Trong khi Hội nghị
thượng đỉnh APEC đang đến gần, đàn áp nhằm vào những người vận động nhân quyền
gia tăng
(New York) – Hôm nay, Tổ chức Theo dõi Nhân quyền phát
biểu, Việt Namcần hủy bỏ mọi cáo buộc và ngay lập
tức phóng thích blogger sinh viên Phan Kim Khánh. Các nhà tài trợ của Việt Nam
và các lãnh đạo trong vùng cần tuyên bố rõ rằng mình sẽ đưa ra yêu cầu phóng
thích tất cả các tù nhân chính trị trước khi kỳ họp thượng đỉnh Hợp tác Kinh tế
Châu Á – Thái Bình Dương diễn ra vào tuần lễ từ mồng 6 đến ngày 11 tháng Mười
một tại Đà Nẵng.
VIETNAM: DROP CHARGE AGAINST STUDENT ACTIVIST AS APEC
SUMMIT LOOMS, CRACKDOWN ON RIGHTS CAMPAIGNERS
ESCALATES
(New York) – Vietnam should drop all charges and immediately release student blogger Phan
Kim Khanh, Human Rights Watch said today. Vietnam’s donors and regional leaders
should make it clear that they will demand that all political prisoners be
released before the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit taking
place in Da Nang the week of November 6-11.
Phan Kim Khanh is set to face trial on October
25, 2017, at the People’s Court of Thai Nguyen province. He was arrested in
March 2017 for posts critical of the government on the internet and charged
with “conducting propaganda against the state” under article 88 of the penal
code, one of the country’s many national security provisions that has
been regularly used to arbitrarily punish
critics and stifle dissent. If convicted, he faces up to 12 years of
imprisonment.
“The bogus crime of conducting propaganda
against the state is designed to silence peaceful critics of the Vietnamese
authorities,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “Vietnam ought to
get rid of these laws and stop persecuting students and ordinary people for
just talking about the country’s problems on the internet.”
Phan Kim Khanh, 24, is a student at the
Department of International Relations at Thai Nguyen University. During his
freshmen year, he helped found and manage a student club at the university to
facilitate volunteer work. Later, he served as a member of the secretariat of
the board of the student association. Phan Kim Khanh received many awards from
the Thai Nguyen Students Association and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth League
of Thai Nguyen province. He also received a 2015 scholarship to attend a
training course provided by the U.S Embassy in Hanoi for members of the Young
Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI).
Students should be encouraged to write about
social and political problems—not punished. International donors and trade
partners need to step up pressure on the country’s leaders to improve its
abysmal rights record, and the APEC Summit is a good moment to start.
Brad Adams
Asia Director
In a published personal statement, he wrote:
“I was born in a village in Phu Tho where everybody woke up very early in the
morning to work hard to earn their livings. Some would go to the field to cut
fresh vegetable and carry them to the market to sell. Others quickly lit their
charcoal fire to warm up rice and some left-over food from the night before and
promptly left home for their morning shift at the industrial brick kiln. They
worked hard and struggled all day, but their lives remained poor… During my
sophomore and junior year at the university, I began to examine the problems
why Vietnam could not become a developed country… I want to work for genuine
media in a near future. I would like to participate in the struggle movement
for democracy and freedom of press in Vietnam.”
Police arrested Phan Kim Khanh on March 21,
2017, for founding and managing two blogs in 2015 called “Newspaper of
[anti]Corruption” (Bao Tham Nhung) and “Vietnam Weekly” (Tuan Viet
Nam). In addition, he allegedly opened three accounts on Facebook and two
accounts on YouTube. The authorities accuse him of “continuously publishing
information with fabricated and distorted contents that aim to oppose the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam; most of these contents were taken from other reactionary
websites.”
Phan Kim Khanh’s arrest is part of
Vietnam’s ongoing crackdown on bloggers and
activists. Within the last 12 months, the police have arrested at least 28
people and charged them with vaguely-interpreted national security violations.
The most recent arrest occurred on October 17 when police detained
environmental activist Tran Thi Xuan in Ha Tinh and charged her with alleged
activities that aim to overthrow the government.
Blogger Nguyen Van Dai and his colleague
Le Thu Ha remain in police custody since December 2015 without trial. The
initial charge against them was propaganda against the state. In July 2017, it
was changed to subversion.
More than 100 activists are currently serving
prison terms for exercising their basic freedoms of expression, assembly,
association, and religion. Vietnam should unconditionally release them and
repeal all laws that criminalize peaceful expression.
“The only crime Phan Kim Khanh committed was
to express political views disapproved by the authorities,” said Adams.
“Students should be encouraged to write about social and political problems—not
punished. International donors and trade partners need to step up pressure on
the country’s leaders to improve its abysmal rights record, and the APEC Summit
is a good moment to start.”
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