectual property rights.
Key Human Rights Issues in Vietnam
In our testimony today, Human Rights Watch would like to describe the
key human rights problems in Vietnam and present our recommendations to
Congress.
Controls over Freedom of _Expression and the Internet
There is no independent, privately-run media in Vietnam. Domestic
newspapers, television and radio stations remain under strict government
control. Foreign media representatives are required to obtain
authorization from the Foreign Ministry for all travel outside Hanoi.
Although journalists are occasionally able to report on corruption by
government officials, direct criticism of the Party is forbidden.
In an example of criminal prosecutions of journalists, in January 2005
Nguyen Thi Lan Anh, a reporter for the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper was
indicted in January 2005 on charges of "appropriating state secrets"
after publishing investigatory articles about a drug company's monopoly
of the market.
The government maintains strict control over access to the Internet. It
blocks websites considered objectionable or politically sensitive and
strictly bans the use of the Internet to oppose the government,
"disturb" national security and social order, or offend the "traditional
national way of life."
Decision 71, issued by the Ministry of Public Security in January 2004,
requires Internet users at public cafes to provide personal information
before logging on and has increased the pressure on Internet cafe owners
to monitor customers' email messages and block access to banned
websites.
In 2004 the Ministry of Public Security created a new office to monitor
the Internet for "criminal" content, a measure that appears to be aimed
in part at intimidating people from circulating any information that
authorities could deem to be a "state secret" or otherwise unauthorized.
In an example of official control of cyberspace, in April 2004 the
government closed down Vietnam International News 24-Hour, an unlicensed
website that had reprinted a BBC article about Easter demonstrations by
Montagnards in the Central Highlands.
Arrests of Democracy Activists and "Cyber-Dissidents"
Several dissidents and democracy activists have been arrested and tried
during the last several years on criminal charges-- including espionage
and other vaguely worded crimes against "national security"--for
disseminating peaceful criticism of the government or calling for
multi-party reforms in written statements or through the Internet.
In a recent case, authorities harassed, detained, and interrogated
dissident Do Nam Hai, who has called for multi-party reform and
criticized the government in articles posted on the Internet and in open
letters to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
After being interviewed by Radio Free Asia in October 2004, police
searched his home, confiscated his computer, and then reportedly erased
the contents of the hard drive.
Legislation remains in force authorizing the government to detain
without trial for up to two years anyone suspected of "threatening
national security" without meaningful judicial review. Cyber-dissidents
who have been sentenced to prison on criminal charges include Pham Hong
Son, currently serving five years' imprisonment on espionage charges
after he wrote and disseminated articles about democracy and
communicated by e-mail with "political opportunists" in Vietnam and
abroad; Nguyen Khac Toan, arrested in an Internet cafe and sentenced in
2002 to twelve years' imprisonment for having "vilified and denigrated
Party and state officials, sending emails providing information to
certain exiled Vietnamese reactionaries in France"; and Nguyen Vu Binh,
a journalist who was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment after he
criticized the government in an article distributed over the Internet.
Violations of the Right to Freedom of Religion
The government seeks to exercise control over virtually every aspect of
religion, from ordination of Catholic clergy to prohibition of flood
relief efforts by the non-sanctioned Buddhist organization, the Unified
Buddhist Church of Vietnam.
Despite the recent high-profile prisoner releases and new directives on
religion, the government continues to arrest and imprison ethnic
minority Christians in the northwestern provinces and Central Highlands
and pressure them to recant their faith and cease all political or
religious activities in public self- criticism sessions or by signing
written pledges. In an ironic twist, local officials are using the new
religious regulations issued earlier this year as grounds to arrest
minority Christians suspected of belonging to Christian groups that
operate independently of the government.
Ethnic Hmong Christians in the northwest provinces have been beaten,
detained, and pressured by local authorities to renounce their religion
and cease religious gatherings. Human Rights Watch has received credible
reports of the beating deaths in 2002 and 2003 of two Hmong Christians
by authorities who were pressuring them to abandon their faith. Recently
the military presence in several villages in Lai Chau has increased,
causing more than 100 Hmong Christian families to flee from their homes.
In the Central Highlands, the government has increased its persecution
of members of ethnic minorities (collectively known as Montagnards),
particularly those thought to be following "Dega Protestantism." This is
a form of evangelical Christianity, banned by the Vietnamese government,
which links it to the Montagnard movement for return of ancestral lands,
religious freedom, and self-rule. Since 2001, when thousands of
Montagnards first joined widespread protests for land rights and
religious freedom, the government has launched an official campaign to
eradicate "Dega Protestantism."
