Bloggers were arrested and attacked while having picnic to
discuss Human Rights
May 5, 2013, a large number of youths, bloggers, and
internet users gathered for picnics in public parks held across 4 urban cities
of Vietnam : Saigon, Hanoi
For the past weeks, facebook was buzzing with the news that
there would be Talk About Human Rights Picnics on May 5, with instructions to
direct interested citizens to specific parks on certain date and times, from
the North to the South.
Unfortunately, instead of encouraging open discussion about
universal human rights during the time when the Vietnamese government is
calling for citizens' input for its constitutional amendments, as early as 6:30
am on the morning of May 5, the authorities made its presence known with
hundreds of security police, both in uniforms and plain clothes. They used
various tactics to stop people from participating in these picnics, including
violent means. Barbed wires were set up around the perimeters of all the parks,
and police used metal sticks, batons, to strike at participants. Cameras and
cell phones were also confiscated.
Blogger Nguyen Hoang Vi, her sister (Nguyen Thao Chi) and
her mother were all beaten up severely. With her mother's existing poor heart
condition, when a security police jabbed his lit cigarette into her face, her
mother fainted. Her sister was punched continually in the face, and 3 of her
front teeth were knocked out. The security police did not stop even when her
shirt was soaked in blood.
Blogger and poet Vu Sy Hoang (pen name Hanh Nhan) was also
arrested at the same time as Nguyen Hoang Vi, and was taken to a different
police station.
Blogger Quoc Anh was also arrested and subjected to torture
during his 9-hour detention. He blacked out when the security police used an
electric stick to shock him. They wanted to force him to confess to charges
that were drawn up for him to sign. When he refused to plead guilty to their
trumped-up charges, they continued beating him savagely, to the point that he
fainted again. The police then had to take him to the police station for more
beatings and interrogation until they finally released him.
Blogger Me Nam and other well-known bloggers were also under
heavy surveillance to stop them from leaving their houses and attending the
Human Rights Discussion Picnic in the parks. Their internet as well as phone
services were also cut off to stop them from sending out messages via their
mobile phones or other social media tools.
Together with other participants, these courageous bloggers
were seen distributing booklets and fliers of the United Nations' Declaration
of Human Rights to other pedestrians and even to the police.
Ms. Pham Thanh Nghien in Hai Phong city, who was recently
been released from 4 years of imprisonment, and was still under house arrest,
decided to show support by having a picnic with her mother on the frontyard of
their house since she was not allowed to leave her residence. She called on
others who were in similar situation like her (being under house arrest) to
have a picnic with their loved ones right in front of their homes. She was seen
reading to her mother the universal human rights from the UN declaration when
she and her mother were harassed by hostile and brutal police guards. (Please
log on to the links below for more photographs of her and her mother partaking
in the picnic at the front of their home). Concerned friends and visitors who
wanted to see her, were turned away by the crowd of police posting around her
house and neighbourhood. Since her recent release from prison, Pham Thanh
Nghien has been suffering from severe migraine headache, dizziness, and poor
vision.
Please help us alert the international human rights
community for timely intervention and to raise concerns with embassies in Vietnam
Thank you all for your continued support for peace, democracy
and human rights in Vietnam
More links to danlambao news blogsite for more details:
At around 9:30 am, when the crowd started to gather and
booklets about The United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights were distributed
by a few bloggers, the police sprung into action. They had already detained
various bloggers and writers as soon as they left their houses earlier and
forced them to have a picnic somewhere else, under the supervision of the
police! Back at the main gathering points, the police were seen harassing
people, threatening them with violence, snatching their cameras and cell phones
to actually beating and making arrests.
A witness reported that he saw 3 to 4 guards beating up a
young student, forcing him against the side of a police car then kicking,
kneeing and punching him in the face. The uniformed policemen actually formed a
circle around the guards and the student, preventing people from jumping in to
help the poor victim. The beating went on for more than 20 minutes. When
concerned passer-bys inquired as to why he was beaten up so savagely, the
police bluntly told lies that he was a drug seller then bundled him up into a
sedan and sped off.
Another student complained that as soon as he sat down on a
bench with a group, trying to make friends and to start a conversation about
human rights, the police ordered a park cleaner to spray them with dirty,
stinky water so that they had to leave. This happened to several people. A
friend of mine who attended the event later told me that he himself was
surrounded and threatened by 4 policemen. One of them raised his hand to punch
him while the other tried to snatch his camera. Quick thinking, he screamed “
Robbers ! Help me ! Help me “. At that the police backed off and let him run
away.
That was not all, there were also reports that the police
had already harrassed several well known bloggers like Me Nam, Pham Thanh
Nghien the day before... by guarding their places of residence 24/24,
preventing them from leaving the house and disconnecting their cell phone
service. Mrs Thuy Nga Tran, a mother with 2 young children aged 3 years and 5
months old, were last night ordered by the police to leave the hotel where they
were staying, forcing them to spend the night out on the street in the cold,
just because they were on their way to attend the picnic this morning.
Later in the day the police arrested blogger Nguyen Hoang Vi
, just for distributing fliers printed with the UN Declaration of Human Rights
to the passer-bys. She and several others were bundled up into police cars and
taken away.
Despite the massive effort by the police to sabotage the
event, many people gathered to chat among themselves, to march around holding
placards announcing that the ability to gather in public parks is their right
and that the Communist Government should respect the people 's freedom of
expression. Many pictures and stories were posted on Facebook and other public
media.
The photograph below shows an elderly woman kneeling down on
the pavement to sign her name on a sheet that read “I protest against the
government 's violation of its citizens' human rights".
On the placards held by the participants, there are several
mentions of the words TU DO, which means freedom. The one at the forefront
reads: "Freedom of Assembly is Cititizens' Right".