Stop Financially Rewarding Human Rights Violators - Vietnam

"If the slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood is 'Islam is the solution', then the
unofficial slogan of Western parliaments must surely be 'Money is the
solution'. As Vietnam has opened up its economy, the West has rewarded it,
all the while demanding nothing, but anticipating change. Needless to say,
the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has played the game to perfection.
Despite twelve years of remarkable economic development, the human rights
situation has not improved. In fact, since 2016, human rights have
deteriorated markedly as the Communist Party head and President of Vietnam,
Nguyen Phu Trong (75), has moved to consolidate and strengthen CPV control.
As in China, so in Vietnam: regime survival depends on money (to satiate the
masses and legitimise Communist Party rule) and the snuffing out of all
dissent. Soon even more money will be flowing in, for, on 30 June, the
European Council signed a free trade agreement with Vietnam, confirming to
the CPV that human rights are irrelevant. Despite being a repressed and
persecuted minority - comprising around 9.4 percent (7.7 percent Catholic and
1.3 percent Protestant) - Vietnamese Christians are at the forefront of
pro-democracy, social justice and human rights advocacy.

On 29 April 2019 the US Commission on International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF) released its annual report and called on the US State Department to
re-designate Vietnam as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), Tier 1. As the
USCIRF reports: 'In 2018, religious freedom conditions in Vietnam trended
negative.' Police violence and CPV-commissioned thuggery are escalating,
draconian laws are accumulating and prisons are filling up with peaceful
activists who are being sentenced to increasingly lengthy prison terms.
Kidnapped and severely beaten before being arrested and sentenced to 12
years' jail, ostensibly for his religious liberty advocacy, the plight of
Protestant Pastor Nguyen Trung Ton (48) is a case in point [see RLPB 479 (31
Oct 2018)].

In May, authorities in north-central Vietnam's Nghe An Province arrested
Nguyen Nang Tinh (42), a Catholic parishioner who teaches vocals at Nghe An
College of Arts and Culture. A humanitarian known to be active in community
work, Tinh was arrested at his home while having breakfast with his sons. His
wife, Nguyen Thi Tinh, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that no warrants for his
arrest had been shown and no family members have been allowed to visit him.
According to an official police newspaper, Tinh was arrested over a post on
Facebook, for 'producing, disseminating or spreading information and
documents aimed at undermining' Vietnam.

According to the database of 88 Project, Vietnam is currently holding 263
'activists' (prisoners of conscience). This figure corresponds with the
USCIRF's figure of 244 prisoners of conscience as of 31 December 2018, as
well as 20 detained activists awaiting trial. RFA carries numerous reports of
Vietnamese prisoners of conscience being beaten, choked, held in solitary
confinement and forcibly medicated. Many of these prisoners are Christians;
some had advocated for religious freedom, democracy and social justice, while
others had simply professed or practised their Christian faith.

As the USCIRF makes clear, Vietnam's ethnic minorities face 'especially
egregious persecution for the peaceful practice of their religious beliefs,
including physical assault, detention, or banishment'. According to the
USCIRF, an estimated 2,000 Protestant ethnic Hmong and Montagnard households
in the Central Highlands (comprising approximately 10,000 individuals)
continue to be stateless because local authorities refuse to issue ID cards,
household registration and birth certificates, 'in many instances in
retaliation for refusing to renounce their faith'. "  (reprint of RLPB bulletin)

If Vietnam wants to participate in world economy, it MUST drop all human degradation and support dignity of Human Beings through freedom regardless of personal beliefs.