Since 2001 close to 200 Montagnard Christians--not only Dega church
activists, but pastors, house church leaders, and Bible teachers as
well--have been arrested and sentenced to prison terms of up to thirteen
years. Many have been imprisoned on charges that they are violent
separatists using their religion to "sow divisions among the people" and
"undermine state and party unity." There is no evidence that the Dega
church movement has ever advocated violence. By arresting and
imprisoning people for their religious beliefs and peaceful _expression
of their views, Vietnam is in violation of the International Convention
on Civil and Political Rights, to which it is a party.
According to recent eyewitness accounts obtained by Human Rights Watch,
local authorities in the Central Highlands have used the new regulation
as grounds to arrest Montagnards suspected of belonging to Christian
groups that operate independently. In addition, we are receiving a
steady stream of reports of forced renunciation ceremonies, which
actually seem to be occurring with greater frequency since the passage
of directives banning such practices. For example, in mid-June police
and soldiers went to many villages in Bo Ngong commune, Cu Se district
of Gia Lai province, where they forced Montagnard villagers to join the
government-sanctioned Evangelical Church of Vietnam. During the same
time period, authorities in Ia Piar commune, Ayun Pah district, Gia Lai
forced Montagnard Christians to sign pledges renouncing their faith.
Those who didn't know how to sign were forced to fingerprint the
pledges. We have received dozens of reports like these since March of
this year.
Members of the Mennonite Church have also come under fire recently, in
part because of the outspoken and at times confrontational style of Rev.
Nguyen Hong Quang, the activist leader of the Mennonite Church in
Vietnam. In 2004 Rev. Quang and five other Mennonites were arrested on
charges of resisting police officers after a scuffle broke out in March
2004 with undercover policemen who had been monitoring their Ho Chi Minh
City church. Quang and Evangelist Pham Ngoc Thach are currently serving
three and two year sentences respectively. Ms. Le Thi Hong Lien was
amnestied because of international pressure at the end of April, 2005
two months before the end of her one-year sentence. She had been sent to
the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital at the end of February, having suffered a
mental breakdown due to physical and mental abuse in prison. The
remaining three - all of whom were beaten in custody - were released
after serving their sentences.
Mennonites in other parts of the country have also encountered
difficulties. On two separate occasions during 2004, officials in Kontum
province bulldozed a Mennonite chapel that doubled as the home and
office of Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, superintendent of the Mennonite
churches in the Central Highlands. In September and October 2004, police
pressured Mennonites in Kontum and Gia Lai provinces to sign forms
renouncing their religion.
While one monk from the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam
(UBCV), Thich Thien Mien, was included in the Lunar New Year prisoner
amnesty, the government continues to persecute UBCV members and withhold
any recognition of this group, once the largest organization of the
majority religion in the country. In 2003, four UBCV monks were formally
sentenced without trial to two years' administrative detention. Many
other UBCV members remain confined without charges to their pagodas,
which are under strict police surveillance. Their phone lines are cut or
monitored and movement in and out of the pagodas is restricted. The
UBCV's Supreme Patriarch, Thich Huyen Quang and its second- ranking
leader, Thich Quang Do have been confined to their monasteries for
years, effectively living under "pagoda arrest".
Members of the Hoa Hao sect of Buddhism have also been subject to police
surveillance and several Hoa Hao members remain in prison. The sect was
granted official status in May 1999, although government appointees
dominate an eleven-member Hoa Hao Buddhism Representative Committee
established at that time.
Although relations between Vietnam and the Vatican have improved in
recent years, the government continues to restrict the number of
Catholic parishes, require prospective seminarians to obtain government
permission before entering the seminary, and maintain defacto veto power
over Roman Catholic ordinations and appointments.
At least three Catholics--members of the Congregation of the Mother
Co-Redemptrix-- continue to serve twenty year prison sentences imposed
in 1987 for conducting training courses and distributing religious books
without government permission. They were convicted of security offenses,
including "conducting propaganda to oppose the socialist regime,"
"undermining the policy of unity," and "disruption of public security."
Arbitrary Arrest, Mistreatment and Torture, and Unfair Trials
Police officers routinely arrest and detain suspects without written
warrants, and authorities regularly hold suspects in detention for more
than a year before they are formally charged or tried.
Prison conditions in Vietnam are extremely harsh and fall far short of
international standards. Human Rights Watch has received reports of
solitary confinement of detainees in cramped, dark, unsanitary cells;
lack of access to medical care; and of police beating, kicking, and
using electric shock batons on detainees.
Political trials are closed to the international press corps, the
public, and often the families of the detainees themselves. Defendants
do not have access to independent legal counsel.
More than one hundred death sentences were issued in 2004, with
twenty-nine crimes considered capital offenses under the penal code,
including murder, armed robbery, drug trafficking, many economic crimes,
and some sex offenses.