Vietnam Sentences Four for Involvement in US-Based Exile Government
Freedom House drops Hanoi’s freedom score in 2021 report.
RFA | 2021-03-13
A court in Vietnam has sentenced four people on charges of “activities to
overthrow the people’s government” for their involvement in an anti-communist
Vietnamese government in exile, state media reported.
Vu Thi Kim Phuong, 51, Le Van Lac, 55, Nguyen Thi Kim Duyen, 43, and Le Van
Sang, 49, received sentences on Thursday ranging from five to 13 years for
participating in research for the Provisional National Government of Vietnam,
the indictment said.
The provisional government was founded in 1991 by soldiers and refugees that had
been loyal to the South Vietnamese government prior to the country’s unification
under communist rule in 1975. It is headquartered in Orange County, California.
In 2018, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security classified the provisional
government as a terrorist organization.
According to the indictment, Phoung had from 2015 to 2019 conducted research for
the provisional government. She and the other three registered people to
participate in a poll that would establish the provisional government’s
president Dao Minh Quan as leader of a new non-communist government in Vietnam.
In Feb. 2020, they were arrested after having registered 1,595 people for their
poll, well short of their goal of five million.
Phuong was sentenced to 13 years in prison, while Lac, Duyen and Sang received
seven, six and five years respectively.
Vietnam has arrested two others for their involvement with the government in
exile this year.
RFA attempted to contact the provisional government for comment but received no
response.
Freedom score decreases
Vietnam’s foreign ministry on Thursday said it was a protector and advocate of
human rights, rejecting a report by a Washington-based watchdog group which
classified it among countries that were “not free”
In Freedom in the World 2021 report, Freedom House gave Vietnam an overall score
of 19 out of a possible 100, a one-point decrease from last year’s rating.
Vietnam scored three out of 40 in political rights, and 16 out of 60 in civil
liberties.
When asked about the report at a news conference, Le Thi Thu Hang, spokesperson
for Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Vietnam has always made an
effort to refine its laws and policy to better ensure human rights, the rights
of citizens, and it has actively taken part in international cooperation for
human rights.
She said that Vietnam has a consistent policy that promotes human rights
including those stipulated in the country’s 2013 constitution and other related
documents.
The Freedom House report said that in 2020 the balance of the world trended
toward tyranny.
“As a lethal pandemic, economic and physical insecurity, and violent conflict
ravaged the world, democracy’s defenders sustained heavy new losses in their
struggle against authoritarian foes,” the report said.
The Freedom House has described Vietnam as “a one-party state, dominated for
decades by the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).”
“Freedom of expression, religious freedom, and civil society activism are
tightly restricted. The authorities have increasingly cracked down on citizens’
use of social media and the internet,” it said.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Chau Vu. Written in English
by Eugene Whong.
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