Vietnam: Free Anti-Corruption Campaigner
Dang Dang Phuoc, a Music
Teacher, Prosecuted for Blogging on Rights Issues
Human Rights Watch | June 5, 2023
(Bangkok) – The Vietnamese authorities
should drop all charges and immediately release the anti-corruption campaigner
Dang Dang Phuoc, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Dak Lak provincial police arrested him in September 2022 and charged him
with conducting propaganda against the state under article 117 of the penal
code. A court is scheduled to hear his case on June 6, 2023. If convicted, he
faces up to 12 years in prison. “The Vietnam government makes use of its abusive
and overly broad laws to prosecute people who call for reforms,” said Phil
Robertson,
deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should immediately
drop the charges against Dang Dang Phuoc and other activists who play a critical
role in rooting out the malfeasance and corruption that the government claims to
oppose.”
Dang Dang Phuoc, 60, served in the Vietnamese army and was stationed in Laos for
over four years. After leaving the armed forces, he became a music teacher at
the Dak Lak College of Pedagogy. Dang Dang Phuoc has often commented on social,
political, and environmental issues, and supported the cause of the poor and
powerless, including land rights petitioners and Montagnard minority groups. He wrote:
“I defend righteousness and the powerless. I do not care about fame and wealth.”
For this reason, he stated that
he “raises his voice to help reduce social injustice.”
During the past decade, Dang Dang Phuoc has campaigned against corruption and
the abuse of power at the grassroots level. He has advocated for better
protection for civil and political rights, including freedom of speech,
expression, association, assembly, and religion. He openly opposed Vietnam’s
repressive 2018 cybersecurity
law.
Dang Dang Phuoc signed several pro-democracy petitions, including Petition
72,
issued in January 2013, calling for constitutional changes to allow multiparty
elections. He also signed the Declaration
of Free Citizens,
issued in February 2013, seeking to abolish article 4 in Vietnam’s 1992
Constitution, which grants the Communist Party of Vietnam a monopoly on power.
The declaration called for creating a multiparty political system, separation of
powers, and the depoliticization of the armed forces.
He also spoke out to raise awareness about exploitative economic projects that
have a negative impact on the environment. In May 2016, he signed a declaration
against Formosa, a Taiwanese steel company that dumped
toxic waste and
caused a massive marine pollution disaster along the central coast of Vietnam.
The declaration’s signatories called for a thorough and transparent
investigation of the incident, compensation for people who lost their
livelihoods due to the disaster, and accountability. In July 2022, shortly
before his arrest, he voiced his concerns about what he termed “reckless”
titanium mining in Thua Thien Hue province.
Dang Dang Phuoc showed solidarity with other dissidents by publicly voicing
support for rights activists imprisoned by the Vietnamese authorities,
including Nguyen
Thuy Hanh, Tran
Huynh Duy Thuc, Pham Doan Trang, Trinh Ba Phuong, Trinh Ba Tu, Can Thi Theu,
Nguyen Lan Thang, Dinh Van Hai, Y Wo Nie, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, Pham Chi Dung, Le
Huu Minh Tuan, Pham Chi Thanh, Dinh Thi Thu Thuy, and Bui Van Thuan.
On September 8, 2022, he wrote a
Facebook post in
support of the rights
activist Bui Tuan Lam (known
as “Green Onion Bae”) who was arrested on September 7 by the Da Nang police.
Less than two hours later, Dak Lak police moved to arrest Dang Dang Phuoc.
After Dang Dang Phuoc’s arrest, police summoned his wife, Le Thi Ha, for
interrogation at least twice and questioned her about certain songs that Dang
Dang Phuoc sang and posted on his Facebook account. One such song is “Vietnam
Path,” composed by a former political prisoner, Viet
Khang,
to honor the prominent political prisoner Tran
Huynh Duy Thuc who
“has gone to prison for the people, for his homeland.” Dang Dang Phuoc also sang
“A Big Circus Troupe in a Small Homeland,” composed by the rights blogger Tuan
Khanh, which laments the problems faced by Vietnam under the Communist Party.
“The Vietnamese leadership’s contempt for freedom of expression extends even to
activists who sing a few songs criticizing them,” Robertson said. “The European
Union, which concluded a free trade agreement with Vietnam containing human
rights conditionality, and other trade partners, should call out the government
for its unrelenting rights violations.”
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Vietnam, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/asia/vietnam
For more information, please contact:
In Bangkok, Phil Robertson (English, Thai): +66-85-060-8406 (mobile); or robertp@hrw.org.
Twitter: @Reaproy
In Washington, DC, John Sifton (English): +1-646-479-2499 (mobile); or siftonj@hrw.org
In New York, Elaine Pearson (English): +1 646-291-7169 (mobile); or pearsoe@hrw.org.
Twitter: @pearsonelaine