U.S. Lawmakers Call for Release of Vietnamese Democracy Activist Ahead of Rights
Talks
RFA | 10-05-2020
Ahead of this week’s U.S.-Vietnamese human rights talks, three U.S. lawmakers
called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to raise with Hanoi the case of an
imprisoned democracy activist jailed for more than a decade.
In a letter addressed to Pompeo, Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Harley Rouda and Alan
Lowenthal said that Nguyen Bac Truyen’s continued detention was a clear example
of Vietnam abusing the rights and freedoms of its citizens.
Nguyen Bac Truyen, a former political prisoner and member of the online
Brotherhood for Democracy group, was arrested July 30, 2017 by authorities in
central Quang Binh province in a way that his relatives described as a
“kidnapping.”
While in pretrial detention, authorities denied him access to legal
representation, visits from his family and deliveries of food and medicine. In
April 2018, Nguyen was sentenced to 11 years “carrying out activities aimed at
overthrowing the government” after a one-day trial alongside five other
defendants.
In Friday’s letter, the three California lawmakers said that Nguyen’s release
“would represent a key benchmark for human rights improvement in Vietnam and
would make clear the Vietnamese government’s commitment to improving conditions
for personal freedoms within their borders.”
“The rapidly approaching 24th Annual United States and Vietnam Human Rights
Dialogue presents an opportunity to push for meaningful improvements in the
situation for human rights within Vietnam. We urge you to raise the case of
Nguyen Bac Truyen during this event and push for the immediate and unconditional
release of all prisoners of conscience,” the three representatives said.
The Brotherhood for Democracy, founded in 2013 by formerly jailed activists and
human rights defenders, had run training seminars on human rights issues and
legal assistance to victims of rights infringement by Vietnamese authorities.
Brotherhood members have run afoul of the crackdown beginning in 2017 that saw
Vietnam increasingly round up independent journalists, bloggers, and other
dissident voices. Already intolerant of dissent, authorities are stepping up
efforts to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party congress
in January.
In northern Nghe An province, authorities announced the indictment of another
Brotherhood for Democracy member and award-winning prisoner of conscience, Tran
Duc Thach, for “activities aimed at overthrowing the regime.”
Tran was arrested April 23 for his writings that expose the corruption,
injustice and human rights abuses of the Vietnamese government and likely for
his connection with the Brotherhood for Democracy.
On Sept. 28 he was awarded the 2020 Nguyen Chi Thien human rights award, named
after the late Vietnamese-American dissident poet who spent 27 years in prison
during and after the Vietnam War.
Under Article 109 of Vietnam’s penal code, Tran could be sentenced up to 20
years in prison if convicted.
At the time of his arrest, Tran’s wife Nguyen Thi Chuong told RFA that three men
asked to step inside her home, then about 20 people forced their way in and read
the arrest warrant to her husband.
According to Nguyen Thi Chuong, Tran is currently being held at the Nghi Kim
detention camp in Nghe An.
Born in Nghe An in 1952, Tran has been actively advocating for human rights in
democracy for many years. He served in the North Vietnamese 4th Army’s
341st Division during the Vietnam War.
He wrote “Obsessive Grave,” a book that tells the story of how North Vietnamese
soldiers killed hundreds of innocents at Tan Lap commune in Dong Nai province’s
Xuan Loc district during the final campaign of the war that ended with Ho Chi
Minh’s victory on April 30, 1975.
In October 2009, he was sentenced to three years in jail for “conducting
propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” along with Vu Van Hung and
Pham Van Troi by Ha Noi People’s court.
The Brotherhood for Democracy is not recognized by the Vietnamese government and
many of its members have been imprisoned since its founding in 2013.
Estimates of the number of prisoners of conscience now held in Vietnam’s jails
vary widely. New York-based Human Rights Watch said that authorities held 138
political prisoners as of October 2019, while Defend the Defenders has suggested
that at least 240 are in detention, with 36 convicted last year alone.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English
by Eugene Whong.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |