Vietnam intensifies repression ahead of Communist Party congress
The Party will have to draft a new five-year economic plan and review most of its leadership roles. All of them could be promoted or politically marginalized. For Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch, the repression had been worse under Trump than in Barack Obama's time, "because the leaders in Hanoi knew that the State Department under Trump was only interested in trade, not rights."
Hanoi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Vietnamese authorities are stepping up the repression of dissent a few weeks before the national congress of the Communist Party, with the jailing of prominent journalist Pham Chi Dung on Tuesday just the latest in a string of sentences handed down to critics of the state.
Before his arrest, Dung was chairman of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, a group he founded that has advocated for press freedom in the country since 2014 yet is considered an illegal organisation by Hanoi.
Dung, a former member of the Communist Party, was for two decades part of the state department of internal affairs and security in Ho Chi Minh City. When he resigned from the party in 2013, he said it “no longer serves and represents the interests of the majority of the people”.
Seven years later, following years of outspoken criticism of the Vietnamese state, he and two other independent journalists have been handed severe jail terms. After a brief trial, Dung was given a 15-year sentence, while Nguyen Tuong Thuy and Le Huu Minh Tuan were each jailed for 11 years by a court in Ho Chi Minh City for spreading anti-state propaganda.
The court said the trio were trying to “fight and change the current political institutions of Vietnam”, and accused Dung in particular of writing for foreign media outlets with the intention of “fighting the political regime”.
The United States and the European Union have added their voices to a chorus of condemnation over the rulings, which were among a series of jail terms handed down to journalists and activists
for information shared online. The country’s controversial cybersecurity law, which went into effect in January 2019, criminalises criticism of the government online and has led to a steep rise in arrests linked to social media posts, as well as lengthier sentences.
“They have arrested not only individuals with a big influence on society but also Facebook users who just expressed their dissatisfaction with the state’s sociopolitical policies,” said Vu Quoc Ngu, director of NGO Defend the Defenders.
In October, police arrested Pham Doan Trang, one of Vietnam’s most prominent activists and journalists, for spreading anti-state propaganda. On December 16, poet Tran Duc Thach was handed a 12-year sentence for subversion, and two days later authorities detained popular Facebook user Truong Chau Huu Danh over social media posts they said “infringed upon the interests of the state”.
Rights groups and analysts say the authorities’ recent moves are primarily aimed at silencing dissent ahead of Vietnam’s quinquennial national congress.
The event, which runs from January 25 to February 2, will see the Communist Party of Vietnam draft a new five-year economic plan and overhaul most of its key leadership positions. The party’s “four pillar” leadership – comprising the general secretary of the Politburo; the president; prime minister; and the head of the national assembly, Vietnam’s parliament – could all face either promotion or the political axe.
Amid this backdrop of closed-door political jockeying and factionalism, little breathing space remains for those critical of the Vietnamese state. A November report by Amnesty International said there were currently 170 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam, 40 per cent of whom were in jail for their social media activity.
Emerlynne Gil, the rights group’s deputy regional director, told This Week in Asia that the times preceding a party congress in Vietnam had become an “open hunting season against activists and dissidents” due to the authorities’ intolerance of peaceful criticism.
“It is never safe to advocate for human rights in Vietnam today – but the stakes are clearly higher right now,” she said. “The bigger picture is of a dramatically worsening environment for anyone who dares express criticism of the authorities and the Communist Party. Whether it’s peaceful activists or foreign tech companies like Facebook, the Vietnamese authorities are sending one chilling signal after another that they aim to stamp out dissent wherever they think they see it.”
The administration of outgoing US President Donald Trump has regularly faced criticism for turning the other way on human rights abuses in Vietnam, which rights groups say has led to worsening crackdowns, though the US State Department on Tuesday condemned the jail terms for Dung, Tuan and Thuy.
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch‘s Asia Division, said the crackdown on journalists in Vietnam had been worse under Trump than the administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama, “because the leaders in Hanoi knew that the State Department under Trump was only interested in trade, not rights”.
But after President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in November, Robertson said, “Vietnam is going to need to recalculate because the new administration will likely be much tougher on human rights”.
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24/01/2007
